Happily Ever After?

I love fairytales. Reading, writing. Love. I'm such a fairytale nerd that I persuaded some fellow writers to go in on a book with me of fairytale retellings, The Queen of Clocks and Other Steampunk Tales. I've been reading fairytales and fairytale retellings for years. The great thing about fairytales is that they are so versatile! And they tell relatable, human stories.

Here are some fairytale retellings that bring familiar stories into the modern day.

1. 'Everywhere You Want to Be' by Christina June

Everywhere You Want to Be is a modern day tale set in New York City and inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. Our heroine is Matilda "Tilly" Castillo, a good girl who is offered a "once-in-a-lifetime" dream summer job with a dance troupe in the Big Apple. Complete with promised weekend visits to her abuela (grandmother) in New Jersey and rival Sabrina Wolfrik, this is a unique take on the original tale that showcases the charm of New York City and dance.

2. 'Geekerella' by Ashley Poston

Obviously Geekerella is a retelling of Cinderella, and it is very cute and very geeky, the main drama taking place around the remaking of a beloved (fictional) science fiction show and a giant (also fictional) sci-fi convention. The way the pumpkin coach comes into it is a lovely twist that I don't want to give away. As the book itself says, "Part-romance, part-love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom."

3. 'Briar Rose' by Jane Yolen

And now for something a little more serious. Award-winning Briar Rose tells two stories, the first of Becca, a modern woman on a search for the truth of her family's past after learning that her grandmother was a victim of the Holocaust, and the second of Josef, another Holocaust survivor, who can give Becca the answers she seeks and the secret behind the nontraditional story of Sleeping Beauty that Becca's grandmother Gemma told Becca as a child. The way Yolen tells the story is beautiful and also nontraditional.

4. 'The Girls at the Kingfisher Club' by Genevieve Valentine

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club puts The Twelve Dancing Princesses in Roaring Twenties Manhattan. The Hamilton sisters slip out of their townhouse and take cabs to the local speakeasies, where one night they are caught in a raid. So not a completely modern tale, but within the past century, and, in my opinion, the perfect decade to place The Twelve Dancing Princesses. And there's a bootlegger, too!

5. 'Tam Lin' by Pamela Dean

Tam Lin is a perhaps lesser known "fairy ballad" hailing from Scotland. In Dean's version, the setting is a fictional college in Minnesota in the early 1970s, and the plot surrounds young college student Janet Carter, whose father is an English professor at the college. The titular Tam Lin is named Thomas Lane. This book combines college life with the traditional tale.

6. 'The True Story of Hansel and Gretel' by Louise Murphy

Here we have another WWII tale, this time in the forests of occupied Poland, in this retelling of Hansel and Gretel, German names given to the two children protagonists to hide their Jewish identities. This time, the "witch" (or so she is called by the villagers) tries to save the children from a German officer and the horrors of WWII.

7. 'Beastly' by Alex Flinn

Beastly is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in the modern day NYC, but still with magic, and from the Beast's perspective rather than, as you most often see, Beauty's. The Beast renames himself Adrian, which means "dark," and the Beauty's name is Linda, which means "beautiful."

8. 'At the Stroke of Midnight' by Tara Sivec

This is actually the first book of the Naughty Princess Club series. It tells the story of Cynthia Castle, our modern day Cinderella. After her once prince charming runs off with the babysitter, Cynthia needs to write herself a new fairytale. Book two in the series, In Bed With The Beast, follows librarian Isabelle, and book three, Kiss The Girl, follows Ariel, an antique store owner.