Hi Friends! 📚🌸 Book chat here today! One of my favorite relaxing genres of books to emerge over the past few years is retellings or reimaginings of longstanding favorites. I know the literature purists probably would scowl at me, but I can’t help myself. 😂♥️👊🏼 These are all considered “sweet/clean” reads depending on your taste levels. I put a note on each regarding content.
Katen Witemeyer ~ I’ve enjoyed THREE of this author’s sweet retellings, Fairest of Heart, a Texas retelling of Snow White, with a fantastically drawn villain, Cloaked in Beauty, a great Texas twist on ‘Red Riding Hood’ (romance a little heavy handed in this one, FYI 🤮), and also her To Love A Beast, retelling of ‘Beauty & the Beast’. I don’t personally recommend the Cinderella one because I couldn’t even get past the first chapter due to a character’s heavy fake Southern accent. 😂🫣🤭😎 Maybe you wouldn’t mind?
Sadie: An Amish Retelling of Snow White ~ I don’t read hardly any Amish fiction anymore, but Sarah Price’s retellings are fun, unique mashup, and I find them relaxing! Again the villain stepmother was very well drawn and I thought Price made you think deeper about why she was acting the way she was. Price’s ‘Beauty & the Beast’ Amish story is great too! I want to try her Pride & Prejudice title someday although the Persuasion title wasn’t great. 😂
East by Edith Pattou ~
This would be a perfect read for winter! Slow and atmospheric retelling of ‘East of the Sun, West of the Moon’ tale. This is SO well-written and intriguing! I think about it often. You have to work at it a bit, but in the end you are rewarded. This was a bit on the darker and creepier end, keeping in the tradition of folktales. I want to try the other in the duology, West.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett ~ I have a mixed experience with this author’s books due to my appreciation of traditional morality, but overall, this was a super cute reimagining of Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle! If you like cats, cozy shops, time/space slips, magical fantasies with artifacts, books, etc and quirky characters, you may enjoy this. The only other one of hers I FULLY enjoy is a retelling of Anne of Green Gables with magic called Grace of the Wild Things.
Deathmark by Kate Stradling ~ This is a super unique, cozy fantasy retelling of LM Montgomery’s The Blue Castle. The cover is darker than the content. It does have a plague and some grimness to the beginning, just FYI! I really enjoyed this and hope to reread soon.
Awakened by Rosanna M. White ~ I loved this unique take on ‘The Little Mermaid’. This is a long, intricate story and it has the author’s Catholic faith pretty strongly woven in. I was very intrigued and impressed by this! Mermaid stories aren’t my favorite, but I thoroughly enjoyed this very strange and creative version. The romance is heavier in this one, just FYI, than I prefer, but overall, tastefully done.
Suspended in the Stars by E.A. Hendryx ~ This is like a Greatest Showman and Star Wars mashup! 😂😂😂 I really especially enjoyed the first 3/4 of the story, the last 1/4 was a little slower, but it was SO creative and unique, I had to include it here. Sweet romantic subplot, but a bit insta for my tastes. Try it out!
Soot & Slippers by Kate Stradling ~ This was such a lovely, yet tense novella and interesting angle to take with a ‘Cinderella’ retelling. I loved the sewing/designing part of this and reading the creations Cinderella came up with! The ending was a bit too perfect for me, but for a short tale, this was very well done! The stepmother is CREEPY in this one! 🫣
How ‘bout you? Do you like reimaginings on favorite folktales and classic stories or are you appalled at me!? 😂♥️😍🌿 Happy Reading!
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A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 