I have always loved fairy tales. As a teen, I devoured all
of Andrew Lang’s colored fairy tale books. Then, I discovered the wonderful world
of fairytale retellings. It was only a few years ago that I found K. M. Shea’s Enchanted
Fairy Tale series. This then led to the series I am sharing about today, The
Fairy Tale Enchantress series.
Angelique begins the series as a young enchantress-in-training
with massive reserves of power. That impressive magic is tied to her core
magic, war magic, specifically the ability to feel and control multitudes of
sharp objects in an area. Because of this core and its potential for horrible
consequences should she turn evil, the Conclave, a governing body over the world's
magic users, place strict constraints on her. They abused her in subtle and not
so subtle ways like gaslighting, the constant assumption of her motivations
being evil, and/or threatening to seal her magic. This has been going on for years
before the beginning of the first book.
Hope that Angelique will get a chance to thrive comes in the
form of her new master, Everiste, who appears at the beginning of the first
book in the series. He begins working to undo the years of damage caused by the
Conclave and others on her psyche. However, the damage is more extensive than Everiste
initially thought. But before he can make much progress, Everiste is captured
by a group of power-hungry evil magic users, and the pair of them are
separated.
The series of six planned novels (four of which are
published now) follows Angelique through the arduous process of finding and
rescuing Everiste. She grows as she makes this journey, learning to heal
through the love and acceptance of many people outside her insular world of
magic users. She does this while working to stop the evil magic users from attacking
governments and kingdoms to subjugate the non-magic users. She is constantly thwarted
in her search by desperate cries for help. Unable to stand by while others are
harmed, she is compelled by her tender heart to assist them. Yet, not without cost to herself and her missing master.
What I love about this series is K. M. Shea’s accurate and beautiful
portrayal of personal growth and the process of overcoming abuse. It is rarely
a quick or easy process. And some scars are always going to be there even after
we heal.
The books are engaging and entertaining. The characters are real
and become almost like friends. I am eager to read the last two books when Shea
releases them. So far, each new installment has been worth the wait.
Written as a parallel series to her Timeless Fairy Tales
series, K. M. Shea’s The Fairy Tale Enchantress series can stand alone.
However, I strongly encourage anyone interested to read it after the first
series for a deeper level of enjoyment as you get to see some of the events
through Angelique’s eyes.
