thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this book

3.5 Stars overall rating

I got the ARC almost exactly a year ago, but the book wouldn't open on my Kindle and I figured it was a damaged file. I recently found out it worked with the Kindle app on my phone and immediately started reading. Better late than never, I guess.

Let me start off by saying I'm not familiar with all the classic tales these short stories are based off/inspired by and I do feel like this was detrimental to my enjoyment of some of them. I'm currently reading The Blue Fairy Book, so maybe once I've familiarized myself with the tales I don't know I will give the lower-rated stories a reread. (Not all of the tales are in the Blue Fairy book but whatever, I'm doing my best!)

Arzadu and the Sea | 3.5 Stars
Love an adventurous woman, but maybe don't leave your kids? Kudos to her though for realizing what she truly wants out of life and going for it.

A Dance of Birds and Men | 5 Stars
A heavy-metal rendition of Cinderella that would make the Grimm Brothers proud!

The Queen of Hearts Interrogates Pinocchio | 1 Star
Ain't feeling it. NEXT.

The Swan and Bellerophon | 4.5 Stars
Stop that made me sad

Megaflora | 4 Stars
Language could get a bit confusing but overall it was delightful

The Fisherwoman, Her Husband, and the Never-Dead Nymph | 4.5 Stars
So beautiful and morbid, it really replicates the feel of a classic tale. A story on the creation of sirens was something I did not realized I needed until I read this.

Traveling Songs for Star-Warriors | 2.5 Stars
Story on why you should always listen to your mom

The Red Princess Who Was Hidden Underground | 2 Stars
I can appreciate the story and writing quality but it just didn't hook me.

Restless Treasure | 3 Stars
Kinda lackluster

Snow Beauty of Starfruit? | 1 Star
I'm so confused

The Selfish Jeeant and the Twelve Dancing Robots | 1.5 Stars
Cute but still lackluster for something inspired by a timeless tale

Twice in the Telling | 4 Stars
Writing felt a bit clipped but overall it was a lovely, haunting story

Bathed in Silver | 4.5 Stars
Omg sapphic princesses in love..... be still my beating heart...

The Gala Tea Celebration Cake | 2 Stars
This would have been fun if it were more fleshed out. It feels like lots of things were skipped over in order to squeeze everything into a short story and it just made the plot line messy.

Through the Bitter Glass, Enticingly | 3.5 Stars
Spooky and would make for an interesting full novel.

When Apple Woke | 2.5 Stars
I appreciate the attempt but the story was mediocre overall.

From the Cradle to the Grave | 3 Stars
Ooooo this would make a cool movie

The Golden Feather | 4.5 Stars
DAAAANG that took a turn I did not expect

Sweet as Honey | 4 Stars
We love a gentleman troll!

Rule of Three | 5 Stars
Out of all the stories, this did the best with merging two classic tales and transplanting them into a completely different setting. I genuinely want to read more of this.

The Legend of Moon and Ship | 4 Stars
Bit too short but still a very intriguing plot.

Thank you NetGalley for providing the arc.

This book consists of 21 short stories collection from various authors. Each is a combination of two fairytales, with various different genres and magical retellings.
I enjoyed reading them. I liked the idea of merging two fairytales to produce a unique story. I wasn’t familiar with some of the fairytales so I felt like I was reading a whole new story.

Some stories were fun and interesting to read, and some had trouble grabbing my attention.

