Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

A Little Fairy Dust contains nine stories that are based on several fairy-tale plots, characters and even buildings. For instance, the first story has a Repunzel Tower. I found the stories interesting with how they were developed from the original tales and all of them are LGBT+. While a lot of the stories are very fluffy and soft, there are warnings for each story such as; bullying, violence, etc.

Rating: 3.5⭐

Would I Read It Again? Yes. I like how I can pick which story I want to read

Would I Recommend it? Yes

trigger warning
<spoiler> being orphaned, grief, trauma, domestic abuse </spoiler>

Short version: It's queer fluff. You'll like it.

Long version: This is a short story collection featuring retellings of fairytales by the Brothers Grimm and the native american folklore of thunderbirds and horned snakes.
The minimum level of queerness is a gay relationship, but we have shapeshifting dragons that can either appear male or female, have a non binary fairy, a consenting poly relationship, a trans person. Some short stories tie into each other but still can be read as standalones.
Some stories focus on one myth or fairytale alone, some are mashups. The thought is simple: Is there one evil witch, or might the person who famously had a garden full of rapunzel lettuce have been up to other things besides?

Cinderella seems to be the author's favourite, there are so many twists in this collection. And Mell Eight seems to have a thing about green-eyed people, but I'm not complaining. Sex happens off-screen, which is an ace friendly option.

Normally I'd delete a file of an arc after reading, but since I was given a non-expiring one and had so much fun, I'll keep this one and since this is the second work by this author I enjoyed, I will look out for further works. Full recommendations.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

I was granted the chance to read an arc of this book for free from Netgalley and publishers in exchange for my honest review and opinions.

A little fairy dust is a collection of 9 fairytails reimagined with a lgbtq+ twist.

Overall I enjoyed the stories some left me wanting more and others were okay as is. I really enjoyed the few that all connected together and brought back some characters from a previous story.

I appreciated the lgbtq+ spin on the stories, it was a nice modern twist to the classic boy meets girl. With that said I would have liked more variety in the characters as it is all the love stories are between men, it would have been nice to have a variety and have had some love stories between two women.

One thing that threw me off reading Happily Ever After was the zi and zir pronouns for Mabli the fairy godparent. I don't know if it was a continuous typo like maybe the author wasn't sure what gender they wanted to assign the fairy or if it was a way to give gender neutral pronouns? Either way it was difficult for me to picture Mabli and made that story a little less enjoyable.

Some of the relationships seemed really forced, like in Cleanly Wrong, but it was also a short story. I enjoyed that it brought a new fairy tale that I had never heard of. Same as Thunderbird.

Overall it is an enjoyable and interesting twist on known fairytales.

Some of the more interesting fairytale retellings. I like how they felt modern but at the same time kept that gruesome feeling of the original tales, which after all were far from cookie cutter.

Written by Mell Eight, A Little Fairy Dust is a collection of short stories inspired by classic fairy tales.

This book was a fun read, with well-written characters, but I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. The biggest thing for me was that the start of the stories never really felt like they delivered, and for once the romances were really not what I wanted to read about.

I wanted to read about everything else, not how distracting an attractive person can be.

I did appreciate the fact that this book took a different approach to romance - and no, I'm not talking about the fact that they are LGBTQ relationships - but that they were subtle and I didn't always expect them. But they still weren't the interesting part that I wanted to know more about.

If you are looking for a collection of sweat LGBTQ fairy love tales, this could be a good choice for you.

I did receive a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A little fairy dust
By Mell Eight
Pub date 4 jan 2021
This book is a short stories collection of fairy tales that you enjoy there nine fairy tales all together The tower cleanly wrong a heart dream cinder Elle the curse happily ever after. Thunderbirds the beast. The red apple witch The fairy tales are great for young children and any ages really such a fun read my favourite was Cinder Elle . I love the writing style so easy two follow and a quick read such a beautiful cover as well. I enjoyed these fairy tales even at my age such a great. Read x

A story anthology with interesting twists, Old, well-known, and beloved fairy tales are given new life..

A pleasant change with surprising endings

And they all lived gaily ever after,

9 mlm fairy tale retellings.

Short story collections are always hit and miss for me, but this was mostly a fun read. Some of the retellings were really clever and there were some interesting combinations too.

An issue I have is that romance in short story form always rushes the relationship too much. Which is why Cinder-Elle is one of my favorites. Our Cinderella meets with the prince four years before The Ball, and develops a wonderful friendship first. Another is Happily Ever After, Cinderella with an enby fairy godparent that focuses on a thief that gatecrashes the ball and the guard he’s known since childhood.

