Book Minx

The Fairy Godmother is set in a place where a powerful magical force called “The Tradition” forces people to live out fairy-tales. What this means is that anyone whose circumstances resemble that of an already existing fairytale, "The Tradition" intervenes and makes it so that their lives turn out like the original tales (Brother's Grimm version, not Disney). For some people that’s good, because it ensures a happily ever after. However, for others it's a death sentence.

When The Tradition saw Elena Klovis with her wicked stepmother and step sisters, it decided that she’d be her kingdoms Cinderella. Except The Tradition doesn’t always check to make sure everything is in place for the fairytale to work, because Elena’s prince charming is only 11. Thus, she's screwed.

I loved Elena. She’s smart, witty, and knows what she’s doing. She doesn’t sit around and bemoan her bad luck when things go wrong in her life. Instead, she sets out to change what’s wrong. So, when her step-mother decides to head off to greener pastures, Elena sees it as her chance to finally escape. Unfortunately, The Tradition is still working on Elena and this does not go with the Cinderella lifestyle it has picked out for her. Just when Elena’s almost given up hope, a old lady shows up revealing herself to be Elena’s fairy godmother who offers Elena a chance to take over the job. Elena doesn’t want to go back to her old life, so accepts almost point blank.

I really enjoyed the world Lackey built here and, as usual, her leading heroine was fantastic. Watching Elena learn to manipulate The Tradition to help people was a lot of fun and I loved all the classic fairytale aspects peppered throughout the story.

However, it felt like everything was resolved a bit too easily in the end, but that’s really my only complaint, because the rest of this book was great. I will look forward to the rest of the series.