My personal top 5 favorites were:
1. The Fisherwoman, Her Husband, and the Never-dead Nymph ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
2. Restless Treasure ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
3. The Selfish Jeeant and the Twelve Dancing Robots ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. From the Cradle to the Grave ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
5. The Golden Feather ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Each story and its rating:
1. Arzadu and the Sea ⭐️⭐️
2. A Dance of Birds and Men ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
3. The Queen of Hearts Interrogates Pinocchio ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
4. The Swan and Bellerophon ⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. Megaflora ⭐️💫
6. The Fisherwoman, Her Husband, and the Never-dead Nymph ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
7. Traveling Songs for Star-warriors ⭐️⭐️
8. The Red Princess Who Was Hidden Underground ⭐️⭐️
9. Restless Treasure ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
10. Snow Beauty or Starfruit? ⭐️💫
11. The Selfish Jeeant and the Twelve Dancing Robots ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
12. Twice in the Telling ⭐️⭐️
13. Bathed in Silver ⭐️⭐️⭐️
14. The Gala Tea Celebration Cake ⭐️💫
15. Through the Bitter Glass, Enticingly ⭐️⭐️⭐️
16. When Apple Woke ⭐️⭐️💫
17. From the Cradle to the Grave ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
18. The Golden Feather ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
19. Sweet as Honey ⭐️💫
20. Rule of Threes ⭐️⭐️⭐️
21. The Legend of Moon and Ship ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Average rating = 2.5 stars rounded up to 3

Recommended for those who love reading (dark) fairytale retellings.

I don't know how to rate this book since I didn't realize it was a sequel and I hadn't read the first.

This was such an interesting idea for a short story collection, and I enjoyed it a great deal.
Each author picked two fairy tales and a genre, and combined them in creative ways.

I did enjoy most of the stories, but as with most short story collections, there were some I didn't enjoy as much. But all of the stories were very creative and dealt with the fairy tales in original ways.

At times I felt that I would have enjoyed certain stories more had I just known the fairy tales it was based on, but that's on me for not knowing.

All in all this was an enjoyable and imaginative collection!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Upon a Twice Time is an anthology of stories where the authors have taken two fairy tales and blended them together into something new. With a wide range of genres and fairy tales from all around the world this book contains a story for everyone, and will even introduce you to many lesser known fairy tales in the process.

Some stories are short and sweet, some are action packed, some slow burns. Lessons embedded in all of them much like the fairy tales we grew up on. These are not your Disney watered down fairy tales however, and some of the stories deal with taboo topics(Nazis for example). But overall, this collection is one worth giving a read, you can tell the authors did their research into the origin fairy tales and wove together original tales that shine.

Four stars from this reviewer, and I recommend this for all fairy tale lovers or anthology lovers 12+. I hope this is not the only collection of Upon a Twice Time stories and I'll be watching out for others.

I loved every short story of this collecting! It was such a magical ride and I just want to read them over and over again. To be quite honest, I didn't know it was a collection of short stories, I went in with little expectations, only that it was 1 story. But I was caught by (a pleasant) surprise when I found out it were multiple stories, all as enchanging as the next one. I truly recommend this book if you're a lover of all things fantasy and fairytales.

(I tried to find it on Goodreads to share my rating there but I couldn't find it unfortunately)

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review.

First of all I am totally fascinated by this book, I really love that there are so many short stories and each one has a different author.

What I liked about this story is that we can see some modern and fantastic reinterpretations of several classic stories and they give them a very interesting and entertaining twist, plus each of the stories is a different genre; we can see dark fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy and much more.

Most of the stories I liked a lot and they entertained me too much, there were a couple that didn't quite convince me, but overall they are very good stories.

Another thing is that the English is a basic-intermediate one, the advantage is that as they are short stories it is not a very complicated English and that helps a lot to be read very easily:)

I highly recommend it for all those who are fans of anthologies and are looking for short fantasy stories and even for people who want to enter the genre this is a very good option, I leave with a good taste in my mouth with this book:)

I love fairy tales so had to give this anthology a go!
Most of the tales were great and fun and interesting with a few being a bit lackluster.
With a little improvement this could easily be 5 star but for now it's a decent read

Lots of very creative story telling here. You don't have to like fairy tales to enjoy this, but it helps. I didn't read the previous book in the series, but I may have to circle back to it. For those that enjoy Fantasy, this will probably fit the bill.

Thanks very much for the free review copy!!

