The Princess Series



A book series by Jim C Hines. In short, it's the Disney Princesses meets Charlie's Angels with Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty as the main characters.

It begins a few months after Cinderella (called Danielle in this version) has gotten married. She is adjusting to palace life when one of her stepsisters comes to see her. One magic-fueled assassination attempt later and Danielle has to deal not only with the fact that her stepsisters seem to know magic but that they have also kidnapped her husband Prince Armand. The only reason Danielle is still alive is because of the help of a fierce warrior woman called Talia, better known as Sleeping Beauty. She takes Danielle to see Queen Beatrice (Bea to her friends) who reveals that she runs the kingdom's spy service and introduces the princess to her other top agent, a master of mirror magic, Snow (as in White). Danielle must now team up with her fellow princesses to save the prince and stop her stepsisters.

Each book tells the further adventures of Danielle, Talia, and Snow. A major subversion of the classic princess tales since it’s the princesses who go out and save the day. The main characters' stories are well known in universe too. However, the versions circulated in rumor (the Disney versions) leave out or ignore major, often dark details (the Brothers Grimm versions). The princesses meet other well known characters like the Little Mermaid and Little Red Riding Hood.

Novels

 * The Stepsister Scheme
 * The Mermaid's Madness
 * Red Hood's Revenge
 * The Snow Queen's Shadow

