The Once Upon a Time series is a series of books written by several authors published by Simon Pulse. There are currently 19 books published in the series, written by five different authors. The most prolific of these two writers are Cameron Dokey and Suzanne Weyn with nine and four books, respectively. There are also books in the series by Debbie Viguié with three titles, Nancy Holder with two, and Tracy Lynn with one.
I saw these books popping up on Goodreads a few years ago, and was immediately interested because, well, duh! The series is called Once Upon a Time, and it is a series of nothing but retold fairy tales. The fairy tales retold by these five authors cover a wide variety of fairy tales, from Sleeping Beauty (Beauty Sleep) to The White Bride and the Black Bride (The Rose Bride) as well as including a few legends such as Mulan (Wild Orchid) and Anastasia (The Diamond Secret) and there's even a retelling of an opera, The Magic Flute (Sunlight and Shadow) . I've read them all. And, as a general rule I've really enjoyed them.
Almost all of these 18 stories takes a fairy tale, generally one that is very well known, and retell it with a very unique, very original spin that makes the tale completely new. In The World Above (Jack and the Beanstalk), Jack has a sister. In Golden (Rapunzel) Rapunzel is bald. The Crimson Thread (Rumpelstiltskin) is set during the Industrial Revolution in America and the main characters are Irish immigrants, while Water Song (The Frog Prince) is set during WWI, with our frog a wounded American soldier overseas. Snow (Snow White) is a sci-fi tale with the evil queen using scientific experiments to try and freeze her youth and beauty. The Night Dance (The Twelve Dancing Princesses) combines the well known fairy tale with Arthurian Legends while Spirited (Beauty and the Beast) gives us a white 'beauty' captured by American Indians, who begins to fall for the tribe's Shaman despite the cultural barriers.
I will admit that these books are not the most complex stories to read. They are all fairly small, most likely averaging between 200-250 pages per book and they writing moves quickly. My favorite things about this series is that with the exception of only two novels (The Diamond Secret (Anastasia) which reads like a novelized version of the 'Fox' animation minus the glowing green demons and Belle (Beauty and the Beast) which is a simplified and lesser copy of Robin McKinley's Beauty) each of these stories brings something completely new to the tale they are trying to retell. The authors have made the story their own, and there is magic in this. Magic in this ability to craft a completely new story from one that has been told since there have been people to tell it.
That is why I continue to read this series. Because these five authors have managed to tell me a story I've never heard before.It doesn't matter that the books are not perfect, that there are times when the plot could use more detail, or the characters more growth. It doesn't matter than there are times when it's hard to believe a character got from one place to another. But the telling of the story is so new, so unique, so wonderful that I forgive them. I forgive them and continue to read them so that they will continue to tell me these new stories to delight and entertain me.
And you know what? I love them.
Full list of the Once Upon a Time novels:
Cameron Dokey's titles: Before Midnight (Cinderella); The Storyteller's Daughter (The Arabian Nights); Sunlight and Shadow (The Magic Flute); Golden (Rapunzel); The World Above (Jack and the Beanstalk); The Wild Orchid (The Ballad of Mulan); Winter's Child (The Snow Queen) Belle (Beauty and the Beast); Beauty Sleep (Sleeping Beauty).
Suzanne Weyn's titles: The Crimson Thread (Rumpelstiltskin); The Night Dance (Twelve Dancing Princesses); The Diamond Secret (Anastasia); Water Song (The Frog Prince);.
Debbie Viguié's titles: Scarlet Moon (Little Red Riding Hood); Violet Eyes (The Princxess and the Pea); Midnight Pearls (The Little Mermaid).
Nancy Holder's titles: Spirited (Beauty and the Beast); The Rose Bride (The White Bride and the Black Bride).
Tracy Lynn's title: Snow (Snow White).