This is definitely one of the most awesome concepts I've EVER read.
So, to make it short, this is a collection of short stories each inspired by two (2) classic faerie tales written in an specific genre/style/format and I LOVED THAT!
Some of these stories were so much fun, some were a little heavy but they all were quite interesting and it was so fun to spot the distinctive elements of the core stories and how they mixed to create something new under a new light!
Super recommended if you're a fan of anthologies !

As someone who only really read the mainstream fairy tales as a child (i.e. Hansel and Grettle, the Princess and the Pea, the fairy tales adapted by Disney), I can't help but feel as though I wasn't quite the intended audience for this collection. I absolutely loved the short stories that featured characters I was familiar with, but for the rest, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing part of the story/that I'd benefit from a more in depth understanding of the original texts.

With that being said, the stories themselves were very imaginative and easy to read through. They never dragged on, striking a fine balance between nostalgia and modern twists. I did appreciate that there are 21 short stories that range across a variety of genres, so there's truly something for everyone.

I did have a bit of a gripe about formatting, but it wasn't necessarily relevant to customers and I wasn't sure if it was just an issue in my file, so I didn't include it in my Goodreads review – this is moreso something for the editor to keep in mind for next time. My PDF didn't have a working table of contents (i.e. one that reading software can scan through and use), which would be incredibly frustrating for any book, but especially annoying in an anthology. Again, I'm not sure if this is just an issue with the file I received, but assuming it isn't, in the future please include a functional table of contents!!!

I've always had a special place in my heart for fairy tales. For as long as I can remember I've been reading and adapting them into my own work, and they have served as my gateway introduction into many of my now most beloved creative interests. So, when I discovered the anthology Upon A Twice Time, which asks its diverse array of authors to choose two fairy tales and a genre to meld into a new story of their own creation, I knew I was in for a treat.

The anthology, edited by Todd Sanders and out now from Air and Nothingness Press, is an exercise in range and diversity on about as many levels as it is possible to be. With 21 stories from the world over, told in a range of formats from epistle to cooking journal to science fiction, there is sure to be something for everyone. Some of my favorite aspects of the collection prove promising indeed for the future of literature; namely, spotlighting authors and stories that smoothly incorporate characters across all manner of spectrums into their stories with such ease it barely registers as anything other than a comforting surprise. While each voice here is distinct, every story brings to mind the familiar pull into dreamland fairy tales are known to offer. What the characters do once you're stuck in there with them is where the authors show their strengths in crafting spells over your emotions.

While I could spend all day here explaining what makes each of the 21 stories showcased in this anthology great, it is perhaps best to use the space to highlight my favorites instead. Each one I fell deepest in love with is distinct, with unique tones and approaches to some of my most personally beloved stories.

The first of these is a blending of The Adventures of Pinocchio and (my personally most treasured story) Alice in Wonderland told through the lens of crime fiction: "The Queen of Hearts Interrogates Pinocchio" by Gabriel Ertsgaard. It presents a scenario in which Alice has organized a group of revolutionaries to overthrow and end the Queen of Hearts' rule over Wonderland. The main tool in her arsenal? Shifting belief in the queen's power. It is a delightfully funny and fascinating look into both its sources - though Wonderland in particular - because it asks us to look into the heart of (what I believe to be) a text already rooted in the concept of imagining revolution and challenging standardly held beliefs while using Pinocchio's penchant for mischief and need to tell the truth in order to survive to come up with some genuinely interesting ideas about the concept of a ruling class and how the power dynamics inherent within them can be shifted more to the people. It presents such a wonderful thought experiment on not only organized nonviolent revolution, but the ability of a group regularly looked down upon to take power back for themselves.

If there is anything that will sell me on a piece of art almost automatically it is the idea of minorities, and usually women in particular, taking revenge for some wrong done to them in the past. That is, I'm not ashamed to say, the bones of many of my favorite choices here. The first of this kind I came across in this collection is "The Fisherwoman, Her Husband, and the Never-Dead Nymph" by Hari Navarro, which tells a dark fantasy version of The Fisherman and His Wife and Petrosinella. It has an undercurrent of truly gruesome family violence for the sake of material gain that, as someone unfamiliar with either of the base texts, I wasn't expecting but was delighted to encounter when the time for vengeance was wrought. Anyone willing to toss a baby into the sea for a chance to be more powerful than God deserves whatever a spiteful sea witch decides. And also, if you label your daughter a spiteful sea witch I think perhaps you should not be surprised when she decides to embrace it.

