A little fairy dust is a collection of fairytales reimagined to include queer life stories. I really liked the inclusion in this book, and while there were some stories I found the love too quick, or unnecessary as it was mentioned in the end, there were a fair few books I’d have liked to read a lot more about. One of those was Cinder-Elle. I would have really liked more backstory and world building so I could love the characters and their stories even more. Overall, this was a very easy, cute read but would have been better if there wasn’t as much insta-love and some stories had had more substance.  Thanks to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I adored this collection of fairytales reimagined.  It was such an incredibly special collection.  Each story is its own little gem.  I especially loved the intertwined nature of so many of them - but not all.  Many are standalones - but the ones that feature characters or plotlines from other stories had an extra special place in my heart.  I think of all the stories my favorite was the one about Brownies.  I also loved Beauty and the Beast.  Really - picking a favorite here might be as difficult as picking a favorite child.  The LGBTQ side of these stories really worked seamlessly - and maybe even better than the originals.  

This is the perfect way to start 2021!

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.  This is a true gem.  Highly reccomend.

There were elements I loved about this and elements I had to be dragged through. The amount of representation and the ideas were super solid, and I appreciated that not all of the stories were easily distinguished as a specific retelling. But the scope of this anthology feels too ambitious - with more exposition, worldbuilding, and pages, these stories would probably succeed more as a novella series (along the vein of the Wayward Children series) rather than attempt to place unevenly paced and overly expansive tales into one collection.

I enjoyed the idea of the nine different fairy tail stories dyeing retold and interwoven together in some sense; especially because they were a representation for the LGBTQ+ community because this is rarely seen, but it had its dull moments so reading them made it a bit dull at times. I really wish the stories were more fleshed out, but for a fun little read it’s not a bad story to read. If you are all interested in the retelling of Cinderella and the basic original fairytales then this is a story for you.

I feel really bad for dnf-ing this book, sorry! I'm sure this book has potential :)
DNF AT PAGE 91 for reasons I just donut want to explain
3.9 stars

Individual reviews:
1/9: The Tower (Rapunzel) = 4 stars
The Tower is a Rapunzel retelling featuring a young man named Ishiah and a strange wizard called Zel. This story was short, therefore there wasn’t a lot to work with and not a lot of significant development either. I found some parts of this to be rather boring, but the tale overall was great, cute even. However, it has absolutely nothing to do with Rapunzel, except for the tower being named after her. If you’re in need of a fabulous Rapunzel Retelling, I don’t suggest reading this one.

2/9: Cleanly Wrong (Brownie) = 5 stars
Cleanly wrong was just so cute!! EEK! Can you believe that a short & sweet novella could actually achieve a high level of enjoyment from readers? Well, I can! This “book” was just so...fab! It was raw, well-developed, and felt like a normal sized book rather than a 40 page fairy tale. I’ve read many readers’ reviews of this particular book stating that they were not familiar with this tale, but I was, at least, with some of it. Long story short, when I was a Brownie is Girl Scouts, we read a little cute short story about the little cleaning brownies and yadayadayadaa. Y’know, I feel that Cleanly Wrong had a lesson learned in it. Simply: ”Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Broom truly had a change of heart because of what he saw lying deep down in Rung’s heart. 5 stars!


This book was kinda boring and I wanted to dnf it because it wasn't holding my attention and I want a fresh book start in 2021. I just felt that this book was holding me back.

~Becca<3

Alright before I start, I have an issue. We often talk about, in the book world, how when white women primarily write m/m romances that it is a bit fetishizing. Now, the book was well-written but this is something that should be taken into account.

I also believe that many of the stories would have worked better as their own stories rather than part of this anthology.

The Tower
I really liked this story. I wish the magic system was a little more fleshed out but I understand that it couldn't be too well done as it was a short story. I liked the characters but the writing style isn't my favorite. This story was a bit rushed as well

Cleanly Wrong
I hated this one, like so much. I couldn't understand the basis on which this story was built on and the characters were beyond weird.

