Puss in Boots

By K.M. Shea

Though she dreams of adventure, Gabrielle—a peasant girl—is given only a cat for her inheritance and is told she must marry, immediately. So when the cat, Puss, offers her a life of excitement in exchange for a pair of boots, Gabrielle jumps at the opportunity. Through Puss’s cunning and Gabrielle’s good deeds, they become celebrated heroes in small villages across the country.

Their adventurous life is complicated by Prince Steffen—a handsome prince who has a low opinion of love. He befriends Gabrielle and comes to grudgingly respect Puss as they work together to purge monsters and brigands from the countryside.

Disaster strikes when Steffen realizes his growing feelings for Gabrielle, and Puss and Gabrielle fight the evil ogre who rules the lands of Carabas. Can Gabrielle save Carabas? Will Steffen accept his feelings for her before it is too late?

K.M. Shea has quickly become my favorite writer of e-books and fairy tale retellings. I’ve never been a big fan of this fairy tale, so I think that is part of the reason why I ended up not liking this book as much as her others in this series. It’s also a story that happens before the second book in the series, even though this is the 6^th book, which made for a tiny bit of confusion as I read and tried to put things in their chronological order. Gabrielle is an interesting heroine because she just wants to find some adventure, she never set out to be a hero or take silly risks. She genuinely cares about people, but tends to be standoffish. It made for an interesting plot. Steffen was my favorite character, though I did enjoy the friendship between Gabrielle and Puss quite a bit.

This gets a 3 out of 5- it was average.

Rumplestiltskin

By K.M. Shea

When Gemma’s drunken father tells King Torgen of Verglas that his daughter can spin straw into gold, Gemma assumes her life is over. Held captive in a room filled with straw, Gemma is ordered to spin it all into gold by dawn the following day, or she will be killed by the king’s orders. Rather than cry her eyes out over her sad fate, Gemma tries escaping, and becomes acquainted with a mysterious mage named Stil. Stil offers to help Gemma complete her task, for a price, and turns the straw into gold thread.

Unfortunately the gold whets the greedy appetite of King Torgen, who is determined to wring more gold from Gemma. Gemma is relieved when Stil agrees to help her a second and third time…but his requested payments for the task grow stranger and stranger…

Can Gemma outsmart the evil king and survive Stil’s unusual bargains?

What an interesting way to retell Rumplestiltskin! The trend right now is to make Rumple the good guy/love interest instead of the little trickster that he was in the original. This is no exception, and to boot, Stil (as he is known in this story), is a mage. A wandering sorcerer who hears of Gemma’s predicament and wants to help. You know what they say about good intentions, sometimes they end up making things worse. I enjoyed this novel a great deal, mostly because Gemma is so snarky and no-nonsense. She doesn’t place trust in anybody but herself, and will escape on her own thank you very much. Stil is ever amused by her and, obvious to everyone but Gemma, almost immediately starts to try and win her affection. It’s cute and fun, and boy am I enjoying Shea’s development as a writer. Her characters are getting more and more interesting all the time and a pleasure to read!

I give this a 3.75 out of 5

The Little Selkie

By K.M. Shea

It is with great reluctance—and a lot of frustration—that Dylan, a selkie, saves the Ringsted Prince Callan when she finds him shipwrecked and drifting in the ocean. The experience is nothing but a bother, so she puts it from her mind and swims off on her merry way. Two years later, while chasing an evil sea witch onto land, Dylan’s pelt is stolen, leaving her unable to return to the ocean in her sea lion body. Rather than serve as the sea witch’s tool, Dylan asks a traveling enchantress to seal her voice. The enchantress complies, and Dylan is taken to the royal palace by one of the sea witch’s minions where she encounters, yet again, Prince Callan.

Between court games, a dangerous brush with a kelpie, and sniffing out the sea withch while looking for her pelt, Dylan’s days are a flavorful blend of treachery and boredom. But during her searches and investigations, Prince Callan befriends her, making her question her loyalties. Dylan always thought her heart was with the ocean, but can she defeat the sea witch and leave Callan forever?

K.M. Shea is my favorite go-to for a good fairy-tale retelling. I love how she’s able to keep true to the heart of a story but gives the reader enough little twists that it’s enjoyable to re-experience the classic fairy-tales. This is by far the best retelling I’ve read for The Little Mermaid. Hans Christian Anderson’s original is depressing to say the least, and Disney’s version is delightful. I really appreciated Shea’s decision to use a Selkie instead of a Mermaid, which to my mind made more sense anyway. This is the fifth book in her fairy-tale series, and I didn’t have high hopes for it, but I ended up loving this story. Mostly because of Dylan. Dylan is awesome. She is a girl who is bold and different. I love that Shea made her a bottomless pit when it came to eating. That was hilarious and endearing. She had so much personality, and a different personality! I had gotten used to the typical Princess who was either sick of being royalty and wanted to be normal, or was pushed around and had to find her own voice (with small variations). Dylan is loyal and knows who she is. She doesn’t care about things that don’t matter to her end goal. Falling in love wasn’t what she was waiting for, it happened and she dealt with it like a person. I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed the characters in this book. Also, Callan is a perfect match for Dylan! I don’t want to spoil too much, but he’s just as different as she is and it’s an amazing to see how they work off each other and support/respect one another. Great job Ms. Shea. Bravo!

