Bedor, Frank.  The Looking Glass Wars

Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, is forced to flee when her vicious aunt Redd murders her parents, the King and Queen of Hearts. She escapes through the Pool of Tears to Victorian London, but she finds she has no way home. Adopted by the Liddells, who christen her Alice Liddell and disapprove of her wild stories about Wonderland, Alyss begs Charles Dodgson to tell her real story. Even though he writes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she knows no one believes her. Years go by, with Alice repressing her memories. Then royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan, determined to start a war for Wonderland's throne, crashes her wedding.

Sequels: Seeing Redd; Volume 3 not yet published

Bradley, Marion Zimmer.  The Mists of Avalon

Even readers who don't normally enjoy Arthurian legends will love this version, a retelling from the point of view of the women behind the throne. Morgaine (more commonly known as Morgan Le Fay) and Gwenhwyfar (a Welsh spelling of Guinevere) struggle for power, using Arthur as a way to score points and promote their respective worldviews. The Mists of Avalon's Camelot politics and intrigue take place at a time when Christianity is taking over the island-nation of Britain; Christianity vs. Faery, and God vs. Goddess are dominant themes.

Carter, Angela.  The Bloody Chamber

A collection of short stories, the first story, "The Bloody Chamber" is based on the legend of Bluebeard.  Other retellings in the collection include Puss-In-Boots, Red Riding Hood and others.

Frost, Gregory. Fitcher’s Brides

A retelling of the Bluebeard tale set in the 1830s, charismatic preacher Elias Fitcher, the Bluebeard figure, has set up a utopian community that prays and works while awaiting the end of the world prophesied for 1843. Into this hotbed of religious fervor comes the Charter family from the nearby town of Jeckyll's Glen. The father and stepmother succumb to Fitcher's mesmerizing preaching, but it is the three daughters-Vernelia, Amy and Catherine-who listen to household spirits and end up, each in turn, marrying Fitcher, then vanishing, except for Catherine, the youngest. In order to survive, Catherine must use her wits and the understanding passed on from her sisters

Gaiman, Neil. American Gods

Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path.

Anansi Boys

"Fat Charlie" Nancy leads a life of comfortable workaholism in London. When Charlie learns of the death of his estranged father in Florida, he attends the funeral and learns two facts that turn his well-ordered existence upside-down: that his father was a human form of Anansi, the African trickster god, and that he has a brother, Spider, who has inherited some of their father's godlike abilities.

Gemmell, David. Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow

The first book in a trilogy, Lord of the Silver Bow centers on a warrior variously called Helikaon, Aeneas or the Golden One, who's blessed by luck to have all he turns his hand to prosper.

Sequels: Troy: Shield of Thunder and Troy: Fall of Kings

Geras, Adele. Troy

The most famous war in history is brought to life through the eyes of two sisters. Marpessa is gifted with God-sight, Xanthe has the healing touch. But then, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, decides to play with their hearts...and contrives for them to fall in love with the same young warrior. (Retelling of The Iliad)

Ithaka

Klymene, a kindly servant girl who attends Penelope in her island castle while the Queen waits faithfully (for the most part) for King Odysseus' return from the Trojan War. Instead of focusing on Odysseus' fantastical journey toward hearth and home, this story remains with those the hero left behind, including his volatile son, Telemachus, and his loyal hunting dog, Argos. (Retelling of The Odyssey)

Lee, Tanith. White as Snow

A retelling of Snow White darkly intertwined with the myth of Demeter and Persephone.  In an alternate-history medieval Europe, the noble maiden Arpazia, raised in an isolated castle, finds herself the captive of the conquering general-king Draco. The only remnant of her former life is an exotic glass mirror possessed of witchy powers. She feels no connection to Coira, daughter of her forced marriage to the brutal Draco. She becomes the lover of a woodsman, Klytemno, who embodies the divine Hunter King in pagan rituals. Then Klytemno requires her to send her black-haired, snow-pale daughter Coira into the woods as a sacrifice....

Lewis, C. S. Till We Have Faces

This tale of two princesses - one beautiful and one unattractive - and of the struggle between sacred and profane love is Lewis’s reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche and one of his most enduring works. (C.S. Lewis is also the author of The Chronicles of Narnia)

Llywelyn, Morgan.  Lion of Ireland: The Legend of Brian Boru

King, warrior, and lover Brian Boru was stronger, braver, and wiser than all other men-the greatest king Ireland has ever known. Out of the mists of the country's most violent age, he merged to lead his people to the peak of their golden era.

