Nonfiction and Nonsense

If you have read the rest of the Transplanted Tales series you are familiar with Gideon, right hand man to the fairy king. When I read about how he was forced to give up his romantic relationship with the king’s daughter in The Better To See You, I felt his grief like it was my own. Little did I know that that forced break up was just the beginning of the sorrows of his heart. 

Before Gideon was employed by the king he was the Little John of Robin Hood. After tragedy struck him in the woods one day, he was unwillingly bound into the king’s service. For many years, before the curse brought tales into the real world, Gideon served the king as his knight and protector of his entire family. In the real world he continues to do so, and the king has a new command for him: discover who is stealing large shipments of fairy dust. This potent substance is a vital medication used to treat tale ailments all over the world, and it also happens to be the source of the family’s very vast riches. His investigation leads him to cross paths with a very old friend.

I don’t want to tell you any more of the plot, but Gideon finally gets his happy ending. I was rooting for him the entire time, he is such a great guy I felt like he deserved all the happiness he found. There is a time jump when you get to the epilogue, and it reveals what I believe will be covered in the next book, which is actually a novella. There are two loose ends that I think might be tied up. If they aren’t, I am hopeful that the author might consider continuing this series in the future. There was a seven year gap between this book and the novella that I will be reading next, so maybe there is going to be a resurgence.

In book three of the Transplanted Tales we get to follow along with Trish Muffet, the woman we have observed working all the criminal investigations and autopsies since book one. The first time we were introduced to her on the page I was given the impression that she was a meek miss, despite her occupation. However, we finally get an inside look at the person she actually is and she is not a shy girl at all. Even though Trish initially found it a struggle to adjust to living in the real world, like all the tales did when they came over, she has become very settled with her job at the Fairytale Management Authority. Despite enjoying her job and having a comfortable life,Trish is still haunted by a couple of pretty horrific experiences from her childhood. Suffering from nightmares she can’t seem to escape from, involving the spider from her nursery rhyme, the only way she can get away from them is to stay awake after a bad dream. 

She is shocked when one night Nicky Blue, one of Red’s best friends who has been gone for about two years, shows up in her apartment when she just so happens to be under attack. Everyone assumed that Nicky just needed to get away after he lost his wife but he has actually been on a mission of vengeance. And the trouble that Trish finds herself in happens to coincide with what Nickly has been up to. The two team up to find out what is actually going on, because it is a confusing, mysterious mess. There are a lot of players in this book, as we are introduced more in depth to the human agency that works with the FMA to keep tales a secret while also protecting ordinary humans. It’s kind of like a men in black organization, but they have some shady business practices.

The ending kind of makes it clear that we probably aren’t going to be reading any more books starring the main characters from the previous stories, it also kind of seems like they might not mention some of these characters at all. I do have one more book to read in the Transplanted Tales series and a second novella. I’m going to get started on book four right now, and I will probably immediately read the novella because I am enjoying this series very much.

Like I mentioned last week, I was able to predict who the focus of the next book in the Transplanted Tales series would be due to more page time for a certain character. The cover of The Better To See You also kind of gives it away, and the title itself clues you into its biggest supporting character. 

Lavender Seely, former fairy godmother to Cinderella, has been sober for a year. Getting sober has been great for her mental health, but not for her magic. An accident she caused due to a burst of faulty magic results in her needing to leave Chicago and find a safe haven until things calm down. Red sends her across the country to a remote community of tales, characters who have chosen to live amongst themselves, free of humans, where they can also mostly govern themselves. In this village, Lavender should be far enough away that the death threats promised by the victim of her uncontrolled magical burst should go unfulfilled. However, Lavender doesn’t even make it to the destination Red relayed to her before she gets into trouble. 

This is a passionate story of two individuals who have had a very rough life since coming over. They have both suffered immensely, but in vastly different ways. It seems that the old saying misery loves company rings true here, as these two sad souls find solace in each other. I don’t want to say anything else, you will just have to read and see for yourself. I really enjoyed the pairing in this story, I wasn’t expecting it, but it works surprisingly well.

Even though I am an old school paper and ink book reader, I did enjoy reading this digital only novella in the Transplanted Tales series. It’s very short, I think I got through the entire story in less than two hours, but I was dying to read more of Red and Grimm and this satisfied the need.

This tale begins two months after the conclusion of Red, and things seem to be going well for the law enforcement officers. There is something hanging over Nate’s head, however, and it is not the fact that there has been no trace of Dracula since he disappeared, plus, combine that with the still missing corpse of the mysterious witch. Nate committed a serious crime in the world of Reapers and he has been waiting to see what his punishment will be and wondering when exactly they will be coming for him. The stubborn Tess Little notices that Nate has not been himself lately, and even though he tries to warn her off she insists on being involved.

I loved getting more background information on Nate, he has an evil origin story and centuries of history making up who he is and how he got to where he is now. It’s incredible that he turned out to be such a decent person. Grimm Consequences is also a great bridge between Red and the next book in the series, The Better To See You, because I was able to predict who the focus of the next novel would be and it fit in really nicely in terms of the flow of the story. I will actually be posting my review of that story next week, so if you are ready for more, come back and read my thoughts on it. 

I have been looking forward to reading the Transplanted Tales series for a very long time. I finally collected all the physical books, and downloaded the one tale that is digital only, and felt prepared to begin. 

All your favorite fairy tale characters have been taken out of the fantasy worlds they live in and have been forced to live amongst ordinary, mortal humans in the real world. It all started when a few magical beings were messing around, causing a spell to go wrong. The Little Red Riding Hood we grew up reading about is now Enforcement Officer Tess “Red” Little working for the Chicago branch of the Fairytale Management Authority. She is all grown up, and is as tough as the leather jacket and combat boots she wears make her look. The story begins with Red trying to bring in a tale that was breaking his parole, nothing she hadn’t done before. After things don’t go as planned, her bad night becomes even worse when she is put on a new case. A few tales have been murdered recently, and the top three suspects all happen to be former lovers of Red. Even though she considers investigating her former flames to be a conflict of interest, her temporary partner, Nate Grimm, believes her connection to the suspects is exactly what will lead them to getting the answers they are looking for. They are strapped for time, as there are more attacks and murders happening by the day, and it takes a physical and mental toll on everyone involved.

I loved that the characters in this book didn’t consist of only the very well known fairy tales that nearly everyone knows of, such as Cinderella. There were also characters from classic literature and Medieval legends and other children’s stories. It made the story all the more interesting to have some less well known fictional characters, like throwing in a mention about a random sailor from Moby Dick for instance. This was an amazing thriller style mystery, with just the right amount of magic and romance. Yes, it does get a little spicy. It was very mild compared to what I usually get into, but I cannot fault it at all due to how great the story was. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to reading the next tale in this series, of which Detective Grimm seems to be the main character. I am very much going to enjoy seeing more of him and you can see what I have to say about Grimm Consequences next week.