Tales of Virtuous Stepmothers: Georgina Warren

A marvelously original collection. Taking a common fairy-tale trope and looking at it with new eyes makes for a most illuminating collection. The writing style is elegant and one that would work well if being read aloud (not every well-written work succeeds in this area). The names are particularly original and effective; I do not know if many/any of them are taken from fairy-tale or other sources but they certainly add an original tang to the contents. Likewise, I do not know if all the stories are wholly original, (I assume so) but they all have an often original and gripping narrative drive.

With one central theme running through the collection there could have been a degree of over-similarity between the stories but this is not the case and there is enough originality in content to make the reading of each story a pretty gripping experience; the author masters the most significant element of story-telling, viz. making the reader want to read on. And the names are marvelously original too.