I happened upon this lovely little beaut (okay, it’s like 15 stories…not so little) of an anthology. This has some stories by some of my favorites like K.M. Shea, Melanie Cellier, Aya Ling, Shari L. Tapscott, etc. so I was pretty excited. I also got it right as I was starting NaNoWriMo, which was perfect because I could read a short story when I needed a break without getting too off task. The name of the anthology is Once Upon a Happy Ending.

I’m not going to go into each individual story. I will tell you that there isn’t a standard length which made some of the stories seem long (not a problem with this kind of quality) and some were fairly short (I wanted more!). I actually like every single story here. Crazy, right? I did tend to like the more classic retellings more, but that’s just a personal preference.

My least favorite was probably Fistful of Stars because it felt like a long excerpt from a book more than an individual story (it was a short story from a trilogy or a prequel and I think if I had read the trilogy I would have enjoyed it more). It was also about ten degrees more violent than everything else, so it came as a bit of a shock. Actually, Rapunzel’s Beauty was pretty graphic too. Not over the top, but the kind of fairy tale retelling my husband would endorse (and now he has). I think my favorite was The Pastry Chef’s Apprentice, it had character’s I loved right from the start. I also loved The Princess Who Chased Sheep because it was light and cute, while still having a good amount of sarcasm too.

All in all, this is a great mix. I’m sure any reader who has the slightest interest in fairy tales would find something to love here. And maybe even a new author to follow. Happy reading, my friends!