Not Your Ever After: An Anthology of Crooked Fairy Tales

Loved this anthology of five crooked fairy tale retellings written by indie authors! I won it in a giveaway and was staring out my window waiting for it to arrive & once it arrived, I dove right in! See below for my review on each short story! Ashes & Alibis by Ash Whitaker: A very fun spin of the classic Cinderella tale: Wholly different but had soft nods towards the original. Ember, Lark & Raven, sisters and partners in crime. Stealing from the rich to pay off a crook Ember’s father owed. They get handed the job of a lifetime & one that’ll set them free, by none other than the Prince! By Any Other Name by Debbie Lynn: A dark retelling of Beauty & The Beast: Where she is the beast and a HEA may not exist. This one surprised me a little! The way it was heading made me expect it to end a certain way but then quite the opposite happened. And then I remembered that this anthology is “crooked” retellings & it all made perfect sense! Clever by Hana Maren Godfrey: A retelling of The Frog Prince & The 12 Dancing Princesses: the aforementioned, I know of but the latter I do not. That being said, I really enjoyed this one! I love anything having to do with witches and spells & this one delivered just that. Lenora & Henry were so sweet and I loved the sisters. Their strong sisterly bond reminded me of mine with my sisters. All That Glitters Is Not Gold by Charlie Morgan: A retelling of Hansel & Gretel: This one may be more sad than dark but was still an interesting read. Eira, the FMC & provider for her family, twin siblings and a mother stricken by loss, was offered her dream job. A job her employer labeled as “fate”. But sometimes fate is not kind, sometimes it gives you exactly what you want but the consequences are deadly. Code Red by C.P. Ashton: A retelling of Little Red Riding Hood: This one was the less “crooked”/grim retelling. And very science filled. It was a race to find a cure for a Lunabell outbreak & save ten thousand people. I enjoyed the story & the touch of found family the author created.

This was such a good read with darker twists on the fairy tales. I loved how each author had their own style and put a unique spin on their story. The mix of fantasy and modern elements worked so well. Ashes and Alibis ended up being my favorite, but I really enjoyed them all!

This anthology of fairy tale retellings was fun to read! The reimagining of well known stories is always exciting to me. I loved how the authors didn't mind a not happy ending. My favorite was the Cinderella retelling. I found a new favorite author to follow with that one!

Not Your Ever After is a wonderfully twisted collection of fairy-tale retellings that leans into the strange, the sharp, and the unexpected. Each story takes a familiar tale and warps it just enough to feel new, sometimes darker, sometimes more empowering, and always a little crooked in the best possible way. As with most anthologies, a few stories stood out more than others, but the overall quality is strong, and the authors each bring something unique to the table. The tones range from eerie to whimsical to downright haunting, so there’s always something to keep you turning pages. If you love fairy tales that bite back or enjoy anthologies that play with genre and mood, this is a fun and imaginative read that puts a clever twist on “happily ever after.”

Let's talk about "Not Your Ever After" by Ash Whitaker and others. I truly enjoyed this anthology of fairy tales with a twist. The retellings were unique, enjoyable to read, well written, and made for a wonderful twist on what we typically see. It's dark, it's electric, it's different in a way that makes you stop and think to yourself "What if it happened this way instead of what it was?" We get five unique twists on five classic fairy tales and each one is just spot on superb. Thank you to Ashley and team for the advanced reader copy and for my open and honest review. ✨ Twisty Fairy Tales ✨ Short Story Telling ✨ Found Family Vibes ✨ Dark and Menacing Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25 Spice: 🫑 Series: Standalone

I enjoyed the stories in Not Your Ever After. The authors did a great job with reworking fairy tales to have a modern twist. Each story is the perfect length and I loved reading them!

Okay, let’s talk about Not Your Ever After: An Anthology of Crooked Fairy Tales. One thing about me, I absolutely LOVE anything Grimm related and Fairy Tale re-tellings, so I was beyond excited to receive this ARC. And, Y’all…it did not disappoint. Ash Whitaker starts us off with Ashes & Alibis, a retelling of Cinderalla where Ember and her beloved Stepmother and Sisters work together to pull themselves out of the poverty her father left them in, by being a team of skilled thieves! I absolutely LOVED it. While the ending is open-ended and not a firm HEA, it leaves enough space for you to come up with your own ending, which I’ve already played out in my mind…(happy sigh) 🤭👑👠 Next we have By Any Other Name by Debbie Lynn. In this story, the tables have turned…the beast, Ademina, is the reclusive owner of a secluded countryside manor and Beau plays the part of Belle, working on his doctoral thesis he’s determined to replicate the mysterious powers of the roses that grow only at this manor. It’s a short story, so I can’t say much without giving away a lot of the plot, but I will say this…It was definitely not the ending I was expecting, especially after reading Ashes & Alibis. Then we have Clever by Hana Maren Godfrey who gives us a mashup/remix of The Frog Prince and The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Y'all, I thought Ashes and Alibis was going to be my favorite story until I read this one. But this, this one is my new favorite fairytale, y’all! Leonora, the only one of the 12 sisters without magic is the daring heroine we didn’t know we needed. Fav. Quote from this story: “I do not require rescue, but thank you all the same. I have saved myself as you can see, but I am pleased you are well and have not been eaten.” 🤗 Fourth in this anthology is All That Glitters is Not Gold by Charlie Morgan, a horror origin story inspired by Hansel and Gretel… Reading the synopsis for this one I was a bit apprehensive but Charlie Morgan knows what they are doing. I might’ve cried a bit on this one and I really felt for what Eira went through, losing her father and in a way her mother. She was the sole provider of the family and had so much responsibility resting on her shoulders, yet she always longed for more and that’s what led to her downfall. It was a really sad story, but I was happy with the way she took control of herself in the end…Well mostly 😉 And last, but certainly not least, is the Little Red Riding Hood reimagining: Code Red by C.P. Ashton. This one was a sci-fi, tech story that had me on the edge of my seat the entire way through. It was a beautiful story about ‘figuratively’ clawing your way out of the wolfs belly. Which is what Scarlet did as she saw her ex for who he really was and fought to find an antidote to the problem he’d created. Long review short, would I recommend this anthology? 100% yes! My faves, in order, “Clever”, “Code Red”, and “Ashes and Alibis”. Overall, this was a five star read and definitely a book I would re-read again and again!

This book is full of new renderings of old fairy tales and each story is amazing! Each one is imaginative, creative, and written in such a way as to pull you into the narrative. The plot twists are such that you recognize elements of the old stories without feeling that you’re re-reading a tale from long ago. Way to go ladies! Can’t wait for you all to write a sequel!

Now this was surprising and fascinating to read. 5 fairy tales told completely different but you still recognize them. 5 different authors, 5 different writing styles. This was nice. So honored to have read this before release.

Not your Ever After is a darkly fun twist on fairy tales. Each story was wholly unique and a fun take on well known classics. I wasn’t able to predict what was happening next and each story kept me wanting more. I enjoyed each authors take on their fairy tales. My favorites were Ashes and Alibis a retelling of Cinderella and All that glitters is not gold a Hansel and Gretel retelling. With dark themes with doses of nostalgia it’s the perfect anthology to snuggle up to on a rainy autumn day. Perfect for any adult who loves fairy tales and twisted reimagining’s. ***I was honored to have gotten to read this as an ARC. These thoughts and feelings are my own.***