I disliked the last 2 immensely. Thunderbird puts the mythological bird as a “Native American” folktale, as if Native American culture is a monolith and not something that people still actively believe in today. And First Nations is a phrase for indigenous Canadian tribes, not the USA. And The Beast starts with our Beast not being cursed with monstrousness, but is instead still human, but scarred, disabled, and in constant pain, magically cured with true love’s kiss. And we have a mentor/student relationship when the student is a child, that changes into a romantic relationship once the child is old enough.

A Little Fairy Dust
Author: Mell Eight
Genre: Fantasy-Romance anthology, LGBTQ Fiction.

I love anthologies and with a title such as this, I had high expectations from this book. It met quite a few, but I felt it didn't live up to its potential.

This book has 9 stories over 450+ pages. Each story is a retelling of one or more fairy tale with an LGBTQ angle added to the romance.

Here's a brief spoiler-free review on the stories and the book as a whole.

1. The Tower - Rapunzel with a totally unthinkable twist. Slow but fun to read.

2. Cleanly Wrong - The note at the end told me that this was based on Scottish folklore brownies. I'm not aware of the original version. The retelling was wonderful but the LGBT angle seemed very forced. This story would have worked wonderfully without it.

3. A Heart's Dream - Wow for having a story with a "Cinder fella"! I loved this retelling for its brilliant take on the Cinderella story. Absolutely unusual and enjoyable!

4. The Red Apple Witch - Hansel and Gretel plus Snow-white plus Rapunzel plus Sleeping Beauty, all in one story! 🙆🏻‍♀️ This was wonderfully imaginative and well-executed. I enjoyed this story a lot.

5. Cinder-Elle - The only story in the book that takes enough time to flesh out all its main characters. Though this is yet another Cinderella retelling, you won't find anything else similar between this story and "A Heart's Dream". This is the best story in the book, without any doubt.

6. The Curse - Based on Sleeping Beauty plus The Frog Prince. Characters from 'The Tower' make a reappearance here. This was the weakest story of the book for me based on its poor plot structure and abrupt ending.

7. Happily Ever After - A third Cinderella retelling. Thankfully, this isn't from the point of view of Cinderella or the Prince but from a petty thief who gatecrashes the ball. A beautiful story, quite well-written too.

8. Thunderbird - I haven't heard of the original Native Indian folk tale but this was a pleasant narration. I enjoyed the characters and the thrills. The Thunderbirds and the snakes were impactful characters. I didn't like the idea of MMM romance though. Tripartite romance never clicks as a workable idea with me.

The Beast - Based on Beauty and the Beast. Nicely written with admirable characters. One of my favourites from the book.

Where the book clicks:
- Though there are some fairy tales reused across the stories, each retelling is still distinct from the other. There is no sense of repetition.
- The author is definitely creative. Her twist on the traditional versions of the tales is quite innovative, and in some cases, stunning!
- The way she tackles LGBTQ representation and even gender fluidity is amazing.
- The stories take some time to get in the groove so you really have to be patient at the start of each tale. But once they settle into the narrative, they become very interesting and you won't be able to keep them aside till the end.
- I learnt a new gender neutral pronoun: Ze/Zir/Zir, third person singular. Used to refer to a person of unspecified or non-binary gender instead of the he/she pronoun set.


Where the book needs work:
- The stories take a long time to build up their momentum. A slow start is a luxury reserved for full-length novels; short stories need to create an immediate impact on the reader in order to keep them captivated from the start. I had to force myself to concentrate at the start of each story because I couldn't understand where it was going. But luckily, I stuck with the book because the effort was definitely worth it. Not all readers will be as patient.
- I understand that a full-length novel can cover only one or at the most two angles of LGBTQ romance. But in an anthology, I was hoping for a better representation of the community. To read story after story having only m-m romance gets a bit boring and predictable, especially when the stories are based on known fairy tales.


I loved the cover illustration designed by Natasha Snow. It gives the perfect touch of elegance to this book.

Overall, I think this book is worth a read for anyone who likes creative retellings, who wants to read accurate LGBTQ fiction, to and who has patience to deal with slow starts in narratives.

I found that the author tried sooooo hard to keep the original fairytales while also trying to accurately represent the lgbtq community that it resulted in no flow and the whole book fell flat. I appreciate the effort but for me it missed the mark.

