Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Princess & The Pea | 1996 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 2 | Someone’s Been Sleeping In My Bed | 1996 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 3 | The Emperor’s New Clothes | 1997 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 4 | Big Bad Wolf | 1997 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 5 | Jackie & The Giant | 1997 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 6 | One Day, My Prince | 1997 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 7 | Cinderfella | 1998 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 8 | Cooking Up Trouble | 2000 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 9 | Let Down Your Hair | 2001 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 10 | De Buty & The Beast | 2002 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
The A Faerie Tale Romance series adapts classic fairy tales as historical romance novels, reimagining familiar stories in period settings with comic twists. Published between 1996 and 2002, the ten books cover a range of well-known tales: The Princess & The Pea (1996), Someone’s Been Sleeping In My Bed (Goldilocks), Big Bad Wolf (Little Red Riding Hood), Jackie & The Giant (Jack and the Beanstalk), Cinderfella (a gender-swapped Cinderella), and several others.
The fairy tale retelling romance was a popular sub-genre in the late 1990s paperback market, and Duncan brought her characteristic warmth and humor to the format. The adaptations are light-touch – the fairy tale premise provides the hook and some plot structure, but the books deliver on the genre’s romantic expectations rather than being straight retellings.
Ten books over six years is a substantial run for this kind of themed series, and Duncan’s consistent output shows the format’s appeal to her readership. The books can be read in any order, as each adapts a different source tale, but reading the series chronologically shows how Duncan varied her approaches to the basic premise.