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A review by annettebooksofhopeanddreams
Bluebeard and the Outlaw by Tara Grayce
4.0
Usually I start a series and then somehow forget to finish it. I don't know why that always happens to me. I know that some people read the last book in a series slowly, because they don't want it to be over. It seems that my solution is to simply not read the book at all. However, I had only 2 hours left today and I wanted to complete one more prompt for an april readathon and this book was the perfect fit. Short enough and a fairytale retelling, my favorite trope.
I was extremely positively surprised by this book. Neither Bluebeard nor Robin Hood are among my favorite fairytales and yet this story works amazingly well. The way the fairytales were blended was brilliant and to make sure our villain got a chance to redeem himself the author added few extra layers to the story. The result was a mix of an outlaw robbing without understanding the consequences, a duke with a lot of mistakes to atone for and some faerie magic and monsters.
Although Robin is not the kind of heroine I usually like, I quite enjoyed her and her story. And that's mostly because she had something endearing. Or maybe it's because I like the form of confidence bordering on arrogance, both in women and men. I think it's mostly because she's not just blindly doing things, but she thinks things through. She takes risks, but calculated ones. And when she messes up, she's not too stubborn to say sorry.
I also really loved the romance in this story. It's not the obvious kind of romance, although as a reader you do kinda know who is gonna end up with who, but Grayce also never rushes is, never forces it, never lets her characters go too fast. It means that a lot of the actual romance and falling in love eventually happens off page, but I don't mind that. I already was invested in those two people as a pair way before the epilogue and extra short story anyway.
I know I'm off to order myself the story of the Fae librarian and his human wife. I need to get to know them!
I was extremely positively surprised by this book. Neither Bluebeard nor Robin Hood are among my favorite fairytales and yet this story works amazingly well. The way the fairytales were blended was brilliant and to make sure our villain got a chance to redeem himself the author added few extra layers to the story. The result was a mix of an outlaw robbing without understanding the consequences, a duke with a lot of mistakes to atone for and some faerie magic and monsters.
Although Robin is not the kind of heroine I usually like, I quite enjoyed her and her story. And that's mostly because she had something endearing. Or maybe it's because I like the form of confidence bordering on arrogance, both in women and men. I think it's mostly because she's not just blindly doing things, but she thinks things through. She takes risks, but calculated ones. And when she messes up, she's not too stubborn to say sorry.
I also really loved the romance in this story. It's not the obvious kind of romance, although as a reader you do kinda know who is gonna end up with who, but Grayce also never rushes is, never forces it, never lets her characters go too fast. It means that a lot of the actual romance and falling in love eventually happens off page, but I don't mind that. I already was invested in those two people as a pair way before the epilogue and extra short story anyway.
I know I'm off to order myself the story of the Fae librarian and his human wife. I need to get to know them!