Fairytales Slashed

Fairytales Slashed

by Megan Derr

Fairytales never grow old, because there is never an end of new ways to tell them, new ways to see them. In this first volume of many to come, see what happens when a humble blacksmith fights a duel, a prince conspires with bandits, and a lonely thief seeks shelter in a lone tower.

See a goblin try to save his brother, and a tutor watch over his perfect princess, while a shy prince braves a mountain in the name of love. See what happens when a runaway prince must be tracked down, when dark rumors surface a gloomy castle, and when a young man saves a little girl, and a lonely soldier hunts down a band of robbers.

See a stable boy save his best friend, and a prince save his mother, while a humble gardener faces down a terrible beast and a poor young man befriends a troll. Watch what unfolds when a sad young man is bound to a toad, and a prince confronts an evil witch, and a quiet mage seeks to break a terrible curse.

Genres: Fantasy, M M Romance, Romance, Anthologies, Short Stories, LGBT, M M Fantasy

472 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 24, 2008

About the author

Megan is a long time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the internet.

meganderr.com
patreon.com/meganderr
meganderr.blogspot.com
facebook.com/meganaprilderr
meganaderr@gmail.com
@meganaderr

Reviews

[Argona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in the mood to read fairytales and M/M romance, and I quite enjoyed reading these lovely fairytales, some original and some retellings with very interesting twists. It was a very nice touch that some of the fairy tales were actually connected and built upon each other. A few even became my favorites, since I found them very enjoyable and memorable. I am going to mention these favorites and a few others that I liked the most.

“Brightleaf”: An adorable romance that develops between a human healer and a half-human Troll hunter who was constantly a victim of prejudice.

“The Soldier”: A sweet love-story between an ex-soldier who has deserted his army for understandable reasons and happens upon a stranger in a forest full of bandits and rescues him.

“The Toad Prince”: One enjoyable retelling of The Frog and The Princess, with very interesting twists when it comes to both The Prince and The Princess that is supposed to kiss him and a very clever use of magic and spells.

I think these stories have the potential to be written as much longer novels and I would love to read such version.

Also, “The Rose Bush” was an interesting retelling of both Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. “The Troll” was also a cute retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with a pair of adorable twins running around and exhausting their caring older brother who in serious need of some help.

“The Curse” deserves to get mentioned too, for its very unique ending.

Overall, I recommend this lovely collection to fans of M/M romance that like me, enjoy fairytales very much and love reading new retellings.

[Jyanx · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this selection of fairy tale retellings. The fairy tales used were varied, and I liked the different spin the author brought to them. I also liked how some of the fairy tales were interconnected, and built upon each other. Not all of them, but enough to make it interesting. Sweet, and not smutty, but I didn't mind that so much. I liked the romance to them. Just what I was in the mood for.

[Deeze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a solid 4 star read when you want to re live all those Fairy tales from the past but with a slight twist lol. No sex on page.




Main Gauche

A sweet story. Would of liked a little closure with the step father and son. Also I found it hard to believe Dagger had no idea who Tan was. But still a sweet fairy tale. 3 stars

The Rose and the Fox

A delightful twist on Sleeping Beauty. 3.5 stars

The Tower

Rapunzel this time. A interesting version, better than the original lol. 3.5 stars

Brightleaf

Not a fairy tale I recognise so I'm assuming this ones original. I loved Thorley. He both amused me and had my heart aching for him. Wonderful to see a match that is more than skin deep. Best one so far, but I would dearly love this one to be expanded. I want a glimpse of the life these two led. 4stars

Perfect

A nice enjoyable little story, but not really anything to mark it out. 2.5


The Ogre of
the Black Mountain

A nice simple little fairy tale. Loved the shy prince that gets his man lol. 3 stars

The Librarian's Tale This one ties into The Rose and the Fox. Sadly it feels like there is a lot missing. A nice start, but bringing in Reynard and Briar just left me feeling confused. 2.5 stars

Rumour A darker tale this time. Very interesting and original for a fairy tale. 3.5 stars