I give it a 4.25 out of 5 –for awesome original characters!!!

Robyn Hood: A Girl's Tale

By K. M. Shea

The ballads lie. Robin Hood, the Bold and Brave Outlaw of Sherwood Forest, is cowardly, spineless, and a girl.

Robyn unwittingly starts the Robin Hood farce when she is mistaken for a male while saving her friend, Marian, from two foresters. Forced into hiding, Robyn unwillingly collects “Merry Men” while grudgingly robbing from the rich fools that wander through Sherwood. What starts as small scale robbery blows up into complex heists when Little John and Will Scarlet join her team, and the idiotic Prince John and his legion of soldiers comes to town. However, Robyn can’t stop the theft—not when King Richard is being held ransom.

Cowardly Robyn’s best chance to raise money for King Richard’s release is to rob his brother, Prince John. Will she survive the heist, or swing in the gallows?

Reluctant female Robin Hood? Cool. I had reservations about this book because I had recently read the book Scarlet, which similar in regards to changing the gender of an iconic character, that of Will Scarlet. This book, thankfully, was much better than Scarlet, which was a huge let down for me. Robyn Hood is a girl that just wants to be left in peace to lead her life, and is cajoled by her merry men into becoming their leader. She is someone that they can rally around and also protect. The dynamic of the group was fun because it was kind of like Robyn was a little sister to the Merry Men, but they all love and protect her in every way possible. The only issue I had with this book was that I didn’t know before I started it that it is a two-part story. There is a pretty huge cliff-hanger in the end and it felt incredibly abrupt. So of course I had to go get the second book immediately to finish it. I kinda think that the author could’ve just put the two books together into one, as they really aren’t that big. Oh well.

This first instalment gets a 3.25 out of 5

Robyn Hood: Fight for Freedom

By K. M. Shea

Robyn left her band of Merry Men after losing an archery contest against Little John and runs to the last place her men would expect: the courts of Prince John. Robyn successfully masks her identity until Little John and Will Scarlet locate her with Marian’s help. Unfortunately the Merry Men are found out, and the Sheriff of Nottingham makes plans to hang them. Robyn must save her men and find a way out of the locked Nottingham Castle, or she will lose her trusted partners to the noose.

The Merry Men aren’t the only friends Robyn is fighting for. Marian—Robin’s childhood friend—will be unwillingly married to the persistent and violent Sir Guy of Gisborne if Robyn can’t stop the wedding.

Can Robyn save her men, her closest friend, and finally pay King Richard’s ransom.

The second half of Robyn Hood is much more creative than the first, seeing Robyn in the courts of Prince John acting as a courtier from a distant county. Robyn is pretty much pouting for the first half of this book, and majorly embarrassed when she discovers that some of her Merry Men have fallen in love with her. She’s a girl who isn’t one for drama, and what’s more dramatic than romance? Not only that, but she is also trying her best to ransom King Richard, and save her best friend from a truly horrible marriage. This is a fun conclusion to an interesting take on the classic myth. I enjoyed the read even if it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5

Wild Swans

By K. M. Shea

Elise is no hero. She would rather balance the castle’s expense accounts than become her country’s champion. But she doesn’t have a choice since her step-mother, a wicked withc, cursed the seven princes of Arcainia, Elise’s foster-brothers, and transformed them into swans. To free her foster-brothers Elise agrees to knit seven shirts made of stinging nettles. She must complete the shirts without uttering a word.

For the sake of safety and secrecy, Elise fless Arcainia and struggles to survive in the wild. Even though she is mute, trails seven wild swans, and knits like a mad-woman, Elise catches the eye of a foreign prince, who drags her back to his family’s castle where she is tormented by the prince’s evil father. With her step-mother hunting her foster-brothers and the foreign king threatening to kill her, Elise’s dedication to her task is sorely tested. But if Elise does not finish the shirts, Arcainia and her foster-brothers will be lost. Can a mathematician be the hero needed to save the day?

