Who doesn’t love a good fairy tale? These retellings are super fun to read because they put a new twist on familiar tropes with unexpected settings, gender-swapped roles, or surprising plot changes. The result illuminates overlooked themes and interesting connections to our modern world. The stories are familiar, but the lessons we learn from retelling feel fresh.
Legends of the First Empire Series, Book 1
Age of Myth
Michael J. Sullivan
Since time immemorial, humans have worshipped the gods they call Fhrey, truly a race apart: invincible in battle, masters of magic, and seemingly immortal. But when a god falls to a human blade, the balance of power between humans and those they thou
Read More View in CatalogEmily Wilde Series, Book 1
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Heather Fawcett
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series. Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good a
Read More View in CatalogElements of Cadence Series, Book 1
A River Enchanted
Rebecca Ross
Jack Tamerlaine hasn't stepped foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the mainland university. But when young girls start disappearing from the isle, Jack is summoned home to help find them. Enchantments run deep on Cadence
Read More View in CatalogUnbury Carol
Josh Malerman
Carol Evers is a woman with a dark secret. She has died many times . . . but her many deaths are not final: They are comas, a waking slumber indistinguishable from death, each lasting days. Only two people know of Carol's eerie condition. One is
Read More View in CatalogHalf Sick of Shadows
Laura Sebastian
Everyone knows the legend. Of Arthur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But Elaine alone carries the burden o
Read More View in CatalogIron Druid Chronicles Series, Book 7
Shattered
Kevin Hearne
Atticus's apprentice Granuaile is at last a full Druid herself. What's more, Atticus has defrosted an archdruid frozen in time long ago, a father figure (of sorts) who now goes by the modern equivalent of his old Irish name: Owen Kennedy. A
Read More View in CatalogPatternmaster Series, Book 1
Wild Seed
Octavia E. Butler
Doro knows no higher authority than himself. An ancient spirit with boundless powers, he possesses humans, killing without remorse as he jumps from body to body to sustain his own life. With a lonely eternity ahead of him, Doro breeds supernaturally
Read More View in CatalogHells Library Series, Book 1
The Library of the Unwritten
A. J. Hackwith
Claire is head librarian of the Unwritten Wing--a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job includes keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the Library. When
Read More View in CatalogThe Shadow of Perseus
Claire Heywood
Danae: Banished from her homeland thanks to a prophecy foretelling that her unborn child will one day cause the death of her father, the king of Argos, Danae finds herself stranded, pregnant, and alone in a remote fishing village. It's a harsh n
Read More View in CatalogAtalanta
Jennifer Saint
When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. But even then, she is a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up w
Read More View in CatalogGolem and the Jinni Series, Book 1
The Golem and the Djinni
Helene Wecker
Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life to by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic and dies at sea on the voyage from Poland. Chava is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York harbor in 1899. Ahmad is
Read More View in CatalogGods of Jade and Shadow
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Mayan God of Death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore. The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather's h
Read More View in CatalogStone Blind
Natalie Haynes
They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster. The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an u
Read More View in CatalogPlated Prisoner Series, Book 1
Gild
Raven Kennedy
This is the story of King Midas . . . Or that's what we were always told. The Golden King with his palace of riches and me, his golden touched girl. I'm kept locked away. For my safety, I'm told. No one can get in. Apart from him. But
Read More View in CatalogCelestial Kingdom Duology Series, Book 1
Daughter of the Moon Goddess
Sue Lynn Tan
Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discove
Read More View in CatalogCrescent City Series, Book 1
House of Earth and Blood
Sarah J. Maas
Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. Every night is a party and Bryce is going to savour all the pleasures Lunathion – also known as Crescent City – has to offer. But then a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, and
Read More View in CatalogThe Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller
Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. Achilles, 'best of all the
Read More View in CatalogThe Silence of the Girls
Pat Barker
Here is the story of the Iliad as we’ve never heard it before: in the words of Briseis, Trojan queen and captive of Achilles. Given only a few words in Homer’s epic and largely erased by history, she is nonetheless a pivotal figure in the Trojan
Read More View in CatalogAvalon Series, Book 1
The Mists of Avalon
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Retells the legend of Arthur as perceived by Viviane, the Lady of the Lake and high priestess of Avalon, Arthur's mother Igraine, his Christian wife Guinevere, and the sorceress Morgaine.
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