Guestpost: Who Deserves a Happily Ever After? by Bettie Sharpe + Giveaway

Filed in Bettie Sharpe , Giveaways , Guest Post , The Latin Lover Posted on June 28, 2011 @ 6:00 am 17 comments
Today we welcome to BLI an author whose stories aren’t magical just because of her enchanting writing style, but because she tells the story of princesses and talking cats and wizards and all things you can only encounter in a fairy tale. But wait a second, that is exactly what you’ll find in Bettie Sharpe’s Cat’s Tale: A Fairy Tale Retold, a modern retelling of the classic Puss in Boots tale with a surprising take on the old fable. (You can read Susi’s review here.) So give a warm welcome to Bettie Sharpe and let her tell you about what kind of happily ever after she likes to read about.

Fairy tales are very clear about what kind of heroine deserves a happily ever after. Sweet, patient young princesses who excel at domestic duties deserve Happily Ever Afters but stepmothers, seductresses, and shrews need not apply. In most popular fairy tales, virtue is rewarded, and wickedness is punished with no room for redemption or change of heart.

Though Perrault’s Cinderella features stepsisters who repent their sins and are forgiven, most earlier versions of the tale feature grislier fates. In Aschenputtel, the Brothers Grimm version, the stepsisters cut off parts of their own feet to trick the prince into marrying them, but their deceptions are revealed by a pair of pigeons who peck out the stepsisters’ eyes. In the Grimms’ version of Snow White the heroine’s wicked stepmother is forced to dance to her death in a pair of red-hot iron shoes while her former subjects happily watch.

Other wicked women in fairy tales are thrown into ovens to burn alive, or dragged through town in barrels studded with nails pointing inward before being tossed into the ocean to drown. Even characters who commit only minor sins like rudeness, avarice or vanity find themselves punished with poverty and lifelong misery, or with fantastical curses like having snakes and toads falling from their lips when they speak.

Despite (or perhaps because of) these gruesome aspects, I’ve loved fairy tales since I was a child. But as I grew up, I also came to appreciate imperfect protagonists, and stories where the main characters learn and grow as the tale progresses. I like it when characters earn their Happily Ever Afters instead of just deserving them right from the start.

I enjoyed writing Ember, my retelling of Cinderella in which the heroine differs from the character she is based on in that she’s definitely not all sweetness and light. When I decided to retell another fairy tale, I thought it would be fun to work with a well-known story in which the original main character is arrogant, clever and deceitful, and is ultimately rewarded for those qualities instead of punished—Puss in Boots.

Catriona, the heroine of my novella, Cat’s Tale: A Fairy Tale Retold has more in common with the feline protagonist of Puss in Boots than she does with pretty, passive princesses like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, or Snow White. At the start of the story, she’s a clever, vain and deceitful woman who cares more for her shoe collection than she does for any person in her life. But that all changes when an evil ogre curses Cat into the feline form her personality so resembles.

In order to break her curse and save the kingdom, Cat teams up with Julian, a handsome and honest miller’s son. Though Julian doesn’t know his feline friend is really the beautiful Lady Catriona, Cat falls in love with him. But even if Cat can regain her human form and save the kingdom, can a good man like Julian ever love a woman who has been as selfish and wicked as Cat?

If you’re interested in reading Cat’s Tale, you can buy the novella at Carina Press, Amazon, B&N, and other online booksellers, or you can leave a comment on this post detailing what you think about happy endings, and what kind of characters deserve one to win an ebook copy of Cat’s Tale.
You can learn more about Bettie and her novels on her website – her blog – Twitter – Facebook

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~*~*Giveaway*~*~

Bettie generously offered an ebook copy of Cat’s Tale: A Fairy Tale Retold to a lucky commenter.


All you have to do is leave a comment and answer Bettie’s question: What do you think about happy endings, and what kind of characters deserve one?
(You can read our full giveaway policy here)

Please leave us a way to contact you.
(Email address or twitter name – no way to contact you – no entry).

This giveaway is open worldwide!

Giveaway ends on Saturday, July 9 and we will announce the winner on Sunday.
Good luck!
Copyright 2010-11 Book Lovers Inc.

About Susi


Susi is a geeky vegetarian from Gemany. She just finished university and now works as a civil engineer in steel construction. Besides her reading addiction she also knits like a maniac while listening to audiobooks. Susi also blogs at the Secret HEA Society.

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17 Comments

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  • Birgit June 28, 2011 at 6:11 am

    This is too funny 🙂 I just posted fairy tale quotes on my own blog!

    Anyway, as to the question, I have to say that while I do like happy endings I prefer honest endings (which are usually NOT happy) in books. As to fairy tales, well, they certainly need happy endings, unless you're the evil stepmother or any other evil creature lurking about. The good and righteous people deserve happy endings. It's only fair seeing how it's those who never seem to get happy endings in real life, where far too often the "evil" ones win.

    danaan at gmx dot at

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  • aobibliophile™ June 28, 2011 at 6:26 am

    hi Bettie! everyone deserves a happy ending – be they in real life or in stories. even the bad ones deserve something better. i'm too much of an optimist to think otherwise. thanks for being gracious. c",)

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  • Blodeuedd June 28, 2011 at 6:29 am

    Truth be told many fairytales are so bitchy. I have been following this blog and she has read many of the oldies. And like you say some of those people does not even commit any grave sins and still they suffer. Unfair.

