With Disney + hitting platforms this month, I’ve battled major nostalgia and had to limit the amount of vault movies I’ve watched on the app just in this week. My childhood and adulthood loves all on one streaming app is maybe a little too much for my schedule to handle. With that in mind, I felt we would all benefit from reading some adult fairy tales of our own. I love a good fairy tale re-telling and these are some of my romance favorites.
Katy Regnery’s A Modern Fairytale series has everything your heart desires. Influenced by popular fairy tales, i love finding the easter eggs that connect them to their original influences. One of my favorites of the series is Don’t Speak, which combines two of my favorite troupes — secret baby and fairy tales.
(Blurb)
A fisherman’s daughter.
The governor’s son.
Two very different worlds.
In this modern retelling of The Little Mermaid, a fisherman’s daughter from an Outer Banks island untouched by time, meets the son of North Carolina’s governor at a fancy party where she’s working.
Laire, who wants so much more from life than her little island can offer, is swept away by wealthy, sophisticated Erik, who is, in turn, entranced by her naiveté and charm. The two spend a whirlwind summer together that ends on the knife-point of heartbreak and forces them to go their separate ways.
Years later, when fate leads them back to one another, they will discover the terrifying depth of the secrets they kept from each other, and learn that shattered hearts can only be healed by a love that willfully refuses to die.
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer because duh. This is series of books that must be read in order, new characters from various fairy tales are introduced as the story progresses. What makes this so unique and spellbinding is the character development and the time period. A favorite is that Cinder (Cinderella) is actually a cyborg. Sidenote: I also love Meyer’s Heartless, it’s jarring and shows a different perspective on a villian that has you rethinking everything you knew.
(Blurb)
A forbidden romance.
A deadly plague.
Earth’s fate hinges on one girl . . .
CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She’s reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen – and a dangerous temptation.
Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth’s future.
This is not the fairytale you remember. But it’s one you won’t forget.
Beauty and the Billionaire is a book I could not put down. This rom com has plenty of banter and sets up a series of hilarious friends and antics that will leave you hungry for more. In the first book (based on Beauty and the Beast) our heroine won’t take no for an answer and gets more than she bargained for.
(Blurb)
The Billionaire Boys Club is a secret society of six men who have vowed success—at any cost. Not all of them are old money, but all of them are incredibly wealthy. They’re just not always as successful when it comes to love…
Real-estate tycoon Hunter Buchanan has a dark past that’s left him scarred and living as a recluse on his family’s palatial estate. Hunter is ready to give up on love—until he spots an enigmatic red-haired beauty and comes up with an elaborate scheme to meet her.
Gretchen Petty is in need of a paycheck—and a change. So when a job opportunity in an upstate New York mansion pops up she accepts. And while she can overlook the oddities of her new job, she can’t ignore her new boss’s delectable body—or his barely leashed temper.
Hunter’s afraid his plan might be unraveling before it’s truly begun, but Gretchen is about to show him that life can be full of surprises…
If you like your fairy tales spicier than red hot pepper flakes then look no further. Robert delivers an erotic series that turns up the heat on some of your favorites. These stories are not for the weak and will definitely both delight and frighten you with couplings you never imagined and outcomes that are beyond the imagination.
(Blurb)
My Savior… Or My Ruin?
One night, and my entire life went up in flames. All because of him. Jafar. As my world burned down around me, he offered me a choice. Walk away with nothing but my freedom… Or rise to his challenge and win my fortune back.
I bargained.
I lost.
Now Jafar owns me, and even as my mind rails against his rules, my body loves the punishments he deals out when I break them.
But a gilded cage is still a prison, I’ll do anything to obtain my freedom.
Even betray the man I’m falling for.
What are some of your favorite fairy tale retellings? Please drop some suggestions!
We are so excited to bring you this exclusive excerpt from What the Mountains Remember…
We are so excited to bring you this exclusive excerpt from How to Plot a…
We are so excited to bring you this exclusive excerpt from The Catch by Amy…
We are so excited to bring you this exclusive exceprt from Meant for Me by…
[Note from Frolic: This article is sponsored by A Winter by the Sea by Julie…
We are so excited to bring you this exclusive excerpt from The Night Shift by…