Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book! I thought this book was pretty good and I would be interested in reading more by the author!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me an advanced copy of this book to read and review.

This is nine short fairytale retellings that all have a interesting spin on them. As with most short stories there were hits and misses. For me the hits were " The Red Apple Witch" and "Cinder-Elle" for sure. The plot twist in the "Cinder- Elle" story still has me thinking about it a couple weeks later. I have been trying more diverse reads and this is a good one for sure.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of A Little Fairy Dust by Mell Eight in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoy reading new takes and spins on fairy tales, sometimes they are delightful, sometimes dark and twisted. These were nice as they brought representation of LGBTQ into the stories.

this is a fairy tale anthology, each story was beautifully done with interesting and unique characters. I really enjoyed reading this book.

An amazing short story collection that was a joy to read. The stories were good, but not mindblowing! They were well written and enjoyable but I hardly found them memorable.

It was a really interesting and unique take but I couldn’t connect with the stories in the way that I wanted to. I would say take a chance and read this because I think any other time I would absolutely love this but I had family things going on and couldn’t give it a fair chance

When I started reading this anthology, I remembered that when I requested it the stories were LGBTQ, but I had forgotten that all of the stories were M/M. Not that this was an issue, I just kept expecting other representations of LGBTQ within the stories until I realized that wouldn’t be the case. That being said, I really enjoyed this collection! It did start to feel a little long at about the 75% mark (this anthology is 456 pages) so I wouldn’t recommend necessarily trying to read it straight through. All-in-all I truly loved all of the stories in this collection with some exceptions here and there.

I tried to get into this book but had no luck. I think I was just not in the right mood to read this, and it is a genre I've started to read less. However, I put these feelings on me and not the writer at all. I am grateful to be given an ARC so I apologize for being unable to finish the book.

If i had to choose a great anthology to recommend to all my LGBTQ2+ this would be it. I love the take on all the different fairytale twists and couldn't have been happier with this!

So. I'm not entirely sure what I want to talk about first.

- Look. I'm all about representation, and lgbtqia+ books and all that jazz. it's my jam. But if your entire writing career as a woman is writing about mlm (not lgbtqia+ stuff, like you're advertising yourself as, but ONLY the G of the whole rainbow), then I'm very suspicious of you. Because that reeks of fetishization. The most representation for any other part of the rainbow was Mabli, the good fairy of the kid in Happily Ever After, who goes by neo-pronouns (zi/zir). Not even the dragons who canonically can change their gender at will were anywhere on the spectrum.

- Also, how did it happen that you're a mlm romance writer for a living, and you suck at doing the romance part? Like, all the fairy tales in this were focused on the romance. And none of them had any impact on me. Gabriel's sole personality trait in Curse was <i>is in love with Sean</i>. All of the romances are shallow (more so than what can be written off as "it's too short to be deeper"). Thunderbird had a whole proposal after the main characters knowing each other for two days max.

- this I only noticed about 75% through: These people suffer from Same Face Disorder, a thing I've previously thought only visual artists suffered from. But all the couples are built in the same way: one is the conventionally masculine one, the mysterious, kinda rud-ish dude that we know as the love interest of most of current YA. The other one almost always has long hair, is abused, wears a dress at some point and thas a feminine name (Elle, Mina, Kiki, Nicole, Haven, Margo). I'm all for being gnc, but this is not gnc, this is a pattern. And the pattern sucks.


That being said, let's talk about the stories of A Little Fairy Dust.
I enjoyed some of them, especially Cinder-Elle and Cleanly Wrong (and The Tower wasn't bad either), but most of them were just Not It. The people were shallow, the stories were mediocre and the writing style was kind of wonky at times. I really thought at first that different people wrote the individual stories bc the style differed a lot in between.
But in the end, I could've done without A Little Fairy Dust. The above mentioned flaws spoiled my reading fun more and more the longer this went on and I skipped more and more parts just so I can be done with the book. I'm definitely not taking up anything Eight writes again.



@Ninestar & Netgalley: Thank you guys for the ARC!

Another favorite by a great author. The plot of the story was very well written. The author really draws the reader in as you read. I cannot wait for another book to read.

When I started reading this anthology, I remembered that when I requested it the stories were LGBTQ, but I had forgotten that all of the stories were M/M. Not that this was an issue, I just kept expecting other representations of LGBTQ within the stories until I realized that wouldn’t be the case. That being said, I really enjoyed this collection! It did start to feel a little long at about the 80% mark (this anthology is 456 pages) so I wouldn’t recommend doing what I did and just reading it straight through. Take your time and read a story here and there. All-in-all I truly loved all of the stories in this collection except for the 2nd and 3rd to last stories which is where the anthology started to drag for me. The stories weren’t bad by any means, they just didn’t strike me and stick with me like the others did. Luckily, the anthology ended with a bang and I loved the last story! I’m not going to go into ever story, but here are a few of my favorites:

• The Tower – A take on Rapunzel but with a man instead and the tower is used as a watchtower to protect their land of Monrath. Every 7 years the guard in the tower switches. The MC, Ishiah, finds a hidden basement with magical relics belonging to the tower’s original wizard owner, Zel.