Damsel in Distress Another related story, this time we meet Von, Thorely's human brother. A delightful old fashion tale with a rescued Damsel, a bloody fight, and of course a romance. Don't let the title fool you, this is a M/M story. 4 stars


The Soldier A sweet tale. Typical of the fairytale theme. Could be extended into a full novel in my opinion. 3.5 stars


Caroline's Bridegroom This is not a M/M story, but its as sweet as the rest of the tales. 3stars

More Precious Than Gold A nice twist on the Rumpelstiltskin tale, but not much story to go with it. 2.5 stars

The Rose Bush A well told version of Beauty and the beast, only this time the Beauty wasn't the standard beauty lol. Very nicely done, I especially liked that this version didn't need to use the old near death at the end. 4 stars


The Troll Another of my favorites. A cross between Beauty and the beast and The 3 Billy Goats Gruff lol. A lovely romance story with a couple of cute kids thrown in. 4 stars

The Toad Prince Really enjoyed this version. Just wish we had a little more revenge on the bad guys. 3.5 stars

Prince Ike and the Witch A follow on story to The Librarian's Tale. We get the conclusion to prince Ike's adventure. 3 stars

The Curse This was a lovely spin on the idea of “True Loves Kiss” always breaking the curse. Very interesting. 4 stars

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed issues with this book. One I really did enjoy the majority of the stories in it. My issue with the book are more technical. Now I'm not one to point figures at people for typos and such; however, I have some issues.

Issue 1: Typos. Obvious typos. Such as things like spaces left out and letters transposed. These are things that should be caught by spell check or simple review. If the author is interested I can point out the ones I noticed. It's a shame these stories contain such pointless mistakes.

Issue 2: Fanfiction is written with spaces between every paragraph. It felt like the author tried to increase the length of the book to make it seem longer by adding a space inbetween every paragraph. So while this book says there are four hundred and ninety something pages. You can probably about cut that in half.

Issue 3: The stories are sweet but unfortunately by the end of the book a lot of the characters start to feel similar. Especially the female characters. Please try and variation on a female character who is not bouncy, bubble and always happy. I love the inclusion of major female characters, I just wish there was more to them.

So that aside. The stories are all very sweet, and there are some very nice twists on the traditional fairy tales and some new elements that I enjoyed. If you are looking for a book that contains sex in any substantive way don't bother with this one. There is one sex 'dream', maybe two and no major sex plots. But lots of kissing. The main theme of the book feel rather like 'true loves kiss', than simply fairy tales. That being the reason that I marked the book more as young adult than anything else.

One of the things that I really liked about this collection of fairy tales was that they were inter connected. Sometimes characters from previous stories would appear in the later stories. Or the previous stories made up the history for the later stories. Finding those little tie in's was a lot of fun. Out of the stories found between these pages there were a couple that stood out more than the others. 'Brightleaf', is the story of a half goblin who's trying to find help for his brother. Of course the only healer he finds who will help him isn't at all what he expects. 'The Troll', is the story of a young man who's parents are dead. Trying to take care of a 'farm' (?) farm as well as his two little twin brothers. My biggest problem with this story is the setting could have been stronger. There is an allusion to the main character trapping and trading his furs but other then that he does chores around the house and chases after his brothers. Slowly he makes friends with the Troll that lives on a near by bridge and eventually breaks the curse that was placed upon the troll--who isn't really a troll. However, of them all my favorite was the last story in the book, 'The Curse'. Centered around a King, whose lover was turned to stone three years previously. Of the course of the story the king falls in love with the young magician who has come to try his luck at breaking the curse. In the end of the story it is this act of betrayal which allows the curse to be lifted. This was a fairly tight story with most of the details working in, though there were still some elements that could have been tied in better. I won't go into detail as to what they were but over all this was a nice story.

Anyway, I think that's really all I have to say about this book. I am rather disinclined to read the other two volumes. While the stories were good. They were not as tight as they could have been. In a short story especially you don't need extraneous details. By the end things felt rather similar and it was easy to see what was going to happen, if the other two volumes are the same... Likewise, I would hope that Megan Derr as edited the previous volumes better. Grammar might not be my strong point but there are some things that are not hard to catch or to fix. Most editors put little squiggle red lines under them.

