Sapphic Fairy Tale Retellings Books in Order

The Sapphic Fairy Tale Retellings series takes familiar fairy tale bones and rebuilds them with a much more active heroine and a queer romance at the center. In the first book, Snow is not a passive princess waiting for events to happen to her. She is a young woman trying to understand her kingdom, her stepmother, and the kind of ruler she wants to be once the easy lies stop holding.

At her side is the huntress, Devana.

That pairing changes the whole feel of the story. The tension is not just about whether Snow can survive court danger. It is also about trust, protection, and what happens when the person meant to watch you starts seeing you clearly. The emotional movement is quieter than in some of Dean's more chaotic series, but it still has bite because both women are making choices under pressure.

The setting mixes castle politics with fairy tale atmosphere. Forest danger matters, but so do lessons, appearances, and the way power works inside a royal household. Snow's stepmother is more than a flat villain, which helps the story feel like a retelling with its own point of view instead of just a surface remix.

If you want a version of Snow White with more agency, more tension between duty and desire, and a romance that grows through danger rather than rescuing, this is what Emma Dean is doing here.