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[katara]

Her Dark Enchantments by Rosalyn Briar

Sypnosis

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…


Review:

Love having a mixture of two fairytales blended into each other? A blended tale of Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel and a dash of Wicked sprinkled in to offer a blended tale.

I love coming across books with their version of the story. Often they are beautifully blended with other fairytales offering up tales that are perfectly crafted with worlds and characters that pop off the pages and draw you in. That is what any author wants - to draw the reader into their world and keep them turning the pages until they have reached the very end.

For this story, the characters and world-building are unique. A world filled with the magic of Sleeping Beauty where if a tree limb falls the person or village falls into a deep, nightmarish sleep that only can be awakened by Dormrya trees, magical trees enchanted by the fairies to protect their realm.

Ever wondered how Maleficent came to be? Well, you are about to find out. While Disney has told their version of Maleficent made to make her character a bit more sympathetic to the viewers, Myravelle was not given the choice of sympathy. She was thrust into the role of Wicked Fairy. All she wanted is freedom. Freedom for herself and freedom for her mother who is made to spindle yarn into gold for the king. Myravelle's magic can be channeled by runes. When she finds a man by her canvas, she awakens him by cutting a rune upon his chest and combining their blood. The man awakens with a wave of pleasure - yeah, not going into details there. I will leave it to you, the viewer to decide how. Needlessly, this ritual binds the two together.

Byzarien, on the other hand, is hardened. He has seen war, he has seen his brother die, and his family living in poverty. He knows that his meager soldier salary is never going to be enough to uplift them from it. This leaves him broken and unhappy. When he is placed into a slumber, it is Myravelle who awakens him and binds him through magic.

I loved the characters, the world-building, everything. Each character is unique in their own right. None of them are perfect but deeply flawed and each trying to find their own way in the world. The problem is that they are shouldered a reputation that they are forced to carry. This is what happens with Myravelle. She is a character broken and placed back together. A character who sees love as nothing more than unnecessary. She wants to gain freedom not only for herself but also for her mother who is forced to spin yarn for a greedy king. She is not meant to be a sympathetic character, but she does come across as one. She is a character that tugs at your heart. She never asked to become Wicked but she has no choice but to play it.

Byzarien - I don't know. I didn't feel any connection to him. He seemed one-sided and just boring. I could not find anything I really liked about him.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was really interesting take on three different tales. The author offered something that could interest all lovers of fairytales and delivered that promise.

Thank you to the following: Netgalley, the author, and the publishing company for giving me a chance to read this novel. The opinions written are my own.

Genre:

Fairytales, Retelling, Fairies, Fantasy, Magic Realism, Netgalley

Stars:

4.6 out of 5