Cheers, I hope you all have a good weekend.

[Mandy*reads obsessively* · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
A good read if you like fairytales with a twist:)
Sweet and non explicit.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Main Gauche (4 stars): A cinderella vibe with a twist of a tournament rather than a ball. Also available as part of The Rapier Brothers, which also includes Dagger's two step-bothers.

The Rose and the Fox (4.5 stars): A prince works together with a thief/bandit to save his sister from a sleeping beauty type curse.

The Tower (4 stars): An ex-thief becomes Rapunzel's accomplice in her escape from the tower.

Brightleaf (4.5 stars): A healer helps a goblin atempt to heal his human half-brother.

Perfect (5 stars): A princess's tutor deals with an arrogant prince (a reference to the Princess and the Pea).

The Ogre and the Black Mountains (5 stars): A shy prince tries to gain the attention of the soldier he is infatuated with.

The Librarian's Tale (3.5 stars): Librarian and guard go searching for a runaway prince Briar and Reynard from "The Rose and the Fox" appear as ghosts

Rumors (3 stars): A banished prince attends a winter festival What the King did to his daughter left a sour taste in my mouth, otherwise it would have been a much better story

Damsel in Distress (5 stars): sequel to Brightleaf, Von, Thorney's younger brother, rescues a young girl from gremlins

The Soldier (5 stars): An ex-soldier turned mercenary rescues a man lost in the forest on his hunt for bandits

Caroline's Bridegroom (2.5 stars): sets up the backstory for one of the MCs in "Prince Ike and the Witch", a later story. Otherwise, it doesn't really seem to have a purpose (the only actual romance is m/f).

More Precious than Gold (4.5 stars): A sequel to the traditional Rumplestiltskin story. Where the child is grown up and meets Rumplestiltskin.

The Rosebush (4.5 stars): A mix of Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. Also available for free on Megan's website under short stories.

The Troll (5 stars): A young man raises his two three-year-old brothers and becomes friends with the nearby troll.

The Toad Prince (5 stars): Princess and the Frog with a few twists.

Prince Ike and the Witch (4.5 stars): sequel to "The Librarian" and "Caroline's Bridegroom". The prince returns to the Black Forest to defeat the witch

The Curse (4.5 stars): True love's kiss to break a curse with an unexpected twist.

[T.T. Kove · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Toad Prince: 5 stars.
The Troll: 4.5 stars.
The Tower: 5 stars.
The Soldier: 5 stars.
The Rosebush: 5 stars.
The Ogre of the Black Mountain: 5 stars.
The Rose and the Fox: 5 stars. Prequel to both Prince Ike and Librarian.
Prince Ike and the Witch: 5 stars. This is a sequel to The Librarian's Tale
Caroline's Bridegroom: 3.25 stars. A small m/f prequel to Prince Ike and the Witch.
The Librarian's Tale: 5 stars.
The Curse: 4.5 stars.
Rumors: 4 stars.
Perfect: 5 stars.
More Precious Than Gold: 4 stars.
Brightleaf: 5 stars. This is a prequel to Damsel in Distress, which I did not realize. So perhaps read this one first?^^
Damsel in Distress: 5 stars. Wonderful little short where a bounty hunter saves a girl from gremlins.

(Main Gauche is also a part of the fairytales, but it's also one of three stories in The Rapier Brothers, which is where I read it. 5 stars though.^^)

[Mandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply loved this book. I bookmarked so many stories so I can go back and reread them again and again. I can't recommend this book highly enough!

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Curse was a hot little number to finish this book. I truly enjoyed this entire book. Thanks Carey.

[Lenka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I´m on a fairy-tale-retellings kick apparently and I just loved this collection.