I have really enjoyed reading K. M. Shea’s books, and this is the book that goes between Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella and the Colonel. I was excited, but wondered why this book got lower ratings than the other two. After reading it I can understand why because having loved the two aforementioned books, this pales in comparison. I liked Elise, but the love story part of the book left something lacking for me. It was almost creepy. Elise has no romantic interest in her suitors because she grew up with them, knowing them as brothers. The story itself was good and I liked the self-sacrifice parts of the book. The brothers were well characterized, if a bit silly at times. My main (and very large) problem with the book was the ending. What a cop-out. After going through the novel and wondering with excitement who Elise will choose, we get to the end only to find ourselves in a choose-your-favorite-love-interest? WHAT? I was ticked. That authorial choice was poor in my opinion. It really lowered the book and the journey you took to figure out who Elise chooses. I hated that. I would’ve liked the book much more if the author had simply let Elise choose, or even told us in a round-about way in a later book. In my opinion, just skip this book and read the other two.

I give it a 2.75 out of 5- All because of the ending. If not for the ending it would’ve been a 3 or 3.5

Princess Ahira

By K. M. Shea

Getting kidnapped by dragons on her sixteenth birthday was the best thing that ever happened to Princess Ahira. After spending her life avoiding lectures and lessons, Ahira is thrilled when she is kidnapped and selected as live-in-princess (servant) for a powerful dragon named Azmaveth. Her dreams of escaping royal monotony are dashed, however, when she realizes she will have to marry the prince that saves her. Tradition rules, after all. Being a romance cynic, Ahira doesn’t consider marriage a fantastic future. So she decides to stay with Azmaveth until her brother, a prince, can sneak away from their kingdom to rescue her. Life is interesting thanks to eccentric tenants of the dragon lands. As a live-in-princess Ahira meets Snow White and her seven dwarf uncles who have fallen asleep, Hansel and Gretel who have locked an old woman out of her cookie cottage, and a miniature unicorn who has some pretty powerful magic. However, there are a few negatives to Ahira’s new life. There’s Kohath, Azmaveth’s infuriating human steward; Azmaveth’s tendency to mis-make magic spells Kohath; the ongoing epic battle between the dragons and the Valkyrie, magical warriors bent on dominion over magic; and Kohath. Things get scaly when the dragons realize Azmaveth has unwittingly put their future in Ahira’s hands. If Ahira wants her happily ever after she’ll have to fight tooth and nail for it.

This book is a tad hard to review without giving away certain key plot points, so I’ll do my best to convey things without spoilers. This is the story of Ahira, reluctant princess who just wants to be treated like a normal person and not swept under the royal rug. When Ahira is kidnapped on her birthday along with a few other princesses of the realm, she is quickly found to be the most level-headed unromantic and pragmatic princess ever. Azmaveth, who is akin to a Duke among the dragons, feels extremely fortunate to have found such a servant and housemate. Azmaveth is a bit of an oddity himself, a dragon who is an inventor as well as a magician, he has created quite a few useful things, but has caused a lot more mayhem with his failures. Ahira has to learn how to manage the house of a dragon, and an unusual one at that, and she is surprised to find that she enjoys her life with Azmaveth much more than her old one. She’s useful and wanted. This story is quite fun, though a bit unimaginative with Ahira. She’s a quirky princess who is stolen by a dragon, and seems to be the only princess that isn’t a dunce. Kohath on the other hand is a little strange and does his best to befriend Ahira, though there is something off about him. He is the more interesting character of the two, as there is a mystery to him. When all is said and done, this was a fun read and I loved the squat little unicorn that Ahira makes friends with; it just made me giggle. For a dragon book it was middling because I was disappointed with the finale. I do recommend this book, however, despite some of my disappointment with different facets of the book. It’s a fun little read and I was smiling at the end, which counts for a lot.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5

Red Rope of Fate

By K. M. Shea

In the epic stories falling in love is often described as a beautiful, wonderful experience. Tari finds it to be life threatening, embarrassing, and nothing but heartache.

When Tari, an elf, is selected to be bound to Captain Arion, a human military officer, in a ceremony designed to promote friendship between their countries it is discovered that the two can communicate with each other in spite of the language barrier. Not everyone is supportive of the change Tari and Arion symbolize, so in addition to attending evening teas and royal luncheons Tari and Arion dodge kidnapping attempts and blackmail plots crafted by powerful political figures.

Tari is dumbfounded when she realizes she has fallen in love with Arion, who has the emotional capabilities of a rock. As both human and elf society dictate that an elf and a human can never be together, Tari must conceal her feelings. Unfortunately the taciturn Arion is watchful and attentive to Tari’s well-being, constantly pushing her to her limits with his loyalty, friendship, and dreadfully informal habit of touching her.

If Tari and Arion survive, their tumultuous realationship will either strengthen their countries’ alliance, or cripple the human courts of nobility. The deciding factor will be Arion, and his indecipherable feelings for Tari.

