Upon first glance, one might wonder what makes Andrea Cefalo’s The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen stand out from the crowd. It’s young adult historical fiction, which isn’t exactly original when it comes to fairytale retellings, but Cefalo doesn’t stick to just one of Grimm’s fairy tales in her Fairytale Keeper series. She supposes the most noted of these stories (Snow White, Cinderella, The Elves and the Shoemaker etc.) come from one person, a spitfire cobbler’s apprentice and novice story teller living in thirteenth century Germany. “I want the reader to believe that it’s possible for one person to have come up with all these tales,” say Cefalo.“To do that, I had to develop realistic characters and a historically-accurate setting.”
Fifteen year-old Adelaide, who will one day be immortalized in the story of Snow White, narrates this coming-of-age tale in which she quickly and harshly learns how corrupt her beloved home city of Cologne has become. Adelaide’s deep loyalty to her loved ones reveals itself through her confliction as she chooses between fighting the corruption and avenging her mother or keeping her father, friends, and her first love safe from the enemy.
The Fairytale Keeper series paints medieval Cologne vividly and develops a set of dynamic characters, bringing the famous villains, heroes, and damsels of Grimm’s fairy tales to life. Cinderella happens to be Adelaide’s self-indulgent, yet well-meaning cousin and her drunkard, yet hard-working father is the Shoemaker from the famous Elves and the Shoemaker story. However, not all main characters are cast into a Grimm fairy tale role yet. The role of Adelaide’s love interest, Ivo, is up in the air. Will he be the Prince in the Snow White story or some other character? When asked about Ivo’s role, Cefalo says, “Time will tell. There are going to be four books in the series. It’s funny. Most of the time the story writes itself and it would be wrong of me to assume that Ivo will end up a certain way.”
By the end, historical events and real people from the time period are so artfully woven into the retellings the reader will be left wondering if this is fact or fiction, making The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen a convincing and compelling fairy tale retelling.
The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen is set for release on June 1, 2012. It can be pre-ordered through the author’s website: www.andreacefalo.com or purchased in local bookstores and through online book retailers for 11.99 plus shipping and handling. For the latest news on this series, follow the author, Andrea Cefalo, on her website, Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/andreacefalo), and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/#!/AndreaCefalo).