"(As they are climbing around inside a tree) Snow: Looks like the tunnel branches off. Talia: *Throws an acorn at her*"
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade - Danielle's glass sword.
 * Accidental Marriage - Actually accidental near-engagement. Varisto gave Talia a sword that Snow recognizes as a betrothal proposal in Hilad. Luckily for Talia, Varisto learns that she is pledged to Queen Beatrice and unable to take other obligations. Snow found it hilarious.
 * Action Girl - All three of the princesses, though in different ways. Talia is the fighter and Snow is the magic wielder. Danielle does not have much at the beginning except determination and control over animals. One magic sword and some lessons from Talia later and she is able to hold her own.
 * All Men Are Perverts - Varisto almost fell off his kelpie when Danielle happened to mention that she and the girls were naked when they went prancing in his lands. He sounded rather miffed that his earth spirits had ommitted that detail from their report.
 * All Women Are Lustful - Snow certainly is. When Beatrice asks her to stop distracting the crew she quips at her to get an uglier crew.
 * Ambiguously Brown - Unlike her Disney depiction, Talia is dark, and has a vaguely middle eastern sounding name (Talia Malak-el-Dashat).
 * Anthropomorphic Personification - The  are this for the Elemental Powers of Light, Fire, Water, Darkness, Earth, Wind, and Magic.
 * An Axe to Grind - Varisto.
 * Bad Dreams - Snow had a lot of these as a child caused by her proximity to her mother's evil magic. Prince Jacob has these whenever something is wrong.
 * Badass Princess - Yep
 * Bastard Boyfriend - Prince Gustan to poor Lirea.
 * Beauty, Brains, and Brawn - Snow, Danielle and Talia.
 * Bond Creatures - The ship Philippa, to Hephyra. She's a dryad, and it's her tree.
 * Broken Bird - Talia is an almost textbook example of this since her tragic past causes her to have a very stoic, sarcastic, and violent attitude.
 * Butch Lesbian - Talia seems to be this. She is in love with Snow White and has an ex-girlfriend. She is also an aggressive fighter, cynical, and speaks bluntly. Somewhat subverted due to her fairy gifts that give her the face and figure of a beauty queen. Also all of her butch traits could easily be (and probably are) a result of her tragic past which makes the revelations of her true feelings a bit of a shock.
 * Cast from Hit Points -
 * Chekhov's Gunman - Little Red Riding Hood. She's mentioned briefly in the first book, and the third centers around her.
 * Compelling Voice - Stacia gets this ability.
 * Cool Old Lady - Beatrice is both likable and wise.
 * Curse Escape Clause - True Love's Kiss is known to break some otherwise very powerful curses.
 * Cursed with Awesome - How Talia sees her fairy gifts. She has beauty, grace, and skill, but wound up sleeping away centuries and getting raped.
 * Daddy's Girl -  Danielle also was very close to her father. It is hinted it was one of the reasons for her stepmother's hatred toward her.
 * Dark and Troubled Past - Since all of the princesses of The Princesses Series are based mostly on the Brothers Grimm version they all have this, though some more than others.
 * Cinderella's mother died when she was very young. Her father dies when she is ten of a long and painful illness. She then becomes a virtual slave to her stepmother and stepsister who abuse her physically and mentally. She becomes a prisoner in her own home with mice and birds being her only true friends. And then they set off the plot of the first book in revenge....
 * Snow White’s mother was a vain, power hungry witch who never cared about her daughter. She wanted to take over Snow’s body, and when that plan failed she tried to have Snow killed. After tracking her daughter down she killed Snow’s love in front of her eyes. After Snow kills her mother, her country falls into civil war and she is forced to flee lest she be executed for regicide.
 * Sleeping Beauty and the entire royal family were cursed to sleep. In their absence, the kingdom descends into civil war. The winning faction takes the throne and murders the sleeping royal family so they can't challenge the new rulers. Beauty is raped in her sleep and wakes from the pain of childbirth. Forced to marry her rapist, she murders him on the wedding night and flees for her life, leaving their twin sons behind.
 * Demonic Possession -
 * Distracted by the Sexy - The crew of the Philippa when the princesses get transformed in the third book. Talia sometimes gets distracted by Snow's sexy.
 * May also apply to when Snow, Danielle, and Talia
 * Downer Ending - The end of
 * Elemental Powers - Gustan got air spirits, which passed to Lirea, while Varisto
 * Everyone Is Bi - At least among the undine.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses - The three main characters are the princesses Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. Also in the second book they fight against a mermaid princess Lirea with the help of her sister and fellow princess Lannadae.
 * Eye Scream - one of the author's favorite tropes, apparently.
 * How Talia subdues Charlotte.
 * What happened to Danielle's stepmother.
 * A mirror shard lodges in Snow's eye, which then heals over.
 * Famed in Story - The stories of the main characters are as well known in their world as they are in ours. Played with as the versions of the story that are most well known are the Lighter and Softer Disney versions while what really happened is closer to the Darker and Edgier Grimm Brothers versions.
 * Fantastic Racism - Some people have problems with fairies and undine, though Lorindar has made alliances with both. Talia's hatred of the fairies is well-known, at least to those who know her real story.
 * Friend to All Living Things / Speaks Fluent Animal - Danielle's main ability. She can talk to and command animals. Turns into a very useful ability as she has different creatures attack enemies, help friends, or assist her in other ways. It's not just birds and mice either. She also pulls this trick with sharks and seas serpents.
 * Good Bad Girl - Snow White will risk her life for her friends and flirts with anything male, human or not. Stated to do more than flirt off page.
 * Good People Have Good Sex - Danielle is beautiful, kind, compassionate, brave, and forgiving. Her husband Armand is handsome, loyal, understanding, and caring. The two go at it like rabbits the moment the wedding is over.
 * Grand Theft Me - multiple examples.
 * Rose (Snow's evil mom) does this to
 * Rose's demon does to.
 * Hate Plague - The people infected by
 * Heroic Sacrifice -
 * Hot Amazon - Talia, blessed with the fairy gifts of beauty and grace, uses them to become a better fighter. Varisto certainly seemed to think she is this since he proposed to her.
 * Hot Chick with a Sword - Danielle's main weapon is a glass sword given to her by the spirit of her mother that can cut through anything.
 * Hot Magic Geek - Snow is both super hot and super nerdy, not just about the magical arts but also history, culture, and law.
 * An Ice Person - Snow is skilled with ice magic.
 * Imaginary Friend -
 * Improbable Weapon User - While knives, swords and such are appropriate for a medieval-style fantasy such as this, Snow gets snowflake-shaped shuriken, made for her by Talia.
 * Talia herself wields a zaraq, a whip-like weapon with what looks like a spindle attached to the end.
 * Incest Is Relative -
 * Incompatible Orientation -
 * Incredibly Lame Pun - Snow likes to throw these out.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun - Snow likes to throw these out.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun - Snow likes to throw these out.


