The Princess Blog

The Faerie Prince  is the latest installment in the Fairytales of Folkshore series by Lucy Tempest . I have to say that this author's writing style has changed significantly since the original Thief of Cahraman trilogy . Her books used to overflow with lengthy and unnecessary exposition, and now they are succinct and to the point. This change was most noticeable in her "Cinderella" story, Princess of Midnight , which might be my favorite from this series. The Faerie Prince is the most simplistic book in the series to date, which might work a little to its detriment. It is an adaptation of "Snow White,"  but intentionally leaves out "and the Seven Dwarfs" from its marketing. It's just Snow White. I can only assume that Lucy cut these additional side characters to keep the story simple enough for a single book. but doing so turned a unique princess story into a generic fantasy romance adventure, albeit still a pretty good one. The Faerie Prince  te...

Lucy Tempest's Fairy Tales of Folkshore series  had a rocky start for me with the Thief of Cahraman trilogy . I'm glad I gave her books another chance because I loved her "Cinderella" retelling, Princess of Midnight . Now, she has a new book that combines "Sleeping Beauty" and "Robin Hood," which is one of the best "Sleeping Beauty" retellings I have ever read. Dreamer of Briarfell  resolves the most common issues with developing "Sleeping Beauty" into a full-length novel while still remaining true to the roots of the fairy tale. The biggest obstacle an author has to face with adapting this story is finding a way for the princess to fall in love with the prince when she is asleep for the most important part of her adventure. I've seen some creative solutions  to this issue, but none quite so clever as what Lucy Tempest did. This is by far my favorite book in the Fairy Tales of Folkshore series. Dreamer of Briarfell  tells t...

Did you know that this past Wednesday was National Tell a Fairy Tale Day ? That means this is a big week for sales on princess books ! I celebrated the joyous occasion by attending  another Facebook party  with many talented authors . Among those authors, Lucy Tempest  released her latest book in the Fairy Tales of Folkshore series  promptly time for the holiday. As the newest and shiniest release, Princess of Midnight  was the first book I read in honor of National Fairy Tale Day. I had mixed feelings about Lucy Tempest's  Thief of Cahraman trilogy  and Beast / Beauty of Rosemead  duology, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this reimagining of "Cinderella" and the "The Snow Queen."  To my delight, I found that it was not only more concise than the other Folkshore novels, but also one of the best adaptations of "Cinderella" that I have ever read. Princess of Midnight  tells the story of Ornella, a minor character from the other b...

It's been a while since I read Beast of Rosemead  by Lucy Tempest . By the time I got around to its sequel, Beauty of Rosemead , I remembered very little except that the first book was very similar to the Disney adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast."  Thankfully,  Beauty of Rosemead  had more than enough exposition to refresh my memory. As the fifth book in the Fairy Tales of Folkshore series and conclusion of Bonibel's story, I found it pretty enjoyable for what it was. I liked that Lucy shortened this story to two books since the Thief of Cahraman trilogy , her gender-swapped retelling of "Aladdin,"  ran a little too long with three books to tell a single story filled with exposition. She continues to shrink her garrulity with  Princess of Midnight , the next book in the series, which is going to be a single standalone book. Beauty of Rosemead  contained some of the same unnecessary exposition as the Thief of Cahraman  and put too much focu...

You may recall my recent review of the Cahraman trilogy  by Lucy Tempest , a gender-swapped adaptation of "Aladdin"  with an overly complicated backstory. Needless to say, I wasn't particularly eager to read her latest book, Beast of Rosemead  until I was offered an advance copy in exchange for my honest review. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. Beast of Rosemead  is the first part of a two-book saga, which is an improvement over the slow pacing of the lengthy three-part Cahraman trilogy. As the next story in Lucy Tempest's Fairy Tales of Folkshore series , it contains plenty of references to the Cahraman books. While it certainly helps to read those first, it's not hard to figure out what's going on in Beast of Rosemead even if you have no prior knowledge of the series. Beast of Rosemead  is the story of Bonnie, Adelaide's best friend from Thief of Cahraman . Unlike Adelaide's story, this "Beauty and the Beast" adaptation ...

Lucy Tempest  is the hottest new author among the indie fairy tale adaptation scene. I was a little hesitant to read her premiere gender-bent "Aladdin" novel Thief of Cahraman  because it required me to purchase and read two other novels, Prince of Cahraman  and Queen of Cahraman  just to find out how it ends. I've enjoyed other trilogies  that told a complete story within each book while just leaving one thing unresolved at the end to make way for a sequel, but that was not the case here. It was a bit of a struggle for me to complete all three books within the course of a week so that I could write a review, especially when so few important things happened in the story until the end. In fact, I would even say it would be possible to skip over the second book entirely without missing too much of the overall story. Of course, this is speaking from my own personal preference. If you're the type of person who doesn't like your stories to end in a single book...