Looking for a book, REALLY bugging me...

[Spartan3141]

When I was a teen in the late 90s, I remember reading a fantasy novel about what follows Happily Ever After. The boy climbs the tower, defeats the bad guy, gets the magic sword, blah blah blah... He gets back to the king and finds out the reward wasn't what he envisioned. The promised daughters hand in marriage was to the youngest, not the eldest like he thought. His noble title is the newest, weakest one, and his castle is a crumbling ruin at the least favored edge of the kingdom. So the other 75 % of the novel involves falling in love with a disgruntled stranger, rebuilding a crumbling, HAUNTED, ruin with limited funds and workers always fleeing. Plus other weird stuff happens. By the end of the book he finally comes to terms with his now complicated life still being better than he could have hoped for as a peasant, with a title, castle, and pretty wife that's finally starting to like him. What the heck was this book?!

 

[PaulMmn]

Mercedes Lackey has been writing and re-writing fairy tales. Some of the stories re-imagine the traditional story.

Then there're the tales of the 500 Kingdoms. She asks the question: "Where do Fairy Godmothers come from?" And answers it!
Search for >Five Hundred Kingdoms (book series)<

Many aspects of "Happily Ever After" are explored!

 

[Immortality]

Wow! PaulMmm...how did you do that? You must of read a lot of books? Amazing!

 

[PaulMmn]

Wow! PaulMmm...how did you do that? You must of read a lot of books? Amazing!

I don't read as many as I used to-- The Internet cuts into my reading time. ): Need to sign off and read more!
The main thing is remembering the stories and being able to recite the plots and, hopefully, remember the author and title of the book! Google and Wikipedia help a lot!
It also helps to have a few favorite authors and re-read your favorite books! These are 3 of my favorites:
"Way Station" by Clifford Simak
"All the Colors of Darkness" by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
"Time is the Simplest Thing" by Clifford Simak