Read from 16th July – 11th August 2023
Synopsis: The Wicked Fairy. The Mistress of All Evil. The villain of Sleeping Beauty goes by many names, but where did she come from?
Myravelle Spinner grew up in a tower with only spiders, spindles, and stone walls for friends while her mother spun gold for the king. She wondered why her mother refused to teach her fairy magic until one fateful mistake led Myravelle to become the healer in the king’s Sleepy Wood Company…
Drained from years of waking soldiers from a cursed sleep, Myravelle must now choose a new canvas–a man whose life she drains with a dagger to fuel her healing powers. A ritual binds her to Byzarien Dumont, who loathes fairies for the fires that left his family impoverished and his body riddled with scars. His burning hatred causes Myravelle’s enchantments to wilt, leading the king to threaten her mother’s life.
Byzarien can only see Myravelle as a beautiful spider who strings men along her web, while Myravelle considers love a weakness for the king to exploit. With their families in danger and soldiers rotting in a death-like sleep, the pair must learn to trust one another before the dark magic spinning in Myravelle’s soul unravels once and for all.
The Wicked Fairy never asked to become a monster…
Bookish Things: 217 pages. The cover is devine and is what initially attracted me to the book. Then I realised it was a fairytale retelling and I was hooked.
Where to buy: Amazon on kindle for $10.59.
My Review:
Bookshelves: fantasy, arc-netgalley, indie-author, 3-star-review, a-lil-sexy, romance-ish
I went into this story fairly blind, having only briefly glanced at the blurb and being drawn in by the beautiful cover and the promise of a fairytale retelling.
What I got, at least in the first 75% of the book, was a dark, twisted and kind of kinky story that surrounded an intricate, broken and flawed set of characters. There was layer upon layer of each being peeled back for the reader to enjoy.
I enjoyed Byzarien and Myravelle’s story quite a lot, not even really putting the new story to the tendrils of the original until after the 75% mark. The first three quarters of this book is where the story really shines.
I liked the sweet glimpses into life, the peek into a world of gods and beliefs that seem somewhat crude and simultaneously quite complex. Some elements of the magic was handled well, others leaned heavily on tropes we know well and are well used. Some character choices were obvious nods to the original, others not so obvious until later.
Are there plot holes and flaws, yes, but those didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of the story. At least not to start with.
However, after the 75% mark, what should have been a gut punch to the feels, felt rushed and utterly cosmetic. I felt absolutely no emotional connection and that really ruined an otherwise solid 4 star book. Unfortunately all the lovely build up and character development was lost in a single scene and the book just couldn’t recover.
If you like fairytale retellings, or even the Disney worlds of Maleficent, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty etc then you may enjoy this story. However, if you’re looking for something that is 100% true to the originals, look elsewhere.
**Note: I was given an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley**
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