Rating: 
Summary: Excellent--a must-read for fairy tale fans of all ages
Review: Robin McKinley's greatest strength is her ability to frame a familiar story with enough unique twists to make it fresh and interesting. Her second greatest strength is her wonderful descriptive prose that draws the reader into her fantasy world. In "Spindle's End" she displays both gifts to advantage.We've all heard the Sleeping Beauty story, but Ms. McKinley puts her own spin on it. What if Rosie grows up as a tomboy in a small village? What if her fairy godmothers gave her skin like silk, lips like rubies, and teeth like pearls--but forgot to to specify that she should be pretty? And what if she has the ability to talk to animals? One of the best things about this book is Rosie's beast-speech, in which cats play riddle games, horses are romantics and foxes "talk about butterflies and grass and weather for a long time while they sized you up". If you already a Robin McKinley, then you already know that you must read this book. If you're not a fan, then you soon will be.
Rating:
Summary: Fairy-tale fantasy at its best
Review: This is a beautifully written retelling, with delightfully original variations, of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. I found it to be every bit as good as "Beauty" and "The Outlaws of Sherwood." The heroine is not your traditional sort of princess. Cursed on her name-day by the wicked fairy Pernicia, she is carried off by the apprentice fairy Katriona and brought up in a remote area of the country as an ordinary village girl called Rosie. She is strong-willed and intelligent, cuts her hair short, wears trousers, and becomes a horse doctor after apprenticing herself to the smith Narl. Rosie has the gift of beast-speech, or the ability to communicate with animals. And Robin McKinley certainly has a gift for the portrayal of animals (my favorite is Flinx the cat); she seems to know exactly what the various birds and beasts would say if they could talk. Rosie has a great many animal friends -- cats, dogs, foxes, bears, robins, horses, cows, otters, badgers, et al. -- who play a very important part in the story. The happy ending involving the kiss is, well, not quite the same as the traditional one. Read "Spindle's End," enjoy an enchanting story, and find out what happens. This is fairy-tale fantasy at its best.
Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't even finish it...really
Review: I was looking forward to reading this novel (it being my first Robin Mckinley book), because I love Sleeping Beauty, and this book recieved so much praise, and was an NY Times bestseller. I started reading, and I was sick of it right away. I was determined to stick to it though, thinking it would get better, but by the time I reached page 93, I decided to just skim the pages and see what happens. It seems that Ms. Mckinley just filled half the book with strings of annoying sentences, trying to be clever and witty, but it didn't strike me that way. She would start on 1 point but then would drive away from it for a few pages discussing magic and what not and then get back to the original point, but by that time I had already forgotten what it was I had read in the first place!
It was like talking to someone who never reaches the point of their story, dragging out useless, time filling details that don't affect their story at all. Don't get me wrong, I love it when stories are well detailed and when the authour or narrator it talkative, but this was too much, and wasn't enjoyable.
I skimmed this books pages and still found out what happened to all the characters, but I wasn't able to even enjoy this book at all! Maybe you might read it and love it, and I hope you do, but for me, I'm back to digging through the digital book shelves of amazon trying to find a good rewrite of the classic fairytale. If you agree with me, or even if you don't, I think you should try reading 'Beauty Sleep' by Cameron Dokey. It may be for a YA audience but it's thoroughly enjoyable, unlike this lengthy, needlessly spectacular novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasant read but....
Review: I have long been a fan of Robin McKinley's books, and was prepared to love it. But it just did not grab me the way Hero/Blue Sword/Deerskin did. The character development of humans was lighter in detail than in any of her previous books. I felt how everyone feared Pernicia, but never understood why. And I had no idea how she, a mere fairy, made up a searching spell that lasted over 20 years (which shouldn't be possible), a fact the book alludes to but never explains. The story also has a tremendous number of characters both human and animal. Somehow with a few succinct lines, each animal's personality shines through. This makes the contrast with the humans even more apparent. I didn't feel I knew Narl, Aunt, Ikor, Rowland or Peony. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book as it is true to McKinley's style. It is a great new spin on a familiar tale. For that I can say that definitely rates 4 stars! But I know that McKinley is capable of more....and I hope she gives us another book on Damar.
Rating:
Summary: Another McKinley!