• Cleanly Wrong – A story about brownies (Scottish folklore) and about one specific brownie who fails out of brownie school because he won’t clean the way they are supposed to. Doing things based on convenience for the homeowner instead of just always organizing the same way (i.e. color coding or alphabetizing). He hides in the prince’s castle and only cleans those closed off areas of the castle so as not to get caught as the prince has stated no brownie is allowed in the castle.

• Cinder-Elle – Cinderella retelling with a son and two stepsons. Elle dresses as a woman to be able to attend the ball and he cannot know that the person, Theo, that he is in love with is actually the prince. I loved the secondary characters in the story. There is a great nod to the original Cinderella story where here story is actually taking place congruently to the MC’s story.

• The Curse – Aurora (Rory) is the princess and soon to be queen who falls under the sleeping beauty spell. The frog prince is included as well as a direct tie-in to the first story, The Tower.

• The Beast – Based on Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. The cruel ruler that was trying to take over Monrath in The Curse is cursed by Ishiah and Zel, the mains from The Tower.

Highly recommended if you enjoy fairy tale retellings/reimaginings and LGBTQ fiction.

Received via Negalley

let me start off by extending my gratitude towards netgalley, ninestar press and the author for sending me the e-arc of this book via netgalley.

this book is essentially a retelling of most of the fairytales we have known as children, with a fun twist : the main romances are all mlm. before i begin : when i first requested for an arc of this book and saw that it promised an 'lgbtqiap+' twist to all fairytales, i was excited because i was looking forward to representations of various sexualities and genders. but as i read each short story, i realised that all of the stories were mostly just mlm. of course, i consider this my fault since i had not done my research on the kind of stories the author wrote (the author is known for writing mlm stories). but my disappoint disappeared as i delved into the intricate worlds the author had created, and i truly enjoyed what each story had to offer.

my favourite story out of all of them was probably 'the red apple witch' — i really liked the unique way in which the author managed to weave a story out of all of these stories together, something i have never seen done before.

however, one of the things i feel that could have been improved include : in 'cleanly wrong', the romance felt a little too contrived and unnecessary. also, the language used throughout the book felt very confusing at times because sometimes it sounded archaic and sometimes it sounded like the way someone would speak in 2021.

overall, i would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a delightful collection of mlm fairytales !

If you are looking for easy-reading, fun gay fairytales then this is definitely likely to be your vibe.

Whilst most stories lacked strong characters and recycled a lot of narratives (e.g. we met as children for a brief time and are reunited) they were enjoyable enough. The stories seemed to blend into one after a while, but I do like the author bringing back some characters further into the collection.

My favourites were the first two in the collection: The Tower, a Rapunzel retelling focused on using the tower as a military lookout station, which I thought was creative and engaging, and the romance felt developed and fun too; Cleanly Wrong was adorable and contained some interesting lore about Brownies and made me want a longer story for the main romance.

First I want to say thank you to NetGalley, Mell Eight and NineStar Press for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions of this book are my own and are not influenced by the gifting of this book.

A Little Fairy Dust is an anthology of nine fairytale retellings all with LGBTQ+ representation.
I am a huge fan of retellings and fairytales and when I saw this book I was so excited to read it. Any book that will bring me the joys and nostalgia of my childhood but can tell them with a modern twist is my kind of book. I loved the how the author made each twist and turn in each story different and interesting.

My biggest issue with the book is the same issue I have with most anthologies, some of the stories were just not long enough for me. There were at least three stories in this collection that I would love to read as full length novels. With some in-depth character development and world building some of these stories would make absolutely incredible books.

1. The Tower- The first story is based on Rapunzel but instead of a princess locked in a tower, we get a tower used for military operations and war. This story was a little slow in the start, it did take a while to really get going. I enjoyed the two main characters and their interactions, I loved the magical elements to the storyline. I just wish that this story had been a little longer and more in depth. I would love to know what happened to after the ending and how things developed. Overall I enjoyed it.

2. Cleanly Wrong- This story is based on a Scottish Folklore brownies. I have no knowledge or experience with the original story. So, naturally I Googled it to after reading to find out as much as I could. This story is probably my least favorite. I just didn’t sit very well with me, I found it a little boring and it felt like it went on a lot longer than the other stories.

3. A Heart’s Dream- Based on Cinderella and Heart of Stone. I enjoyed this story and found the relationship between the two main characters was adorable. However, I feel like this story could have been longer. There was so much potential but because of the length it didn’t quite work for me.

4. The Red Apple Witch- Based on Hansel & Gretel, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. This is my favorite story in the book. I haven’t come across a story that has manages in intertwine so many different stories. I love the way the author handles the mixing of all the stories. This is one of those books I would want as a full length story. There is just so much to unpack and cover, can you imagine how incredible this would be?!