This collection of 9 short stories feature fairy tale re-tellings with LGBTQIA+ representation. There are 3 Cinderella re-tellings, a Rapunzel re-imagining, and some other tales for which I was not familiar with the source material.

'A Heart's Dream,' 'The Red Apple Witch' and 'Cinder-Elle' were my absolute favorites in this collection. Three other stories were set in the same universe and some of the characters in the first story appear in the other two, which was nice to see.

'A Heart's Dream' - Shape-shifting includes gender shifting and a gender-fluid MC.

'The Red Apple Witch' - The plot is genius, back story is so creative.  I wish this was a full-length novel, to explore the three main characters further.

'Cinder-Elle' - This story was very carefully thought out, especially its plot twists.  This made me feel sorrow, as usual for Cinderella tales, but this was very well-done.

3.5 ⭐

I received a copy from netGally in exchange for an honest review.

A little Fairy Dust is a collection of fairytale retelling with lgbtq representation.

What I liked the most-as a whole was how the stories were told. The writing at some point started off, especially the first 2 storie. Howewer, it picked up after that and continued until the 6th and the inconsistency begins again

I really enjoy how the author pulled of interesting twist of the retelling that made it even more interesting especially the 3rd to the 6th story which was done very well.

However the characterization and the writing needed worked at most. I also felt that some characterization of the male to male relationship were to much although I didn’t really had much problem because it felt like those leads in the BL comics I’ve read but for some I think it might be too much.

So for the individual review of each stories:

𝟏. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫

The Tower is a Rapunzel retelling with a twist and instead of having Rapunzel in the Tower there wasn’t one but instead we get a Rapunzel tower, a wizard and a war between kigdoms and a set of characters on it’s own.

The start of this story is a bit slow and off. It took me atleast 50% of this story to be fully invested. I really enjoyed the interaction between the leads, Isaiah-the bastard prince, who I expected to turned out evil but didn’t and Zel-a hundred and more years old (correct me if I’m wrong), I really enjoyed their relationship although I believed that the story was a bit rushed and was hoping we could get more of them. As of the magic system, I think it’s was alirght considering that this was a short story, it might not be that well detailed. Overall, I really enjoyed this story, the pacing starts to picked up during the middle part and as for the writing, I liked it, I believed the writing as well starts to get better during the middle part of the story. Even though it felt like a rushed, it was good. I just hoped that there’s more of Isaiah and Zel in their own story.,

𝟮. 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗪𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴

I was very confused with this story. I even thought of dropping this story as I don’t get where this one was inspired by, the start of this one was also a bit messy and didn’t picked up until the middle.

The most interesting part for me was the relationship of Rung and Prince Lionel’s, I really find it cute, and I just find Rung cute as well.

𝟯. 𝗔 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺

This one is a Cindrella inspired story but with a twist, we get to see Dragons (genderfluid or shifter correct me if I’m wrong , ogres, fairy and elves creatures.

What I really liked about this one is the story telling. I was just engrossed how the author tells this story. There wasn’t much changes from the original one but I still enjoyed the it thanks to how this was told.

The male to male romance on this once was cute I think but I kind of felt that it wasn’t that much developed because of how short this was but I really enjoyed it.

𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵

This story is a mixed of Snow White, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty, too much for a short story but I really enjoy how the author totally made a new one out of these 3 stories.

Prince Marcel, which is the Evil Queen’s son and Snow White’s half brother, is my favourite of all the new characters on this story. I just find him interesting and a very sassy character and I really wish I could have more of him.

I definitely enjoyed this one. The writing and the pacing really picked up after the 3rd story and this one was honestly just too good as well. I was totally engrossed in the story from the start until the very end of this one. I really liked the twist on this one and just love the relationship between Prince Johann, Hansel and Marcel, although I would love to see more of Prince Marcel and Prince Johann’s friendship.

I really didn’t feel the chemistry between Hansel and Johann’s relationship and just felt that theirs was a forced one just to have a representation.


𝟱. 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿-𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗲


Cinder-Elle is basically a Cinderella retelling but with no magic and fairy god mother.

I really love the main character which is Elle-who is blind after his step-brother pushed him on the stairs resulted to his blindness. Elle is just basically a very enthralling character in my opinion.

I really love Prince Theo as well, he’s such a caring, kind and funny character. I really love the relationship they had.

I also love Elle’s relationship with the other servants, Macy and Lucy.

