The Fairy Godmother - Mercedes Lackey

The Fairy Godmother
Mercedes Lackey
Luna Books
Copyright: 2004
978-0373803330

The amazon.com product description:

From the bestselling author of the Heralds of Valdemar series comes an enchanting new novel.
In the land of Five Hundred Kingdoms, if you can't carry out your legendary role, life is no fairy tale . . .
Elena Klovis was supposed to be her kingdom's Cinderella -- until an accident of fate left her with a completely inappropriate prince! Determined not to remain with her stepfamily, Elena set out to get a new job -- and ended up becoming the Fairy Godmother for the land.
But "Breaking with Tradition" was no easy matter. True, she didn't have to sleep in the chimney, but she had to deal with arrogant, stuffed-shirt princes who kept trying to rise above their place in the tale. In fact, one of them was so ornery that Elena could do nothing but change him into a donkey.
Still, her practical nature couldn't let him roam the country, so she brought the donkey -- er, the prince! -- home to her cottage to teach him some lessons. All the while keeping in mind that breaking with tradition can land everyone into a kettle of fish -- sometimes literally!
And so begins a whole new tale . . .

The Fairy Godmother is the first book in the world of the Five Hundred Kingdoms - a world where fairy tales really do happen and everything is done according to Tradition. Other books in the series include The Snow Queen and The Sleeping Beauty.

Because this is the first book in the series, more time is put into explaining the concepts of the Tradition, Fairy Godmothers and the like than is in the other books. It's a good thing though, and all part of the fun of the read. I'm almost inclined to consider The Fairy Godmother to be the best book in the series to date, although I think they're all good.

Mercedes Lackey has a knack for these retellings of fairytales which makes them lots of fun to read - whether or not you know the fairytale she's playing with. In The Fairy Godmother and most of the other stories in this series, she's chosen to use a very different perspective on the story: that of the fairy godmother - that figure who is always there with a piece of advice or whatnot, but never actually plays an active role in the story. Not in these stories! Here, they're the key movers of the story, as well as viewpoint characters. Not only that, but they can come up with some very interesting twists to add to the story too. All in the name of a happy ending of course.

I've read The Fairy Godmother before a couple of times and enjoyed the book a lot every time. If you're looking for a piece of light, good fun, with a happy ending, this might just be the book for you.