I got a trial subscription to Kindle Unlimited from Amazon and I ended up reading as many of K. M. Shea’s novels as possible. I just liked them. They are wholesome and lovely and just a good read. This is a story about elves and humans who have an uneasy treaty between the two worlds, but the differences between their worlds is staggering. Language is an enormous barrier, and many humans and elves dedicate their entire lives to learning as much as they can about each other’s culture. There is a ritual, usually performed on the young of both species that binds one elf to one human for life. Normally this binding is purely political and nothing comes of the process, but when Tari and Arion, two adults are bound in a special ceremony, they become celebrities when they find out that they can perfectly understand each other without translators, and even sometimes feel what the other is feeling or know where the other is. This is a love story above all else, and there are a few discrepancies in the plot that confused me. The story made it seem like it was taboo for an elf and a human to love one another and fall in love, but in the end everything seemed peachy and there was no conflict. Oh well, it was still a fun story, though not my favorite from Shea. I get a little skeptical when people use elves in their stories, because in my opinion elves can only be done seriously in high fantasy by masters. Tolkien started it and I have very little patience for other versions because they seem like pale imitations.

I give this a 3 out of 5 for an average, though fun romance.

Cinderella and the Colonel

By K. M. Shea

The country of Erlauf is the enemy, as far as Cinderella is concerned. Since Erlauf took over her home country, Cinderella has been forced to manage her once opulent duchy like a tightly budgeted farm. Gone are the days of wealth and luxury. Instead, Cinderella dons servants’ clothes and sells all her luxuries to save her servants and her duchy from the mountain of debt she’s racked up due to Erlauf fines and taxes.

Romance and forgiveness are the last things on Cinderella’s mind. Unfortunately the rakish Erlauf Colonel Friedrich has other ideas.

Cinderella thinks she needs a pile of money to save her duchy, and for the Erlauf invaders to leave. What she gets is a debonair Erlauf colonel, a fairy godmother, four mice, two goats, a pair of glass slippers, and a pumpkin.

It’s funny, I never seem to get tired of Beauty and the Beast retellings, but I always go into a Cinderella retelling with huge misgivings if I even decide to read them at all. When I began this book I was shocked at what K.M. Shea decided to do to the original tale, and I wholeheartedly pumped my fist in the air at her decisions. This is, in my opinion, the best retelling of Cindrella. Period. Okay, maybe it ties with Ella Enchanted. But seriously, this is amazing and heart-felt and all things good for a retelling and a proper romance. I adore Cinderella, I’m pretty sure I fell in love with the Colonel, and the plot is just amazing. This isn’t just a romance or a fairy tale. It’s a story about the power of forgiveness. Please, please read this if you love fairy tales and need a little romance in your day, but don’t want just fluff. It’s such a breath of fresh air. I loved K.M. Shea’s Beauty and the Beast, but this, this was just awesome.

I give it a 4.25 out of 5

Beauty and the Beast

By K. M. Shea

Once upon a time Elle made a mistake. A small miscalculation sends her through the roof of an enchanted Chateau. Stranded until her broken leg mends, Elle is forced to rely on the good will of the sour chateau owner—the cursed Prince Severin.

Prince Severin—the commanding general and staunch supporter of his brother the crown prince—is cursed to look like a beast until a maiden falls in love with him. However, he has given up all hope of shattering the curse after several painful and failed attempts to break it. As such he has only disdain for Elle, leaving her to the devices of his bossy servants. This suits Elle perfectly as she dislikes the entire royal family, Severin included.

Unfortunately for the unsuspecting pair, the chateau servants are determined to break the curse and spend the majority of their time pushing Elle and Severin together. After bonding over gardens, animals, and terrifying squirrels Elle and Severin show signs of friendship, and perhaps something more…

But not all love stories can end that easily. After all, Elle is not what she seems, and Severin’s life is placed in danger when hostilities flare between his brother and the monarchs of a neighboring country.

If they really want the love of a lifetime Elle, a loyal liar, and Severin, an indifferent beast, will have to use every trick they know to survive.

Yes, I’m at it again. I found another Beauty and the Beast retelling. But I’m on a quest! I will find the best one there is, or failing that I’ll eventually write it! That being said, this is in the top tier for Beauty and the Beast retellings. I’m talking top 3. This was a great way to approach the beloved tale (I’m not the only obsessed person out there okay!) by making Elle, our heroine, a mysterious figure who is not kidnapped by the beast, but rather rescued by him, although reluctantly. Prince Severin is himself an awesome character and has much more to him than being a Beast. The byplay between the two of them is the best; the squirrel scene had me laughing out loud. But, not only is this the beloved tale retold, it’s a new tale with merits all its own, and I for one fell in love with the telling and the characters with all their stupidities and strengths. Again, I think I can safely put this in my top 3, maybe even in the top 2. I liked it that much. I know a lot of people swear up and down that Robin McKinley’s Beauty is the best one out there, but this one easily tops it for me.

I give it a 4.5 out of 5- not generally, but for the genre of fairy tale retellings.