The 10th Kingdom

Virginia is a waitress in modern New York, and her father Tony is beside her when a magic mirror pulls them both through into the Nine Kingdoms. It is a parallel dimension where figures from Snow White, Cinderella and other classic tales have lived for generations as real people.

Getting home means finding allies. They team up with Wolf, a werewolf prince under a curse that keeps him locked in his beastly shape until he finds true love. His throne has been taken by a sorceress who used dark magic to seize it, and Virginia and Tony must help him win it back.

This is portal fantasy in the adventure mode, with a New York sensibility rubbing against a fairy-tale world drawn at length. The humor is dry and the tone is wry, and a romance runs alongside the quest. The story reworks Grimm-style fairy tales for a modern audience.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote it under the name Kathryn Wesley. Expect a brisk, playful read that keeps a sense of wonder alongside its cynicism, with a quest structure that moves from one fairy-tale setting to the next.