Virginia Kantra resculpts The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into a non-magical but still fun to read story about one woman’s coming of age. This Dorothy’s story is a trip over the rainbow that takes the reader to unexpected places.

Dorothy – Dee – Gale and her younger sister, Toni, were raised mainly by a string of babysitters and then their strict Aunt Em while their mother, Judy, pursued her artistic passions. Dee, who has long yearned to escape her roots and live in her own sunlight, falls into a relationship with pompous Lit. professor, Grayson Kettering while attending grad school in Kansas. Because he’s a bestselling author, when his relationship with Dee goes south, she becomes grist for his creative mill. She is eventually transformed into the lightly fictionalized subject of his also-bestselling, optioned-for-a movie book, Destiny Gale.

Dee doesn’t wait out the ensuing publicity storm, which floods her inbox with looky-loos and obsessive creeps; she chooses to flee to Ireland, where she applies to participate in a one-and-done writing program at Trinity College in Dublin. She tells Toni she’s going to write her dissertation and then come home, but what Dee really wants is a fresh start.

Step by step, and to her astonishment, she soon finds community, camaraderie, and the affection of two very different men. There’s the lightheaded Sam Cleary, who has become a newsagent instead of pursuing college, and the icy and stiff-upper lipped (and stubborn) Tim Woodman. Reeti Kaur, who becomes Dee’s closest friend, wishes she had the ‘noive’ to tell her parents that she wants to be a teacher instead of going into the family business. And then there’s Dee’s two entirely different mentors in writing; the supportive department admin Glenda Norton and her graduate advisor, the seemingly-witchy Maeve Ward. Will Dee find a permanent home in Ireland, or is her trip, like Dorothy’s along the Yellow Brick Road, merely a brief interlude?

I liked much of Kantra’s retellings of Little Women, (Meg & Jo and Beth & Amy) and here she goes one step beyond that dual-part story by setting Dorothy on a completely different path than Baum does. The transposition of moral and good-hearted Dorothy into the imperfect world of academia works really well, and all of the people Dee meets along the way fascinate the reader.

The romantic triangle is very much typical stuff, and perhaps the book’s weakest point; but Dee’s relationship with Tim, in particular, is very well thought-out, captured, and written. Her friendships are great, but a real standout – unsurprising after reading her Little Women duology – is the sister relationship between Dee and Toni.

The peek into academic life in Ireland is excellent. It’s worth noting that the book deals heavily with misogyny and sexism, from academic racism to catcalling, and manages to do so with aplomb.

Everything about the book improves upon the work Kantra has already established. The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale will more than earn a spot on your keeper shelf.