Wickedly Charming

Chapter 1
Book Fair

The very words of the sign filled Mellie with loathing. Book Fair indeed. More like Book Unfair.
Every time people wrote something down, they got it wrong. She’d learned that in her exceptionally long life.

Not that she was old—not by any stretch. In fact, by the standards of her people, she was in early middle age. She’d been in early middle age, it seemed, for most of her adult life. Of course that wasn’t true. She’d only been in early middle age for her life in the public eye—two very different things.
And now she was paying for it.

She stood in a huge but nearly empty parking lot in the bright morning sun. It was going to be hot—California, too-dry-to-tolerate hot, fifty-bottles-of-Gatorade hot—but it wasn’t hot yet. Still, she hoped she had on enough sunscreen (even if it did make her smell like a weird, chemical coconut). She had her hands on her hips (which hadn’t expanded [much] since she was a beautiful young girl, who caught the eye of every man) as she surveyed the stunningly large building in front of her, with the banner strung across its multitude of doors.

The Largest Book Fair in the World!, the banner proclaimed in bright red letters. The largest book fair with the largest number of publishers, writers, readers and moguls—movie and gaming and every other type of mogul the entertainment industry had come up with.

It probably should be called Mogul Fair (Mogul Unfair?). But people were pitching books, not pitch­ing moguls (although someone probably should pitch moguls; it was her experience that anyone with a shred of power should be pitched across a room [or down a staircase] every now and then).

This season’s books, next season’s books, books for every race, creed, and constituency, large books, small books, and the all-important evergreen books which were not, as she once believed, books about evergreens, but books that never went out of style, like Little Women or anything by Jane Austen or, dammit, by that villain Hans Christian Andersen.

Not that Andersen started it all. He didn’t. It was those Grimm brothers, two better named individuals she had never met.

It didn’t matter that Mellie had set them straight. By then, their “tales” were already on the market, poison­ing the well, so to speak. (Or the apple. Those boys did love their poisons. It would have been so much bet­ter for all concerned if they had turned their attention to crime fiction. They could have invented the entire category. But noooo. They had to focus on what they called “fairies,” as misnamed as their little “tales.”)

She made herself breathe. Even alone with her own thoughts, she couldn’t help going on a bit of a rant about those creepy little men.

She made herself turn away from the gigantic build­ing and walk to the back of her minivan. With the push of a button, the hatchback unlocked (now that was magic) and she pulled the thing open.
Fifty signs and placards leaned haphazardly against each other. Last time, she’d only needed twenty. She hoped she would use all fifty this time.

She glanced at her watch. One hour until the Book Unfair opened.

Half an hour until her group showed up.

Mellie glared at the building again. Sometimes she thought of these things like a maze she needed to thread her way through. But this was a fortress, one she needed to conquer. All those entrances intimidated her. It was impossible to tell where she’d get the most media exposure. Certainly not at the front doors, with the handicapped ramp blocking access along one side.

Once someone else arrived to help her hand out the plac­ards, she could leave for a few minutes and reconnoiter.

She wanted the maximum amount of air time for the minimum amount of exposure. She’d learned long ago that if she gave the media too much time in the begin­ning, they’d distort everything she said.
Better to parcel out information bit by bit.

The Book Unfair was only her first salvo.

But she knew it would be the most important.

- -

He parked his silver Mercedes at the far end of the mas­sive parking lot. He did it not so that he wouldn’t be recognized—he wouldn’t be, anyway—but because he’d learned long ago that if he parked his Mercedes anywhere near the front, the car would either end up with door dings and key scratches, or would go missing.

He reached into the glove box and removed his prized purple bookseller’s badge. He had worked for two years to acquire that thing. Not that he minded. It still amazed him that no one at the palace had thought of opening a bookstore on the grounds.

He could still hear his father’s initial objection: We are not shopkeepers! He’d said it in that tone that meant shopkeepers were lower than scullery maids. In fact, shopkeepers had become his father’s favorite epithet in the past few decades, scullery maid being both politi­cally and familially incorrect.
It took some convincing—the resident scholars had to prove to his father’s satisfaction that true shopkeep­ers made a living at what they did, and in no way would a bookstore on the palace grounds provide anyone’s living—but the bookstore finally happened.

