Category: YA

Enchanting the Elven Mage

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This is a book that I read recently and loved. It’s a standalone that hits all the major Sleeping Beauty beats alongside an unwanted/arranged marriage trope. Aury’s stubbornness and the cultural clashes and misunderstandings made me laugh.

I enjoyed the build up of the romance. Although this is a YA book, it was a little more on the steamy side than most YA books, though there wasn’t anything explicit. I’d say it’s more appropriate for older teens and up.

If you have KU it’s free to read. You can check it out here.

I had trouble talking about this without giving away spoilers, so if you want to read the official description, I’ve pasted it below.

Perfect for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Cruel Prince, this stand-alone fantasy romance about a human princess and her marriage to a royal, elven warrior will keep you up all night!

A human princess. An elven mage. A betrothal bound in a curse.

Today, Aury learned three things: One, she is the princess. Two, she might be a powerful mage. And three, a brutal mountain elf is on his way to the kingdom for their marriage. 

Aury can’t escape her newly revealed royal parents quickly enough. If they think she is going to marry some vicious elven warrior mage, they have another thing coming. They claim she’s a mage too, but she has yet to prove it. She heads to the magic military order to get her rune-marked staff and learn everything she can. If she becomes the weapon they need instead of her not-if-she-can-help-it husband, they’ll send the mountain elf packing, right?

If they don’t, she will.

Filip is certain of three truths: One, he is bound to wed a stubborn mule of a princess. Two, the union will give his people the farmland they desperately need. Three, his nightmare of a bride has wild magic that will probably kill him before their wedding day.

But he will die before he gives up on winning her hand.

War is coming, and the first battle will be fought in the heart.

Inspired by Sleeping Beauty, this novel is set in the same world as USA Today bestselling author Alisha Klapheke’s Dragons Rising series but readers can easily start with this book. 

Get your copy today!

Some Binge-worthy Books

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I’ve talked about some of K.M. Shea’s books before because I’ve loved everything I’ve read of hers so far. The only books I haven’t quite read yet are some of the really old ones on her backlist.

But today, I wanted to talk about two connected series of hers, one of which I binged recently.

The Hall of Blood and Mercy series came out a little over half a year ago. Since K.M. Shea was releasing the series with a month between each book, I waited until just before the 3rd book was out before I started reading. This series is a loose retelling of Donkeyskin without any of the truly disturbing parts of that fairytale. I loved reading Hazel’s story in general, but the part of me that’s obsessed with fairytales geeked out on the parts that were recognizable as being from Donkeyskin.

Other than the fairytale aspect, this series was fast-paced and entertaining on so many levels. These books have the humor that is characteristic of K.M. Shea’s books that had me laughing often. The romance was adorable and I loved the world and the characters. The dynamics between Hazel and Killian were some of my favorite parts of the books, though their interactions with some of the other characters were awesome as well.

If you are in Kindle Unlimited, you can read the whole series for free. Here is the book link if you want to check it out.

The last book in the Court of Midnight and Deception series came out this month, so I started reading just before that release date. As far as I know, this one is not based on a fairytale, but I loved it just as much as I loved Hazel’s story.

This series is set in the same world as the Hall of Blood and Mercy series and it takes place just after that series ends. So I would strongly recommend that you read the Hall of Blood and Mercy series first to avoid some pretty big spoilers.

This series follows Hazel’s friend/Killian’s neighbor, Leila and the far assassin, Rigel. But Hazel and Killian make an appearance at least once in each book. I loved this series for a lot of the same reasons as I loved the Hall of Blood and Mercy series. Rigel and Leila’s relationship takes a much different path than Hazel and Killian’s, but I can’t really say which couple I like more.

This series is also free to read in Kindle Unlimited. Here’s the series link.

If you don’t have Kindle Unlimited and you haven’t tried it recently, you may be able to try it for a month free. Go here if you want to check it out. I’m not exactly sure what the time period is between trials for determining if you are eligible or if you are ineligible for trying it recently. But I tried Kindle Unlimited three times before I decided that I would read within the program often enough to make the subscription worth it for me.

A Beauty and the Beast Retelling I loved.

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I think it’s no secret that I love fairy tales and fairy tale retellings. I have several that I’ve loved that I’ll have to go through my previous reading list and share sometime. But this one is a YA version that I devoured a couple of days ago and I simply had to share it.

