Stevie‘s review of Spinning Tales by Brey Willows
Lesbian Fantasy Romance published by Bold Strokes Books 12 Mar 19
I’m a great fan of fairy tale retellings and reimaginings, as well as always being keen to learn new traditional stories and fables. Having enjoyed the Afterlife, Inc series, I was keen to see how Brey Willows would handle a very different type of mythology. And she certainly delivered this time. New York accountant Maggie McShay enlivens her relatively unexciting life by reading the personal ads and picturing the sort of people who place and answer them, until one day she sees one that she can’t resist replying to herself: a job opportunity for someone to take care of a fairy tale cottage for a year. But neither the ad, the cottage, nor Maggie’s newly taken-in cat, are quite what they seem at first glance.
For a start, the cottage is located on top of a high-rise building, and the cottage keeper’s job entails ensuring that nothing from the world of fairy tales escapes through the cottage into our world – oh, and anything that’s already here needs to be sent back, one way or another. Meanwhile, the cat is a shape-shifter, sent to aid Maggie in her new jobs, firstly as cottage keeper, then later as the last of the tale spinners: people entrusted with ensuring that fairy tales run according to their correct plans. She’s going to need all the help she can get. Some of the fairy tale villains have grown bored with their roles and have been creating chaos in both worlds as they attempt to wrest control of their own and others’ tales and extort money from fairy tale folk who want to go about their lives as always, as well as from those who long for something different.
Fortunately, others are waiting to help Maggie along her path, including Kody Wilk, a shepherd – whose job is to assist the tale spinner – and various other good guys who have been loitering around New York waiting for Maggie to discover her destiny. There’s a mysterious book located in the cottage and various other magical items waiting to be discovered and for Maggie to put to good use as she seeks out the bad guys and attempts to return them to their correct places in the stories. It’s not all straightforward, of course. Some of the villains just want to expand their horizons, and at times it’s easy for Maggie and for us readers to sympathise with their wishes. Fortunately, one of the tale spinner’s talents is to rewrite the stories in ways that preserve their basic morality, even if some of the players in them are lost or changed.
There’s still a big bad to be defeated, though. At least one of the villains has definite ambitions to rule over all the others, and Maggie and Kody need to stop them before the women can achieve a happy ever after of their own.
I loved all the thought and imagination that went into creating the characters and worlds of this book. Everything fitted neatly into place as secrets were revealed, and pretty well everyone gets what they deserve, in true fairy tale fashion. And I did like the Big Bad Wolf. I have one other book by the author waiting to be read, and then I’m looking forward to learning what adventures she might be taking us on in the future.
Grade: A
Summary:
Maggie McShay wants a little magic in her life. Something more than the drab existence of going to work and coming home to a cat that barely tolerates her.
When she spontaneously replies to a want ad asking for someone to take care of a fairy tale cottage, it turns out magic wasn’t as far away as she thought. Maggie discovers she wasn’t who she thought she was either. Recalcitrant fairy tale shepherd and ladies’ woman Kody Wilk shows Maggie a world she knew nothing about…a world they need to save before the villains of the world’s fairy tales take over New York City.
It’s up to Maggie, her grumpy, shape-shifting cat, a dwarf hell-bent on finding romance, and Kody to set the fairy tale world to rights. The big bad wolf has nothing on Maggie McShay.
Read an excerpt.