With it came a myriad of book catalogues and dis­counts and advance reading copies and a little bit of bookish swag.

He’d been in heaven. Particularly when he realized he could attend every single book fair in the Greater World and get free books.

Not that he couldn’t pay for his own books—he could, as well as books for each person in the entire Third Kingdom (which he did last year, to much com­plaint: it seemed everyone thought they would be tested on the contents of said gift books. Not everyone loved reading as much as he did, more’s the pity).

Books had been his retreat since boyhood. He loved hiding in imaginary worlds. Back then, books were harder to come by, often hidden in monasteries (and going to those had caused some consternation for his parents until they realized he was reading, not practic­ing for his future profession). Once the printing press caught on, he bought his own books—he now devoted the entire winter palace to his collection—but it still wasn’t enough.

If he could, he would read every single book ever written—or at least scan them, trying to get a sense
of them. Even with the unusually long life granted to peo­ple of the Third Kingdom, especially when compared with people in the Greater World (the world that had provided his Mercedes and this quite exciting book fair), he would never achieve it. There were simply too many existing books in too many languages, with too many more being written all the time.

He felt overwhelmed when he thought of all the books he hadn’t read, all the books he wanted to read, and all the books he would want to read. Not to mention all the books that he hadn’t heard of.

Those dismayed him the most.

Hence, the book fair.

He was told to come early. There was a breakfast for booksellers—coffee and doughnuts, the website said, free of charge. He loved this idea of free as an enticement. He wondered if he could use it for anything back home.

The morning was clear, with the promise of great heat. A smog bank had started to form over Los Angeles, and he couldn’t see the ocean, although the brochures assured him it was somewhere nearby. The parking lot looked like a city all by itself. It went on for blocks, delineated only by signs that labeled the rows with double letters.

The only other car in this part of the lot wasn’t a car at all but one of those minivans built so that families could take their possessions and their entertainment systems with them.

Here’s a real charmer that puts a thoroughly modern spin on what might have happened if Prince Charming was divorced from the not-so-pure-as-the-driven-snow Ella (aka Cinderella) after she pointed out that he’s suddenly not so charming any more. Charming, or, Dave Encanto, the name he prefers to go by these days, moves out of their perfect fairy tale Kingdom and to the human realm where he spends his days searching out books to bring back for his beloved bookstore - and raising his daughters.

Meanwhile, Snow White’s wicked stepmother (yes that one) is having a mid-life crisis of her own. She’s more than a little annoyed over her own bad rep. Is it Mellie’s fault that those darned Grimm brothers grossly misrepresented her in their silly books? Determined to redeem her evil reputation, she heads to the Book Fair with her banner to promote People for the Ethical Treatment of Archetypes.

Where she bumps into Charming, errr, rather Dave. He might be a little paunchy, have a bald spot, and be something of a nerd, and she might not be as svelte as she once was, but their attraction is immediate and mutual. Can these middle-aged fairy tale characters find the happiness that’s always eluded them? Or will Charming’s wary daughters, not to mention the rest of the fairy tale community, poo poo their happily ever after before Dave and Mellie even have a chance to give true love a try?

Grayson definitely puts a fun, new twist on fairy tales and many of the beloved characters we grew up with. Mellie and Dave’s romance is sweet and believable, despite Mellie’s sometimes overblown angst and bitterness. There are plenty of fairy tale digs that are laugh out loud hilarious. Wickedly Charming is also a poignant and very human story about two middle aged people who stumble across love when they least expect it.

Grayson, better known to SF fans as Kristine Kathryn Rusch, returns to fairy-tale romance with this tale of a Prince Charming who loves books, and would prefer not to be so magically charming, or a prince, and the less said about his relationship with his ex, Ella (Cinderella), the better. He takes refuge in the Greater World as Dave Encanto, bookseller, but at the huge California Book Fair he runs into Mellie, Snow White’s ‘‘wicked’’ stepmother. Mellie never deserved the treatment she got from the Grimms, much less Disney, so she started PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Archetypes (she had the acronym first and doesn’t seem to care about any confusion) – and she’s picketing the book fair with other fairy-tale refugees. Not surprisingly, she hasn’t had a lot of luck with her approach. Dave suggests she write a book instead (á là Wicked) and offers to help. An amusingly awkward relationship builds while they stumble through the writing and publishing process. Dave and Mellie are both much older than they look, but still manage to have endearingly clueless moments about relationships, the Greater World, publishing, and publicity. Their sweetly tentative romance takes a definite back seat to the lightly satiric look at fairy tales and publishing, a fun romp for bookloving fans of fractured fairy tales.

