Hey'a, everyone! New day, new blog tour! Today we're featuring Tales of Ever After, the latest anthology from the Fellowship of Fantasy. As the title suggests, this anthology focuses on fairy tale retellings and fairy tale-like stories, and they're all pretty awesome. For my post, I'm going to be reviewing Steelhand by Ashley Capes . . . but first, a little bit about Tales of Ever After.
The authors of the Fellowship of Fantasy tackle fairy tales from once upon a time to happily ever after. Explore twists on old tales and brand new magical stories. Meet feisty mermaids, friendly lampposts, and heroes who just might be monsters themselves.
This fourth anthology from the Fellowship of Fantasy will lead you on a quest for entertainment and storm the castle of your imagination. So make a wish and enter the deep dark woods to find stories that will make you laugh, shiver, and maybe even fall in love.
Find it on: Amazon* || Books2Read || Goodreads
*Where it will be free as soon as Amazon gets its act together!
Steelhand Mini-Review
I love steampunk, so naturally I was excited to read this retelling of Sleeping Beauty. And while I'm not going to say that it's the best Sleeping Beauty retelling I've ever read, it's still a fun take on the story.
For me, the best part of the story was the way in which the author retained a strong fairy tale feel. Often, fairy tale retellings keep to the general plot of a story but lose the more ambiguously magical feel of the original. However, this story seems just as much a fairy tale as it does a steampunk story, especially because of the different challenges the protagonist has to overcome and the way in which he solves them.
Plotwise, Steelhand is solid, but not spectacular. There are no huge twists here (or, at least, none that I didn't see coming), but the pacing is good and the events unfold in a way that makes sense. The one exception: why can the main character hear the princess? If there was an explanation, I must have missed it.
The main area in which this story fell short for me was the characters, who really don't get as much development as I would've liked. I mean, I understand that this is a short story and the author can only do so much, but everyone seemed just vaguely generic (aside from the main character's titular metal hand, which is pretty cool).
In conclusion: Steelhand is an interesting and creative take on the tale of Sleeping Beauty. While it's not perfect, it's still a quick and enjoyable read.
Giveaway!
The Fellowship of Fantasy authors are hosting three different giveaways for this tour! First up: a paperback giveaway of Tales of Ever After (naturally), along with several other awesome books including Kendra E. Ardnek's The Worth of a King, Savannah Jezowskis's After, and more. Some of the paperbacks may be signed, and there's a miniature dragon in the running, so make sure you enter! (Unless you're not in the U.S.A., in which case I'm sorry.)
Enter here!
The second giveaway is open internationally, as it features several eBooks. The Worth of a King is up for grabs again here, as is When Ravens Fall by Savannah Jezowski, The Green Princess by H.L. Burke, and more! Tales of Ever After is, of course, not featured in this giveaway, since it'll be free on Amazon soon (if it isn't already).
Enter here!
Our final giveaway is a comment competition. Whoever leaves the most comments on various tour posts will win sneak peaks of several authors' upcoming books. And since I'm not competing in this comment contest, the rest of y'all should have a chance.
Thanks, everyone, for reading! Make sure you keep an eye on the Amazon page so you can pick up Tales of Ever After as soon as it becomes available for free (or, if you're impatient and want to pay $0.99 for it so you can read it now, you can do that too). And don't forget to check out the rest of the tour stops!
Have a lovely day!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)
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