Sequel: Pride of Lions

Red Branch

Chronicling the legendary exploits of Cuchulain, a boy of mysterious, magical parentage, a fosterling of King Conor, Llywelyn conveys the rage and strength that earn him the sobriquet "The Wolfhound of Cullen"Cuchulain.

Maguire, Gregory. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Maguire's strange and imaginative postmodernist fable uses L. Frank Baum's Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a springboard to create a tense realm inhabited by humans, talking animals (a rhino librarian, a goat physician), Munchkinlanders, dwarves and various tribes.

Sequels: Son of a Witch: Volume Two in the Wicked Years and A Lion Among Men (The Wicked Years, Book 3)

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

A reconstruction of the Cinderella story, set in the 17th century, in which the protagonist is not the beautiful princess-to-be but her plain stepsister.

Mirror Mirror

A dark and vivid retelling of Snow White transposed to the Italy of the Borgias.

McKinley, Robin. Beauty

In this retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty is not as beautiful as her older sisters, who are both lovely and kind. Here, in fact, Beauty has no confidence in her appearance but takes pride in her own intelligence, her love of learning and books, and her talent in riding. She is the most competent of the three sisters, which proves essential when they are forced to retire to the country because of their father's financial ruin.

Outlaws of Sherwood

McKinley brings to the Robin Hood legend a robustly romantic view. She renders it anew by fully developing the background and motive of each member of the merry band, from Robin's "crime" that sends him into the woods, to Marian's subterfuge as she straddles the worlds of the nobility and of the outlaws.

Rose Daughter

Almost 20 years after her well-received, award-winning Beauty (1978), McKinley reexplores and reexpands on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. This is not a sequel, but a new novelization that is fuller bodied, with richer characterizations and a more mystical, darker edge.

Spindle’s End

Much like in the original story, the infant princess, here named Rosie, is cursed by an evil fairy to die on her 21st birthday by pricking her finger on a spindle. That same day, Rosie is whisked away into hiding by a peasant fairy who raises her and conceals her royal identity. From that point on, McKinley's plot and characterization become wildly inventive. She imagines Rosie growing up into a strapping young woman who despises her golden hair, prefers leather breeches to ball gowns, and can communicate with animals. And on that fateful birthday, with no help from a prince, Rosie saves herself and her entire sleeping village from destruction, although she pays a realistic price. In a final master stroke, McKinley cleverly takes creative license when the spell-breaking kiss (made famous in "Sleeping Beauty") comes from a surprising source and is bestowed upon the character least expected.

Werlin, Nancy. Impossible

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child’s birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won’t be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents and her childhood friend Zach beside her. Do they have love and strength enough to overcome an age-old evil?  (Inspired by the ballad “Scarborough Fair”)

White, T. H. Once and Future King

The world's greatest fantasy classic is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot, of Merlyn and Guinevere, of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all others are judged.

Willingham, Bill, Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha.  Fables Series (Graphic Novels)

This elaborate fantasy series begins as a whodunit, but quickly unfurls into a much larger story about Fabletown, a place where fairy tale legends live alongside regular New Yorkers. Years ago, fables and fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella "were a thousand separate kingdoms spread over a hundred magic worlds," until they were invaded and driven into hiding and, eventually, into modern-day Gotham. And so, on the city streets we find Beauty and the Beast in trouble with the law and Prince Charming reduced to a broke cad auctioning off his royal title, while his ex-wife, Snow White, rules over the de facto kingdom the fables created. When Snow White's sister, Rose Red, disappears from a blood-soaked apartment, the Wolf, reformed and now the kingdom's house detective, is assigned to the case.

Wooley, Persia.  Child of the Northern Spring

An original recreation of the tale of Arthur--seen from Guinevere's point of view.

Sequels: Queen of the Summer Stars & Guinevere: The Legend in Autumn

Wrede, Patricia. Snow White and Rose Red

During the reign of Elizabeth I, Snow White and Rose Red live on the edge of the forest that conceals the elusive border of Faerie. They know enough about Faerie lands and mortal magic to be concerned when they find two human sorcerers setting spells near the border. And when the kindly, intelligent black bear wanders into their cottage some months later, they realize the connection between his plight and the sorcery they saw in the forest.

Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose

Yolen takes the story of Briar Rose (commonly known as Sleeping Beauty) and links it to the Holocaust--a far-from-obvious connection that she makes perfectly convincing. Rebecca Berlin, a young woman who has grown up hearing her grandmother Gemma tell an unusual and frightening version of the Sleeping Beauty legend, realizes when Gemma dies that the fairy tale offers one of the very few clues she has to her grandmother's past.