When the book starts we do not know that Lucy is a succubus. Nope she owns a beauty salon. She is single, she has good friends and one of them has just brought a strange box to her. Let the fun begin. This is where the demons step in and they are not your usual kind of demons. There are the wicked evil ones and then there are those blessed by angels and they actually fight for good. That was different.

Lucy was fun and she could hold her own, quite the tongue on her. Her two employees are fun, cheeky devils. Her best friend is interesting (and getting the next book), the chimp that shows up was fun (yes I said chimp, it was an imp as a chimp). And I am not forgetting the hero, Rafe, a demon sent to get the box back. He is one of the good guys and he is slowly falling for her. The guy has some issues, mostly since he wants to save her sister and since he does not want to get involved with anyone. There you have it, a great cast of characters.

The story is about the chest since the bad guys want it, but it is also about Lucy finding out what she truly is (while having a hot fling with a handsome demon).

But the thing I liked best (well not counting the fun characters) was the humour in the book. Even if it looked really bad Lucy still had funny remarks. Perhaps a survival instinct but it was fun.

Conclusion:
This was a light paranormal with humour sprinkled on top. It was a quick read.


The book opens up with Prince Charming, Charming for short, going to a book expo so that he can get the latest and greatest for his bookstore. The only thing is that his bookstore is in the Third Kingdom, which is back in what could be considered fairytale land. In the parking lot, he will see Mellie for the first time. Mellie is the wicked/evil stepmother to Snow White. Back in the Third Kingdom she just happens to be there fighting for her cause. The Evil Stepmother wants people to stop reading and believing in fairy tales. These tales tell lies about stepmothers and Mellie’s message is that not all of them are evil.

The beginning of this book is what really drew me into the story line. I loved the mix between the Third Kingdom and what fairy tale people call the Greater World, which is Earth. I thought the spin on both Prince Charming and the Evil Stepmother was cute and I was excited to see where the story was going to go. Plus, Prince Charming is a book nerd, like the rest of us, so hearing him explain his passion for books was amazing. I feel that any reader will connect with Prince Charming right away because, well, he is charming and he does have a passion and love of all things bookish. After this initial great start, the story started to go downhill for me though, as problems and a whole lot of doubt kept our leading characters apart longer than necessary.

Overall, I really did love the twist on these two very different characters. Who would ever think that the hero of the story is going to fall for the evil stepmother? As I said, the beginning drew me in and the storyline was ultimately good and creative but the romance just never developed for me. It wasn’t until the end of the book that the two main characters stopped doubting themselves long enough to actually try being with each other and by then I felt it was too late. I would have liked to see more romantic interest earlier on and a little more steam than the book had. It is a story about finding love again but I felt it just took too long to get there.

I would give this story 4 hearts for a good storyline but I personally needed more in the romance department.


You’ve never read a happily ever after about a Prince Charming falling for an evil stepmother, well not until now anyway.

Kristine Grayson has done the unthinkable; split up one of the most well known fairy tale couples and had them fall in love with other people, aptly titling the book Wickedly Charming. As partial as I am to the fairy tale movies I grew up watching, that undoubtedly turned me into a lifelong Disney fanatic, I absolutely, and surprisingly, loved this romance fiction masterpiece. Kristine Grayson goes into realms no other author would dare to touch, not even with a 10-foot fairy godmother wand. A risk taking author, Kristine Grayson tells stories from a whole new point of view, and the best part is that she does it exceedingly well.

This is no Fairy Tale Romance, Wickedly Charming is Better

Wickedly Charming tells the tale of Prince Charming, you know; the one who married Cinderella, and Snow White’s ’evil’ stepmother, but we won’t call her evil in this review, because she is anything but. Prince Charming, or Dave as he likes to be called, is exactly how we don’t see him in the fairytale Disney made popular. A book nerd who wears glasses, has graying hair that’s thinning out, a gold-digging ex-wife who thinks he is beyond useless and two daughters that he loves more than anything, he doesn’t quite sound like the guy who loves at first sight in a ballroom.

