Weekly Spotlight - Retellings

Looking for a fresh new take on an original? Check out these newer retellings that's sure to give you a new take on some popular stories. 

 

Lucy Undying

In this epic and seductive gothic fantasy, a vampire escapes the thrall of Dracula and embarks on her own search for self-discovery and true love.

Her name was written in the pages of someone else's story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula's first victims.

But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire, and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula's clutches--and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants.

Her undead life takes an unexpected turn when, in twenty-first-century London, she meets another woman who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris’s family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they’ll do anything to stay in power.
Lucy has long believed she would never love again. But she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris, while Iris is mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by forces from without. Iris's mother won't let go of her without a fight, and Lucy's past still has fangs: Dracula is on the prowl again.

Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?

My Review

The Wildest Things
In this sapphic Snow White retelling, if Snow is to save her kingdom from being ravaged by the Blight, she’ll have to kill the Evil Queen’s daughter…if she doesn’t fall in love with her first.

When her glass coffin unexpectedly shatters, Snow White awakens to anything but a dream. The land is rotting. The animals have mutated. In the twenty years that have passed since Snow bit into the poisoned apple, the kingdom of Roanfrost has transformed from a luscious wild land to a blight-ravaged nightmare. In search of answers and a way to restore her kingdom to its former glory, Snow sets out on a dangerous journey that will test the strength she never knew she had.

Friends will become foes.
New alliances will form.
The Queen with the blood red lips will stop at nothing to seize her power as well as her heart.

If Snow has any chance to survive and restore not only her kingdom, but all of Garedenne, her only option is to become the Seasonkeeper and access the life-giving magic that will heal the plague. But the path to becoming the Seasonkeeper is more treacherous than she could ever imagine—because the wild things have awakened and Snow’s darker impulses yearn to set them free.

My Review

Apples Dipped in Gold

Orphaned at a young age, Samara is left under the care of her three, horrible brothers. Just when she thinks she cannot take another day of their abuse, a handsome prince offers for her hand in marriage.

Samara’s brothers agree in exchange for a large dowery but on her way to her new kingdom, her carriage is ambushed by Lore, the wicked Prince of Nightshade.

Samara believes that the fae has snatched away her chance at freedom to punish her for her crimes against his kind but punishment is only half of Lore’s plan.

The truth is that the Elven Prince has pined after Samara for seven long years. She is all he can think about—a toxin in his blood. Can the Prince of Nightshade, whose power over poisons rivals none in The Enchanted Forest, manage to find a remedy or will he succumb to her love?

My Review

My Contrary Mary

Welcome to Renaissance France, a place of poison and plots, of beauties and beasts, of mice and . . . queens?⠀

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Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she's a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is an Eðian (shapeshifter) in a kingdom where Verities rule. It's a secret that could cost her a head—or a tail.⠀
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Luckily, Mary has a confidant in her betrothed, Francis. But after the king meets a suspicious end, things at the gilded court take a treacherous turn.

Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis are forced to navigate a viper's nest of conspiracies, traps, and treason. And if Mary's secret is revealed, heads are bound to roll.  

My Review

Mountains Made of Glass

Mountains Made of Glass 

by Scarlett St. Clair

Book: Fairy Tale Retellings #1

Publisher: Bloom Books

Pub Date:  March 7, 2023

Genre: Adult, Retellings, Fantasy, Romance

Format: eARC

Source: Publisher

Book Links: Goodreads Amazon

"Could you love me?" he whispered. The question stole my breath and burned my lungs in the silence that followed. 

 
I wanted to answer, to whisper yes into the space between us, but I was afraid. 
 
All Gesela's life, her home village of Elk has been cursed. And it isn't a single curse—it is one after another, each to be broken by a villager, each with devastating consequences. When Elk's well goes dry, it is Gesela's turn to save her town by killing the toad that lives at the bottom. Except… the toad is not a toad at all. He is an Elven prince under a curse of his own, and upon his death, his brothers come for Gesela, seeking retribution. 
 
As punishment, the princes banish Gesela to live with their seventh brother, the one they call the beast. Gesela expects to be the prisoner of a hideous monster, but the beast turns out to be exquisitely beautiful, and rather than lock her in a cell, he offers Gesela a deal. If she can guess his true name in seven days, she can go free. 
 
Gesela agrees, but there is a hidden catch—she must speak his name with love in order to free him, too. 
 
But can either of them learn to love in time? 

 
 

My Review: Gesela is minding her own business in the woods and getting wood for the fire. Until she gets cornered in the woods and made to kill the frog in the well to break the curse.   

 

Gesela is thrown into the well and the frog is kind enough to show her a way out. She really wants to just save this frog and not have to hurt it, but in the end it goes south. The frog she killed wasn't just a frog, but a prince.  

 

Woken in the middle if the night, Gesela is surrounded by the elven princes. They want to punish her for killing their brother and so send her to live with another brother who they call the beast.  

  

Gesela and the beast clash. Lots of back and forth and her hate for him is shown. So how in 7 days is she to find out his true name and say it with love.   

 

She gains letters and asks how to find his true name. The mountains and the story of how it came down to someone having to say his true name with love.   

 

I have a love/hate with this book. I love retellings and have fallen for Scarlett's other books. However, I am not a fan that the beginning didn't have more of a backstory. But the romance concept just seemed not the standard I'm used to with Scarlett's other books. It was rushed and just didn't seem right for them to go at each other to in love in a week. I had a hard time with that part.   

 

Overall, I enjoyed it but its not my favorite by Scarlett. But I look forward to reading more by her. 

 

My Rating:

✪✪✪