 * Insistent Terminology - Snow is quick to correct people that she is not a witch, she is a sorceress.
 * They're not mermaids, they're undine.
 * Instant Armor / Elemental Armor - A couple of times in The Snow Queen's Shadow, Snow uses her magic to create an ice-armor for herself.
 * Knife Nut - Talia is skilled in hand to hand combat and can use many weapons well but knives tend to be her primary weapon of choice, next to her zaraq.
 * Also, each book makes a point of noting that Talia routinely carries enough weapons hidden about her person to arm a battalion of knights.
 * Les Yay -  and Hephyra for Talia. Hephyra being a type of nymph, it might be Bi the Way, bordering on Anything That Moves.
 * Little Red Fighting Hood - Roudette, the Lady of the Red Hood.
 * Lonely Rich Kid - Snow as a child.
 * Loophole Abuse - How the Duchess got out of her execution (asking to see one last sunrise before she died and fleeing underground) and how she planned on take Jakob for herself (agreeing to returning him when he was sixteen in human years, though time passes differently in Fairytown.)
 * Lost in Translation - An in-universe example. Sleeping Beauty was knocked out by a zaraq, a whip-like weapon with what looks like a spinning needle's spindle attached to one end. When her tale was translated, the writers didn't know what it was, and just decided to say it was a spindle based on the picture.
 * Magic Music - Mermaids sing to weave their spells.
 * Meaningful Name - A few. Danielle's/ Cinderella's maiden name is De Glas, like the glass slipper (plus her father was a glass worker). The mermaid princess's name from The Mermaid's Madness is Lirea, and anagram for Ariel.
 * Mind Rape -
 * Ninja Maid - Talia is one of the top secret agents for Queen Bea. She is highly trained martial artist whose abilities are enhanced by fairy magic. Her cover is that of a simple palace servant.
 * Odd Couple - Snow and Talia were this back before Danielle (Cinderella) joined the team making it a trio. Snow is intelligent, immature, outgoing, wields magic, and is younger than she looks due to magic. Talia is reserved, stoic, cynical, a high level warrior, and is older than she looks due to magic.
 * And at the end of the series,
 * Our Fairies Are Different - All the various different fairies from fairytales, from the human-like fairy royalty to tiny winged pixies to talking animals, are all accounted for. Their society exists in a caste system. They like bargaining for human children and are sticklers for Exact Words.
 * Our Mermaids Are Different - They have Magic Music, and the Royals have two tails instead of one.
 * Parental Abandonment - Talia herself has done this, as her offspring were the products of rape while she slept. Her rapist sent them to a temple somewhere, and never told Talia where. We finally meet them in Red Hood's Revenge.
 * Power Trio - Danielle, Snow and Talia.
 * Prehensile Hair - Brahkop. Might be a troll racial trait.
 * Pretty Lech - Snow.
 * Rhymes on a Dime - How Snow uses her Magic Mirror.
 * Shout-Out - Snow makes it so that the enemy ship's sails has a flavor.
 * Significant Anagram - Lirea's name is no accident.
 * Sibling Yin-Yang - Gustan and Varisto. Gustan is an irresponsible playboy with a taste for conquest and Varisto is the Wise Prince, thought a bit more bloodthirsty than the norm. Their bonded elemental spirits reflect this as well. Gustan got air spirits and Varisto got earth spirits.
 * Shipper on Deck - Snow tried to ship Talia and Varisto. According to her they both like nothing more than to pummel people so they would be perfect for each other.
 * Stepford Smiler -  despite her cheerful and joking facade carries a lot of resentment and pain
 * Suddenly Sexuality - When  shows her feelings for   it comes as a surprise.
 * The Three Faces of Eve - Danielle is the innocent, Talia is the wife, and Snow White is the seductress.
 * To the Pain - Stacia to Danielle.
 * Unfortunate Implications - Talia, the princess who was raped, is also  and given some conservative's ideas about the causes of   it comes across as creepy and insulting. Acknowledged and regret expressed for in this post on his LiveJournal. The rape isn't a canon explanation, though some characters in-universe likely believe it.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting - Lirea,  It comes with Painful Transformation, though.
 * Weird Moon - Fairytown has two, one for the king and one for the queen.
 * Whip It Good - Talia, when she's not using knives.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds -
 * Younger Than They Look - Snow, due to the aforementioned casting from lifespan.