One of the best and most intriguing reasons I like this book is the humanization of the characters, the faults they are given, rather than leaving them the perfect fairytale heroes and heroines. Dave seeks to be, and succeeds at being the average guy, albeit a little more charming. The female lead; Snow White’s stepmother Mellie, is beyond fed up with the stereotype given to her. She is not evil, far from it, and is as bitter as one can get over the matter. A twice-divorced mother of more than one child, Mellie can relate to stepmothers around the world. These two fairy tale characters don’t believe in fairy tale happily ever after, which makes them perfect for each other.

Wickedly Charming; A Stepmother and a Charming’s Point of View

This book exceeded my expectations in more ways than one. Halfway through I couldn’t guarantee I wasn’t reading the actual book Mellie writes in her book, within the book, which may sound confusing now, but won’t be when you read it. The characters were so real, even the fairies, giants, royal Charming family, snotty Cinderella, loving stepmothers and infamous Bluebeard, that the characters actually jumped right from the page to my mind’s eye. They were believable; even in their fantastical realms. And relatable, which is quite a feat, considering it isn’t easy to relate to fairy tale characters.

It is a mark of a brilliant author to leave readers wanting more, and keeping them hesitant to turn the page for fear of the book ending. Kristine Grayson is one such author. Even with the unreal, yet believable, fairytale creatures, the book is so riveting, the world the author creates is so commanding, that you won’t want to leave it. Having asked Kristine Grayson, in an email interview on May 18, about where she is heading in the future, it was exciting to learn about more fairy tale upheavals in her next few books. Cinderella isn’t the only princess getting a divorce; Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip will be joining her in Splitsville.

Now that poolside reads are becoming entertaining prospects with the onslaught of summer sun, I would highly recommend Wickedly Charming. It is fun and fluffy enough for a lounging vacation, yet deals with deeper issues at the same time. What better way to begin a summer vay-cay than renewing friendships with childhood fairy tales through the eyes of an adult?


Thoughts:

Kristine Grayson is a pseudonym for acclaimed author Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Wickedly Charming is the story of fairy-tale characters Prince Charming, Dave and Snow White’s wicked step-mother, Mellie. This modern variation on a fairy-tale theme will give readers a totally different idea of what goes on when happily-ever-after doesn’t turn out quite so happy. It gives a inside glimpse into the publishing world that readers will really enjoy. Filled with wit and satire this is a must read for fairy-tale fans and romance readers alike.

Prince Charming and Cinderella have had their differences since the ball and now their relationship has ended in divorce. Charming is left reeling from the betrayal and trying to start his life over as a bookstore owner and single father. Snow White’s wicked Stepmother isn’t quite as wicked as the Brothers Grimm led everyone to believe. Now she is fighting to get her story heard. To show the world that all stepmothers aren’t evil and that they’ve been given a bad rap. When the two meet at an LA book fair, they find they have a lot in common including a strong attraction. When Charming offers to ghost write a book that will set the story straight about Snow White and her step mother, there is magic in the air. Can they overcome their tragic romantic pasts and forge a future together?

I love a good fairy-tale and though this one was a bit of a change from the Brothers Grimm, it certainly put a different slant on happily-ever-after. When I was growing up fairy-tales were one of my main staples to read. I got hooked in second grade and just never outgrew the lure of magic and romance that fairy-tales possessed. When I got the opportunity to review Kristine Grayson’s modern version of the fairy tale I was really excited. Updated versions, variations and fairy-tale change ups are becoming very popular and I find that they still carry that same sense of mystery and magic for me.

Grayson’s story gives readers a Prince Charming that is a little older, a little wiser, and a lot more bookish than the original. I liked the fact that the author still gave him that aura of gallantry and chivalry. Charming may be going by the name Dave now, but he still gives off impression of power and elegance. I also enjoyed the fact that he was a single father. In my mind single parents are the real heroes in today’s society and I liked that the author showed that in this book. His daughters were a joy to read as well. Turning the tables and making Cinderella the villain in this one was genius in my opinion.

