Fairy Tale Series by Shanna Swendson

A Fairy Tale (Volume 1) by Shanna Swendson was released late last year and I missed sharing it then. Better late than never! Swendson's previous fiction tends to play with general fairy tale tropes and this new series appears to be building on that skill with an extra emphasis on faerie.

The second book in the series was released in March, again I'm late, but now there are two books to enjoy. To Catch a Queen (Fairy Tale) (Volume 2) has been well-reviewed, too.

Final note, I have read Swendson's Enchanted, Inc. series and it is lighthearted fun, fine summer beach reading, not that I've ever read on a beach in my life. The books are marketed for adults but they are suitable reading for teens, too, for those who worry about content. The teens I know enjoyed reading grown-up characters without reading content they felt unprepared for. Knowing Swendson, I'm sure the same applies to this series. In other words, not YA in character ages or marketing but YA will probably enjoy them, too.

Book description for A Fairy Tale (Volume 1):

Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie Drake danced with the fairies in the woods behind her grandparents' Louisiana home. But she closed the door to the fairy world and turned her back on the Fae when they tried to steal her little sister Emily. Fourteen years later, Sophie heads to New York City on a desperate mission. Emily, now an up-and-coming Broadway actress, has gone missing. Only Sophie suspects the Fae. Now Sophie has her work cut out for her. Emily's abduction is part of a larger plot involving the missing Queen of the fairy realm. An upstart fairy is making a bid to assume control of the entire Realm, unite the fairies, and become master over the human world. To free her sister, Sophie must derail this power scheme and find the true Queen of the Realm. That's a lot for a small-town ballet teacher to tackle, but with the unlikely aid of her sometimes flighty sister, a pair of elderly shopkeepers with a secret, a supremely lazy (but surprisingly knowledgeable) bulldog, and a wounded police detective searching for his own missing person, she just might prevail--if she can force herself to confront her own past and face her true nature.

Book description for To Catch a Queen (Fairy Tale) (Volume 2):

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown–especially the crown of the fairy realm… Sophie Drake has made a promise, and she never breaks her word. She will free Michael Murray’s long-lost wife from the fairy realm even if her intensifying feelings for him make it the most painful thing she’s ever done. But Sophie is running out of time. Dark fae forces are stirring, threatening the human world. To make matters worse, humans are being cast out of the Realm, whether or not they want to leave, and the shock from these sudden evictions can even prove fatal. It’s only a matter of time before it happens to Michael’s wife. All this in the name of the fairy queen. Stunned, Sophie knows this is impossible because she’s the queen. She won the throne fair and square, through trials and blood. Now she must find and fight an impostor for a crown she never wanted in order to save both the Realm and the human world.