Rent Mirror, Mirror

I really enjoyed reading this, was expecting a grim turn as the Brothers Grimm did, but was surprised at how much better I liked the way the series turned out. Similar to a modern day fairy tale (minus the fairy part, if you know what I mean ;))

Mirror Mirror is a collection of five short stories with the theme of magic and loosely based on a fairy tale. J D Robb is the most recognizable of the five authors included in the collection. Each story is approximately 8090 pages long. J D Robb continues her In Death series with the story Taken In Death. The fairy tale she chose is Hansel and Gretel which I found predictable but to her credit she stuck to the essence of the fairy tale better than the others. I liked how they found the kids. Mary Blaney chose The Three bears with a heroine Martha who didnt like anything too much or too little but just right. I liked it was set in the 19th century and had a historical feel but it didnt really challenge me as a reader. Beauty, Sleeping by Elaine Fox is obviously Sleeping Beauty. It is the most conventional romantic stereotype and I was bored with it practically from the git go. The Christmas Comet by Mary Kay McComas was my favorite of the five tales. based on The Little Match Girl the story had a warmth and depth and complexity one doesnt normally see in popular romantic fiction. Finally Stroke of Midnight by C K Ryan started out with promise but in the end was a huge disappointment. A Cinderella story complete with wicked stepmother and shallow stepsisters, is about Cindy, who travels to Ireland to see the town where her late father grew up. Being part Irish myself I was excited by the setting g but as the story went on it became clear this was a conventional stereotypical romance, predictable and silly and the heroine changing her mind back and forth in a second and that is supposed to be love. Sorry not in my book but in many romance books the heroine is created around this behavior and I dont like it because it isnt true character development that suits the writing requirement but not the character. I was crushed because what seemed to be a of truly charming story suc***bed to the conventions of romance writing. On the whole the book was OK and a bit of light reading for spring. I only got it for the J D Robb story which was also only OK, but with one jewel that was truly magical and real, but the others fell flat.