I think I was expecting an anthology of short story lesbian versions of fairy tales. In fact there are only four stories in this collection, two of which felt overlong to me, and none of the stories are really short.

One of the stories was a kind of tour of several different fairy stories - Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Thorn Rose and so on. This was entertaining for a while but started to wear thin and became too long. Basically our main character - a butch lesbian - goes to sleep, and finds herself in a different fairy story each time, having to rescue a few damsels in distress. As it happens aforementioned damsels are not always in distress - some of them are very much in control. I'm very happy for stories not to take themselves seriously, but this lacked something, so it just felt like a joke that had been repeated too often. Maybe it was a bit too much"...and then I woke up and it was all a dream" for me - a cop out.

There was a rather good version of Beauty and the Beast, set in a carnival. Worked really well, good characters and story, great page turner, some nice revelatory moments, everything blended together nicely.

The Cinderella retelling - Charlotte of Hessen - was very good. All the elements worked really well, and it did not seem that any words were wasted. I very much enjoyed all the characters, and the extra twist at the end (on top of the expected one). The setting was great, and the story had the right sort of tone for a fairy tale.

The final story - I think - is a version of the Little Mermaid - with a few extra twists. It had some quite good parts, but seemed too long and did not quite fit together for me. The whole culture and politics of merpeople got quite tiresome after awhile, as did the extended internal dialogue of the main character. I can see why it is there, but there just seems a bit much of it.

So, kind of a disappointment for me, but not so much that I am thinking of swapping instantly. I'll give it more time, and see what I think on a re-read. It's not like the Emma Donoghue lesbian fairy tale anthology - it's a bit less serious than that and not in the same style, and not as well written - but maybe this is part of my disappointment. That is, I was expecting too much of it, rather than thinking of it as a good bit of frothy entertainment. ( )

Lesbian fairytale retellings? Yay, said I, when I picked it up, but it was sadly disappointing. I didn't mind two of the stories Beauty and the Beast - girl runs away with a carnival and falls in love with the Bearded Lady; and also the Cinderella retelling, although often that story makes me too frustrated with the unfairness of it all, even though I know there is a happy ending. The other two were just weird.

Not stellar writing, but a few moments here and there stand out. ( )