Readers who have not read McKinley's Beauty may want to see how she changed her approach to the story over the two decades between the books. Rose Daughter is a more mature work. Another sophisticated version of the "Beauty and the Beast" story is Sheri Tepper's Beauty.

McKinley continues to revise fairy tales with her newest novel, Spindle's End, which tackles the story of "Sleeping Beauty." There are a number of excellent novels based on fairy tales. Patricia McKillip's Winter Rose retells the story of "Tarn Lin." Readers who enjoyed McKinley's lush descriptions of gardens will enjoy the atmosphere created in this story of Rois Melior, a girl who loves the woods and who fights to save the man she loves from his fairy captor. Neil Gaiman's Stardust is not based on a particular fairy tale, but it is nonetheless a lovely fairy tale...