Mellie, the misunderstood stepmother is really the highlight of this character driven novel. She is portrayed much like the evil stepmother herself in the beginning, bitter, disillusioned and down right hard to get along with, but as the story goes on readers will pick up on the fact that Mellie is just trying to hide her own vulnerability. She’s scared not only of getting older, but of being alone. She isn’t prepared for the feeling she starts to have for Charming and his daughters. There is always the possibility that things might turn out just as bad with these girls as it did with Snow White. I loved the whole idea of the evil stepmother becoming reformed so to speak, changing her spots, or just growing up a bit. She learns a lot throughout this book and readers will love her journey and her progression.

Grayson does a wonderful job of taking beloved fairy-tale characters and transforming them into something different but equally as entertaining to read about. I loved the characters and felt that the story was very well thought out. I liked the inside glimpse into the publishing industry as well, book lovers and writers will be very interested in this aspect of the book. I had a bit of a hard time getting started with this one, because I wasn’t used to the style, there was a lot of parenthesis and asides and it was a bit disconcerting, but once I started to get into the story, this kind of subsided and it was easier to understand. Overall I really enjoyed it.

I recommend this one to fairy tale fans and romance readers. It has the aura of magic and the steam that both kinds of readers enjoy. If you are looking for something new and refreshing, mixed with something old and familiar this one is for you!

Wickedly Charming is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I’m giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!



Kristine Grayson certainly created one of the most unique, entertaining, and romantic books I have ever had the good fortune to read. Wickedly Charming’s creative plot and outlandish characters keep you on the edge of your seat as you turn page after page until you realize you have reached the end. The plot remains strong throughout the book and the characters just seem to come to life on the pages.
It is not your general run of the mill book – it is intricate but just so cute and funny. Don’t get me wrong – it is an enjoyable and easy read but when it ends you just can not believe how ingenious Ms. Grayson is as an author. I could not put Wicked Charming down and certainly will look forward to other books by Ms. Grayson in the future.

Rated 5 Delightful Divas and a Recommended Read by Dharma!



This novel has one of the more interesting premises I’ve seen in a long time: how fairy tales got it all wrong. Grayson does a wonderful job of ripping up fairy tale stereotypes and stomping on them a few times for good measure. The evil stepmother? Beautiful and misunderstood. Prince Charming? Slightly paunchy…but still charming. Snow White? Malicious and vindictive. Cinderella? Borderline psychotic. Which I really liked!

Both of the main characters in Wickedly Charming are “middle aged,” even though they’re both stunners of the highest order. Prince Charming and Mellie have both had their share of shattered dreams and have given up on ever finding happiness with another person. Until they meet each other at a book fair, of course (he’s there to grab as many books as he can for his bookstore, and she’s there protesting the unfairness of fairy tales).

I had a difficult time getting into this story at first. It was hard for me to accept these characters as flawed, while so much is made about their beauty. The beginning seems to go in circles a fair bit of the time as well. Then, almost mid-way through the book, the main characters become involved in a three person barb-tossing contest in a coffee shop, complete with funny commentary from the other patrons, and suddenly the novel came alive. By then, the blending of the two worlds in the story was comfortable and the characters were quickly earning my support.

Grayson has a lot of unconventional things going on in Wickedly Charming, some of which worked, and others that didn’t. Occasionally there were almost too many competing conflicts at once, but everything gets sorted out in the end of the story. Once the novel started to move at a stronger pace, I enjoyed it a great deal, including the “maybe ever after” ending.

Wickedly Charming is a fun, highly imaginative story that sets out to turn conventional fairy tales on end and does so very well. Although it gets off to a slow start, a little patience will be well rewarded as these characters defy every stereotype and finally find some happiness of their own.

My Rating:
3.5 stars: Liked it a lot – recommend (B+)



What happens when the fairy tale doesn’t end “Happily Ever After”? Cinderalla turns out to be a spoiled narcissistic brat who abandons her adolescent daughters. The Evil-Step-Mother is lying low, trying to rebuild her tarnished reputation. Prince Charming is middle-aged, divorced and developing a paunch. But he is still able to turn on the charm as he discovers that Evil isn’t so bad after all.

I really enjoyed this very cute romantic twist on the classic fairy tale. Cleverly conceived, it was as charming as the prince, and made me smile.



Appealing, vulnerable characters
Who doesn’t love a good fairy tale? I’m convinced that my love of romance in general dates back to the stack of well-thumbed fairy tale books of my childhood — Grimms, Anderson, and their descendants and variants.

