Book Review: Not Quite the Fairy Tale series by May Sage

May Sage takes your classic fairy tales and completely revamps them. Elements of the original are still there but these new stories are meant for today's reader. 

Special note: these fairy tales are NOT meant for young readers. The stories can be quite explicit.
Second note: all images are affiliate links to Amazon.

You can follow May directly at www.AuthorMaySage.com

Not Quite the Fairy Tale: First Bundle

This bundle contains the following stories: Cinderella, A Little Siren, Beauty and the Beast, and The Snow Queen.

Characters from the stories do cross over and make appearances in other stories. But each story is written as a stand alone novel. You can read them in any order, though I strongly suggest starting with Cinderella.

Cinderella
The prince needs to find a wife from amongst his population of females. He decides to have a contest, rather along the lines of Kiera Cass's The Selection, but with some startling conditions.
Ella, who has plans for her life that do not include a kingdom, enters the contest intending to be eliminated. She isn't. Instead she is forced to appear at the castle and meet the prince.
Fireworks, learning about class differences, and several issues occur on the way to love. Then Rumplestiltskin steps in and Ella disappears.
Finding her is a job for only the worthiest.

A Little Siren
Sister to the prince in Cinderella, she's spent her entire life carrying a secret. Unfortunately keeping that secret has a way of causing distrust and the only man she's ever loved.
Until the day her reappears in her life. Now she's got something to fight for and there is a fight coming her way.
With the help of mermaids and her half-siblings, the siren intends to over come and rid the world of some perverted evils.

Beauty and the Beast
This story was a little difficult to follow at times. I'm still trying to figure out who, or more accurately what, Belle is and the answer is not in this book.
There is some explicit sex since the Beast operates a gambling and sex den--which is all perfectly legal since the king stopped talking years ago.
​Into this world comes Belle to settle her brother's debt to the Beast. And she manages to reawaken his heart to the people of his country.

The Snow Queen
The goddess who imprisoned the gods themselves woke from her centuries long sleep to help Belle. On her way to sleep again, she meets an elf trying to save his people from slavery. Her vow to remain uninvolved is soon broken as she falls for him.

It's in this story that you begin to understand how interlinked the series is despite each story being a stand alone.

There are additional books in the series. I have not read these... Yet. One day I hope to have time to finish the entire series.

​If you read May Sage's stories, which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.
Can you recommend any other contemporary fairy tales? Tell me in the comments!