The Stepsister Scheme - Jim C.Hines

You know how all those old fairy tales take you through lots of scary adventures till you finally reach that inevitable line: "And they lived happily ever after..." Guess what? It's not true. Life in never-never land isn't all sweetness and light. Cinderella - whose real name is Danielle Whiteshore (nee Danielle de Glas) - does marry Prince Armand. And (if you can ignore the pigeon incident) their wedding is a dream-come-true.

But not long after the "happily ever after," Danielle is attacked by her stepsister Charlotte, who suddenly has all sorts of magic to call upon. And though Talia - otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty - comes to the rescue (she's a martial arts master, and all those fairy blessings make her almost unbeatable), Charlotte gets away.

That's when Danielle discovers a number of disturbing facts: Armand has been kidnapped and taken to the realm of the Fairies; Danielle is pregnant with his child; and the Queen has her very own Secret Service that consists of Talia and Snow (White, of course). Snow is an expert at mirror magic and heavy-duty flirting.

Can three princesses track down Armand and extract both the prince and themselves from the clutches of some of fantasyland's most nefarious villains? 

My thoughts:

I am glad I finally read this Hines series cos this was funny. And it was fantasy! And it was fairytales.

Danielle aka Cinderwench aka Cinderella finally got her prince. And all is well. Well for a time.

Danielle was sweet, she was nice, she was nicer than I would have been, but hey she could throw a punch (not always literally) too.

Armand her prince, well he was not in it a lot since the poor bastard got himself kidnapped. Silly men always getting kidnapped so the women has to do the dirty work.

Talia aka sleeping beauty has a chip on her shoulder, but sure is good at her job.

Snow White, is a flirt, but great with magic.

Together these three must find Armand. Kick some butts. Meet some fairies. Meet some baddies and see if they can fix that Happily Ever after.

Conclusion:
Totally reading more of these. 

Cover

nice

Mass Market Paperback, 344 pages
Published January 6th 2009 by DAW
Princess #1
Fantasy
own