I must say I struggled a little bit with this book in the beginning. I don’t think I’ve ever run into so many parentheticals and nested parentheticals in so few pages before:


It was going to be hot— California, too-dry-to-tolerate, fifty-bottles-of-Gatorade hot— but it wasn’t hot yet. Still, she hoped she had on enough sunscreen (even if it did make her smell like a weird chemical coconut). She had her hands on her hips (which hadn’t expanded [much] since she was a beautiful young girl, who caught the eye of every man) as she surveyed the stunningly large building in front of her...

The first couple of chapters are riddled with paragraphs like this, in both the heroine and the hero’s viewpoint. My guess is that this sort of stylistic choice was employed to add the lighthearted, gossipy, "wacky" voice, in kind of a satiric version of an omniscient narrator, or a parent-to-child effect as though the story was being read aloud. I found it a little overdone/awkward, but it eased up relatively quickly.

Prince Charming
While this is really a story about the heroine, I found the hero’s arc to be very appealing. He starts out feeling defeated and past his prime, divorced and powerless. At times, this characterization even teeters toward unattractive, but his character progression saves him. In letting the people he loves shine on their own, this prince discovers true power, true magic. Charming is one of the better-drawn beta heroes I’ve seen, re-imagining his strength from the shallow "sweep you off your feet and into the sunset" style hero to the kind of man who provides a bedrock and battles villains, but stays out of the spotlight most of the time.

StepHeroine
Stepmothers get a bad rap in fairytales, let’s face it. Really, "step-mother" is shorthand for "amoral greedy woman who comes to a bad end." In this day and age of mixed families, it’s time for an update.

I once read about a stepmother who listened to her stepchild relate a fond memory of something she’d shared with her mother. The child misremembered; it was something that had happened with the stepmom. But this particular biological mom was not the fairy-tale, loving, sadly deceased parent; she was alive and unwell and was not very capable of creating fond memories. My friend, the stepmother, in one of the more selfless gestures I’ve ever heard of, said nothing, allowing the child to re-imagine that lovely memory with a woman who really, really didn’t deserve it... because it made the child happy.

All this is by way of saying even the best stepmoms— you know, the ones who don’t lead the kids out into the woods and dump them, or make them pick cinders out of the fireplace ashes— have it tough. Grayson imagines a dark, intriguing back story for this particular stepmother— sometimes I was more interested in the back story than the story-story.

The Story-Story
Frankly I’m always a little leery of a story where the main character is an author; frequently it feels a little too self-referential. On the one hand, I can see how "telling her story" and the analog to the problematic (to the heroine) fairy tale genre makes it an obvious choice. On the other, it’s... a little obvious. And a little self-referential.

And if you’re tired of bitter unsatisfied women being cast as the villain, don’t look to this book for any major changes. It seems that yesterday’s Princess is today’s Witch, with Charming’s ex cast as the villain of the piece.

I thought the most interesting piece of the plot was the glimpse we got of the darker magics of the Kingdoms, but that element was a bit player at best. Still, it served to play up Charming’s brains and protectiveness, which helped balance his slightly overdone "geek" element, and there’s a seed or two that might come back in other books in Grayson’s fairy tale universe.

Bottom Line
Overall I enjoyed this character-driven story, mostly because it takes me back to my childhood enjoyment of fairy tales. It’s a story about second chances, and the message is a real one: you have to work for your happily-ever-after. I thought it was uneven in places and sometimes felt like it was trying too hard; but it soon hit its stride and pulled together a readable reminisce with characters you’ll root for.



Grade: B
Sensuality: Warm



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 villianization 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.



Wickedly Charming offers a new twist on historical fantasy. Set in the present day, Charming and Mellie are torn between their contemporary lives and the world they left behind, hundreds of years in the past. Through various portals, fairy tale characters are able to travel back and forth between the mythical Kingdom and the present day Greater World.

Charming doesn’t really go by Charming. Not now. In modern Los Angeles, he’s known as bookseller Dave Econto. He rarely returns back to the fairy tale world of the Third Kingdon, not since Ella (aka CinderElla) divorced him, taking their two daughters with her.

