"The minutes after midnight are the darkest and most dangerous. In these precious moments milk is curdled in the cellar, expensive knick-knacks fall off their shelves, and sometimes babes breathe their last breaths."

What an awesome opening paragraph! I almost squealed with joy; I love creepy fairy tale based stories and this one was off to a strong start.

Yet in reverse of the usual pattern of slow starts that gradually build to gripping action, the initial dark tension in the opening chapter is surprisingly quickly resolved. A wild midnight gallop with the Erlking smoothes to a fairly relaxed canter through a sunny countryside of quaint tumbledown cottages, stately mansions, and an occasional uneasy glimpse of something watching from the woods.

This gives us time to meet our fellow travellers; three very different young ladies, each intriguing and likeable in her own way (at least to me), but only one of which, so far, shows any signs of being a witch (shhh..don’t tell anyone). True to the traditional trope, the youngest is the pretty, demure, sweet natured one. In a regular old-time fairy tale, the other two would be jealous and nasty. The most obvious modern turnaround would be to have the youngest actually be malicious and devious, and the older "ugly" sisters become the sympathetic characters. This story is not going either of these routes. These sisters may often disagree about things, but they all care about and try to protect each other.

So where is this story going? Well, that’s exactly what all the characters are wondering right now, especially that watcher in the woods. All I can say at the moment is, there appears to be a Unicorn in the near future.

The author, a folklore enthusiast, has peppered the narrative with sly references and nods to other fairy tales both traditional and modern, like The Princess Bride. It’s a very different work from her previous urban fantasy about demon teenagers, Dead End Streets. This new story shows the breadth and evolution of her writing talents. I do get the impression she’s still feeling her way along, but the quality of the storytelling so far has been solid and down to earth, although occasional typos and internal inconsistencies betray a lack of proofreading. The website is attractive and easy to navigate. I recommend this story to lovers of fairy tales, magickal lore, and fantastical romances.

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