Mercedes Lackey - The Fairy Godmother

Fairy tales are ingrained into our culture and recreated into our media over and over again, in our TV shows and films and even books, but they tend to stick to the same story.  After reading a couple of the Hero books which have a fantasy angle and what some would define as a basis in fairy tale/magic along with some other weird and wonderful books I have read in the past, Goodreads recommended Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms series which is a new twist on fairy tales so I bought the first one because I am always open to the weird and the wonderful and sometimes even the downright freaky.

Lackey is known for her fantasy novels, including the Five Hundred Kingdoms series, and a lot of the novels she writes take place in the fictional universe of Velgarth and following reading The Fairy Godmother, Goodreads has since started to recommend a fair few of Lackey's books that are set in this universe which I may start reading eventually.  As mentioned, Lackey tends to set her books in the fictional universe of Velgarth but in this series, she sets the novels in the realm of the Five Hundred Kingdoms that is inhabited by princes, princesses, milk maids, stable boys, fairies, elves, and even more fairy tale characters.  The Fairy Godmother is the first book of this series that is very loosely based on the fairy tale, Cinderella, with Elena being taking on the role of Cinders with evil stepmother and stepsisters as well and a fairy godmother to boot.

Rating: 8

Recommended To: Fairy tale lovers

Favourite Characters: Elena - Cinderella turned Godmother

Favourite Part: "We're all mad, you know," Elena said aloud, looking straight at him.
"I had begun to suspect this," he said in all seriousness.
She broke into a smile, a completely unexpected smile.  She had never really smiled a great deal around him, and never at him before - or at least, she had never done so without a great deal of ironic mockery to her expression.  This smile accepted the joke as being on both of them, and invited him to share in it.  It hit him with an almost physical impact.  He managed to return it, but not without a struggle to get his heart and breathing going again. - Page 355

Good Points: The concept; the characters; the romance element

Bad Points: Missed Elena's mentor when she went

The Fairy Godmother follows Elena Klovis who is intended to be Cinderella - a young woman who is orphaned and left under the charge of her stepmother who makes her a slave in her own home - according to Tradition (the power that has a hold over the land).  Elena is destined to marry the prince of the kingdom she lives in as dictated by the Tradition but unfortunately for Elena, the prince is only a child while Elena is in her adulthood.  When Elena's stepmother and her daughters leave their home to escape their creditors, Elena take it upon herself to become something else and goes out to the Mop Fair where locals either to hire or be hired as a servant depending on their skills and Elena hopes to be hired as a maid where she'll be paid finally.  Disappointingly, Elena isn't hired because she is well known in the village and the other residents don't want to feel the wrath of Elena's stepmother.  However, Elena is given an opportunity from an older woman claiming she can give her a job in her home and when Elena accepts, she is thrown into a world she wasn't expecting as she becomes a fairy godmother under Madame Bella's tutelage and learns about how the Tradition works and the work she will do to help it.

The concept of this book was great in my opinion from the magical system to the way the fairy tale of Cinderella was twisted along with other fairy tales mentioned so we see a new perspective on old stories.  One part of the concept I loved is the magical system - the Tradition - because it is fascinating how this source of magic has control across the many kingdoms and how it is used; it's a powerful magic that can try to force citizens of the Five Hundred Kingdoms down a certain path, inevitably taking up a role in a fairy tale if your life has started to resemble one much like Elena.  However, while the Tradition can't be ignored, it can be manipulated in some way for either good or evil, depending on the manipulator (for example, good manipulator = fairy godmother, bad = sorcerer).  The way Lackey shows Elena learning to use her new powers and twist the Tradition so that she can ensure that the people that she cares for in her jurisdiction will have a happy ending eventually, which is what I found interesting because you don't tend to see a fairy tale from the fairy godmother's point of view so it kept me engaged because I am always fascinated by seeing new perspectives and we don't normally see how magic really works in these stories.  As well as the magical system that has control over the land, the way Lackey has twisted the various fairy tales was another aspect of the concept interesting because fairy tales were always part of my childhood and bringing new insight into old stories, keeping them fresh because it's not the same stuff, just reworded.  Some of the fairy tale references which are normally considered as happy stories in the end such as Cinderella fairy tale seems as a negative in this book because Elena is her kingdom's Cinderella, meaning she has to wait for her prince to be eligible to marry which is unfortunate because her potential prince is much younger than her which made the story more interesting for me.

