rankkaapina's review
4.0
I really liked these re-tellings. Some more than others. It took me a long time to read the book, but not because I didn't like it, but because every story was it's own "whole story", so I didn't have the urgency from one story to the next. I think my favorite was the Oz story. I kind of wanted to read more of it. I will try other books from the author, but at least for now there's no more Oz...
marget_orange's review
4.0
May Sage's story was lovely.
I will admit that I only borrowed this book from KU because it contained a story by an author I quite like, May Sage. Her story was short, sweet, and a fun read. I recommend it.
I will admit that I only borrowed this book from KU because it contained a story by an author I quite like, May Sage. Her story was short, sweet, and a fun read. I recommend it.
tyrean's review
5.0
I loved this collection of stories and I enjoyed becoming familiar with several more authors whose books I've started to read.
ghostlywater's review
5.0
I received a free download of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology. Many of the stories I loved and would happily reread or recommend to anyone. For example my favorite would probably have to be Sleeping Cyborg which was the sleeping beauty retelling.
While all of the stories are fairy tale retelling they are all vastly different. Some were more true to the original tales while others had a little more fun in how they retold the stories. There were many different genres represented from straight up fantasy to sci-fi to urban fantasy.
There are so many authors in this anthology that you already know and love. And many more that you didn't know you were waiting to find. I might be waxing a little poetic here but I started reading this not expecting to be able to get through all of the stories but I was blown away by all of these great new takes on classic tales.
honestly a couple of them I didn't enjoy as much as the others but I still had fun reading them.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology. Many of the stories I loved and would happily reread or recommend to anyone. For example my favorite would probably have to be Sleeping Cyborg which was the sleeping beauty retelling.
While all of the stories are fairy tale retelling they are all vastly different. Some were more true to the original tales while others had a little more fun in how they retold the stories. There were many different genres represented from straight up fantasy to sci-fi to urban fantasy.
There are so many authors in this anthology that you already know and love. And many more that you didn't know you were waiting to find. I might be waxing a little poetic here but I started reading this not expecting to be able to get through all of the stories but I was blown away by all of these great new takes on classic tales.
honestly a couple of them I didn't enjoy as much as the others but I still had fun reading them.
laliya's review
2.0
Are we done yet?
I'm not usually a harsh reviewer, but each time I reached the end of a story in this anthology, I thought, "Crap! Another one?!" Plots are weak and sometimes rather contrived, characters are often painfully tropey, and I struggled with not abandoning it less than halfway through but I can't handle the taunt of seeing a progress percentage less than 95% on my Kindle.
A couplefew stories rise a bit above the chaff, but I'm not sure they're worth the bother for a completionist like me. The two stars are for those few stories and for all the fodder for my What Not To Do list.
I'm not usually a harsh reviewer, but each time I reached the end of a story in this anthology, I thought, "Crap! Another one?!" Plots are weak and sometimes rather contrived, characters are often painfully tropey, and I struggled with not abandoning it less than halfway through but I can't handle the taunt of seeing a progress percentage less than 95% on my Kindle.
A couplefew stories rise a bit above the chaff, but I'm not sure they're worth the bother for a completionist like me. The two stars are for those few stories and for all the fodder for my What Not To Do list.
gerd_d's review
3.0
A few enjoyable stories mixed in an otherwise haphazardly thrown together collection of mideocre storytelling.
Didn't like the opener, which stereoptypically plays out like every other Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance out there.
Most disappointing reading experience was "Ellora's Tail" which is actually only a preview for a (then) upcoming novel, just there to set the stage and then leaving everything open ended.
"A Fistful of Stars" however was a down right disgusting annoyance, IMO.
Going from an overlong prologue, which takes up twice as much space as any of the following chapters, it went straight into rape and victim fetishization - just what you expect to find in an anthology called "Once Upon a Happy Ending", not!
However there are some stories included I really enjoyed reading.
Following the weak opener we have some truly fun fairy tale retellings, like
"The Goose Girl" by Brittany Fitcher
"The Princess who chased Sheep" by K.M. Shea
"Chains of Gold" by Shari L. Tapscott
and most noteable
"Rapunzel's Beauty" by Casey Lane.
A most charming adventure tale mixing classic sword and sorcery elements with disneyesque characters to create the most original and witty entry in the set.
With Aya Ling's version of "Cinderella" the collection left on a high enough note to redeem the inclusion of a "Fistful of Stars" somewhat.
Therefore it manages a bare three Star rating in all from me.
Didn't like the opener, which stereoptypically plays out like every other Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance out there.
Most disappointing reading experience was "Ellora's Tail" which is actually only a preview for a (then) upcoming novel, just there to set the stage and then leaving everything open ended.
"A Fistful of Stars" however was a down right disgusting annoyance, IMO.
Going from an overlong prologue, which takes up twice as much space as any of the following chapters, it went straight into rape and victim fetishization - just what you expect to find in an anthology called "Once Upon a Happy Ending", not!
However there are some stories included I really enjoyed reading.
Following the weak opener we have some truly fun fairy tale retellings, like
"The Goose Girl" by Brittany Fitcher
"The Princess who chased Sheep" by K.M. Shea
"Chains of Gold" by Shari L. Tapscott
and most noteable
"Rapunzel's Beauty" by Casey Lane.
A most charming adventure tale mixing classic sword and sorcery elements with disneyesque characters to create the most original and witty entry in the set.
With Aya Ling's version of "Cinderella" the collection left on a high enough note to redeem the inclusion of a "Fistful of Stars" somewhat.
Therefore it manages a bare three Star rating in all from me.
theknightswhosaybook's review
3.0
As with any anthology, there was a lot of variety here between how much I enjoyed each story. Some were fun and clever retellings. Others didn't even feel like self-contained stories. While I understand that many of these authors told stories set within the world of a different series they've written, if you're going to put it in an anthology these stories need to be self-contained and self-explanatory for readers who haven't read the main series. Some authors managed that. Others didn't so well. Anthologies are tricky like that.
silver_valkyrie_reads's review
4.0
An impressively good anthology in that there was only one story I disliked. The others were all 3 or 4 star reads, and the one I disliked was still intriguing, just harsher and bleaker than I prefer. (It was also the only one that noticeably needed a content warning, with brief nudity and reference to .
Spoiler
rape
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