Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede

Patricia C. Wrede reports in her afterward to her book that Snow White and Rose Red was one of her favorite fairy tales as a child, but when rereading it for this book as an adult, she realized how many plot holes the original book actually had. In her book she does a marvelous job of filling those plot holes with a story set in Elizabethan England and the mystical, magical Faerie of myth and legend.  In her version, John Dee and Edward Kelly, real men who lived during this time, cast a spell that traps Hugh, price of Faerie, and turns him into a monstrous bear. Snow White and Rose Red, or in this version Blanche and Rosamund, and Hugh's brother John must then find out what ails the prince and cure him of the wicked spell that has been cast upon him. One objection I have to this book is Wrede's feeling that she had to write the dialogue in Elizabethan English. I know that was the setting of her novel, but sometimes all those "thees" and "thous" makes for slow reading!

Stars of Fortune by Nora Roberts

Stars of Fortune is a classic adventure story that brings a host of interesting characters together to find a mystical object. Long ago, three goddesses created three magnificent stars to celebrate the birth of a new queen. But an evil goddess curses the stars saying that one day they will fall and she will gain control of them. Flash forward to modern day. Sasha Riggs is a reclusive artist and seeress that is compelled to go to Greece to find out the meaning of her visions. There she meets Bran Killian, Annika, Sawyer King, Riley, and Doyle. Each of these individuals have secrets of their own, but it is only together that they can save the stars and defeat the darkness once and for all.

I am told by someone who reads more Nora Roberts than me that this was not the best example of her work, but I enjoyed the classic adventure story with the hint of romance flung in as well. It is entertaining and I feel that it was a good introduction for Roberts for me. :)

House of Many Shadows by Barbara Michaels

House of Many Shadows is one of Barbara Michaels' best. In it Meg has just survived a horrible accident, an accident that has left her with weird visual and auditory hallucinations. In an effort to cure herself, she manages to convince her rich cousin, Sylvia, to let her stay at her country house in Pennsylvania Dutch territory. But when she gets there, things seem to get worse. Now she cannot seem to differentiate from her hallucinations and the reality of what's going on. But the scary thing is that the caretaker on the property, Andy Brenner, also sees the visions. Is the old house haunted, is Meg really going crazy and pulling Andy into her delusions, or is something else entirely else going on? A fun and engaging read that keeps you guessing right to the end!

Faerie Tales by Martn H. Greenberg and Russell Davis

Faerie Tales is a collection of short stories involving Faerie. The writers of this short story collection take the same approach as Tolkien once did to the land of Faerie, that is the Perilous Realm where anything can happen. As with any short story collection there are good stories and bad. I think my favorites were Sweet Forget Me Nots by Charles DeLint about a group of fairies called the Gemmin who bring happiness to those that need it and this time reach out for a boy named Ahmed. Changeling by John Helfers about a changeling boy named Trent that returns to Faerie several years later, and A Very Special Relativity by Jim Fiscus about a man that finds out that the spaceship where he works is powered by elves. But there were only a few of these tales I didn't like, so I feel that is a pretty good track record :).