This story might be my fave among all of the 9. I just love everything. From the writing, pacing and characterization. I was really smiling and giggling while reading this one.

I just wish this was a full novel length and how the retelling was told was really interesting, I would really love to read this again.

𝟲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲

The Curse is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty and Frog Prince and a mixed of Rapunzel-as the previous characters from The Tower-Zel and Isaiah were present in this story, which I’m very glad.

However I didn’t really enjoy this that much because;

1. I didn’t felt the characters that much, I couldn’t feel Gabriel and Sean at all same with Zel and Isaiah that just made me not care about them at all.
2. The story seemed like a drag and a force one

The are some parts that I find funny especially when they found the frog. Overall this was a let down.

𝟳. 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿

This might be a little let down Cinderella retelling I’ve read in this collection. Might be because I’ve already read two from this which were both amazing.

Rainier’s character might be a little bit edgy for me at the first start, I didn’t seemed to like him at most first however he redeemed it when he helped the real Cinderella-Ella escaped the ball.

I really could see Rainer and Elle being a best of friends if this could have been longer or was written that way, I believed that their friendship together with Mab would be amazing to see.

𝟴. 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗯𝗶𝗿𝗱

I find this one weird. I read the story with confusion and couldn’t tell if it was really a bird/shape shifter or just purely a bird. DNFed halfway

𝟵. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁


This one is probably the only retelling that I wished wasn’t a male to male romance but more of a mentor-student.

Kiki is alright and I relate to him being so done with the kids, kids drives me crazy as well. As for Nicole, he was cute when he’s a kid but when grew up, I’m not a fan.

𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹 I did enjoy most of them. I really love the story of 𝗔 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 and 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿-𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗲. I love that the past characters, especially Zel and Isaiah were featured in some stories. I really enjoyed how the author connected and mixed some stories and the twist as well. Would really recommend this for those who are looking for a good lgbt representation stories.

A little fairy dust is a collection of fairytales reimagined to include queer life stories. I really liked the inclusion in this book, and while there were some stories I found the love too quick, or unnecessary as it was mentioned in the end, there were a fair few books I’d have liked to read a lot more about. One of those was Cinder-Elle. I would have really liked more backstory and world building so I could love the characters and their stories even more. Overall, this was a very easy, cute read but would have been better if there wasn’t as much insta-love and some stories had had more substance. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I adored this collection of fairytales reimagined. It was such an incredibly special collection. Each story is its own little gem. I especially loved the intertwined nature of so many of them - but not all. Many are standalones - but the ones that feature characters or plotlines from other stories had an extra special place in my heart. I think of all the stories my favorite was the one about Brownies. I also loved Beauty and the Beast. Really - picking a favorite here might be as difficult as picking a favorite child. The LGBTQ side of these stories really worked seamlessly - and maybe even better than the originals.

This is the perfect way to start 2021!

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own. This is a true gem. Highly reccomend.

There were elements I loved about this and elements I had to be dragged through. The amount of representation and the ideas were super solid, and I appreciated that not all of the stories were easily distinguished as a specific retelling. But the scope of this anthology feels too ambitious - with more exposition, worldbuilding, and pages, these stories would probably succeed more as a novella series (along the vein of the Wayward Children series) rather than attempt to place unevenly paced and overly expansive tales into one collection.

I enjoyed the idea of the nine different fairy tail stories dyeing retold and interwoven together in some sense; especially because they were a representation for the LGBTQ+ community because this is rarely seen, but it had its dull moments so reading them made it a bit dull at times. I really wish the stories were more fleshed out, but for a fun little read it’s not a bad story to read. If you are all interested in the retelling of Cinderella and the basic original fairytales then this is a story for you.

I feel really bad for dnf-ing this book, sorry! I'm sure this book has potential :)
DNF AT PAGE 91 for reasons I just donut want to explain
3.9 stars

Individual reviews:
1/9: The Tower (Rapunzel) = 4 stars
The Tower is a Rapunzel retelling featuring a young man named Ishiah and a strange wizard called Zel. This story was short, therefore there wasn’t a lot to work with and not a lot of significant development either. I found some parts of this to be rather boring, but the tale overall was great, cute even. However, it has absolutely nothing to do with Rapunzel, except for the tower being named after her. If you’re in need of a fabulous Rapunzel Retelling, I don’t suggest reading this one.

