Fairest, by Gail Carson Levine

I love a good, believable fairy tale. I don't particularly like those that seem entirely too far-fetched. But then, I tend to read the kinds of things that I write (realistic type stuff.).

Anyway, Fairest is the Snow White story...only believable. It's honesty at some of its finest. I love it when the message is finely woven in. The message here is that physical beauty is only skin deep and it is fleeting when you aren't true to yourself.

Will teenager's get that? Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, it's a wonderful story.

From the publisher's blurb...

I sang an aria.

Or so I believe. I have no one to tell me the truth of it. I was abandoned when I was a month old, left at the Featherbed Inn in the Ayorthaian village of Amonta. It was January 12th of the year of Thunder Songs.

The fairy Lucinda has once again given a dreadful gift. This time it's a mysterious magical mirror.

The gift is disastrous when it falls into the hands of Aza, who never looks in a mirror if she can help it. In the Kingdom of Ayortha, Aza is most definitely not the fairest of them all. Many spurn her. Many scoff at her. She keeps out of sight.

But in a land of singers, Aza has her own gift, one she's come by without fairy intervention: a voice that can do almost anything, a voice that captivates all who hear it. In Ontio Castle, merry Prince Ijori is drawn to it, and vain Queen Ivi wants to use it for her own ends. Queen Ivi would do anything to remain the fairest in the land.

In this spellbinding tale filled with humor, adventure, romance, and song, Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine invites you to join Aza as she discovers how exquisite she truly is.