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A review by matmatmatty
Spellbound by Georgia Leighton
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this early!
This story is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but with a few twists. I'm not going into too much detail here since some of those twists weren't in the blurb and I actually really enjoyed finding them out (even if it was very early on in the story). But overall, I found this story enjoyable but lacking.
The overall story was enjoyable - I wanted to know how this was going to end and whether our characters would be triumphant and that did keep me reading. It isn't a mystery exactly, but the nature of this kind of story has you thinking of ways the curse might be broken and hoping that things go well for our characters.
I really enjoyed the character of Selhah - I wish we had had more time with her, and explored her character (and her backstory) more. Meredyth was also a really interesting character and I feel like with her input we didn't really need a POV from the queen, as she gave us a lot of insight into court life and what was going on in the castle. I wish we got a little more from Talia - she seemed like a really interesting character but we got so little of her as a character that it felt like a shame.
The pacing of the story skips a lot of time. When our princess gets cursed, we go from the day of her birth to around a year or so later, and then keep skipping years at a time (with characters being mentioned/introduced and then dying or not being consequential to the plot). It does make sense within the story (especially since we are spanning across 17 years) but at times it felt a little jarring, when I just got used to being in that time and then we skip ahead.
The ending was a little lackluster in my opinion - I think it makes sense how it ended like that, since our characters have been dealing with this for 17 years, and things wouldn't just magically go back to normal immediately. But I do wish we had gotten a little more at the end.
I think this had a lot of potential and fell a little flat for me, but if the idea of reading a retelling of a fairytale intrigues you, then give this a shot. I found the writing style quite good (and I will give props for appropriate use of stays, and also no 'i hate corsets' scene - very happy for that!).
This story is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but with a few twists. I'm not going into too much detail here since some of those twists weren't in the blurb and I actually really enjoyed finding them out (even if it was very early on in the story). But overall, I found this story enjoyable but lacking.
The overall story was enjoyable - I wanted to know how this was going to end and whether our characters would be triumphant and that did keep me reading. It isn't a mystery exactly, but the nature of this kind of story has you thinking of ways the curse might be broken and hoping that things go well for our characters.
I really enjoyed the character of Selhah - I wish we had had more time with her, and explored her character (and her backstory) more. Meredyth was also a really interesting character and I feel like with her input we didn't really need a POV from the queen, as she gave us a lot of insight into court life and what was going on in the castle. I wish we got a little more from Talia - she seemed like a really interesting character but we got so little of her as a character that it felt like a shame.
The pacing of the story skips a lot of time. When our princess gets cursed, we go from the day of her birth to around a year or so later, and then keep skipping years at a time (with characters being mentioned/introduced and then dying or not being consequential to the plot). It does make sense within the story (especially since we are spanning across 17 years) but at times it felt a little jarring, when I just got used to being in that time and then we skip ahead.
The ending was a little lackluster in my opinion - I think it makes sense how it ended like that, since our characters have been dealing with this for 17 years, and things wouldn't just magically go back to normal immediately. But I do wish we had gotten a little more at the end.
I think this had a lot of potential and fell a little flat for me, but if the idea of reading a retelling of a fairytale intrigues you, then give this a shot. I found the writing style quite good (and I will give props for appropriate use of stays, and also no 'i hate corsets' scene - very happy for that!).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy
Minor: Child death, Confinement, Miscarriage, War