"Tales of Ever After" anthology

This is a collection of 16 stories by various people, some of which stories were good and some of which were okay. The stories include:

"Cinders" by Kendra E. Ardnek: Cinderella, but with a person who's actually a cat |who's actually a person|. And a Cool Old Wizard Guy. I liked this one.

"At the Corner of Elm & Main" by H. L. Burke: In which a lamppost becomes sentient. This one was decent.

"Tears of the Sea" by Savannah Jezowski: The Little Mermaid, but not really. I enjoyed the twist that |the main character's human obsession doesn't end in romance|.

"Steelhand" by Ashley Capes: Sleeping Beauty... sorta? But with an evil alchemist and a hero with a mechanical hand. Imaginative.

"King or Beggar" by D. G. Driver: Basically just King Thrushbeard.

"The Girl Who Talked to Birds" by Kristen S. Walker: It's about a girl who talks to birds. Apparently part of a larger series. This one is fairly good.

"The Princess and the Stone-Picker" by Sarah Ashwood: Feels like it could be an obscure fairy tale. I didn't like it much, but that's just because initially stuck-up protagonists annoy me, no matter how much better they get.

"Wake the Moon" by Annie Louise Twitchell: This one was good. It's a fairly well-executed modern one involving personified celestial objects.

"The Greatest Adventure" by J. M. Hackman: Slaying the dragon! And (surprise surprise) the dragon is actually evil.

"Third Princess" by Emily Martha Sorensen: In which the first two royal siblings also succeed. I liked it fairly well.

"A Week After Midnight" by Alex McGilvery: Basically a "what happens next" for Cinderella. Wasn't my favorite, but I didn't dislike it.

"Being Seen" by Gretchen E. K. Engel: In which a girl is invisible for no discernible reason and tries to find love despite the fact nobody can see her. |And then a blind guy shows up.| Decent, I guess?

"The Quest for a Wide-Awake Princess" by Lia London: A prince tries to find a normal princess who doesn't have horrible trouble sleeping (coughPrincessandthePeacough) or horrible trouble not sleeping (coughSleepingBeautycough). This is one of those stories that lightly pokes fun at fairy tale tropes.

"How to Hide a Prince" by E. J. Kitchens: What if, instead of turning him back human, kissing the frog prince turned you into a frog? And what if nefarious people tried to get you to kiss the frog prince? Not great, not terrible, this one.

 

"Believing Fairy Tales" by Arthur Daigle: Sarcastic shrine tender guy has his shrine invaded by Evil Guys who think there's a magic sword hidden inside. Plot twist: |there is a magic sword hidden inside, sealing a terrifying monster|. Further plot twist: |The shrine tender guy is the terrifying monster, bound in human shape by the magic sword|. This is definitely in the top three best stories in this collection, in my opinion.

 

"The Loathly Princess of Edimor" by L. Palmer: Not my favorite. A princess tries to escape marriage by having a witch turn her into a swan. It doesn't go super well.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T overall. There are some stories that fall below that.

4 stars, as an overall rating; I'm not going to bother giving each individual story its own star rating.

(Endnote: Somehow we managed to pick up the seventh one of these first, and incidentally also the cleanest of the ones I've read. Not to say the others weren't good, but their content level is higher. [EDIT: This isn't the seventh one, it's the fourth. I'm not sure where I got "seventh" from.])