    But everyone should have the chance to change and get a HEA 🙂

    blodeuedd1 at gmail dot com

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  • debbie June 28, 2011 at 8:46 am

    I occasionally like happy endings. I feel that the characters that deserve them the most, don't often get them. Like maybe, a side character, who is always helping out the hero, but because he isn't quite as good-looking, etc. that he doesn't get one.
    twoofakind12@yahoo.com

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  • draconismoi June 28, 2011 at 9:32 am

    Bettie, I just need to tell you that Ember is one of my favorite fairy-tale retellings of all time. I never could relate to those simpering sweet 'heroines' who loved to clean of all gawdawful things.

    Should you ever turn to paper publishing, I will be certain to buy a copy.

    Anyways, happy endings? Meh. They always seem so finite. "And they lived Happily Ever After." Really?

    No divorces? No children who stage a coup? No scheming politician/courtiers poisoning one of the royal pair in hopes of creating a more advantageous match after the mourning period is up?

    I'd like to think that life stays interesting long after the story ends. (Ember did a great job with that. Sure there was a happy marriage, but plenty of other things to keep her on her toes).

    cass at feministdracona dot net

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  • Bettie June 28, 2011 at 10:07 am

    aobibliophile and Blodeuedd, I'm in your camp on the happy endings. Everyone deserves a chance at a happy ending–though, of course, that ending is different for different characters.

    Draconismoi, I'm so glad you liked Ember. I'm with you on the cleaning. (What is up with that?).

    "Should you ever turn to paper publishing, I will be certain to buy a copy."
    I have a short story coming out as part of the Agony/Ecstasy print anthology in December 2011. It's a retelling of "The Little Mermaid" called "Each Step Sublime". Details on my website.

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  • Jen B. June 28, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    Honestly, I do love a good HEA. And, I do read romance for that. But I am one of the readers who can hold out through an arc to get there. I thought Karen Marie Monings Fever series was amazing and it took a LONG to time reach HEA. Just about the only characters that I can think of who don't deserve some sort of HEA are the killers, psychos and cheating dogs of some of the stories I read. If an author can find just one redeaming trait, I am willing to give the character a shot at HEA!
    jepebATverizonDOTnet

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  • shadow_kohler June 28, 2011 at 9:09 pm

    i love happy endings. im a romantic at heart. i love a story where the hero and heroine go through a lot of trails and in the end finially get there happy ending. I think the characters who go through bad pasts, or characters who get hurt by someone else, or there dumped on by others. I agree that alot of side characters in stories deserve happy endings. thanks for the giveaway. your books look and sound very good.

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  • Tore June 29, 2011 at 6:48 am

    I love happy endings especially when you know the love is real and that they were met to be together. Please enter me in contest. I would love to read this book. Tore923@aol.com

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  • Victoria June 29, 2011 at 9:19 am

    I have got to read this! Puss N Boots was my fav as a kid :).
    As for happy endings – I think everyone should get one. Even the nastiest of the nasty can be calmed with a happy ending. Thank you so much for the giveaway.

    vsloboda(at)gmail(dot)com

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  • Mare/TommyGirl June 29, 2011 at 10:20 am

    I love happy endings, but like you, I want the protagonist to have to earn it. I'm a girl who is mostly attracted to characters over plot in a book to keep my attention and if the character is interesting and flawed and still keeps trying…that's when I root for them. And I've always had a soft spot for the "villains" in fairy tales – I wonder what that says about me. Heh.

    The novella sounds interesting! Thanks for the giveaway!

    Mare
    tommygirl828 (at) gmail (dot) com

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  • Ju Dimello June 29, 2011 at 11:33 am

    I do believe that everyone deserves an HEA…at the same time, I want them to earn that too !

    In many fairy tales, usually it is done with "magic" instead of an understanding of the H/h..and when we were kids, it made some twisted kind of sense…that good triumphs over evil..and so on..

    Once grown up, I'd prefer to see something more than the HEA between the hero / heroine.. I like to see them deserve each other, earn each other's respect and understand each other before, I, as a reader, feel satisfied about their HEA!

    Thanks for a chance to win your book. It sounds fab.

    judimello AT gmail DOT com

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  • Bookwyrm369 June 29, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    I love happy endings but it's even sweeter when the apparent bad guy/girl has a change of heart and gets their own happy ending 🙂

    smaccall AT comcast.net

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  • StacieDM June 29, 2011 at 3:49 pm

    Hello Bettie!
    I enjoy happy endings but they don't have to be perfect with everything wrapped up in a tidy bow. I like flawed characters who make mistakes. There usually won't be a perfect HEA for them. I believe the story more if there are still some issues left on the table. As long as the couple works to be together and both want to focus on the same things, I consider that a HEA. I do like the hero and heroine to earn it though. They should both be stronger by the end of the story. Great question!

    user1123 AT comcast DOT net

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  • mbreakfield July 5, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    I almost always require a HEA for my enjoyment of a book or movie. I think all characters, except psychopaths and irredeemable, characters deserve a HEA.
    marlenebreakfield(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  • Janinay July 6, 2011 at 1:38 am

    I like happy endings! Characters who have sacrificed out of love deserve a happy ending! 😀

    ninmonster at rocketmail dot com

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  • Steve Tempo July 9, 2011 at 9:56 am

    I guess I prefer "meaningful endings" which can include happy endings but are not limited by them. I also like happy endings or "meaningful endings" to befall unexpected characters….:-)

    steve.tempo@gmail.com

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