What if Cinderella turned out to be a vapid, selfish chit who relied solely on her looks? And who divorced Prince Charming the minute that was possible? What if Snow White’s prince was really a necrophiliac who was none too happy when the poisoned apple he gave her put her into a coma rather than killing her? I mean, who really kisses a gal in a coffin anyway? Given these scenarios you would have taken a fork in the Fairy Tale Trail – straight to Ms. Grayson’s new romance novel!

Prince Charming is a divorced, middle aged man who just wants to spend time with his daughters and spend the rest of his free time with his nose stuck in a novel. He is excited that the small bookstore he runs out of his father’s castle allows him to attend book fairs with a book seller’s pass, giving him access to all sorts of free books and all kinds of vendors. He is less excited when he sees P.E.T.A. protesting the fair he is attending. And he is stunned when he realizes that the acronym actually stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Archetypes and that the the protest is led by none other than Snow White’s “evil” stepmother.

The Brother’s Grimm were the greatest criminals to ever enter her realm in Mellie’s mind. Not only did they not get her own story right, they ruined the stories of countless others and always, always made women look bad in their fables. From the vapid heroines to the villainization of any woman who showed half a brain, they did a hatchet job on the female gender in their so called fairy tales. She and her protesters are out to show the world just how evil these anecdotes truly are.

When the two meet, sparks fly. They rapidly strike up a friendship. And Charming shows Mellie that writing, rather than protesting, might be the key to getting her point across. If evil bloodsucking vampires can remake their image through novels, surely stepmothers and other maligned archetypes can too. As they work out the plan to launch the book that will change the way the world sees the tale of Snow White forever, they grow slowly closer. But can he really be interested in a gal with a few extra pounds on her, a brain in her head and a few laugh lines showing around her eyes? And can she really want a man who (as Cindy was kind enough to tell him) was well past his prime?

Thus begins the fun retelling of several classic Grimm tales with some decidedly entertaining twists. What I really liked about this novel is that the protagonists are a touch older. Mellie has grown children – two sets in fact, hew own and her step children. Charming has young daughters but both are school age, and he is a handsome middle aged man with graying hair, not the hunka burning love he used to be. It was interesting to watch them juggle their lives to accommodate each other. Which was another appealing fact – they actually had lives. Friends, family commitments, and work all mean that they aren’t spending every minute lusting each other. That was refreshing – to see love played out as it happens in real life, with all the incumbent messes.

Both Mellie and Charming are well written characters. He, in many ways, represents your average midlife guy. He has issues with his own aging, made worse by the fact that his ex pointed the “problem” out to him on a regular basis. He can be clueless about how to deal with his children, although he loves them dearly. He is successful in his business but not overly so, and has paternal issues with a tyrant (in the literal sense) of a father. So – pretty average man of mid-years. But he is also above the average in terms of being compassionate, willing to listen and a rescuer of damsels in distress. Hero material indeed! The blend of ordinary and extraordinary was really well done, giving the character depth and familiarity but raising him above the mundane.

Mellie is intelligent, vibrant, loyal, warm-heated and passionate. That passion can sometimes get her into trouble, but it also makes her entertaining and endearing. It was great to see the evil stepmother as a competent, caring person who was misunderstood by her brat of a teenage stepchild. Seen in that light it made sense that Snow was being hunted all over the kingdom – she was a teen runaway! And certainly most of us can understand why a teen girl might resent having a new mother thrust on her willy nilly. It made for a new and interesting take on the tale.

Speaking of which, this book does a great job of humanizing the Grimm characters, pulling them out of their archetypes, giving them depth and modernizing them. Many kudos to the author for her outstanding – and humorous – work in this area.

There were a few quibbles which kept the book from being a perfect, DIK style read. The first – and biggest – is that too much time is taken to explain the process of writing with the result that too little time is spent on the romance. Charming and Mellie are just getting started on their love story when we leave them. Another point of detraction was that much was made of what a loving parent Mellie was, but little was done to show us that. I would have liked to have seen some interaction with her own children, not just pithy advice to Charming in regards to his. Finally, there is a wholly unnecessary scene at the end regarding Cinderella. Yes, it underlined how much more worthy a companion Mellie was, but did we really need that? I certainly didn’t think so and I felt it once more took needed time away from the main couple’s relationship.

Those flaws certainly didn’t keep me from loving this work and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, entertaining and lighthearted romance.