[Achim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories are like candies: you have to like the taste right from the start or you just take another one. I was never able to switch from Megan Derr's fairytales to something else. To stay with the picture Ms.Derr's fairytales are mostly more than candies. They are more pralines. She captures you right from the start with an opening smooth like chocolate and before you realize it she mixed some new twists into the old story like spices into a truffle, some light and refreshing like mint, some hot like cinnamon or mysterious like taste of dark red wine, some dominant like marzipan or a hard hazelnut … and now here's not only one praline but a whole box of it. Make your choice :)

Of course as in every box there are flavors you like better and some you don't need again. For me I could easily do without Tobias but then some stories later I got confused that a Troll can get to my heart so easily but it did and I couldn't get enough of a certain Half-Goblin - that story seemed to be more than a praline, it was more like a desert served as the last course of a enjoyable dinner but somehow I missed the courses before i.e. I'd like to know more about Thorley, about his life before he meet Geoffrey. At least there's another story later on where he appears again … that's another case I like about this book: some of its stories are linked, refering to another, are sequels - so until the end you still can hope that your favorite taste might appear again in another praline of that delicious box.

[Jilrene · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Oh, The Rose and the Fox is adorable."
"The Tower is a very fun retelling of Rapunzel. I liked it!"
"Brightleaf is adorable. I like Thorley and Geoffrey."
"Tobi and Ian are perfect together. Guess that's why this story is called Perfect. I love these sweet short tales. This one is a rearranging of The Princess and the Pea. Well done."
"Just finished reading The Ogre of Black Mountain. Pretty sweet story. Zayn is awesome."
"The Librarian's Tale was ok. I didn't like Jeremiah as much as Ashley. ;)"
"Rumors fooled me. I didn't see that ending. I should have, but.... It's a cute little tale. I liked it."
"What an adorable Damsel in Distress. I think Von will be very happy with Kit. :)"
"I really loved The Soldier. Grigori and Vasili are fun. I love fairytale endings."
"Caroline's Husband doesn't really fit. It is a set up for a different tale."
"Oh my gosh, More Precious Than Gold rocks. That's how a fairytale ends. Loved it!"
"The Rosebush is sweet and sad. Family sure know how to hurt you. I love that the Beast is a gargoyle. ;)"
"The Troll is super sweet. Cute little story."
"Love The Toad Prince! Wes is beyond sweet and Alton really is a dream come true."
"Prince Ike and the Witch has characters from more than one of the previous stories. I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite."
"The Curse is my favorite!"

[Julesmarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this collection of fairy tales! They're all just so beautiful and sweet and hopeful and... well, everything fairy tales should be. I know some other reviewers said that they get repetitive, so perhaps my experience was skewed because I was anticipating that, but I found the stories to be wonderfully varied and unique. Yes, they all have the same sweet predictability of the HEA, but that's one of the things I loved about them: no angst!

I thought the length of each piece was great, also. Just perfect to sneak in-between longer stories that might be angsty or disturbing or depressing or to lighten the spirit before bed.

And I loved that some of the stories overlapped enough to give us HEA's for side characters from previous stories. So much fun to get to go back and revisit the older stories like that.

[Lillian Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of fairytales that have been given a slant of gay romance.
It took a while for me to realise that these stories were all written in the same 'world', although set at different points in a timeline. Once I realised that it only increased my enjoyment. I'd have loved a map and a timeline (maybe even a family tree) to show how all the stories fit together. I'm also glad I chose to read this straight through, normally with anthologies I dip in and out over a couple of weeks.
Sweet with no sex, some were obvious in the tale they chose to tell, others not so much. Some were entirely too short, more tempting treatments of what should have been a much longer story, and in these I often found it was the romance portion of the story that was lacking.
A throughly enjoyable collection.

[Yumenouveau · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really have no idea why this book has such high ratings. Each story is almost the exact same, so after 2 it's just boring and monotonous. Flat uninteresting characters who FINALLY kiss at the end. There was honestly only one good story in the whole bunch because it didn't follow the typical plot that is in each other one. Not buying the sequels.
Oh and the typos...sooo many typos, this book would benefit greatly from a good editor.

[Plainbrownwrapper · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are cute shorts. I get more and more impressed with Derr's imagination, the more I read of hers.

