I wasn't really engaged with this one. Not even on the level of being really, really annoyed by the message it was sending (as in Let Down Your Hair).Snow White's witch of a stepmother had sent her father out on the high seas to get rid of him. (Not sure why she'd do that. Wasn't she competing with Snow for his affections and attention?) In this book, he comes back. Shipwrecked or something. But he doesn't have his memory!So he becomes a gardener at the school while the girls try to help him get his memory back. Meanwhile the dwarves are all jealous that Snow's got her father back. And, seriously, people, Snow White is NOT THAT AWESOME, you totally don't have to be JEALOUS or AFRAID OF LOSING HER. Stop treating her like a freaking object.Well, I'm going to spoil here, because I have a problem with the ending.The girls sneak into the castle to steal the magic mirror, and end up breaking it by accident. But that seems to do the trick, because King White gets his memory back. And then suddenly realizes he left a ship full of his crew out lost on the high seas. A) How are they still out there when he washed ashore? B) Why did he not think of that sooner? C) Did you not have a first officer? Seriously, they're grown men (presumably), so if they can't take care of themselves at this point, what makes you think you're going to help them? You don't even know where they are or if they're alive. And either they have a ship that works or they don't. Not a lot of middle ground there. They'll either find their way to shore or they're already dead.The worst bit is that he's abandoning his daughter, who's living with barely competent guardians, let's be frank, and is still under threat from the witch of a woman you apparently married for Snow's sake?Not that I can expect better from this series. There are no honorable, non-ineffectual men in here. A couple of decent princes, and everyone else male is relegated to servant status. Oh, except for Briar Rose's Dad who's treated more like half of the Overprotective Parents pair.Oh, meanwhile they're working on family trees. And suddenly we learn that Rapunzel knows who her parents and grandparents are, but they're 'gone' now. And she's totally into researching her 'foster mother' the witch's family tree. Which is full of witches and warlocks.Yea, no, Rapunzel's upbringing is still messed up, no matter how much of a spin you're trying to put on it retroactively. I'm not saying you can't write the witch as a sympathetic character and the good guy in the story. But not the way you guys did it in book 3.So, yea. Amnesia plot and stupid ending to get rid of the father you totally didn't have to drag into things in the first place gets you 2 stars from me. And I'd better end this review before I drop my rating even further. (I had started off giving it 3.) ( )

Snow White's father has returned, but without his memory, and everyone's upset about trying to get it back. Finally, he does get it back, but is determined to go rescue his crew and the new crisis becomes Snow's desire to go with him. All that is finally resolved, and everything's set to rights. Snow White's not my favorite character, so this story, which focuses on her and does not go into the fairy tales as much, wasn't really my favorite of the series. ( )