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ONCE UPON A TIME FAIRY TALES, RE-MIXED
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by Katherine Arden
Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse's fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil. Then Vasya's widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow.
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by Greg Bear
Reynard, a young apprentice, seeks release from the drudgery of working for his fisherman uncle in the English village of Southwold. His rare days off lead him to strange encounters--not just with press gangs hoping to fill English ships to fight the coming Spanish Armada, but with strangers who seem to know him, one of whom casts a peculiar shadow.
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by Matthew Blake
Anna Ogilvy was a budding twenty-five-year-old writer with a bright future. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive -- and hasn't woken up since. Dubbed "Sleeping Beauty" by the tabloids, Anna's condition is a rare psychosomatic disorder known to neurologists as "resignation syndrome."
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by Edward Carey
In the small Tuscan town of Collodi, a lonely woodcarver longs for the companionship of a son. One day, "as if the wood commanded me," Giuseppe -- better known as Geppetto -- carves for himself a pinewood boy, a marionette he hopes to take on tour worldwide. But when his handsome new creation comes magically to life, Geppetto screams ... and the boy, Pinocchio, leaps from his arms and escapes into the night.
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by Ann Claycomb
Kathleen is a twenty-five-year-old opera student in Boston and shows immense promise as a soprano. Her girlfriend Harry worries endlessly about Kathleen's phantom pain and obsession with the sea. Kathleen's mother and grandmother both committed suicide as young women, and Harry worries they suffered from the same symptoms. Harry convinces Kathleen to visit her hometown in Ireland to learn more about her family history.
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by Alyssa Cole
When Naledi, an overworked grad student, gets an email addressing her as the long-lost betrothed of Prince Thabiso of the small (fictional) African country of Thesolo, she hits delete. Little does she realize that the incompetent new waiter she's been trying to train is, in fact, the "Playboy PanAfrique," come to New York to check out his intended. (book 1 of the "Reluctant Royals" series.
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by John ConnollyPhoebe, an eight-year-old girl, lies comatose following a car accident. Ceres, her mother, can only sit by her bedside and read aloud the fairy stories Phoebe loves in the hope they might summon her back to this world. But an old house on the hospital grounds ... is calling to Ceres. Something wants her to ... journey to a land colored by the memories of childhood, and the folklore beloved of her father -- the Land of Lost Things.
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by Saranna DeWylde
Lucky Fujiki's first name is a cosmic joke. Her luck is so bad, even the number seven steers clear of her. But when her adorable godmothers ask for a favor, Lucky can't say no. And her mission is even worse than she imagined -- to promote their town, Ever After, as a wedding destination by faking a marriage to her first love and long-time ex, Ransom Payne -- he of the Embarrassing Incident that neither of them will ever live down...
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by Kate Forsyth
After King Louis XIV banishes his cousin Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force to a convent in 1697, she has a hard time getting used to a life of austerity and isolation in the French countryside. She misses the excitement and luxury of the daring, robust court life she once led and yearns for the young husband for whom she renounced her religion. An elderly nun takes Charlotte-Rose under her wing and, as they tend the nunnery's garden, relates the story of Margherita, a young Venetian girl imprisoned in a remote tower by an evil sorceress.
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by Olga Grushin
Cinderella married the man of her dreams -- the perfect ending she deserved after diligently following all the fairy-tale rules. Yet now, two children and thirteen and a half years later, things have gone badly wrong and her life is far from perfect.
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by Alix E. Harrow
It's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no-one has lived past twenty-one.
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by Christina Henry
It's not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn't look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.
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by Daniel M. Lavery
Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster twists traditional children's stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief.
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by Gregory Maguire Ada, a friend of Alice's mentioned briefly in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, is off to visit her friend, but arrives a moment too late -- and tumbles down the rabbit-hole herself. Ada brings to Wonderland her own imperfect apprehension of cause and effect as she embarks on an odyssey to find Alice and see her safely home from this surreal world below the world.
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by Liz Michalski
Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy - yes, that Wendy. She's running a successful skincare company, her son Jack is happy and healthy, and the tragedy of her past is well behind her... until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing. And worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but more dangerous than anyone could imagine.
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by Silvia Moreno-GarciaThe Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather's house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather's room. She opens it -- and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother.
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by Julie Murphy
With a shiny new design degree but no job in sight, Cindy moves back in with her stepmother, Erica Tremaine, the executive producer of the world's biggest dating reality show. When a contestant on Before Midnight bows out at the last minute, Cindy is thrust into the spotlight. Showcasing her killer shoe collection on network TV seems like a great way to jump-start her career. And, while she's at it, why not go on a few lavish dates with an eligible suitor?
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by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Chef Evie Buchanan is perched on the edge of stardom. But at an industry party, a fall lands Evie in the hospital -- with no memory of who she is, until former rodeo champion Zach Pleasant walks into her hospital room, and she realizes his handsome face has been haunting her dreams ... (book 1 of the "Cowboys of California" series.
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by Alyssa Wees
A haunting, lyrical fantasy set in 1930s Chicago. A talented ballerina finds herself torn between her dreams and her desires when she's pursued by a secretive patron who may be more than he seems.
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by Marian WomackHelena Walton-Cisneros, known for her ability to find the lost and the displaced, is hired by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens. But the Fens are an age-old land, where folk tales and dark magic still linger.
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Maybe this list isn't your jam. Check out the RPL Readers page for more lists. Or, if you'd prefer a hand-crafted, bespoke book suggestion list, try The Bookologist service. You need an RPL Library card to access. Don't have one? Find out how to get one here.
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