These are mostly too short and insta-lovish for me to **really** get engrossed in, but as appealing quick reads they consistently do their job just fine. 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great selection of fairy tales, with a m/m twist. very well written and entertaining. I'm going to have to quit reading m/m smut though, I'm starting to want to do terrible things to my husband :)

[Megan | The Mood Read Queen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh BOY. This book was interesting.

I'll be honest with you and say that I picked this book up for three main reasons: .

1. I love me a good fairy tale retelling.
2. I love the gays.
3. I was hoping that maybe some borderline inappropriate things would happen based on the title.

Now, there were fairy tales and there gays, but as for inappropriate goings on, well...the most we got was some references to nocturnal activities and then, uh, some throupling happened in the last story. Yeah. Yeah it did.

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection. Some of the stories were retellings, while others were original stories based on some traditional fairy tale tropes. I liked the characters in most of the stories and was invested in the majority of them.

My main complaint is that the stories all felt too short. They ended quite suddenly without a lot of resolution and often after the characters kissed for the first time. I would have loved to see some of the stories receive novel treatment because it often felt like they were just getting started when they would suddenly resolve and end. There was also some inconsistency in the writing, including some dates that were confusing and didn't match up, so some revision and editing is definitely needed.

Some personal favorites from the collection are:

"Brightleaf": This tells the story of a village healer who helps a goblin save his human brother. The characters felt well developed in this particular story, and I appreciated the backstories given. It also has a sequel later on in the collected called "The Troll," and while I liked that one, I thought "Brightleaf" was better.

"Wolf-Given"/"Seventh Son": This was an interesting story about a wolf and a man who was, at one point in his life, promised to marry another wolf. Sounds weird, but it works. These two stories could easily have been an entire novel. I enjoyed the world building and the characters and wanted to spend more time with them and understand them better.

"Rumors": This story is about a listless prince who meets the jester at the court that he is visiting. There was an interesting mystery involved, and I liked the delicate simplicity of the story. It was short, but enjoyable.

"The Toad Prince": This was another story that could have been so much more. It is about the bastard son of the regent who is beaten by his younger brothers and is in love with a man from a painting, the deceased cousin of his one and only friend. I really liked the twist in this story and wanted more.

I honestly really liked most of the stories. Some felt far too short, but then the characters would show up in another story and I liked the cyclical nature of that. I wish they could have been more involved, more complicated, and didn't feel so repetitive, but I really did enjoy reading this collection and would definitely recommend it!

[Natalie H · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories but not that short. First story was about 50 pages. Was a little confused by the names (hoped it wasn’t a sausage party type thing) a nice take on Cinderella. Dagger is a peasant who enters a tournament under an alias. Epee was an unexpected but pleasant addition. Was a little gutted it ended where it did.

The rapunzel one was good. Ceasar an ex thief finds his way into the tower and befriends Zel, joining her in a scheme that will cause him pain and trouble. I liked how Ceasar was willing to do anything for a week long friendship, he’s so naive and sweet. I liked Duc as well, how much he cares for Zel and doesn’t take things too far.

Geoff and Thorley are the next story, a healer and a Goblin. Interesting as I haven’t read many goblin stories, at least romance stories anyway. These two feel a bit awkward and the ending was quite abrupt.

I felt sorry for Zayn in the ogre story, he was so sweet and determined. Torian was a bit clueless and I didn’t like the healer. Would’ve liked a bit of teasing from the family afterwards.

I liked the jester, even if the story itself is dark and twisted.

Geoff and Thorley make a reappearance in the next one, but the main focus is on Von the goblin’s brother. I liked Kit, he was easy going and intelligent.

Giles and Kenzie were sweet, a human and a troll. The twins were troublesome. Didn’t like Brent.

I liked the prince toad story, Wes was sweet and Alton was a badass. I felt sorry for the princess.

I like how some of the stories connect. Prince Ike is back heading for the forest his guardians saved him from, joined by heartbroken Marshall who left Caroline behind. Finally an explanation how Briar and Reynard got trapped in the forrest.