5. Cinder-Elle- Based on Cinderella. Imagine the story of Cinderella, now take away all the magic, the carriage, the magical shoes and even the fairy God mother and that is the story you have. Our main character Elle is blind thanks to his step-brother, he is by far one the best characters in the entire book. I also really loved Prince Theo in this story, he is a very caring and kind character. This is probably my second fav story and I would also love to see this is a full length story with detailed character development and world building,

6. The Curse- based on Sleeping Beauty. There was an overlap between this story and The Tower with the presence of the main characters in this story. However, I didn’t like this stories. I felt like the characters were kind of detached from each other. I felt very disconnected from the story and wasn’t really interested in what was happening.

7. Happily, Ever After- Based on Cinderella. There are a few Cinderella stories in this book and this one is probably the weakest. Not that it is a bad story but I enjoyed the previous two a lot more. Elle and Rainer’s relationship could be a little more detailed and interesting. The story just felt a little lacking.

8. Thunderbird- This story is based on a Native American Folklore. A similar situation with Cleanly Wrong. I was not aware of the original story when going into this and to be honest I didn’t finish this one. It was very confusing and not that interesting. I looked up the original after finishing and feel like I will enjoy that one more.

9. The Beast- based on Beauty and The Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Another story mixed with a number of different fairytales. The author is really good at the mixing the stories. I just really wished it was a longer story.

Overall, I enjoyed the majority of the stories. My favorites are Cinder-Elle and The Red Apple Witch. I adore the way Mell Eight intertwines several fairytales and characters into one story. I just wish that some of them were a little more detailed and longer stories.

Love me a good fairy tale and fairy dust to bring a story together. Really like this story. Good p ace and romance. Good read.

A Little Fairy Dust by Mell Eight
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Genre: LGBTQIA | Romance
Release Date: January 4, 2021

A Little Fairy Dust by Mell Eight is a collection of short stories, reinventing tales from our childhoods.

I loved each of these stories and how they blended together. The author weaved together a world of fantasy and magic. The romances are sweet and lovely. One of my favorite things about each story was the acceptance of each relationship and how they are each viewed as 'normal' and not out of the ordinary. I think that moved me the most.

This is a beautiful book filled with love, acceptance, and wonderful romance.

I'm so grateful to Mell Eight, NineStar Press, LLC, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

English/Spanish.
First of all thanks to Netgally for giving me a copy in advance in exchange for an honest review.

A little bit late, but finally I could finish. When I saw that there was going to be an anthology based on fairy tales, but LGTB I was really excited about the idea.
I have to say, the way of setting out the different stories was very original, it was completely out of the commonplace, and that is something I really enjoy. The stories are funny and fresh to read. Also, in some of the tales you can find a relation with the characters of previous ones and how they interact in the new ones and I have to say I loved that kind of crossover.
But to be honest I must admit I didn’t completely like it. The beginning of each tale and the set out of the main problem of each story was really good. The author took her time to create the environment, the magic, the world and the problems of the character. But what bothers me is that from the middle to the end everything is resolved just by luck and coincidence, all the time and pages the author took to present the problem finished in only one or two pages at most. When I was reading I thought it was a matter of only in the first story, but it repeated itself in all of them.
I think this book had a lot of potential but they didn’t know how to resolve the end of the tales, just to sum up, I loved the proposal but not the execution 2/5 stars.

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Primero que nada gracias a Netgally por brindarme una copia avanzada.
Un poco tarde, pero al fin pude terminar esta antología.Cuando vi que habría una serie de cuentos versión LGTB me emocioné muchísimo y ansiaba poder leerlos.
He de decir que la forma de plantear las distintas historias es bastante original y queda completamente fuera del lugar común, son frescas y divertidas. Y en uno que otro cuento puedes encontrar relación con personajes de anteriores historias y cómo interactúan en las nuevas.
Pero para ser honesta, debo admitir que no me gustó del todo, el inicio y el planteamiento del problema de cada cuento era realmente muy bueno, la autora se tomó su tiempo a la hora de crear el mundo y la problemática de cada personaje. Lo que me resulta molesto viene a partir de la mitad en adelante, la forma de resolver cada conflicto era tan prematura y por casualidad que resultaba muy poco creíble. Al principio pensé que era cosa de un solo cuento, pero se repite en todos y todo se volvía tan predecible como que la solución cayera del cielo, así sin más.
Creo que este libro tenía mucho potencial, pero no supieron cómo resolver los cuentos, y eso le restó muchísimo al libro. Para concluir, me gusta la propuesta, pero no la ejecución. 2/5 estrellas.

This is 10 tales including
1) the tower
2) cleanly wrong
3) a heart's dream
4) the red apple witch
5) cinder-ellie
6) the curse
7) happily ever after
8) thunderbird
9) the beast
10) the fairy tale origins
My favourite stories were cleanly wrong cinder-ellie and thunderbird. All were about different fairy tales from cinderella snow White and rapunzel. 4*.