The Princess Blog

Enchanting Fate  by Ashley Evercott  is a twisted retelling of "Beauty and the Beast"  in which the girl destined to break the beast's spell falls in love with one of the other cursed residents of the castle. It is the first book in the Fairy Tales of Gallia series, which is likely to contain other twists on popular stories. Fractured fairy tales are a popular niche , and I'll admit this was a concept I hadn't seen before in a retelling. The characters' motivations are clear, and their struggles are understandable. However, the solution to their problem seems so obvious that some chapters are frustrating to get through. I just wanted to see everyone live out their happy ending with their true love and stop obsessing so much over a misunderstood solution to the curse. Marguerite is the daughter of a merchant whose business is about to go under. To restore her family's legacy, she must marry a wealthy nobleman who she doesn't particularly care for. Howev...

Disney was once famous for producing the most screen-accurate adaptations of well-known fairy tales, but their mission has strayed in recent years . Their current fairy tales are either soulless remakes of their animated classics  or stories that shy so far from the original source material that they can barely be considered adaptations. Nowadays, if you want to see classic stories from the past  brought to life on screen, you must turn to other studios. In a way, this post is the opposite of my "Ten Alternatives to Disney's Live-Action Remakes"  since that was a list of movies that were more creative and original with their ideas, and these are movies that stick as close to the source as possible. If you want to see the stories from your childhood brought to life on screen, this is the post for you. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1957) Disney produced a beautiful remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella  starring Brandy in 1997, but the first produc...

I have thoroughly enjoyed every book I've read so far by Abigail Manning , so I figured it would be worthwhile to check out her Once Upon a Rhyme series , which takes popular nursery rhymes and weaves them into fairy tales. The first book, The Itsy Bitsy Liar , is inspired by "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," but it contains no spiders. Instead, it is an exciting princess story that combines elements of "Cinderella,"   The Princess and the Pauper , and "The Brave Little Tailor."  It exceeded all my expectations and provides a powerful commentary on honesty  with an adorable fairy tale romance. Lacey Arachne leads a rough life. Her father was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. To prevent her from talking, the jealous daughter of the real criminal used magic to curse Lacey so she could only speak in lies. This made it nearly impossible for Lacey to find work. Every polite or humble thing she said would come off as rude and dissenting. Therefore, it was...

Just when I thought I'd seen every creative way to retell a fairy tale , a new series called  The Princess Swap series  showed up at my library. At first glance,  Cinderella and the Beast (or, Beauty and the Glass Slipper)  by Kim Bussing appears to be a simple case of mistaken identity as two princesses wind up in the wrong story. However, it is actually much more than that. In fact, these two misplaced heroines wind up exactly where they need to be to learn important lessons and grow into the iconic princesses they were meant to be. The book ages down its protagonists to 12 to match its ideal reader's age and forgoes the romance from these classic stories in favor of more relevant themes including friendship , forgiveness , and perseverance . It even has a touch of disability inclusion  with Ella's glass leg. One minute, Ella is at home, minding her own business, and the next, she finds herself in an unfamiliar land surrounded by strangers. She learns that...

I have now read a quarter of the books in the Hope Ever After series , a multi-author collaboration of fairy tale retellings to help fight human trafficking. My most recent read is A Faithful Hope  by DaLeena Taylor , which might be my favorite in the series thus far. This book retells an obscure French fairy tale called "The Blue Bird,"  which was translated in  The Green Fairy Book . This story has it all--an outcast princess, a broken kingdom to restore, a magical transformation , and a love story to stand the test of time. I was hooked from the first page and riveted by all the twists and turns this detailed story took. It is a faithful gender-swapped depiction of the fairy tale. In this version, the princess turns into a bluebird instead of the prince. Princess Aderyn's kingdom is in crisis. Her family and their subjects need the healing properties of silver to survive, but the kingdom has run dangerously low on its supply. To save everyone, Aderyn enters an arrange...

The Scarlet Rose  is the second book I've read from Valia Lind's Skazka Fairy Tales , a series of Russian-inspired fairy tale retellings. This story is a fairly standard adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast."  She made some small changes to the story to make it her own, but for the most part, it follows the Disney movie beat for beat. This comfortable and familiar retelling falls perfectly into the "cozy fantasy romance" genre that the Skazka Fairy Tales are categorized as. I enjoyed the love story from her other book, The Cursed Beauty , more than this one since it took the main character a longer to fall in love with the beast. However, The Scarlet Rose  contains some interesting family dynamics by incorporating the siblings from the original fairy tale instead of making the "Beauty" character an only child and giving the "Beast" character his own family that he swore to protect. A young lady named Nikita grows concerned when her father ...