It's a beautifully vicious little story about the dangers of asking for too much from powers you do not understand, without serious and lengthy consideration of the consequences or price for your request. A common theme in fairy tales, to be sure, but one done here with such shockingly pointed strokes I began to wonder why someone would pursue their deepest, darkest desires when it meant the sacrifice of their family and peace of mind. And then I remembered how we got to where we are in the world right now and remembered there will always be someone wishing to be more powerful than God even if it means sacrificing family and I stopped being quite so surprised. What we lack is enough vengeful sea witches to correct them.

L.P. Melling's magical realism blend of Little Red Riding Hood and The Princess Who was Hidden Underground, " The Red Princess Who was Hidden Underground", is a painfully beautiful entry that reminds us of what fairy tales are most often used for: understanding a world that stretches its acts beyond our ordinary comprehension.

"The Red Princess Who was Hidden Underground" frames itself amid WWII, focusing on a mother and daughter forced out of their hiding spot when soldiers invade their protector's house. The young girl, Eliana, begins to recall stories her father told her about the magic protection of the forest and her dominion as a princess. Through these stories is how she preserves her view of the world and how she copes with the trauma of what is going on around her.

Using children as windows into story are always some of the most effective pathways to achieving poignant views of the world because they are more often than not the most open to interpreting things around them with a kind of fantastical element at their hearts. With that in mind, Melling's story is one of the most vibrantly painted in the collection, and one of the most gut-wrenching. Crafted with some of the most elegantly devastating sentences in the entire anthology, it dances the razor's edge of fear and hope all the best fairy tales are known to inhabit.

Another vibrant entry into female revenge fairy tales, Carina Bisset's "Twice in the Telling", a dark fantasy exploration of The Twa Sisters and The Water Nixie, quickly became a personal anthology highlight for me because of both its forceful opening line of "They say I killed my sister…" and its interrogation of the ways the truth gets twisted around by the most dominant voice in any room. In order to remain safe from a predatory prince two sisters, one bound to the sea and one to the land, take to the water as a method of escape after being trapped. Only one makes it out alive to tell the tale.

This story is one of the most visually detailed in the anthology, although perhaps not in the way you might expect. Bisset paints her pictures through action - the way the water batters both women's bodies, the result of Twyla's battle with the current, the casual air of deaths in nature on beings almost too young to be fully formed. The standout visual of the story, however, is the viscerally seductive harp made from the prince's victims that our narrator uses to reveal the true circumstances of her sister's death. It is an easy picture to form in the mind's eye, and one that leaves its mark long after the story's end.

The last story I want to highlight took the form of an epistolary, combining The Nue Who Stole the Emperor's Sleep and Frau Holle: Alexandra Seidel's "The Golden Feather". I could not let this review pass without mentioning this, yet another sharp little revenge tale, as it is the only one to have made me simultaneously gasp and groan out loud. Set in some sort of future where the creation of simulated realities is a tool to be studied, Seidel's story is smooth and has a cruelty at its heart that's so wrapped in familial exchange you hardly notice it. The words and phrases arch and ache across every page, lulling you into a simulated reality all its own until the final reveal.

A daughter sent off by her stepmother to study the art of constructing simulated realities under the tutelage of a master (perhaps unsurprisingly referred to by the townspeople as a witch) exchanges letters with her sibling and father about her lessons and their lives back home. Though she wishes to return, Kin has further motives for fine tuning her abilities. It, on a couple separate occasions, genuinely shocked me in a way none of the others did, and for that it must be pulled from the pack and highlighted. There is a longing here and in other tales in this book that feels palpable, though the longing for what varies from story to story.

