FAIR PERIL

by Nancy Springer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1996

While walking beside a Pennsylvania pond, storyteller Buffy Murphy--flabby, dowdy, fortysomething--encounters a talking frog: Prince Adamus d'Aurca, who was ensorcelled (""trans-frogrified"") a thousand years ago by the coldhearted Queen of Fair Peril (Faerie) for refusing to become her lover. Yet Buffy, still trying to come to terms with her toad of an ex-husband, wannabe politician Prentis and his new Trophy Wife, Tempestt, is reluctant to kiss Adamus and thus return him to human form. Instead she consults her friend, the gay, leather-clad librarian LeeVon, who finds her a useful book (he produced them magically from blank templates; the contents change according to the needs of the reader). There, Buffy finds a spell that she accidentally activates to trans-frogrify LeeVon; being gay, he has to find a man to kiss him. With another slight mistake, Buffy turns Prentis into a frog. Then her rebellious, scornful teenage daughter, Emily, kisses Adamus, who becomes a stunningly beautiful man--and Emily's slave; together they run off to the ""Mall Tifarious,"" where a small shift in perception brings them into the Realm of Fair Peril--whose single-minded Queen has no intention of giving up Adamus. Witty, whimsical, and enormously appealing, if lacking the thoughtful underpinning that made Larque on the Wing (1994) such a delight.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Avon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1996

Categories: FICTION