Welcome to the 2018 Fairy-tale Blog Hop. Thirteen fabulous fairy-tale authors have gotten together to talk about their favorite fairy tales. Follow the links at the bottom of each blog post to hop to the next author’s website. Collect our favorite numbers to total up at the end and enter to win a print collection of our books! (There are several anthologies, debuts, and even an ARC for a BLINK YA book you can’t buy in stores yet!)
My Favorite Fairy Tale
Like many Disney fanatics, animated musicals were among my first introductions to fairy tales. In my youth, Aladdin was my favorite fairy tale—I loved the humor and Princess Jasmine was a kick-butt heroine for much of the movie, the kind I strived to be. However, as time passed, my second favorite Disney film became my favorite fairy tale overall: Beauty and the Beast. Perhaps it was because I grew to love the Byronic hero in fiction: brooding, troubled, and saved by the love of a strong-willed heroine. (In the vast majority of cases, it’s not a healthy relationship to emulate—but it’s always swept me off my feet in fiction.) And that’s the key, I think, to why Beauty and the Beast continues to mean so much to me, causing me to fall in love with the live-action movie version almost as much as the original animated tale. The Beast is a jerk, focused entirely on his own suffering, but he learns to be a better person and put others before himself thanks to the power of love. Not just someone loving him—but more importantly, him loving someone else.
In the Disney version, Belle is confident and unwilling to put up with a lot of the Beast’s unreasonableness, standing up for herself and those she cares for. That’s my favorite kind of heroine, especially in a hate-to-love scenario, because she doesn’t compromise who she is for a relationship. (Fantastical reasons for her captivity aside.) In the original fairy tale, Beauty is more passive and self-sacrificing, though the Beast is somewhat less cruel, too. She may be a little too passive for my tastes, but it’s still beautiful that she sees past the Beast’s hideous exterior and demonstrates selflessness.
There are elements of Beauty and the Beast in my The Never Veil Series—the moody, mysterious lord and the stubborn girl who’s his would-be captive. So when I finally had an idea to work on a “fairy tale retelling” (in my case, it was a prequel), I didn’t choose my favorite fairy tale, instead picking one I never particularly thought much about: Jack and the Beanstalk. I actually strangely was inspired during a Rifftrax Live showing of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. But that’s a tale for another time.
The giveaways are over!
Bibbidi bobbidi boo! 15 is my magic number for you. Go on to author Elizabeth Hopkinson’s website for more fairytale fun!
Have you visited every author’s website and collected all the numbers? Want to win all these fairy tale stories in paperback? Here’s where you’ll find the giveaway!
Before you leave my site, consider entering my bonus giveaway! You could win:
One e-copy three-pack of NOBODY’S GODDESS, NOBODY’S LADY, and NOBODY’S PAWN, the complete trilogy (my YA romantic fantasy The Never Veil Series)One e-book of BALLAD OF THE BEANSTALK, my YA romantic fairy tale fantasyOne e-copy two-pack of FALL FAR FROM THE TREE and TURN TO DUST AND ASHES, my dark YA fantasy duologyOne e-book of FANGS & FINS (Blood, Bloom, & Water Book One), my YA paranormal romance/urban fantasy series
Amy McNulty 
Thanks so much! 🙂 It was designed by Make Ready Designs!
I love the cover of The Ballad of the Beanstalk!