Mellie is angry and for good reason. Her step-daughter, a Miss White, told the world that Mellie tried to murder her. And now Mellie is trying to overcome the untrue accusations, by organizing the activist group, PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Archetypes. When Mellie bumps into Dave at an LA bookfair, sparks fly. Literally. The recognize each other from their past lives in the Kingdom world.
As Charming figures out “...you and I met at a party ... a century or two ago when someone decided we should clear up the Charming mess and the stepmother gossip and see if we could take care of those Brothers Grimm.”

First, the two modern day fairy tale misfits have to overcome some stereotypes of their own. She knows he is one of family of Charming’s. He knows she is a Stepmother. They dance around their attraction to each other until Charming’s jealousy of one of Mellie’s supposed dates, Bourke, causes a humorous scene in an L.A. coffeeshop.

“ ‘I think you should stop talking now,’ Mellie said to Bourke.
Charming recognized that tone. It was a warning tone, one that the magical used in the Kingdoms as fair notice that magic was about to occur.
‘Don’t Mellie,’ Charming said softly.
She ignored him.
‘You think I should stop talking, do you, your highness?’ Bourke asked.
It took Charming a second to realize that Bourke was using the phrase sarcastically.”

As the two forge a rocky friendship, Charming tries to help Mellie tell her side of the story by offering to be her ghostwriter. In the meantime, Ella gives him full custody of their two daughters, and Charming finds himself with his hands full a single father. He must protect his girls from school bullies and try to explain why their mother has disappeared.

Mellie is reluctant to help, given her bad standing as a stepmother already. Slowly, she begins to make overtures to Charming’s daughters, and a tenuous relationship between the three women in Charming’s life begins to develop. Soon, Charming and Mellie can no longer deny their wickedly magical attraction to each other.

A fun and delightful story, read Wickedly Charming and find out what really happens to “happily ever after!”

Wickedly Charming will be published by Sourcebooks in April 2011.

I found this book charming and sweet. It was fun to read, and I liked her takes on fairytales and what isn’t always told in them.

It takes place in our world, but what we do not know is that there are more magical kingdoms in another dimension of some sort. Prince Charming left his kingdom, because what else was there to do than to wait for his dad to die. These "fairy-tale" characters also live for a long time. He went through a painful divorce with his Ella, it was not a match made in heaven. Poor Charming is sure charming but he is also a nerd that loves books (oh he won my heart at once there!), his hair is not as thick as it used to be, and as Ella pointed out his weight is no longer perfect. So he is a normal man, just still very charming, and I liked him. Then we have the wicked stepmother, yes Snow White’s stepmum, though she is not as evil as those wicked Grim brothers made her out to be. There is another story there, and I did feel sorry for her and the bad rep she got. Sure she was a bit pushy at first, but she calmed down and I liked her. They were just two people with painful pasts and they wanted more to life.

After having finished this book I did hope that Grayson will go back to this world and write about more characters. What I definitely liked was when they talked about the Snow White story, because it sure is icky that the prince wanted a dead woman, what did he actually want to do to her? Oh the story will tell you, the real story. Amusing and disturbing. A great spin to stories we all know.

Conclusion:
It was an amusing story to read. Sure they were slow to fall in love, but who could blame them. But it was there from page 1 so I just had to wait for that HEA, a more realistic HEA than the fairy-tale ones they knew by heart. I would read more by this author. At the end I was charmed, wickedly charmed.

Rating:
Quick read

Cover:
It does look good, but either I wanna see his face or cut him out..and is that one of Chris’ guys?



Prince Charming and Cinderella are divorced with the former owning and running a bookstore under the name of Dave Encanto. As a single dad he raises their two offspring far from the fairy tale happily ever after life of a royal in the Third Kingdom as the people blamed him for the split with Ella.

Also in exile from the Third Kingdom is Mellie who is upset with being stereotyped as evil because she happens to be a stepmother whose life was ruined by rumors of her abusing her stepdaughter Snow White. Angry with the injustice caused by those mean spirited Grimm brothers for her and her cohorts, she goes to a book fair to protest the lying portrayal of her and other stepmothers as malicious malevolent; she wants her Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight moment as the vampires have recently been redeemed. Mellie and Charming (along with his distrusting daughters) meet; he offers to help her write the true story of her and Snow White. Neither expected an attraction to spring up between them.