A Heart's Dream
I honestly really enjoyed this. There was a genderfluid dragon and a male/male romance that I, personally, really enjoyed.

The Red Apple Witch
I really liked this one it was superbly done. the characters were fleshed out and the stories amazing. gender and sexuality just flowed as throughout this short story collection so far. It did feel a bittttt rushed though.

Cinder-Elle
this was beautifully and wonderfully done omg. the writing is a bit middle grade but it's still really good. I loved the characters, I'm so attached, and the plot was so intriguing (even if I guessed the ending).

The Curse
I enjoyed this one, but this is where I started to get bored. We did see characters from the first story and Aurora from a different one!

Happily Ever After
Bros there was a nonbinary character using ze/zir pronouns omg I'm so excited ab that I've never seen that rep in a book before. other than that, however, not the MOST entertaining but still really good.

Thunderbird
I DNFed this one it just was super boring and not at all what I wanted

The Beast
I liked the inclusion of past characters, but this one was especially boring. I don't know, but I just wasn't a fan. The weird part was the MC feel for the guy that he met when he was a child, I don't know but it just did not feel right to me.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an e-copy for me to read and review!

2 star review

*I initially had this as a 3.5 star review but the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t like the book*

This book is comprised of nine short fairy tales that have a LGBTQ+ spin. Mell Eight retells and combines the story of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hanzel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, The Princess and the Frog, but also adds Scottish and American Folklore legends and elements. 

Some of the characters have paranormal and magical abilities, e.g, Wizards, Dragon, Brownie. As a reader, I haven't had a lot of experience with some of the creatures, but I enjoyed learning and discovering that I wanted to read more stories about these creatures. 

There's elements that I liked about this book. Eight created totally new and refreshing worlds in each story, however, there were things that I really couldn’t get my head around. I’m all for representation, especially of cultures and of the LGBT community, but something didn’t get with me.

I was given the opportunity to review the ARC copy of this book thanks to Mell Eight, Nine Star Press, and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Nine stories of magic, love and a little fairy dust: A military post at the Tower of Rapunzel to avoid war in The Tower; a Brownie who just wants to do something right in Cleanly Wrong; a dream of unfulfilled love in A Heart's Dream; saving the victims of an evil witch in The Red Apple Witch; a boy who just wants to go to the dance in Cinder-Elle; a cursed kingdom and seek lost love in The Curse; a thief and his fairy godmother with different ideas about love in Happily Ever After; a lightning bolt, a lost egg, an ancient battle, and love at first sight in Thunderbird; and a trapped prince, knowing that his true love will never save him in The Beast. Something I love is the retellings and this book brings 9 stories based on the classic fantasy stories. Each story has its touch of magic, which makes them special, at first they are a little confusing, since they tell us things as if we were familiar with the context, but from there on they are very good, the way they turn things around is amazing. I must admit that some of them were a bit boring, but I liked the scenery of each one of them. If you are a fan of fantasy and retellings, you will certainly like this book, although it has some scenes that are not suitable or to the liking of all, besides it has a great diversity of characters, with different characteristics from the usual ones, but I assure you that you will love this book.

I love fairy tale retellings and saw the premise of this one and was interested in it. Sadly, it was a bit of a letdown for me. There are nine tales in this collection dealing with many known fairy tales. Many of them combine multiple fairy tales into one story. I did like how she combined some of the fairy tales in the stories. A good example of this was "The Red Apple Witch", I liked the connections in this though I think this could have been expanded on a lot (which is a common trait with many of the stories in this collection).

Each of the stories felt too short for the story they were telling. It took me quite some time to get into each of them and then when I did they rushed to the end. I would have liked to see the stories expanded more and to get more time with the characters. This also made the relationships for the most part to feel too rushed. "The Tower" was a story that I enjoyed but it was too short. I would have enjoyed a full novel of this one. I did like how we got to see the characters from this one throughout some of the other stories. That made this collection feel connected. Also, the take on the Rapunzel story in this was really cool.

