It’s that middle part, the part that can vary, the way they get from A to B that really makes the story unique.

Beauty is taken from her family, and eventually she falls in love with the Beast. It’s always hard to know what to say about fairytale retellings everyone knows the basic story, the beginning, and the end. All of her books exist in worlds steeped in magic, full of amazing things, which is part of why they (and the characters who inhabit them) are so very interesting. Robin McKinley is known for her fairytale retellings Beauty and Rose Daughter both retell Beauty & the Beast, while Spindle’s End retells Sleeping Beauty, and Deerskin retells Donkey Skin, which is a lesser known tale, I believe. They were always standing close together as she remembered them, often gazing into each other’s eyes, often handclasped, often smiling and always there was a radiance like sunlight flung around them.

She saw them, remembered them, as if she were looking at a painting they were too splendid to be real, and always they seemed at some little distance from her, from all onlookers. Many years later she remembered how her parents had looked to her when she was a small child: her father as tall as a tree, and merry and bright and golden, with her beautiful black-haired mother at his side. With her loyal dog Ash at her side, Lissar unlocks a door to a world of magic, where she finds the key to her survival– and an adventure beyond her wildest dreams…

But this seeming blessing forces her to flee for safety from her father’s wrath. Warning: This book deals with rape an other “adult” themes.Īs Princess Lissar reaches womanhood, it is clear to all the kingdom that in her breathtaking beauty she is the mirror image of her mother, the queen.

Rose daughter robin mckinley