2/9: Cleanly Wrong (Brownie) = 5 stars
Cleanly wrong was just so cute!! EEK! Can you believe that a short & sweet novella could actually achieve a high level of enjoyment from readers? Well, I can! This “book” was just so...fab! It was raw, well-developed, and felt like a normal sized book rather than a 40 page fairy tale. I’ve read many readers’ reviews of this particular book stating that they were not familiar with this tale, but I was, at least, with some of it. Long story short, when I was a Brownie is Girl Scouts, we read a little cute short story about the little cleaning brownies and yadayadayadaa. Y’know, I feel that Cleanly Wrong had a lesson learned in it. Simply: ”Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Broom truly had a change of heart because of what he saw lying deep down in Rung’s heart. 5 stars!


This book was kinda boring and I wanted to dnf it because it wasn't holding my attention and I want a fresh book start in 2021. I just felt that this book was holding me back.

~Becca<3

Alright before I start, I have an issue. We often talk about, in the book world, how when white women primarily write m/m romances that it is a bit fetishizing. Now, the book was well-written but this is something that should be taken into account.

I also believe that many of the stories would have worked better as their own stories rather than part of this anthology.

The Tower
I really liked this story. I wish the magic system was a little more fleshed out but I understand that it couldn't be too well done as it was a short story. I liked the characters but the writing style isn't my favorite. This story was a bit rushed as well

Cleanly Wrong
I hated this one, like so much. I couldn't understand the basis on which this story was built on and the characters were beyond weird.

A Heart's Dream
I honestly really enjoyed this. There was a genderfluid dragon and a male/male romance that I, personally, really enjoyed.

The Red Apple Witch
I really liked this one it was superbly done. the characters were fleshed out and the stories amazing. gender and sexuality just flowed as throughout this short story collection so far. It did feel a bittttt rushed though.

Cinder-Elle
this was beautifully and wonderfully done omg. the writing is a bit middle grade but it's still really good. I loved the characters, I'm so attached, and the plot was so intriguing (even if I guessed the ending).

The Curse
I enjoyed this one, but this is where I started to get bored. We did see characters from the first story and Aurora from a different one!

Happily Ever After
Bros there was a nonbinary character using ze/zir pronouns omg I'm so excited ab that I've never seen that rep in a book before. other than that, however, not the MOST entertaining but still really good.

Thunderbird
I DNFed this one it just was super boring and not at all what I wanted

The Beast
I liked the inclusion of past characters, but this one was especially boring. I don't know, but I just wasn't a fan. The weird part was the MC feel for the guy that he met when he was a child, I don't know but it just did not feel right to me.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an e-copy for me to read and review!

2 star review

*I initially had this as a 3.5 star review but the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t like the book*

This book is comprised of nine short fairy tales that have a LGBTQ+ spin. Mell Eight retells and combines the story of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hanzel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, The Princess and the Frog, but also adds Scottish and American Folklore legends and elements.

Some of the characters have paranormal and magical abilities, e.g, Wizards, Dragon, Brownie. As a reader, I haven't had a lot of experience with some of the creatures, but I enjoyed learning and discovering that I wanted to read more stories about these creatures.

There's elements that I liked about this book. Eight created totally new and refreshing worlds in each story, however, there were things that I really couldn’t get my head around. I’m all for representation, especially of cultures and of the LGBT community, but something didn’t get with me.

I was given the opportunity to review the ARC copy of this book thanks to Mell Eight, Nine Star Press, and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Nine stories of magic, love and a little fairy dust: A military post at the Tower of Rapunzel to avoid war in The Tower; a Brownie who just wants to do something right in Cleanly Wrong; a dream of unfulfilled love in A Heart's Dream; saving the victims of an evil witch in The Red Apple Witch; a boy who just wants to go to the dance in Cinder-Elle; a cursed kingdom and seek lost love in The Curse; a thief and his fairy godmother with different ideas about love in Happily Ever After; a lightning bolt, a lost egg, an ancient battle, and love at first sight in Thunderbird; and a trapped prince, knowing that his true love will never save him in The Beast. Something I love is the retellings and this book brings 9 stories based on the classic fantasy stories. Each story has its touch of magic, which makes them special, at first they are a little confusing, since they tell us things as if we were familiar with the context, but from there on they are very good, the way they turn things around is amazing. I must admit that some of them were a bit boring, but I liked the scenery of each one of them. If you are a fan of fantasy and retellings, you will certainly like this book, although it has some scenes that are not suitable or to the liking of all, besides it has a great diversity of characters, with different characteristics from the usual ones, but I assure you that you will love this book.