Emily Casey is a writer from Tallahassee, Florida who chases two crazy kids around the house all day before collapsing in front of her computer. She writes everything from fairy tales to zombies, whatever's exciting to her, and just hopes someone else out there likes it. Her debut novel The Fairy Tale Trap is a young adult fantasy about a snarky teen trapped in the tale Beauty and the Beast.

This post is part of Emily's blog tour. The next stop in the blog tour is at Expected Abberations.

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A beautiful girl is hated by her mother. A prince is cursed with an ugly appearance. A poor boy takes a risk to seek his fortune. A princess waits for true love.

We all love the magic in fairy tales. There’s something about the perfectly white skin and red lips of a princess, the single rose that brings fortune in disguise, and the deal-with-the-devil motif that makes us hungry for more.

But is it the magic that makes fairy tales magical? Look at the first paragraph. Each sentence describes a fairy tale, but couldn’t you tell each of those stories without magic?

Take a look at Tia’s book, The Sevenfold Spell. Yes, there’s enchantment and fairies, but really this story is about a girl whose prospects of marriage have been taken away by those in power. My book, The Fairy Tale Trap, has an enchanted forest, pixies, and spells that give my heroine some nasty surprises. But it’s really about a teenager that is taken from her home and is fighting to get back.

Now, I personally love to play in magical worlds. I’ve loved fairy tales ever since I could sit on my granddaddy’s lap long enough to hear “the end”. To me, the fantasy part of a story is like the chocolate in a chocolate cake. The cake is a vessel that carries the bitter cocoa and turns it into something moist and sweet. Can you have a cake without it? Sure. But it’s not chocolate. I typically roll my eyes at yellow cake and say, “Now, WHY would you make a cake without chocolate?” (But hey, some people like it that way. Weird.)

But you wouldn’t eat plain cocoa powder, either. Just like you can’t have fantasy without a good story to carry it. When I talk to a friend about a great book, I usually give the cocoa part of the story. “It’s about a girl that gets trapped in the story Beauty and the Beast. There are all these weird spells that she has to break and an enchanted forest she has to get through.” But as I’m describing it, I know that I’m leaving something out. I know I’m not doing the book justice. So I usually just end with, “Well, it’s really good. You have to read it.”

And I think the part I can’t describe is what makes the story worthwhile. The cake part. Sure, we’re chocolate people on this blog, but some readers like pineapple upside-down cake and others like angel food.

But the part that makes a book “a favorite” is the people in it. It’s a character that struggles with something we can relate to. Those are the magical books.

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The Fairy Tale Trap is a YA fantasy about a sarcastic/spunky teen who gets trapped in Beauty and the Beast. The book trailer can be found here. And here are some sample chapters.

What makes a book magical for you?