keira anne with an e

Once upon a time…

Aren’t those lovely words, my dear friends?

I love fairytale retellings. Call me cliched, but I just love princes and princesses finding their happily ever after. Beautiful, sweet, classic, timeless; a thing of beauty. I’m pretty much always ready to read a fairytale retelling, and today, I want to share some of my favorites with you.

THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA: The Princess Companion by Melanie Cellier (The Four Kingdoms #1)

If you’ve heard me talk about fairytale retellings before, you know that this is a favorite of mine. I gave it five stars, and for good reason. It combines what is best about a fairytale, adding in perfect bits to make you invested in the story. Adorable romance banter between a prince and a commoner, royal intrigue that threatens the kingdom, a far-fetched scheme to choose a bride for the prince, and just the tiniest bit of magic.

If you’re interested in hearing more about this book, I wrote a review for it here.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS: ‘Cookies and Kisses’ by Marie Soleil (Once Upon a RomCom #0.5), which is a sweet retelling set in a modern setting involving a bakery.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: An Ever After Summer by Toni Shiloh

While Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney princess movies, I find myself struggling to find a retelling that captures the beauty of the film that has captivated me since childhood. This story, however, is one of my favorite retellings… because it’s a rom-com, and I love these characters and the short and sweet summer setting. It was very fun and enjoyable.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS: ‘Legacy of Roses’ by Melanie Cellier (Kingdoms of Legacy #1), this book was really fun, and I enjoyed it so much. Honestly, it was a very refreshing story, and I would highly recommend it. It’s probably my second favorite retelling. ‘The Merchant’s Daughter’ by Melanie Dickerson (Hagenheim #2), I don’t remember too much of this story, since I was pretty young when I read it, but I still remember enjoying this non-fantasy Christian retelling; ‘Beauty and the Baron’ (Forever After Retellings #1), this is a non-fantasy regency retelling by an author whose works I’ve enjoyed, although I’ll admit this wasn’t my favorite; ‘Kingdom of Beauty’ by Deborah Grace White (The Kingdom Tales #1), not my favorite retelling, but nothing terrible; ‘Isabelle and the Beast’ by Marie Soleil (Once Upon a RomCom #2), a pretty fun rom-com with a fun twist on the original story, and some sweet romance throughout.

CINDERELLA: The Reluctant Godfather by Allison Tebo (The Tales of Ambia #1)

It’s a Cinderella retelling, only it’s from the fairy godmother’s perspective. Except– oh, wait– it’s a godfather. And he’s not old. He’s a grumpy baker, who just wants to have the humans take care of their own problems so he can be left alone.

That was enough to make me interested, and let me just tell you that this story was absolutely wonderful. It is short– I think its novella length– but it was absolutely sweet, and so humorous. Definitely one of my favorite retellings.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS: ‘Cinder Luna’ by Marie Soliel (Once Upon a RomCom #1), the first book in this series full of contemporary rom-coms that were absolutely wonderful, and I really enjoyed it; ‘To Shatter a Slipper’ by Abigail Manning, which was a very interesting spin on the story where the wrong girl pretended to be Cinderella; The Maid of Ballymacool by Jennifer Deibel, which was a fairly loose retelling set in Ireland during the 1930s; ‘Between Stairs and Stardust’ by Pepper Basham (Blue Ridge Fairytales #1), which was a fun historical no-fantasy retelling that I enjoyed; ‘The Coronation Ball’ by Melanie Cellier (The Four Kingdoms #2.25), which was a sweet novella in this series that I really liked, and had some great friends-to-more romance that was great.

LITTLE MERMAID: The Silent Prince by C.J. Brightley (Once Upon a Prince)

I love the Little Mermaid story– the Disney version, not the Hans Christian Andersen original story. Anyway, I have yet to find a retelling of this story that I truly love. This one, however, was interesting, and I did like parts of it.

There were other parts that made me feel uncomfortable, so I would recommend going off your personal taste, but, since this is the only one I could think of, that’s what I’m going to use for now.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS: ‘The Silent Songbird’ by Melanie Dickerson (Hagenheim #7), which I haven’t read in a few years, but I do remember enjoying it.

RAPUNZEL: Maiden in the Tower by Heidi Kimball

Even though I grew up watching and loving the Tangled movie, I’m sorry to say that I just have never found a retelling of it that I love. However, this one was fun, and a very good springtime story, so I would definitely recommend reading it in when you’re feeling like a sweet, sunshine-y read.

This is a regency no-fantasy retelling, and it was very sweet with a fun romance that I really ended up enjoying.

Unfortunately, I haven’t read any other Rapunzel retellings that I would recommend. However, as I find new favorite retellings, I probably will release another post to update all of you on which ones I would recommend.