Fairy Tales in the Modern World by Kristine Grayson (and GIVEAWAY!)

I am excited today to have Kristine Grayson on Laura's Reviews with a guest blog about modern day fairy tales.  I loved her book Utterly Charming and can't wait to read Charming Blue later this week.  I have been a fan of fairy tales my entire life, and Grayson does an excellent job bringing them to the modern world.

Lately I’ve felt like everyone has jumped on my bandwagon. Back when I wrote “The Strangeness of the Day,” under my real name, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, no one wanted modern fairy tales. I wrote the short story for an anthology called Battle Magic, and the editor (who loves my work) said he’d never seen anything so original. That originality got me several awards, but when I decided to expand “Strangeness” into a novel, my agent and half a dozen editors told me that modern fairy tales were so 1980, and I shouldn’t even try.


I don’t listen to people, at least not when they tell me something is impossible. So I write Utterly Charming anyway, and that started my fairy-tale-in-the-modern-world career. The book won RT Book Review’s Reviewers Choice award for best paranormal romance, and launched an entire series.

Fast forward eleven years, and suddenly everyone wants to redo fairy tales. Once Upon A Time has thrown every fairy tale creature possible into its modern mix, and Grimm is taking the Gothic view. Now, my trusty Entertainment Weekly tells me there’s be a new twist on Beauty and the Beast set—you guessed it—in our world.

Hey! Wait a minute! I was here first!

Except that I wasn’t. Fairy tales have always had a modern equivalent. That’s why certain romance movies are called “fairy tales”—not just because of the Happily Ever After ending, but because you can see Cinderella being abused by her stepmother and that guy in the Porsche? He’s the Prince Charming.

We are all raised on fairy tales, and of course, we insert them into our daily lives. If you watched the royal wedding a year or so ago, you know all about fairy tales in the modern world. Heck, Kate Middleton nabbed herself a real (if balding) prince. Dunno if he’s truly charming, but he seems like it. And if that weren’t enough, every single commentator on the wedding mentioned fairy tales. Just in case we didn’t get it.

We get it. Or at least I do. I love fairy tales. I love thinking about fairy tales. I love fracturing fairy tales.

My latest makes Bluebeard a hero. Yep, fractured. And I had fun. I hope you do too.

Book Description (from Goodreads):  Once upon a time...he was the most handsome of princes. But now he's a lonely legend, hobbled by dark history. With too many dead in his wake, Bluebeard escapes through the evil spell of alcohol. But it's a far different kind of spell that's been ruining his life for centuries. Jodi Walters is a fixer, someone who can put magic back in order. But Blue has a problem she's never encountered. And worse, she finds herself perilously attracted to him

Giveaway Details
Sourcebooks has graciously offered a giveaway of one copy of Charming Blue by Kristine Grayson.

If you would like to win a copy of this book please leave a comment about what intrigues you about the this book or this guestblog.

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a monte carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to US and Canadian residents (Sorry!).

No P.O. Boxes.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday October 5, 2012.

Please make sure to check the second week of October to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner but lately I have been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!