It's no secret that modern anime tends to be derivative. Almost every new animated show from the East tells the story of a character reincarnated  into another world or a younger version of themselves. However, another trope, specifically among anime about royalty, has dominated the airwaves. Nearly every would-be anime princess in recent years begins her story with a broken engagement to a prince. This was the catalyst of everything from 2023's I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness  to last year's 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy and The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor . This season, a brand new show entitled I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons  follows in their footsteps. The series begins with a noble lady named Leticia forced into an arranged marriage with Prince Clarke. To prepare her for her future as a princess, her parents send her to the castle for private finish...

The final day of the fairy tale advent calendar  contained a generous offer of four books from Emily Deady's Fairy Tale Royals series. This author was new to me, so I decided to check one of them out. Although I was going to start at the beginning with her "Cinderella" retelling, I settled for Pearl of Magic  because it's hard to find good retellings of "The Little Mermaid."  This was another adaptation that did not contain mermaids , but it still had some magical properties. The main character is a type of sorceress whose race is oppressed by other kingdoms. She is silenced by a magic necklace and must get to know her captor through hand gestures alone. The story is similar to  The Prince's Captive  by Celeste Baxendell . Aizel is a Majis who uses her voice to command power. When her people are persecuted and her sister's life is on the line, she must agree to kill an enemy prince that she rescued from drowning. Meanwhile, Prince Erich, whose king...

To Rival a Reflection  by Selina De Luca was one of this month's gifts from the fabulous Fairy Tale Advent Calendar . It is the fourth book I've read from the Shattered Tales series that reimagines the story of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."  Opinions may vary on this one. I am not generally fond of fractured fairy tales , but some people love them. I prefer books that are closer to the original stories . Still, this book was a beautifully written new and creative take on "Snow White" with some elements of "The Snow Queen" thrown in for good measure. At the end of the day, it just didn't have the same magic and impact that the original fairy tale did for me. This version of Snow White is obsessed with her reflection and takes on many of the traits of the wicked stepmother from the original story. Armed with a magic mirror and an enchantress's prophecy that she would one day become queen as long as she remains the fairest one of all,...

Disney's live-action remakes have become a problem over the past decade that have cheapened the classic status of their animated princess movies. The recent announcement of adding Tangled to the roster further solidifies their status as a has-been company trying to bank off its former glory. If you prefer live-action movies over animation, there is nothing wrong with that. However, wouldn't you want to watch a live-action movie that does something new and original rather than a lifeless carbon copy of a previously animated story? If so, this is the post for you. Here are ten suggestions for alternative movies that are comparable to the live-action remakes current and upcoming Disney Princess movies that are more original and visually engaging than their copycat counterparts. Alternative to Once Upon a Time: The 10th Kingdom Once Upon a Time started out as an intriguing concept that introduced original fairy tale characters who were trapped in the real world, but it devolved...

In case you haven't heard the terrific news, there is a fairy tale advent calendar  you can access all month for free books from some of the best fairy tale authors! With so many books to choose from, it's no wonder princess stories have migrated back to the page . Among the books offered that I hadn't read, Beauty in the Tower  by Sara Farnsworth  stood out because it combines "Rapunzel" and "Sleeping Beauty."  This seemed like such an interesting and fun combination that I've never seen before. I read a book that combines "Beauty and the Beast" with "Sleeping Beauty," but not "Rapunzel." Beauty in the Tower , the first book in the Realms of Caelia series, exceeded my expectations with its unique combination of romance, magic, and suspense. I also appreciate that the author put a trigger warning at the beginning of the book for anyone who might be uncomfortable by its darker elements, but thankfully, it did not go int...

When I think of witches, I think of Bewitched , Sabrina the Teenage Witch , and most recently, Wicked . So when Time Princess announced a new visual novel called Vengeance of the Witch, I expected something along those lines, especially after their latest collaboration with Wicked . Instead, the robust dress-up game app pulled the old bait and switch, releasing yet another bland Chinese story about demons . This app contains several other visual novels inspired by Chinese mythology that are way more interesting than this one, including White Snake  and Ancient Dreams . If you are looking for a compelling story that incorporates Chinese myths, I recommend playing one of those. The Apothecary  is much closer to what I expected from Vengeance of the Witch, as that story actually focuses on magic and sorcery with some compelling plot twists. Vengeance of the Witch tells the story of Qingqing, who is part of a demonic cult that we're apparently supposed to root for. To be fair, it...