Upon A Twice Time is an anthology that gives me hope not just in the ability to continue telling original stories from material close to all of our hearts, but in the idea that there just might be an audience for the sort of fictional story-weaving I do myself. The flow within and between each tale feels natural and even the stories that did not one hundred percent work for me personally had enough on display about them that I could see where they would work for others. I have but scratched the surface of the talent on hand here, but I hope it has been enough for you to consider adding it to your collection.

I would like to thank Air and Nothingness Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book in general, The concept was great, it was very original when i knew better the original tales, I could understand the nuances added to the story and enjoy far more, I could see the difference with the few I didn't know. I wish we had also the country the fairy tales comes from. Otherwise it was really good, of course, I have preferences because different authors and everything can't be to our taste, my personal favourite were Pinocchio and The swan and bellerophoron with those twists. I would love Rule of Threes more developed too.
A real good anthology to read mostly for SFF and fantasy fans

Having enjoyed the first anthology in this series (Upon a Once Time), I was really looking forward to this second installment of fairy tale and folklore retellings. But unlike the first book, this one satisfied me to a lesser degree than I had wanted.
The anthology contains 21 fairy-tale/folklore mashups. Just as in the first edition, each story is a refurbished version of two fairy tales. The collections covers a nice variety of genres, though most of the tales are from SFF.
I didn't know the original tale in a few cases. That hindered the enjoyment of a few of the retellings as the lack of context created a vacuum in the understanding. (This didn’t happen in the first volume of this series.) In most cases where I was aware of the original tale, my admiration of the retelling was far greater as I could appreciate the nuanced changes incorporated by the author.
The one thing in common to all these stories is that they are creative. Try writing a double fairy tale mashup and you'll understand the difficulty of the task. But as happens with every anthology, some stories shine brighter than the others. My favourites from this collection were the following:
Arzadu and the Sea - Alex Hernandez – Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
A Dance of Birds and Men - Jenni Meade - Dark Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (What a dark twist to two of my favourite stories! This was mind-blowing!)
The Swan and Bellerophon - Leo Otherland - High Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (This would easily have been a five star if the writing were a bit tighter. It was too drawn-out for my liking.)
The Fisherwoman, Her Husband, and the Never-Dead Nymph - Havi Navarro - Dark Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
Traveling Songs for Star-Warriors Taylor Rae - Science Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Red Princess Who Was Hidden Underground - L. P. Melling - Magical Realism - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Restless Treasure - Kayla J. Espinoza - Urban Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Selfish Jeeant and the Twelve Dancing Robots - Evergreen Lee - Science Fiction - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Twice in the Telling - Carina Bissett - Dark Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Bathed in Silver - Lex T. Lindsay - Dark Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
When Apple Woke - Sarah Lyn Eaton - Science Fiction - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Sweet as Honey - Henry Herz – Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Other decent ones were:
The Queen of Hearts Interrogates Pinocchio - Gabriel Ertsgaard - Crime fiction - 🌟🌟🌟
Through the Bitter Glass, Enticingly - Sam Muller – Fantasy - 🌟🌟🌟
The Golden Feather - Alexandra Seidel – Epistolary - 🌟🌟🌟💫
Rule of Threes - Rebecca Hardy - Dystopian fiction - 🌟🌟🌟
The Legend of Moon and Ship - Bettina Juszak - Science Fiction - 🌟🌟🌟💫

17 out of 21 stories is not at all a bad deal for an anthology. This book would certainly be a nice read for SFF fans.

Thank you, NetGalley and Air and Nothingness Press, for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this. There are stories for all tastes and with very modern twists. These stories mix dark fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, lgbtqi + characters, heroines who do not seek to be saved by the prince, villains, everything!

There are many stories in this collection that I would give everything to be novels, This retellings are amazing and despite being short they are of a high quality and bring out emotions

You can read about a little red riding hood escaping from the Nazis. A beast that falls in love with a very beautiful man, the Queen of Hearts interrogating Pinocchio about Alice's misadventure, and many other great stories.