Now I already wrote about the books of hers that I adore in my Favorite Fairytale Books and Favorite Fairy Books which gives you a clue as to which she genre she excels in.

In fact her most famous novel is the Cinderella retelling, Ella Enchanted (its movie also helped shoot Anne Hathway to movie fame). Though I never read the book, which I really should since its so beloved, the premise follows the fairy godmother’s gift of sweet obdience bestowed on Ella causes a lot of grief in her life so Ella leaves her home of wicked steps and journeys to reverse the spell.

From there her catalogue of fairytale retellings only grew with The Princess Tales series and created an inspired expansion of the world of the Never fairies in Neverland with her Disney fairies trilogy. That one was a particular treat since J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan was her favorite growing up. You can see this as you read as she faithfully retains the Barrie charm and dark undertones in the books.

While she continues to put her own spin on classic fairytales like Snow White and Red Riding Hood, she also went forth to create her own original medieval inspired one with The Two Princesses of Bamarre and Ever that takes a turn to more mythological-historical fiction set in Mesopotamia when a young girl falls for someone who is in a different caste and has a different faith from herself.

What has made Gail Carson Levine’s works so endearing is that though there is a layer of magic over everything she plumbs the depths of humanness. The doubts, fears and insecurities are tempered by growth, hope and belief in love. Not just romantic but friendships, family and self-love too. You must also admire her strong female heroines. They’re clever, they’re compassionate and they always save the day even if they’re scared. It’s truly three dimensional without being in your face about it because again, Gail writes humans. The males and females are treated equally and that’s part of what makes her romances and friendships so endearing as they go on their journeys across kingdoms battling off ogres and dragons as they do so.

And not only is she still churning out new books today, (The latest being A Ceiling Made of Eggshells, a historical novel set during the Spanish exile and Inquistion of non-Catholics) but her website has her writing blog as well as tips and workshops for anyone else who wants to follow in her footsteps.