#160 Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil by Charlotte Henley Babb

Summary:

You know what’s different about this book? I know the author personally. When I saw that she had this book published I emailed her and told me to let me read it for free so I could review it on here. She agreed and this is how I come to review this book.

Let’s get to the story.

Maven is on her last leg of luck. She doesn’t have a job, the van has hardly any gas and there isn’t money for coffee. Maven has been scoping out the library for a chance to use the computers to apply for jobs. We all know what that is like. Maven is listening to her personal bump, her conscious, when she gets a telephone call, on her cellphone, that doesn’t have any minutes left. It’s for a job interview.

Maven shows up at an out-of-the-way strip mall for a very strange job interview. Kudzu is just waiting to take the strip mall over. If you don’t know what Kudzu is just don’t visit the south and stand still for too long. No one will ever find you.

Upon arrival at this strange job interview Maven meets a perky girl named Tulip and a woman named Fiona. Fiona sends Maven into some sort of simulator. Maven finds herself coming to the aid of a girl named Ashleigh. Ashleigh wants to go to the ball and Maven is there to play the part of fairy godmother. After some creative thinking, Ashleigh does get off to the ball. Maven is still a little unsure about this whole weird situation.

It turns out Maven is perfect for the job and Fiona kind of knocks her for a loop when she tells Maven that she had to go to the land of Faery in order to take the job. Maven thinks about her broken down van and jumps in with both feet. Needless to say, the land of Faery is a little strange.

Maven learns how to put on gossamer, which is what all good fairies wear. She lives in a pod. She makes a wand and there is no coffee anywhere. This whole thing is taking some getting used to.

Eventually, Maven gets sent off on her first assignment. She meets a young woman who wishes to have small feet in order to attract the prince. Upon further listening, Maven really finds out that the young woman doesn’t particularly want to marry a prince she just wants to be able to stand on her own two feet. Way to go for heroines being assertive Charlotte. Maven doesn’t technically grant the young woman, Daisy, a wish, but uses her real-world smarts to help Daisy into a better position in life.

Along the way, Maven finds out about a somewhat vague prophecy. Someone will tear down the veil between Mundane, the real world, and Faery. Maven also finds herself putting her own spin on stories rather than telling the same old stories.

Fiona gets a wee bit upset with Maven along the way. Tulip also lets her down in quite a few ways. Fiona’s story eventually comes out into the open. Fairy godmothers aren’t supposed to grant their own wishes they’re just supposed to grant wishes to others.

What will happen to Faery and Mundane? How can a middle-aged woman from a hum-drum life become a fairy godmother? If you want to know just read the book. Click the picture of it at the bottom of this post and you’ll be transferred to magical place where you can buy Charlotte’s book.

What I liked: I liked Charlotte’s take on fairy tales versus real life. Sometimes modern stories turn into fairy tales and sometimes we change traditional tales. Sometimes we want to escape our real life problems and go into a fantasy land. Maven does just that, but finds herself with a bunch of fantasy land problems.

Charlotte makes logistics for Faery. What do fairies wear and how does it work? Well, Charlotte explains about gossamer and how it can stretch to the eye of the one who wears it. Where do fairies sleep? A pod, duh. Do fairies eat? Yes. Is there coffee? Only if you make it.

I also liked how Charlotte snuck the south into her tale. Kudzu, of course, we have to have kudzu. Yes, Maven is buck naked when her gossamer shrinks and not just plain old naked. Some southern ladies can fight a battle with just some tea. I actually like the little bit about Maven trying to turn her regular old tea into sweet tea. If you don’t know sweet tea is a big thing in the south. Everywhere has sweet tea. Even McDonald’s is trying to offer the southern hospitality of sweet tea now, what posers.

I haven’t thoroughly decided whether I am a fan of modern stories becoming fairy tales yet. I haven’t been thoroughly convinced that Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz can fall into the ranks of tried and true fairy tales, but I do like Charlotte’s approach to just sticking them in there.

What I didn’t like: Even though I know Charlotte I am going to try to be as un-biased as possible. For the most part I really liked Charlotte’s book. I didn’t expect it to be as long as it was. With all the cover pages, TOC, and notes about the author it’s 279 pages. That is by no means a gigantic book, but I was expecting something a little smaller. That in itself isn’t a bad thing though.

Like I have said before I’m still undecided about whether or not I think of Dorothy and her trip to Oz or Alice and her trip to Wonderland as true fairy tales, but the idea is growing on me.

Overall, Charlotte’s book is definitely entertaining. I do like the southern spin on the magical world. It’s just so Charlotte and I like it. So do yourself a favor and click on the picture down below to get Charlotte’s book. You’ll have fun, I promise.