The Fire Rose was a nice one of Lackey's, a proto-tale of her Elemental Mages concept. I especially liked that the "Beast" is half man, half beast (the head, mostly) and this is not totally corrected--the Beauty loves him for himself, not what magic has done to him. I don't remember anything standing out as not appropriate for younger readers, but it's been a few years since I read it.
Misty has done several books with fairy tale cores, but the only one I've read is Serpent's Shadow, her riff on Snow White--set in Edwardian England, a young half-caste doctor and her late mother's unusual "pets" who are much more than they seem. I enjoyed it enough to re-read it. It does have scary bad guys, tho--the thuggee cult and one of Kali's priestesses.
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Misty has done several books with fairy tale cores, but the only one I've read is Serpent's Shadow, her riff on Snow White--set in Edwardian England, a young half-caste doctor and her late mother's unusual "pets" who are much more than they seem. I enjoyed it enough to re-read it. It does have scary bad guys, tho--the thuggee cult and one of Kali's priestesses.