I love fairytale-based books.
Of course, the more effort gone to to disguise that it is a fairytale, the better, and it's also better if magic is kept ... out of it, unless it's dealt with well.

(Anyone read "East"? - cross between 'beauty and the beast' and something else... set in the 1500s, but it's a fantasy... and "Nine Coaches Waiting" is a more historical romance, though I believe it was meant to be a thriller when it was written fifty years ago...)

I was wondering if anyone had similar books they could recommend for me. I'm not looking for romance, nor books where that is the central tension, but books that either have fairytale parallels, or some "happily ever after" quality. I'm not really sure... yeah, can anyone help me there? Or just decent historical romance or something... I'm in search of light reading, and thought perhaps I should take a break from mid-1900s murder mysteries...

Hope I made sense, and thanks.

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Em.. for books based on fairy tales

You could try the Egerton Hall Trilogy by Adele Geras. There's 3 of them and they are based on 3 fairys tales. But they are stories of girls in their last year at a boarding school. I liked them, in fact I'd enjoyed all the books I've read by her.

Another series of books you might like are the Mennyms books by Sylvia Waugh. These are about a family of rag dolls which are alive. It might sound childish but they aren't at all. It is about how they live and try to fit into the human world without anyone finding out what they are. There are also quite a lot of things that would happen in any family. The characters are very realistic.

For Historical books I like Philippa Gregory's ones though avoid Wide Acre. Her best ones are The Other Boyln Girl and the Queen's Fool.

For reasonably light enjoyable reading I'd recomend The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay about a boy who wants to become a boxing champion in Africa. It's a bit grim at the start but soon gets better.

That's all I can think of at the moment

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Tithe by Holly Black, it is a fantastic book. A faerytale with a different edge to it.

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Thanks! I'll have to see if I can find those books at the library.
I've read the Egerton Hall Trilogy... I seem to remember I thought it was... um, interesting. I read it a while ago.

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I need some too, glad you posted this thread!
I read the Enchanted Forest Chronicles a while ago, they were really fun. (I think that's the name, it's been a while!)

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Have you ever read Ella Enchanted? It's a good twist on ye olde Cinderella tale!

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Yep, read Ella Enchanted! Made the mistake of reading the first few pages on Amazon, and then became really annoyed as it took me awhile to find a library with the book...

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Peter Pan!!....well, you've probably already read that....

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ooooh! good story, another is the Hero and the Crown and its sequel the Blue Sword, I don't rember who the author is but very good books.

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It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step Joni Erickson Tada

Today I just read a good book called The Goose Girl. Its based on a fairy tale. I really enjoyed it, it was clean and it had adventure, romance and just a good story.

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Shannon Hale? I've read that one as well! There's a sequel about Enna (Enna Burning), but my library doesn't have it! *pouts*

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