I've just spent a lovely couple of days reading the first novel in Juliet Dark's series, The Demon Lover . It's the story of a folklore professor who's built her career writing and teaching about incubi. (Incubuses?) When she moves to a sleepy town in upstate New York, Callie McFay finds herself inexplicably drawn to an abandoned house situated in a deep, dark woods; and there's also the matter of a specter visiting her room in moonlight and shadow, the very incubus of her life's work.What I loved most about this novel was the mood. It perfectly creates the atmosphere that I loved so much about fairy tales when I was a little girl. There's danger mixed in every seduction, and each man may or may not be a threat to our heroine's safety. And rooting all of it is a sedating sexuality...
This book is paranormal of course, but I wouldn't say it's a paranormal romance. If anything, it's a gothic, in the great tradition of Rebecca and the books of the Bronte sisters.
And in the midst of discovering this engrossing book, I've got the new Eloisa James on my TBR. Eloisa has based her previous few books on fairy tales, and the latest, The Duke Is Mine is a retelling of The Princess & the Pea. There is a great post by Eloisa at her website about fairy tales, and so I toss this question out to you Romantic Readers:What other romances do you recommend that are either retellings or influenced by fairy tales?
