Interview with H. L. Burke

I caught up with fairytale author H. L. Burke for a special interview on Tell A Fairy Tale Day. Her latest fairy tale is titled Ashen, a Cinderella retelling. With regards to the inspiration of Ashen, did you start with the idea to write a fairy tale retelling of Cinderella? […]

Review of Ashen

Forget everything you know about fairytale retellings when you read Ashen by H. L. Burke. Most retellings either are a straight-up novel length version of a story you’ve read before, or they include some type of gimmick to make the narrative fresh. Reading these types of retellings are like playing […]

Review of A Dream of Ebony and White

For a long time, I’ve wanted to read a retelling by Melanie Cellier. She’s retold most of the popular fairy tales and a few of the ones rarely retold (e.g. “Swan Lake” and “The Princess and the Pea”). I wondered how she would approach a Snow White retelling after writing […]

The Snow White Read-Off

I was writing a blog about the traditional fairy tales and my novel Kingdom Come. At the end I recommended some fairy tale retellings of that particular story. I suddenly had an idea. What if I read them to compare their treatment of the Snow White character? Not rate the […]

Review of Blind Date with a Supervillain

H. L. Burke’s Blind Date with a Supervillain is a short spin-off series from her Superhero Rehabilitation Series. In this world, superheroes and supervillains face off around the world. Most superheroes are aligned with the Department of Super Enabled (DOSA) which regulates their actions.  Surge (or Shawn Park) is a […]

Review of The Guest List

Mysterious, isolated island? Check. List of victims…er, guests? Check. Atmospheric setting? Check. Victim? Uh…victim? Hello? The Guest List is a mystery without a victim through most of its story, and therein lies the genius. Lucy Foley has concocted a story where the reader has to make it through most of […]

Review of Monster

Karen Diem’s fourth superhero novel, Monster, starts out with an international incident of city-sized proportions. When our three favorite heroes: Arca, Muse, and Wingspan show up to take care of business, they are immediately upstaged. Much like the opening segment to an Indiana Jones adventure, this episode serves to introduce […]