This is an amusing satirical take on images, public spins, and the publishing industry as Kristine Grayson provides a charming “fractured fairy tale” that the late Jay Ward would have enjoyed. Filled with jocularity, a clever romance, and an Imp of a child (and her sister) fearing the evil stepmother, fans will enjoy what happens following the happily ever after classic fairy tales; in this addition it does not guarantee a happy ending.



Rarely do I find a novel that I think is just so unique that I wonder why I didn’t think of it myself. This is that book.

This is a book about books. It’s seen through the eyes of a book lover and a first time writer (the character not the author) which gives it a sweetness you almost never see. From the moment the two leads meet in an awkward hallway to the scene where they are in coffee shop battling side by side, you know their chemistry works on many levels.

We meet Mellie, in the middle of a protest for her group PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Archetypes- a woman who has been given a bad rap in her home world and is just trying to help those who are part of the Fairy Tale worlds. She is all business, and other than having a very long life span, no longer has any magic.

Already twice widowed, she’s not looking for love or marriage or any of the trapping that come along with it. The only problem is, so far no one is taking her seriously as she tries to explain that the books are lies and step-mothers are not evil.

Charming, who is now calling himself Dave, does not see himself as the hero his stories paint him to be. He views himself as a divorced dad of two, who just wants to run a book store. Which is why he does not understand Mellie’s protest or current desire to ban a large chunk of books. He manages to convince Mellie that her best way of getting people to listen is to use the media/medium to her advantage by writing a book on the very topic.

Both characters are given very human desires, insecurities, talents and issues that help to bind them to the real world, while still holding them in a fairy tale setting.

I loved the idea that both were attracted to the other for centuries (having meet years before at events) but are both too shy to react on it at first. Each having that give and take of feeling like they are the only one wanting the relationship adds major weight to their pairing. I loved how the author examined their personal insecurities while pointing out that they were not teenagers, but that love/lust at any age can cause misunderstandings.

This does more then just deliver a great budding romance, it puts some much needed value on not just step-moms, but older women. It also firmly establishes that women’s fiction isn’t just for women. One of the sub-plots is that Charming, is an advocate for the genre. The character of his oldest daughter also reinforces this idea later on when she makes a comment about how that’s her dad’s job, to stand up for damsels in distress.

With the hundreds of fairy tales out there, the choice of using Snow White and Cinderella as the backgrounds, was the author’s ace. I giggled out loud at the idea of Cinderella (Ella in the book) being a gold digger of sorts. As well as the idea that Snow White was not as pure as she’s been white washed to be (pardon the pun)

The author manages to bring you along two very different paths that somehow merger perfectly into one very emotional and believable plot. (Snow White’s husband being a creepy Necrophiliac really makes you rethink that fairy tale’s ending)

I’m told this is the first book in a Trilogy and I can only say, more more more!

Divorced and disillusioned by love, Prince Charming (Cinderella’s, in this case) pursues his passion for books and opens a bookstore in the Greater World. However, when he meets Snow White’s gorgeous stepmother, Melvina, at a book fair where she is protesting the way stepmothers and others are portrayed in fairy tales, both their lives take a surprising turn. He sets out to show Mellie the “Charming way” to get her point across in this fanciful tale with a serious core. VERDICT Unusual, whimsical, and wickedly clever, this funny romp takes a decidedly offbeat look at fairy tales from the characters’ points of view, with delightful, magical results. Grayson (Totally Spellbound) lives in Oregon.



Reality and fairy tales collide in this altogether delightful story. Prince Charming, now divorced from Cinderella, has happily shed his storybook image for a life of running a bookstore and raising his two daughters. Mellie, on the other hand, can’t get over being forever labeled as Evil. When she meets Charming at a book fair while protesting with People for the Ethical Treatment of Archetypes, the attraction is immediate and mutual, but first they must overcome Mellie’s hatred of books and Charming’s daughters’ wariness ("Dad, she’s the evil stepmother"). While a bit confusing at first, the story eventually flows and becomes a quick read, with engaging side characters and a sweet romance. Book lovers will be thrilled by the inside look at the publishing world, while fairy tale fans will love the in-jokes.

Format: Paperback

Dimensions
Length: 6.875 in
Width: 4.1875 in
Weight: 6.40 oz
Page Count: 384 pages