Review by Kalacyn:
The Fairy Godmother - In the 500 Kingdoms, things always follow the set path of the Tradition, a faceless entity that pushes fairy tales to happy endings. Elena, living under the shadow of her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, is the perfect Cinderella -- it's the prince that's the problem. The power of the Tradition builds up around Elena, until her Fairy Godmother is forced to do something with it. Elena becomes a Godmother herself, using her magic to guide the Tradition towards the famous happy ending, but she herself faces unexpected obstacles when she's saddled with the rehabilitation of a spoiled prince.
I thought that Mercedes Lackey's The Fairy Godmother was a wonderful book; there were parts that actually made me laugh out loud. Lackey created a world with its own rules, and I especially liked that she made it part of the adventure to learn those rules right along with Elena. I also loved that you could actually see and follow Elena's development from a beaten slave of her stepmother to a confident, assured Godmother. The story was very well-developed, and most of the characters were realistic. However, I did have some complaints. Elena's training to become a Godmother, in the beginning of the book, passed by a little too quickly. It seemed disjointed, only showing certain scenes, and then immediately hopping to the next one. Also, Prince Alexander didn't seem as realistic as the other characters to me. When he is first introduced, he is portrayed as an arrogant fool, but Elena somehow manages to completely rewrite his personality, and this just didn't seem like it was plausible. However, despite these issues, I couldn't put it down. The Fairy Godmother was one of the best books I have read, and I would definitely recommend it to all fantasy lovers.
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