Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Once Upon a [Stolen] Time was a unique and interesting historical romance novel alternating between Myra's story in the twenty first century as well as Edward's story in the fifteenth century. While this book had a plot that was certainly imaginative, the main character was a typical damsel in distress who fell in love with a pity worthy fixer upper, making the novel (especially the second half) frustrating to read.

First and foremost, the author's creativity should be noted and commended in this novel. As a whole, the concept of Once Upon a [Stolen] Time is not one a reader will easily come across twice. The way the story progressed and the events that unfolded put the reader in a state of mind that constantly has them questioning how and why. In addition, the author's ability to shift between modern time and the fifteenth century without causing any confusion was truly a skill worthy of appreciation.

With that being said, there were definitely aspects to the story that would draw a reader away from it. For example, the characters were generally one dimensional and flat. The main character, Myra, was extremely dependent on the side characters and her emotional and mental stability was extremely questionable throughout the majority of the novel, although it was never explicitly mentioned. This would not have been as annoying of a trait as it was had the story not been written in first person point of view. But since it was, Once Upon a [Stolen] Time was a difficult read.

The novel was also quite redundant, repeating the same sentence but in different ways over and over again. This was also a trait that was less than appealing, especially while following Edward's narration. Furthermore and as mentioned previously, the events that unfolded were unique and kept the reader engaged. However, there were certain major scenes that were abrupt and arguably unnecessary.

If historical fantasy romances with all that was mentioned above sound like your cup of tea, you should give this book a try.

Fair warning: The book begins with a writing style that would seem appropriate for children/YA, but there were graphic scenes, language, and concepts throughout. 

Non-white actors in :

The Big Short

Adepero Oduye - played Kathy Tao, a Morgan Stanley Executive

Byron Mann - played Mr. Chau, runs business in synthetic security

Marcus Lyle Brown - played Merrill Lynch Rep

Coletter Divine - B of A Lobby security

Bridge of Spies

None

Brooklyn

None

Mad Max

None

The Martian

Donald Glover - played Rich Purnell, a NASA staff member

Chiwetel Ejiofor - played Vincent Kapoor, director of Mars mission

Shu Chen - played Zhu Tao, Deputy Chief Scientist of the CNSA

Eddy Ko - played Guo Ming, director of pro

The Revenant

Chesley Wilson - played Arikara Elder

Room

Zarrin Darnell-Martin - played attending doctor

Cas Anvar - played Dr. Mittal

Jee-Yun Lee - played a news anchor

Spotlight
Elena Juatco - played a guest list woman
Zarrin Darnell-Martin - played Wanda, an intern
Janet  Pinnick - played a receptionist

(please correct me if I'm wrong about any of these actors or if I left any out)

The argument for some of these movies would be that adding more diverse characters would have made the movie unrealistic or that it would not be true to the book (in The Big Short's case). In director McKay's words: “If I was making ‘All The President’s Men,’ would you want me to have Nixon’s cabinet be really diverse? Because, like, you’re right. Part of the point of the movie is this is a white, male-dominated world, and maybe it shouldn’t be,”. He continued, "So it felt, I just felt like no way, I’m not going to put women in these positions when a system was collapsing and they weren’t really in those positions.”

Do you buy it?