I adored the various characters in this book from Elena and her mentor to the princes she helps along in a journey (Alex and his brothers) to the brownies that help around Elena's house and even Alex, particularly Elena and Alex because they developed over the course of the book.  Though Elena and Alex developed more, I found all of the characters that became part of Elena's household were three dimensional and just stock characters because each one stood out from the rest because one of the female brownies was more reluctant to accept Alex into the house while another tortures Alex slightly (in no harmful way) so that he can learn a lesson.  I loved how Elena and Alex grew over the course of their time in the book and together as Elena went from an abused slave in her own home to a powerful godmother and Alex went from the spoilt middle prince to a strong, caring Quester, making them both intriguing and engaging characters.

Another element I enjoyed from this book was the romance between Elena and Alex and how it developed because though they were drawn together because the Tradition still thought of Elena as her kingdom's Cinderella and because Alex is a prince, the Tradition is forcing them towards one another inadvertently so that Elena can fulfil the Cinderella path that she was originally set out on as it would if it had been any other prince, not just Alex.  While some may think it is inappropriate to add a more romantic element to the Cinderella story which normally is just the two get married and happily ever after, the new, more sexual element adds a new twist to the story and for me, makes the story stand out against other variations of the classic story that I have known since childhood.  While you may disagree, intimate relationships are perfectly normal and why can't we read about them in books; this is clearly not a book meant for children despite the fairy tale theme so don't complain about it because it's ruined an old childhood memory.

Elena was definitely my favourite character of this book because she was a smart young woman of a similar age to me which can be seen as a superficial reason but it made her easier to identify with rather than an older character and I can partially understand her situation of not being in a relationship at that age.  What I loved most was that Elena didn't fall into the stereotypical format of a fairy tale female protagonist where she needs to be saved because she is considered a damsel in distress; she forges her own destiny by becoming an even better fairy godmother than her predecessor, making her a strong female character that I can appreciate rather than a flimsy character that I get bored with.

The downside of this book for me was that I missed Elena's mentor, Madame Bella, when she went away after she deemed Elena was suitable to be a fully qualified godmother who didn't need supervision.  She had been such a major character for the first half of the book because she saved Elena from a life of being a slave in her own childhood home and then taught her how to be a godmother, teaching her the ways of magic and how to manipulate the Tradition so that she can get the best outcome possible.  I found her interesting because she was strong, important character and once she left, she was NEVER seen again which I found disappointing because it would have been nice to see her as Elena became a better godmother, meaning she got to see how her protégée turned out.

"We're all mad, you know," Elena said aloud, looking straight at him.
"I had begun to suspect this," he said in all seriousness.
She broke into a smile, a completely unexpected smile.  She had never really smiled a great deal around him, and never at him before - or at least, she had never done so without a great deal of ironic mockery to her expression.  This smile accepted the joke as being on both of them, and invited him to share in it.  It hit him with an almost physical impact.  He managed to return it, but not without a struggle to get his heart and breathing going again. - Page 355

I thought this part was really sweet, particularly the moment between Elena and Alex as she smiles at him because you can see the spark between them and the acceptance that comes with this.  I loved Elena and Alex as a couple because they were drawn together due to their roles in the Cinderella fairy tale that the Tradition is pushing them down which they have both accepted rather than resisting the attraction after they get over their initial impression of one another.  This moment was also great because we got to see Elena through someone else's point of view as well as seeing Elena's household as an outsider as they accept him into the house.  Overall, this moment was really sweet and so were the other more frequent moments that Elena and Alex but it was this first moment where they started to look past their first impressions.

I enjoyed this book because I love fairy tales and how Lackey made them a bit different and provided a new perspective on an old story, making them for an older audience; I found the characters were three dimensional and the story kept me engaged while I enjoyed the romantic element that Lackey added in for Elena.  I have recently bought the next book and while it is going to the bottom of my to-read pile, I hope to get to it soon.

Predictions

1. Elena continues her work as a fairy godmother, becoming an even better godmother than her predecessor

2. Elena and Alex continue their relationship, breaking new ground as it is unusual for a fairy godmother to be in a relationship, particularly with a "quester"

3. Alex develops a better relationship with his family following his time with Elena