Review: First off, I love Robin McKinley's books, and I enjoyed Spindle's End very much. However, I was also disappointed, probably because many of her other books are so much better. I like the spins she does on fairy tales, and I love the images and fantasy worlds she creates with nicely solid characters. The problem with this one, that I first noticed, was that she had SO much explaining to do, about the country, magic, nature of fairies, blacksmiths and their beards, etc., that it got bogged down with extra detail instead of having that space devoted to character and plot development. I enjoyed seeing the story from Katriona's viewpoint, and the switch to Rosie disrupted the flow of the book. A picky detail, but I didn't like the choice of names - try saying "Peony" and "Narl" out loud a couple times. I liked the animal characters but felt there were too many to keep track of, along with all the more human characters that kept popping up. All that being said, I loved the style in general, the friendship between the girls, the development of the romance, and the descriptions of houses and family life, and I'd recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I just had to get Spindle's End...I love retellings of fairy-tales and I love Robin McKinley. I loved her descriptions of the magic, baby magic and so on. My favorite parts are Katriona's travel to the princess's naming ceremony and when Rosie meets Peony...I also love the end! As in most of McKinley's books, there is always a confusing part - at least to me. The part where Rosie and her animal friends go up to defeat the evil fairy was really odd...and I had to reread parts of it before I (sort of) understood it. I loved how she had the animals talk and have personalities...and I really liked McKinley's take on the fairy tale.
Rating:
Summary: A Sleeping Beauty Retelling.
Review: Once again, I'm proud of Mckinley for compleating another success story of Sleeping Beauty known as (Spindle's End). On the princess's birthday, Katriona, kidnaps the newborn baby girl in order to save her life from Pernicia the evil fairy. Briar-Rose grows up with her Aunt and Katriona, her cousin...yet she has a new name which is similar to the true one. I've already read this book last summer.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I loved this book. Before I start saying why, I'll reel off the (few) bad points. Firstly, the whole description thing is taken way too far in this book, and if you don't skim through some of it, it will take you forever to get into the actual storyline. Secondly is the fact that some of the characters - *cough* Peony - had an unreal perfectness about them, that made it hard to take some parts of the story without a pinch of salt. These are basically the only flaws of the book, at least the only major ones I could pick out, and now that I finished describing them, I will talk about the good points of the book.
Where to start! OK, firstly, the heroine in this story, Rosie, is not one of thos typical princesses that get themselves into mortal peril and wait for a handsome prince to rescue them, Rosie is a total tomboy, who hates her blonde ringlets and long eyelashes so much that she cuts them off!! Another reason is that the story is so wholly different from the original version, that the (brilliant) ending comes as a total surprise, and quite a bit of relief. Also, the characters were all -save Peony- are totally believable and indentifiable- Katriona,Aunt, Barder, Narl- I loved them all. Finally, the extraordinaryness of this book is the fact that the writer manages to describe magic- pure and simple- and make it sound believable. A good example of this is Rosie's own ability to talk to animals- a feature of the story that I found particularly appealing.
OK, I'm going to finish this review now. Just one more thing. Buy this book. And read it.
Rating:
Summary: lovely, what more can i say?
Review: spindle's end is a retelling of sleeping beauty so i wont bore you with the story line. i think this story is beautifully written, though i do think it's slightly too flowery for my taste. i love the magic in the book and the idea it's so commen it "settled over the land like chalk dust" i think an amazing country has been invented here. i do feel a little separated from the characters though. i dont feel like i know rosie (the princess) at all until part 3. but once you do meet her she is a wonderful character and i love the fact that all the fairy god mothers' gifts couldnt make her be pretty, or sing in tune, or wear her golden hair long. and that her pearly white teeth glowed slightly in the dark. but i dont like her best friend peony who irritates me like all perfect people do. it's a wonderful touch that rosie can speak to animals and i do imagin that cats talk in riddles, foxes size you up, and mice chatter even when there's nothing to chatter about. im reading the book for the second time at the moment and i'm enjoying it more this time. i havent read anymore of Robin McKinley's books but this one has really made me want to. oh and what a surprise the ending was!
Rating: 
Summary: Okay
Review: I think that the story was good, but a bit boring. The ending is an ending that you will never expect.
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