Arthur is the rightful king of Briton, but his Uncle Mordreth refuses to give up the regency. Arthur and Grandfather are now returning with allies to wrestle the kingdom from his uncle's grasp. But not all is as it seems among his allies, and everyone has secrets. New loves, old loves, lost loves, kingdoms conquered and kingdoms stolen. Who is the real "rightful heir" and will the nearly forgotten sword in the stone finally answer this question?
The Bookania Quests are fairy tale retellings - and as you can probably guess from the cover and description, Kingdom focuses on King Arthur.
And so, today, I'm going to share some of my favorite retellings that have shaped my writing journey, or have simply made me laugh on a bad day.
First of all, we have Ella Enchanted. I own this book, and I can't count the number of times I've read it. It's a pretty faithful retelling of Cinderella, but with a brilliant twist that shifts the focus off of the fateful ball - Ella is cursed with obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, she must do it.
I also adore her Princess collection. Six quick, downright adorable little stories, two of them based on obscure tales.
The Frog Who Would Be Prince is a delightfully funny tale full of twists and false trails. The main tale it retells is the Frog Prince, but Sleeping Beauty's there as well. I reviewed it over at the O.Scarlett blog a few years ago.
This is a new one that I came across only last year, but I adore the worldbuilding, and the fact that it's a combination of fairy tales and math. It's more of a "how fairy tales work" book, but I adore those.
A fairy tale boarding school? Sign me up! Some of the world-building's a bit weak in this series, but, hey, it's also a doll-line, so I have to forgive it in some places. I love seeing all of the fairy tale characters - or at least their children - interacting, and I love how Hale is able to make the readers sympathize with both of the very different views presented in the book, letting you cheer for Apple, who wants nothing more than to be safe in the story set before her, and for Raven, who'd much rather choose her own destiny and not go full-evil like her mother.
Her western/steampunk/I'm not sure what it is graphic novel retelling of Rapunzel is also amazing. She and Jack are just so cute together. Very fun characters in this book.
This is mainly a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, but there's also Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone twisted in. Also, the main character's an herbalist, and that's one of my hobbies.
Set in a sci-fi world, the Lunar series are probably one of the most unique Fairy Tale retellings I've ever read. I've only read the first two, but I'm dying to get my hands on number three. These books are good!
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