Five Magic Spindles: A Collection of Sleeping Beauty Stories // written by Rachel Kovaciny, Kathryn McConaughy, Grace Mullins, Ashley Stangl, & Michelle Pennington
488 pages // published in 2016 // fairy-tale
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Awaken the Magic!
Emma, a good-hearted midwife, rushes to warn a neighbor about the hired gunman headed to his ranch but can't prevent the catastrophe in store for his daughter.
Palli, the prophesied daughter of a king, is fated to rescue her people from the destruction called forth by a vengeful priest.
Roselee, a ghost with a faulty memory, flits through the halls of an insane asylum in search of the mortal boy who can help her save the day.
Arabella, a living spirit trapped in her own comatose body, helplessly watches from the realm of dreams as her usurping cousin plots to destroy her once and for all.
Tanza, a tomb raider on a distant planet, struggles to make a living and doesn’t need a long-lost prince to complicate her difficult life.
One way or another, these beauties have no intention of sleeping away their problems.
Awaken the Magic!
Emma, a good-hearted midwife, rushes to warn a neighbor about the hired gunman headed to his ranch but can't prevent the catastrophe in store for his daughter.
Palli, the prophesied daughter of a king, is fated to rescue her people from the destruction called forth by a vengeful priest.
Roselee, a ghost with a faulty memory, flits through the halls of an insane asylum in search of the mortal boy who can help her save the day.
Arabella, a living spirit trapped in her own comatose body, helplessly watches from the realm of dreams as her usurping cousin plots to destroy her once and for all.
Tanza, a tomb raider on a distant planet, struggles to make a living and doesn’t need a long-lost prince to complicate her difficult life.
One way or another, these beauties have no intention of sleeping away their problems.
My Review...
For those enjoy a bit of magic and fairy tales, I'm sure you'll fall in love with this book. In 5 different ways, you get to relive the story of Sleeping Beauty. Each with a different author's spin on the story.
My favorite in the collection is Grace Mullins' The Ghost of Briardale. What do I love? The connection between a spell cast more than 500 years ago and how it all came to a climax as the spell finished its cycle, in the early 1900s, I believe. Immediately this gives the reader something interesting -- definitely something I'd never read before.
Franz Happernickle, a bank's clerk, is sent to the Briardale asylum as a lunatic, a place where no one ever gets out again. (The asylum bit adds just enough of a tinge of creepiness to the story.) Well, that and Lady Mara who is just evil and is about to reign after her 500+ year wait. The truth is, though, Franz is embarking on the quest of his lifetime: to save a sleeping princess turned to stone. And so he starts out... with only a little ghost to guide him.
Really cute book. A fun collection!
"And how hard can it be? Heroes aren't so rare as all that."
"True Heroes are," said the second fairy irritably. "A True Hero has to have performed one of the Three Great Deeds: save a kingdom, slay a dragon, or move a mountain."
"Well," said the youngest fairy, trying to smile through her tears, "at least we have a hundred years to find one--"
- Five Magic Spindles, The Ghost of Briardale
"True Heroes are," said the second fairy irritably. "A True Hero has to have performed one of the Three Great Deeds: save a kingdom, slay a dragon, or move a mountain."
"Well," said the youngest fairy, trying to smile through her tears, "at least we have a hundred years to find one--"
- Five Magic Spindles, The Ghost of Briardale
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