Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Anthology
Who doesn’t love a fairy tale? Well, you are in for a treat with Joe Cosentino’s take on a couple of old favorites! If you haven’t read anything by Cosentino, you don’t know what you are missing. His humor and penchant for drama bring these old favorite a new life as he ventures deep into Fairyland. I will mention that these stories are more in line with fairy tales in the Shrek movies where they are all sort of combined into one, rather than being strictly a remake of one single story.
The first story is entitled “The Naked Prince” and is a retelling of Cinderella mixed with the Emperor’s New Clothes. Cinder was raised by two gay fashion designers, one of whom was tricked into marrying Cinder’s evil step-mother. After their deaths, Cinder was forced to design clothing for his evil step-mother and her equally evil daughters. One morning, Cinder comes across a naked man and offers him his own clothing – though they are made of cheap cloth, they are works of art. What Cinder doesn’t know is that the naked man was actually a prince! This is a delightful story that will lead you through twists and turns.
The second story is “The Golden Rule” and is a mixture of tales like Pinocchio, Aladdin, and the Wizard of Oz combined with Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In this story, Gideon is thrown out of his house by his parents after he is caught with Jack, the candlemaker’s son. Forced to seek refuge in an abandoned cabin in the woods, he meets the three Bear brothers.
The third story is “Whatever Happened To…?” and is a tale based off of Pinocchio. Jack is a reporter who is doing a piece on the actor with a growing appendage…and who happens to be a pathological liar! This tale had me in stitches!
The fourth tale is “Ice Cold” and is based on the story The Snow Queen. In this story, Gaelen must save his love Kieran after the evil prince freezes his heart and makes him his slave. This was my least favorite out of the stories because it wasn’t as humorous as the other tales and actually had a much darker feel to it. It almost was as if it was being told by the brothers Grimm. I still enjoyed it, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Overall, Joe Cosentino brought his brand of humor to update a few fairytales into the modern age. I wouldn’t be reading any of these to my nieces and nephews, but I surely did enjoy them! If you love fairytales, you’ve got to read the naughty versions – they are even better!
A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.
