I've always liked modern fairy tales, or even the darker ones that make one squirm in their seat. I grew up reading the real fairy tales, the real versions by the Brothers Grimm. It was my mother's fault, of course, that I had nightmares after I read them.
"You can read regular books, Shira," she would say. "You don't have to scare yourself silly."
"But Mom," I would say, "those other fairy tales are for wusses."
Later in life (actually, only about two years later in the fourth grade), I began reading Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown's morbid mysteries, my first venture into the oh-so forbidden into the "Grown up" section of the library upstairs from the safe books in the basement.
My future employers were amused.
Now that I actually work at the library, I don't have much time to read. However, I picked up A Kiss in Time today by Alex Flinn. This retelling of the classic fairy tale of "Sleeping Beauty" has so far been a wonderful read. It places the reader into the oh-so awkward situation of Talia, a princess who pricked her finger on a spindle on her sixteenth birthday, despite her country's ban on the said item. Enter the modern day, and we have Jack, a teenager who tours Europe with his distracted friend, Travis, at his parents' bequest.
I recommend this book fully. I'm about halfway through it already and it promises to not be a let down, even if it is a teen romance. Not like say...coughTwilightcough...