Similar to my retelling, this one appears to be based on Beaumont’s version of Beauty and the Beast, which is debatably the original version. Although there are other, older versions that are similar, most retellings are based upon Beaumont or other more recent versions. Technically, de Villeneuve is the actual original for what we think of as Beauty and the Beast, but the significant difference between the two is that de Villeneuve has a lot of info-dumping and unnecessary backstory that was omitted in Beaumont’s version.

Unseen Beauty takes on the unique point of view of one of the invisible servants in the castle. I feel like Amity Thompson did a great job incorporating the most important aspects of Beauty and the Beast while making the story her own with twists that were not in the original. The setting is a fantasy place with a European feel.

I have to admit that I blew off things I was supposed to be doing because I was that hooked on the story. I read this as a KU download, but I intend to buy a copy as soon as my budget allows because I know I’ll want to read it again.

My latest obsession

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I’ve been obsessing over the Kingdom of Fairytales books. The prequel shows the end of the fairy tales and the main stories take place a generation later. Grab the prequel book for free here to try it out. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read everything in the series for free.

The main books consist of a series of 4 novellas for each fairytale. Each set of 4 seems to be something that can be read without any prior knowledge of the other books, and without any serious spoilers. Though I suspect that the final set of 4 will tie everything together.

I’m not sure how to share everything I’m excited about in these books without spoiling things, so I’m sorry if I come off as too vague in my brief introductions to each part.

The books start with Sleeping Beauty which you can find here. This set of four follows Sleeping Beauty’s oldest child, Azia.

Next in the timeline, we get Blaise, the daughter of The Little Mermaid. This is the book I started with when I first discovered the series. You can find the series page here.

After that, we get Castiel, son to Little Red Riding Hood. Here is the series link.

The next set of books mixes things up because the main character was not exactly raised by Rapunzel. But Deon does have a close connection to her. Check this series out here.

In the Rumplestiltskin series of books, we get Eliana. This one threw in a twist that in hindsight I’m surprised I didn’t see coming because it is just so fitting for the story. You can find the series link here.

That’s the end of everything that is currently published, though I’ll likely come back and update the rest as they come out and I read them. It looks like every book is planned to be released about a week apart, making the time between each series of books just under a month.

The first book in the Beauty and the Beast set will be coming out tomorrow. The series link is here. I’m really excited about this one since it’s one of my favorite fairytales. Right now, I’m still on the fence about whether I want to start reading it immediately or wait until after the 4th book is available in June.

After that they have Aladdin, then Cinderella, two of my absolute favorite fairytales. Next in the schedule is Alice in Wonderland, then the Wizard of Oz, Snow White, and Peter Pan. I’ve included the links to all of these series pages under their names.

The last set of four, I’m assuming will be something original that ties everything else together and finishes the overarching plotline. It’s labeled Urbis, which is a place in the Kingdom of Fairytales world. Currently, there is no preorder link available. Looking at the schedule for everything else, I assume that the last book will be available in late December.

If you’ve read any of these books, I’d love to hear what you think. Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time,

-Amber

*Updated 1/23/21

I have now read the entire series (technically, I finished in December, but I’m only now updating this). I really enjoyed each of the individual characters’ series, some more than others. The final set of four books was good, but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the rest. I was hoping for each character from the previous series to get a point of view, but the bulk of it was in Azia and Derillian’s points of view. Although there was nothing actually wrong with the books, I think I built my expectations a little too high for the Urbis series. This was the only series without a link in my original post. If you are interested in finding it, here is the link.

I have updated the first series link to take you to the box set version of that series instead of the collection of individual books because it is less expensive than buying each book separately. Blaise and Castiel’s books are currently on preorder for the box set, so I have not updated those, but I will later. I assume all of the books will eventually be available as a box set.

A. G. Marshall’s Fairy Tale Adventures

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I recently read both available books in this series, and I’m eager to read more when they come out. Princess of Shadows is a retelling of the Princess and the Pea, but it also has elements of Sleeping Beauty. Princess of Secrets is a Frog Prince retelling that starts about where the first book left off, though it follows different characters and I think the spoilers are minimal if you want to read them out of order. I found both books to be fun reads with interesting twists on the fairy tales they’re based on. Both are currently available in KU or for sale on Amazon.

*Updated 1/23/21

Princess of Mermaids, as the name suggests is a retelling of The Little Mermaid. The main character is one of the antagonists in Princess of Shadows, so I really enjoyed seeing her motivation for why she acted so awful during the princess test in the first book.

