8 Must Read Classic Books

There are a lot of awesome books published every year but let's not forget some of the incredible books that were published in the past and have stood the test of time!

Today I'm going to take a look at my favorite classic stories. My definition of "classic" is they are old enough to be in the public domain (published before the 1920s) which also means they are easy to find cheap versions of or get from your local library!

And if you are looking for a classic story to complete your book challenge/book bingo then this list is here to help you! (As a bonus, everal of them are children's books so they are on the short side!)

If you just want to see the book list scroll to the bottom of this post. Or, if you want to see my full overview of each book you can check out this YouTube video:

The books I recommended in the video:

1. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

4. Emma by Jane Austen

5. Persuasion by Jane Austen

6. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

7. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

8. Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster

What about you guys? Do you have any classic stories or books that you love?

Best Fairy Tale Retellings

There are sooo many great books that are fairy tale retellings (or fairy tale inspired)! I've read a LOT of them over the years and I've determined that the genre has something for everyone! I'm going to share my top favorites, but it is worth noting that I am absolutely prejudice towards authors who either 1) include humor in their stories or 2) use beautiful language. (I thought I should own up to this ahead of time because the pattern is going to be pretty dang obvious early on.)

If you prefer to only read retellings of your favorite fairy tale (I don't blame you!) I have separate blog posts for most of the most popular stories:

• Beauty and the Beast

• Cinderella

• Rumpelstiltskin

• Sleeping Beauty

• Snow White

• Twelve Dancing Princesses

• Bonus: Hades & Persephone myth

• Bonus: Robin Hood legends

Note: I'm only including books in this list that have no spice and very low language. These would probably be considered clean or closed door fairy tale retellings by most readers.

My Top Favorite Fairy Tale Adaptations:

Best Cinderella: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Lavine Gail does a lot of fairy tale-esque books, and while I enjoy them all Ella Enchanted is by far my favorite. Elle is an awesome heroine, and her story will both break your heart and make you laugh, plus the world building is some of the best I’ve seen.

Best Beauty and the Beast: Beauty by Robin McKinley “Chalice” and “The Blue Sword” are probably my favorite of Robin’s books, but Beauty is right up there with them. It has Robin’s typical/gorgeous descriptions, and it–probably more so than any of the other books I’ve listed–has more of the beautiful-true-blue-fairy-tale feeling to it. (It’s the perfect story to curl up with on a rainy or snowy day.)

Best Goose Girl: Goose Girl by Shannon Hale This book is why I will not include a retelling of the Goose Girl fairy tale as part of my Timeless Fairy Tales Series. It’s too perfect and too wonderful, I just can’t! If you haven’t read it yet…what are you waiting for!?! Reeeeaaaad!

Bonus: Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl This story is a mix of several fairy tales including Goose Girl, Wild Swans, and Diamonds and Toads. This book is definitely a children's book but it is so much fun and really deserves a read. The main character is a hoot–I love her sarcastic and down-to-earth personality that shines through no matter her circumstances.

Best 12 Dancing Princesses: The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskel This book is by far the most original twist on the 12 Dancing Princesses story I’ve ever seen. It has a lot of humor in it, but it also digs deep into the story’s characters and examines what makes them tick. Merrie has a couple of other great fairy tale retellings–though Princess Curse is my favorite–so if you haven’t heard of her I highly recommend you give her a try!

Best Tam Lin retelling: The Perilous Guard by Elizabeth Marie Pope So this story technically isn’t a pure retelling of Tam Lin, but it’s still amazing…again because the main character is kick-butt and there’s several incredibly funny lines in the story. Please read it, because then we can laugh over the last few pages together–the best lines are in that part.

Best King Arthur retelling: Avalon High by Meg Cabot So technically this isn’t a fairy tale, but who is splitting hairs? If you enjoy humor, then this modern rendition of King Arthur is all for you. It’s one of the few King Arthur stories that actually has a happy ending!

Best Original Fairy Tale: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Seriously, this story makes it on my top ten favorite books of all time, it’s that good. It’s adorable and fun, filled with lots of adventure and romance. AKA EVERYTHING I LOVE! It has a lot of common fairy tale elements–a transformation, magic battles, riddles, a self-centered wizard, and more–so even though it’s not based on a fairy tale per say, it would be right at home in Cinderella’s Kingdom or in Beast’s country.

Best Fairy Tale-esque author: Vivan Vande Velde About 75% of Vivian’s work all has a fairy tale flavor to it–from Dragon’s Bait to Heir Apparent–and she’s an amazing writer. If you haven’t heard of her you are in for a real treat. She and Diana Wynne Jones are my literary heroes (along with Jane Austen, that is) so if I’m coming off as a fangirl…it’s because I am.

So….who–or what–did I forget? I know right off the bat I didn't list a favorite Sleeping Beauty retelling, but I haven’t really read one that has made me fall-head-over-heels-oh-my-goodness-I-forgot-to-eat-in-love yet.

Goodreads Reading Lists

Hello Champions, I have got news for you!

First of all, something fun. Book Nerd Paradise is running a “Favorites Giveaway”  and is giving away an Amazon gift card so readers can purchase a favorite book! I am extremely honored to say one of the favorites she mentioned happens to be Snow Queen: Heart of Ice, which is how I found out about it. (Thanks Ashley!) Click here to check out the giveaway and enter it! She has some other great books listed, so if you aren’t interested in the contest you can check out her recommendations.

Up next! I’ve been hankering to make some kind of list or reading group on Goodreads since I started connecting with you guys, because you, Champions, have the best book recommendations. I’m serious. You know my reading style better than the “You May Also Like” feature on Amazon. Because we all have such similar reading tastes, I thought it would be in our best interest to pool our resources and create lists of books we love. I polled my Facebook Champions for list ideas, and so far we have two: Clean Kindle Unlimited Reads, and Sweet and Clean Romances! Clean KU Reads went up last night, and Sweet and Clean Romances went live a few hours ago, and already I am in so much trouble because there are so many books I want to read.

Anyway, if you’re a Goodreads member please join in the fun and add to the lists! If you don’t have a Goodreads account you can still peruse the list, you just won’t be able to comment or add anything. I’ll be adding links somewhere in the website so you guys can find the lists easily. (I’ll make the announcement again when I find a home for the links.) I can’t wait to see everything you guys come up with!

I have started on my next fairy tale–the lake should be a partial giveaway as to what it is.

And now for some writing news! As you might have guessed based on the photo, I have officially started writing Swan Lake–the next Timeless Fairy Tale that should pop out sometime this summer. Editor #2 is still diligently working away on SQ 2, but she’ll be getting it back to me sometime next week, so we are closing in on the release date for Snow Queen 2! (Yes, I’m still struggling to come up with a title.)

Finally, King Arthur fans, I have good news and I have bad news. Bad news first: you aren’t going to get three short King Arthur books to finish the series. The good news: You are going to get one full-length novel! Here’s what happened: I looked at the story lines I wanted to use for the last three books, and I realized if I split the story up it wouldn’t flow nicely like the previous short, episodic books. The last three story lines are too intertwined to make that work, so I decided to write a full-length King Arthurs novel instead so you would get the story in one awesome package. The added bad news is that you probably won’t see it until fall due to the writing I need to get done to stay on my editing schedule with Editors #1 and #2. Still, a full length novel about Britt and her boys! Woohoo!

That is it for today, Champions. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this update! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some amazing book recommendations to go try out…