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lunelis 's review for:
Gilded Rose
by Emma Hamm
When the author was offering ARCs, I jumped at the chance because for whatever reason, I have quite the collection of B&TB retellings/adaptations under my belt, so why refuse a chance to add another? It's always interesting to see where an author can take the basic outline of a classic fairy tale, and this does happen to be the author's second stab at a retelling. For a standalone, the read was a pretty nice experience that I got through in one sitting. The writing of the author is always very nice and I thought the approach to the beast's curse was a unique take. Most stories have the curse be a more self-contained thing, but this one speaks of something bigger than just one random prince getting a lesson beat into him with magical vengeance, so it'll be interesting to see the author explore this more in upcoming installments of this series (which, as far as I know, focus on other Dread in other kingdoms, with this couple's story being concluded).
The one thing that was a little bit of a let down about this book, like it has been with most of Ms. Hamm's work, is that I craved more details and depth, because her ideas are really great and I see amazing potential in them. There are questions left unanswered about the world, about the characters pasts, about why the plot took this step or that step, things of that sort. I think this story performed better than Heart of the Fae for me because I liked the characters better and understood their motivations better, but it still felt like the story had so much more to give. C'mon, Emma! I know you're capable of blowing my socks off with exquisite depth and detail. The world seemed really rich and interesting, but outside of its beauty, I was left wondering so many things about it and think that the curse muddling memories was a little too easy of an out to explaining things. Sure, it allowed for a level of conflict and mystery, but it also left me with a lot of questions.
Overall, I'd say it was a read worth my time. It wasn't perfect, but my qualms are probably more my preference as a reader and not necessarily inherit flaws with the story or writing. I'll probably look into the next book in the series! I hope this series has several of these "tied in but stand-alone" titles so we get to see the bigger plot regarding the alchemists unfold and maybe get more insight into the celestial beings and what not.
It is almost 4 a.m. for me as I type this, so my thoughts may not all be here, like, I didn't really go in depth about the romance (outside of Alexadre throwing her off a roof and then never explaining why he thought doing so was for her own good, it wasn't really problematic or anything, and the book is overall clean, with only a few swear words and vague references to sexuality without any explicitness), but there was nothing that stuck out so much that I feel a longer discussion is warranted at present.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. As per Booksprout's agreement, I promised a review by a certain date in exchange for the ARC, but my thoughts are all my own.
The one thing that was a little bit of a let down about this book, like it has been with most of Ms. Hamm's work, is that I craved more details and depth, because her ideas are really great and I see amazing potential in them. There are questions left unanswered about the world, about the characters pasts, about why the plot took this step or that step, things of that sort. I think this story performed better than Heart of the Fae for me because I liked the characters better and understood their motivations better, but it still felt like the story had so much more to give. C'mon, Emma! I know you're capable of blowing my socks off with exquisite depth and detail. The world seemed really rich and interesting, but outside of its beauty, I was left wondering so many things about it and think that the curse muddling memories was a little too easy of an out to explaining things. Sure, it allowed for a level of conflict and mystery, but it also left me with a lot of questions.
Overall, I'd say it was a read worth my time. It wasn't perfect, but my qualms are probably more my preference as a reader and not necessarily inherit flaws with the story or writing. I'll probably look into the next book in the series! I hope this series has several of these "tied in but stand-alone" titles so we get to see the bigger plot regarding the alchemists unfold and maybe get more insight into the celestial beings and what not.
It is almost 4 a.m. for me as I type this, so my thoughts may not all be here, like, I didn't really go in depth about the romance (outside of Alexadre throwing her off a roof and then never explaining why he thought doing so was for her own good, it wasn't really problematic or anything, and the book is overall clean, with only a few swear words and vague references to sexuality without any explicitness), but there was nothing that stuck out so much that I feel a longer discussion is warranted at present.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. As per Booksprout's agreement, I promised a review by a certain date in exchange for the ARC, but my thoughts are all my own.