ISBN: 0756406080

Princesses book #3

I bought this book.

With this book I’m finally caught up on this series (until March at least) and it’s this one that has the most complex, detailed world building of the three, which is saying something. Hines’ Princess books follow the further adventures of Snow White (Snow, a talented sorceress), Cinderella (Danielle, happily married princess and mother) and Talia (Sleeping Beauty whose tale is possibly the most vicious of all), fairy tale princesses whose stories didn’t quite turn out as legend would have you believe.

In Red Hood’s Revenge Danielle receives a letter from Red Riding Hood (who is now a widely feared assassin), a bold proclamation of her intent to kill Danielle for no other reason than she’s been paid to. But like in all of Hines’ books the plot (and the emotional story) is not so simple. When Snow and Talia come to Danielle’s aid, the three of them find themselves magically transported to the exotic desert land where Talia’s legend began—and where the Queen has put a death sentence on Talia’s head.

Talia must save old friends, defeat (again) the insidious fairy plot that was put in place when she was first “gifted” as a child, and save her kingdom from the Wild Hunt, which savages towns from dusk to dawn. Hines spins out the well-known fairy tale into a semi-religious and definitely political plot to destroy the human rulers of Talia’s land and bring the world under fairy rule. Likewise the subplot of Talia facing up to her own rage over what really happened to her (I’ll give you a hint if you haven’t read any of these books yet—it wasn’t the prince’s kiss that awoke her) makes for a satisfying read on many levels.

Readers won’t be able to help but become personally involved with these princesses. They’re brave, bold, strong and anything but helpless women waiting to be rescued. But Hines also holds respect for the classic feel of fairy tales, creating something strong enough, and interesting enough to stand on its own in the weight of the classic art of storytelling.

ISBN: 9780756405830

I bought this book.

The Mermaid’s Madness follows The Stepsister Scheme in Hines’ Princess series. It focuses on Talia (Sleeping Beauty), Danielle (Cinderella) and Snow (Snow White) whose stories are far darker than Disney would have you believe. In The Mermaid’s Madness Hines takes on possibly the least-happy fairy tale, Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid.

Fairy tale fans know that this tale is sad and gruesome while Hines fans will find this to be the prefect tale for Hines’s princesses as Hines uses a heavy subtext of emotional recovery in this series.

Lirea is the Little Mermaid, once friend to Queen Beatrice (Danielle’s mother-in-law) who fell in love with a human prince who didn’t love her and was given a knife that would restore her tail at the cost of her betrayer prince’s life. But something happened and now Lirea is mad, broken and violent. When greeted by the queen after her family of undine return from their winter hibernation Lirea lashes out, stabbing the queen and trapping her soul in the cursed knife along with the prince’s. Now Talia, Danielle and Snow must find the cause of Lirea’s madness, find Lirea herself, and free the queen before her body gives out.

Hines’ work is excellent, layered between the fantasy and fancy of fairy tales with a real world punch that adult readers can’t help but expect. Sure we all want there to be a happy ending, but isn’t it more satisfying when it’s fought for, earned, not merely handed over as if the players are exceptions to human nature instead of parts of it? The Mermaid’s Madness is an excellent retelling of the original that nails the morbid sweetness of the legend while making it a more vibrant, fleshy thing before reader’s eyes. Fantasy and urban fantasy fans are missing out if they aren’t reading this series.

ISBN: 0756405327

I bought this book.

Did you find yourself unsatisfied by classic fairy tales growing up? Tired of happy endings only being for beautiful (and humble and obedient) princes and princesses and witches always being evil and dying in the end (and worse, everyone celebrating the death)? Me too. Its no wonder we’ve seen a resurgence in twisted or even anti-fairy tales lately, particularly as a generation of people who grew up being Disney-fied come to realize that happily ever takes work, and even then it isn’t guaranteed. Shrek, Wicked and countless others celebrate the twisting of the fairy tales we know, the idea of happily ever afters and of them being for everyone (ogres and fairy cursed alike).

The Stepsister Scheme starts with the idea that princesses, like the rest of us, do not necessarily live happily ever after. Neither do they remain the kind of people who sit around and wait to be rescued and fairy gifts are rarely a good thing. Here Sleeping Beauty is a martial arts master from the Middle East who unconventional beauty and tragic curse led to some heinous abuse. Snow White is a mirror-witch who was forced to destroy her mother (and teacher) when her mother killed Snow’s true love (and tried to kill Snow), and Cinderella is a new princess, deeply in love with her prince (who has disappeared) uncomfortable with her new position in the kingdom (which has more secrets than she expected) and has to swallow her desire to be nice in order to face down her stepsisters who still very much want to see her dead and the prince in their arms.

More than just being a clever twist on fairy tales and breathing some real life psychology into the tales, The Stepsister Scheme is plain old good writing. Hines layers in the fascination of how things might really go for these very human people manipulated and traumatized by fairies (and other things) with the familiarity of the tales that borne them, as well as some truly creative bits of world building that marks this story as his own. Glass swords, haunted trees, living clothing and prehensile hair all blend right in with the traditional fairytale bits for one fantastic story. In fact the only way this could have been more enticing to me as a reader was if Hines found a way to do a side story (or few) juxtaposing fairytale fantasy with modern times (hint hint). Highly recommended, fun yet meaty The Stepsister Scheme is a great read through and through.