Buttercup Baby by Karen Fox

What happened to the fairy tales?by Anonymous

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April 26, 2003: I really enjoyed Ms. Fox's last book PRINCE OF CHARMING and was expecting something like that. I was mistaken. The story starts off really well: Ariel, dethroned queen of the flower faeries, is watching over the high king's baby when she decides she wants one. This is where the story begins to falter. Ariel is similar to those troubled teen girls who want babies because it will be someone who will always love them, little realizing that it's a lot of hard work to care for one. Along comes Rand Thayer, who will be Ariel's partner in making her dream come true, but she won't let him take care of 'her' child. Ariel is really starting to push my buttons now. She's selfish too, huh? Even Rand lets her get away with misleading him! It's really bad. But I will give Ms. Fox some credit, since she has more stories about faeries planned. Maybe she'll do better next time

humorous fantasy romanceby harstan

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September 16, 2001: Queen of the Fae Titania bans from court subordinate Queen of the Pillywiggins Ariel for daring to defend Robin Goodfellow to her Highness. Though upset after centuries of loyalty to Titania, Ariel realizes she crossed the line because the biased Titania hates all half-breed Fae. Still King Oberon eases some of Ariel?s anger and hurt by asking her to check up on his grandson while she is in the mortal plane.

In the realm of the Fae, babies just do not exist so Ariel is surprised by her reaction to seeing the infant. She wants her own baby and she chooses a friend of the Goodfellow family Rand Thayer as the sire. Not knowing the ways of humans, Ariel bluntly asks Rand to father a child with her. He rejects the idea at first, but soon cannot resist their attraction. However, a pregnant Ariel causes unique problems when her hormones go wild.

BUTTERCUP BABY is a humorous fantasy romance starring two warm characters. The essence of this tale and its predecessor (see Prince Charming) is that the audience believe in the realm of the Fae so that everything that occurs to and done by Ariel works in support of that concept. The fun story line provides the audience with humorous escapist material but also contains a serious subtle sub-theme of prejudice against an entire subspecies that stands as a reminder to the reader that Arab-Americans must be allowed and encouraged to join in our collective grieving.

Harriet Klausner