I did not like "Thunderbird" at all, especially the relationship in this one. It just felt out of nowhere and was strange. I also did not think that there needed to be a relationship in "Cleanly Wrong". This was another really rushed ending that did not go well with the story at all. It was not needed at all.

Out of the collection, my favorite was probably "Cinder-Elle". I liked the way this expanded the story of Cinderella and how we got to see the relationship between Elle and Theo more. This made me think a little bit about my favorite version of the Cinderella story Ella Enchanted where she spends a lot of time with the prince. First, as friends and then their relationship grows. I would have liked to see this story expanded along with a couple of others from the collection.

The other stories in the collection "A Heart's Dream", "The Curse", "Happily Ever After", and "The Beast," were all good stories.

Overall, this was a good collection where I enjoyed some of the stories like "Cinder-Elle", "The Tower" and "The Red Apple Witch".

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. *

I loved the idea of reimagined fairytales with an lgbtq twist. The cover is pretty, the premise is promising, but I was overall a bit disappointed. I enjoyed the writing style, but for the length of each of the stories there was way too much focus on world-building and not enough on the stories themselves. 

I would’ve loved to see one or two of these more developed or woven together, rather than so many short stories that felt a bit rushed and so separate. The tower was by far my favorite, if she ever chooses to expand on that one I would love to come back and read it! 

Thank you to Mell Eight, NetGalley, and NineStar Press for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nine tales of magic, love, and a little fairy dust. This retelling of fairy tales collection is a fresh spin in the old stories. The author does an amazing job of making these characters and stories interesting and new without losing what we love about the stories

This is a compilation of short stories, these are retellings of famous fairytales. The stories have a twist with LGBTQ+ characters and most of these end with a happy ending, because they’re fairytales, but some don’t make a lot of sense. I was attracted to it because I love retellings and fairytales, but this ones weren’t great. I thought most of them were boring and I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. 
Specially, the second story, “Cleanly Wrong”. I didn’t like it at all, for me it was very boring and slow. I didn’t connect with it. I would like to interpret it as a characterisation of OCD, the character was different, and even though everyone was supposed to do the same thing, cleaned differently and couldn’t be helped, I liked that aspect and how it shows that even though you’re different and you do things differently than you’re supposed to do them, to someone it will be very helpful and better than the “normal” way. 
I wasn’t able to get to understand the characters and the story, they were all simple. When I started to get excited and interested, the story suddenly was too short, like the first one “The Tower”. 
Overall, it was fine, it doesn’t stand out between all the retellings that already exist. I liked the representation, but that’s kind of it.

This book is a collection of eight short stories that put a creative (and usually LGBT+) spin on fairytales. As a lesbian browsing through the LGBTQIA section of Netgalley, I was initially intrigued by the premise and began reading it at once. Although the author’s style is good and some of the stories have potential, I have to say that I felt a bit let down by this book. This book was still entertaining, but it could be improved. 

It was extremely difficult for me to get into each of the individual stories, so I felt that there needed to be a better hook for them, something to catch my attention and keep it there. It felt as though a lot of the stories started three or four pages in (the story I noticed this most in was Cleanly Wrong because I had a very difficult time getting invested in the characters until about halfway through). However, after the stories got me invested, I felt that they were too short. I think that if this author had fleshed out the stories—perhaps even turned one into a full-length novel (such as The Tower)—I would’ve taken a liking to them, but as it stands, there was little time and incentive for me to become invested in these characters’ stories. This is extremely detrimental to the plot (especially when it comes to the romances) because the conflicts and relationships had to be developed extremely quickly, so they either felt rushed or inconsequential. I think the primary issues some of the other stories have is that they somewhat rely on the audience already knowing the fairytales rather than building the world naturally. 

However, there are aspects of this book that I liked. I felt like the story that really lived up to my expectations was Cinder-Elle, a twist on the Cinderella story. I liked how the plot was expanded and the interactions between Elle and the prince, and how there was time to get to know the characters and their predicaments.

Mell Eight has reimagined and rewritten ten fairy tales. Some of them very famous. A couple of them were new to me.
The book is OK. A little boring sometimes.