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A review by coffeeandbooks3
Crown of Briars: A Beauty and the Beast Retelling by R.L. Perez
4.0
I'm a big fan of fairytale retellings, especially Beauty and the Beast🥀. As long as there's a fresh twist added to it, I'll read it, and I'm happy to say this one delivered.
This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling and part of an interconnected standalone series. Sybelle is a princess who is promised to the Wraith King as part of a bargain struck years ago, where a human wife is sent to the Shadow Court in exchange for protection against his deadly shadows. What no one realizes is that these brides are actually being sacrificed to help break a curse. The curse has trapped the Unseelie fae in their monstrous forms, preventing them from shifting into their more human-like Seelie forms.
I loved the different ways magic was portrayed, from the magical gemstones to the sentient castle. It helped by opening doors to places you needed to be rather than where you wanted to be, and it assisted Sybelle in the library whenever she was looking for specific books. She also has a sassy best friend in the form of a dragon🐉 named Azure, with whom she can communicate via a special gemstone.
Sybelle and Varius, the Wraith King, are wary of each other. There is no trust due to the history their kind has endured, especially Sybelle. She has heard all her life about the atrocities the fae in the Shadow Court have committed towards her people, and thus has been trained to kill the king. But once she sees a different side of the Court and fae she was taught to fear, she questions everything she knows.
The romance was just the right amount of sweet and spicy. They learned to trust in each other, and I'm glad that whenever they had an argument or doubts, they would listen to each other.
What I like about this series the most is that so far, in both books, I haven't seen the twists coming. I suspected some things, but I was thrown for a loop when the reveals were not what I expected.
If you enjoy spicy, fairytale retellings, this is a great one to read. Can't wait to continue the series with the next one being a Snow White retelling with Sybelle's other best friend.
Thank you NetGalley and Willow Haven Press for the ARC.
This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling and part of an interconnected standalone series. Sybelle is a princess who is promised to the Wraith King as part of a bargain struck years ago, where a human wife is sent to the Shadow Court in exchange for protection against his deadly shadows. What no one realizes is that these brides are actually being sacrificed to help break a curse. The curse has trapped the Unseelie fae in their monstrous forms, preventing them from shifting into their more human-like Seelie forms.
I loved the different ways magic was portrayed, from the magical gemstones to the sentient castle. It helped by opening doors to places you needed to be rather than where you wanted to be, and it assisted Sybelle in the library whenever she was looking for specific books. She also has a sassy best friend in the form of a dragon🐉 named Azure, with whom she can communicate via a special gemstone.
Sybelle and Varius, the Wraith King, are wary of each other. There is no trust due to the history their kind has endured, especially Sybelle. She has heard all her life about the atrocities the fae in the Shadow Court have committed towards her people, and thus has been trained to kill the king. But once she sees a different side of the Court and fae she was taught to fear, she questions everything she knows.
The romance was just the right amount of sweet and spicy. They learned to trust in each other, and I'm glad that whenever they had an argument or doubts, they would listen to each other.
What I like about this series the most is that so far, in both books, I haven't seen the twists coming. I suspected some things, but I was thrown for a loop when the reveals were not what I expected.
If you enjoy spicy, fairytale retellings, this is a great one to read. Can't wait to continue the series with the next one being a Snow White retelling with Sybelle's other best friend.
Thank you NetGalley and Willow Haven Press for the ARC.