The final story was as sweet as it was heartbreaking. A mage trying to break a curse to free his crush’s lover. I really enjoyed the collection and I’m happy there’s more to follow.

[Kimber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this and I've still got that starry eyed, warmly smiling sort of fuzzy feeling that a good, romantic tale with a happy ending leaves once you've reached the conclusion. I enjoyed every story in this, though I'm incredibly fond of everything I've read of Megan Derr's thus far - so, I'm a bit biased - however, I do think these were all well-written.

Honestly, there were a few typos here and there that ought to have been caught before it was published, but I'm seeing that more and more lately. I hope it's not a trend that's going to continue... *shrug* Ah, well.

Back to the good stuff, though: There were a few storyline threads that followed through several of the individual stories, which I thought was clever and made for even more interesting reading. Nothing was too horribly angsty or cruel, nor too fluffy or sappy (well, not for me, anyway), and the feeling, over all, was positive. I loved several of the characters so much, though I liked pretty much all the protagonists, and the world-building was pretty good, if still in a fairy tale vein, but that's the point.

If you like fairy tales with male/male romantic storylines, you will definitely like this anthology. I very much did and plan to get the next one in the series as soon as I'm able.

[Juna Ratnam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually like short story collections but Megan Derr's Fairytales Slashed Vol I was like catnip. I couldn't keep away. "Main Gauche" was an excellent Cinderella retelling, down to the sword and dagger set. I really loved "Brightleaf" because you could actually see the healer and the goblin getting to know each other. "Rumours" was perhaps the most like a fairytale, what with the tunic like the night sky and the court jester and the repetition. "The Soldier" was nice but that's to be expected--I've always been partial to royalty in disguise. I loved the premise of "More Precious Than Gold" but Rumpelstiltskin's original plan was icky. I was rooting for the troll in "The Troll" all along, of course. The twins were adorable and I wanted to see more of Giles' homesteading. Again, I loved the premise of "The Toad Prince" but it was a wee bit too much like instalove for me. I loved the concept of "The Curse" too.

[Justyna Małgorzata · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. 'Main gauche' was definitely my favorite, the others were mostly enjoyable, though not so much as the first one. Some of the romances could use a bit more time for development, they felt a bit rushed and lacking. I loved the angst in "The curse" and I'd kill for some sexy scenes including all three of them - that story left me a bit disappointed it ended with only a true love's kiss :D

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only complaint about any story Megan Derr has ever written is that there isn't more. The worlds and characters are enticing and draw you in almost immediately and this skill is never more apparent than in a book of short stories. Imagine my delight when I realized that they are all connected in small ways... It's like playing fan service to itself ^.^

[LWM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but sweet, these are unique takes on established and rumored fairy tales.

As always, quirky twists to stories that are distinctly, endearingly entertaining, and very Megan Derr make for a couple hours of relaxing reading. I liked that I recognized extensions or epilogues to many of her short stories and novellas. Derr is a great storyteller.

[Chrissi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection of clever fairytales. The writing wasn't *perfect* and after a while they did become a bit predictable, but I really liked how so many of them were connected, and the elements/hints of the original stories.

[Mixeura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable and precious.

Overall, I'd give this anthology a 3 stars, but a few of these stories were so cute I decided to upgrade it to 4 stars.
I do wish sometimes the ending was a bit longer, just to appreciate the fluff a bit more.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just lovely!

I love the way the stories are so different and yet how many are interwoven and complement each other, finishing each other’s story. As stated, a lovely series of stories that I could read over and over. Thank you!

[DFZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved these fairy tales. Some drew heavily from existing fairy tales, some pulled the tropes together into a new story. Some stories ended but then later were continued so everyone got their happy ending.

[Missp · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely set of stories that are interwoven together.

A lovely set of short stories that are interwoven in a universe of shared fairytales. Megan’s creativity is amazing. I just wished there was a little bit more to each of them.

[jennifer Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful set of stories

Each story was a credit to Megan Derr's incredible imagination. What I enjoyed even more was how the stories intertwined. As always, I am impressed.