A collection of short little fairytales about kings, princes, knights, and witches.
Author's Note: These stories are all posted free on my website and livejournal. They've simply been turned into an ebook for the convenience of those who asked.
Megan is a long time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the internet.
As a collection of short stories, some were REALLY good and the others were not. I decided to total all the ratings and divided by 10 (the number of stories in this collection). The result is = 3.5 stars but I'll round it up
------- True Chivalry - 2.25 stars Too short for me to get anything of it. But there was a little sister, and that's nice.
If The Shoe Fits - 4.25 stars VERY ADORABLE friends (well, a prince and his advisor) to lovers that take a twist of Cinderella story. AWWWW!!!
Deeds Great and Small - 3.5 stars Had a difficult time to get into it due to a slow start. But the ending was sweet.
Challenge of Quests - 4.75 stars The story was heartbreaking because John just couldn't see his worth despite how much Raven loved him (Raven told John he loved him for 500th time!), only because John was barely a knight or baron while Raven was a prince. Stupid endearing John!! My only niggle that I thoughts the challenge was a bit too much of a gamble for Raven and I keep worrying that John would return worse than he was when he left.
The Shining Knight - 3.75 stars This one was slightly a characters-reserve from the previous short. However, both Forlen (who was clueless) and Leith (who was grumpy in love with Forlen) lack the charm of John and Raven.
The Prince's Champion - 2 stars This was also too short to get into. Not enough background to explain things.
The King's Challenges - 5 stars Oh, this is a PERFECT fairy tale!! I couldn't find any faults. Not one. It had the perfect challenges to fulfill for one poor lonely man to gain the love of the King by being smart, wise, and hard-working. Just the way a fairy tale should be.
The Knight of the Rose - 2 stars The story was "told" not "shown" thus I couldn't care less for the characters in it.
Three Questions - 3.5 stars This one was pretty sweet; Odiore never knew that his brother's best friend Brenim had left for a decade to find a way to get his heart, as the brilliant and most knowledgable prince in the Kingdom.
The Witch in The Woods - 4 stars I loved this one -- it was different than the others. The main character (told in 3rd person) was a witch! I highly entertained by his spells that brought the most 'unique' spouses for the spoiled younger princes. It was sweet how he landed the attention of the King.
Note: I agree with Jenn that it might need better editing. Though free and short, but there were quite a number of incorrect words, etc. It was quite noticeable, even for an ESL like myself
This was a free set of fairytales from Derr's website. They were short little morsels of fantasy that were captivating and so very charming. I need to read more by this author.
It's amazing to me when an author can take a tiny bit of story and make you love everything about it. Megan is a master when it comes to short and sweet.
Some stories were just too short and simple for a rating, the others were good or really good and I'm pleased with this collection. Simple and short feel-good stories with humour. Nothing special, just feel-good tidbits. It's really nice of Derr to give us fans free reads like this ♥
True Chivalry - too short for a real opinion, takes barely 2 minutes to read. If The Shoe Fits - adorable and fun, less than 4 minutes reading time Deeds Great and Small - What makes a knight worthy, what makes one a good knight and what a great knight? Such a lovely short story. 11 minutes reading time Challenge of Quests - The morale in this is a good one, stop being a stubborn fool and don't take other's feelings lightly! Just friggin listen to the people your care about! 13 minutes reading time The Shining Knight - A really sweet and a down-to-earth take on the shining knight with an oblivious knight and an awkward witch (read on Derr's website on 12.10.2017, 22.05.2021) The Prince's Champion - it was too short for any real feelings, but I still liked it okay, just over 2 minutes reading time The King's Challenges - I've read this before, rated it 4 stars then and am inclined to rate it even higher now; a lonely king and a lonely scholar-at-heart peasant, just under 13 minutes reading time The Knight of the Rose - nice for such a short bit, if a bit preachy (like most of these fairytale stories) Three Questions / The Prince's Questions - again too short for a real opinion, (read on Derr's website on 12.10.2017), 6 minutes reading time The Witch in the Woods - I liked it okay; classic fairy tale with a happy ending for the witch
I've been a huge fan of Ms. Derr's for a while now. And I think this collection is just further proof of her genius. She's able to infuse more joy and magic and hope into a story that can't be more than 1,000 words than some authors can in 100,000.
All of these short-short stories were beautiful. With perfectly happy endings for characters who perfectly deserved them. There were several I'd love to see in a longer form, but getting to read them at all was a delight.
Some Favorite Quotes
It is easy, in the glory of slaying a great dragon, to forget that not everyone needs a dragon slain.
So he went to war and was gone many years. He returned home sadder, quieter, with many honors and badges that did not make up for all he has lost.
He supposed if he was going to dream, he may as well make it as hopeless as possible. What was the point, after all, in dreaming small?
A collection of cute short stories, some of which were VERY short. None of them were obvious rips of standard fairy tales, but they referenced the genre.
It could have used a second set of eyes before being published, but overall, I thought it was well done. There wasn't a single story I disliked.
There were two stories in the book that I don't remember reading on her blog so that was nice. I was glad to see that two of my favorite shorts were included in this one and I hope she'll convert some of her other blog stories into ebook format.
I enjoyed these free stories, some were a little too short, but on the whole I really liked them. My favourite were "Deeds Great and Small", "Challenge of Quests" and "The Witch in the Woods". I want to try the longer Fairytales now.
An overload of cuteness! If you’re looking for something tooth-achingly sweet, this is what you need. They are all absolutely adorable and made of pure fluff in the most wonderful way. This is definitely something to read if you need to smile. Every single one is a treasure.