Princess of Roses is a fun version of Beauty and the Beast. This book made me think the series is turning in a direction that it may start to be a bad idea to read the books out of order. I still think the spoilers in the later books are minimal, but some of the events made me think this won’t be the case in any future books in the series.

These books are still available in KU if you have it. If you are interested in buying these books, I’d recommend getting the box set for the first 3 to get a bit of a discount.

Have you read The Stolen Jewel?

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This new release is a fun and quick read with a fairy tale feel to it. I had the privilege of beta reading before it was published, so reading it again and seeing how it cleaned up was a cool experience. I think this book has a pretty powerful message about not letting your mistakes define you and hold you back. And I believe everyone needs to remember that sometimes.

If you’re interested, you can pick it up on Amazon or read for free in KU. If you don’t have Kindle Unlimited, they offer a free trial.

*Update 1/23/21

There are now two more books in the series. If you are interested in seeing all of them, you can go here.

Have you read this retelling of Aladdin?

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Cahraman Trilogy by Lucy Tempest

This is a magical retelling of Aladdin with the twist of having a female thief and a prince. And although there are more books to be made in this world, these three books are Ada’s complete story and I would highly recommend reading them. If you have KU, then you can read them all for free. If you don’t then you can get a free trial on Amazon.

*Updated 1/23/21

This set of three books is part of a larger series. There are now 7 books (8, if you count the one on preorder) in the Fairytales of Folkshore series. The Aladdin retelling I talked about are the first three books of the series. The next two make up a Beauty and the Beast retelling. After that is one book for Cinderella then one for Sleeping Beauty. The one on preorder is a Snow White retelling.

For this series, I would strongly recommend that you read everything in order since each later book has details that could spoil some of the earlier books’ plot twists.

I’ve read and loved all of the books that are currently available in the series.

Have you read K. M. Shea’s Timeless Fairy Tales?

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Timeless Fairy Tales

K. M. Shea is one of my favorite authors. Beauty and the Beast was the very first book of hers that I read, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Although I’m still catching up on some of her older books, I have read and loved the entirety of her 11-book Timeless Fairy Tale series. I absolutely adored her take on these fairy tales, and I have trouble deciding which story is my favorite. All of the books are free to read in Kindle Unlimed. If you don’t have KU, Amazon offers a 30-day free trial.

*Updated 1/23/21

The first three books are now available in a box set if you want to buy these books and save some money.

There are also some connected series that I didn’t mention in my original post and I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps I intended to give them their own posts and just never followed through.

The Snow Queen Saga takes place long before the Timeless Fairytales. I want to say it was centuries prior, but my memory could be rusty. The Snow Queen is a well-known historical figure in the Timeless Fairytales and the characters and events from this story are referenced fairly often with the degree of accuracy you could expect from any historical reference.

You could potentially read either series first without too much trouble. I read most of the Timeless Fairytales first since there were only a few of them out when I got hooked on the series and the Snow Queen Saga was published sometime after I started reading but before the Timeless Fairytales series was finished.

That said, I would recommend reading the Snow Queen after the Timeless Fairytales because there are some key connecting elements and you may know a little too much if you read the Snow Queen first. I don’t think it would be the sort of information that would ruin the experience, but I think it would still be better to read this second.

The last interconnected series I wanted to share is K. M. Shea’s Fairy Tale Enchantress series. I would highly recommend reading this after both other series for two reasons. One reason is that the timeline overlaps with all of the Timeless Fairy Tales series and the main character in this series, Angelique, knows a lot of things that would spoil the experience in the other books. The other reason is that this is not a complete series yet.

I’ve loved every book that is out and I’ve been eagerly waiting for the rest of the books in the series.

There are currently 3 books available. The first book starts before Beauty and the Beast in the Timeless Fairy Tales. The last book that came out almost catches up with the end of the final book in the Timeless Fairy Tales series. If I remember right, I think K. M. Shea said there are going to be 6 books total in this series and that she intends to release book 4 this year. I could be wrong, so if you are interested in when the rest of these books will be out and how many there will be, you should check out her blog.

Once you’ve read any of these stories, I would also recommend checking out her extra scenes that can be found on her website.

Book recommendation

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I’ve been mentioning books I’ve read recently in my newsletters, but I wanted to try it out on my website.

So for my first post, I’m recommending J. M. Stengl’s latest book, The Lady and the Wish. It’s a retelling of King Thrushbeard, a fairytale that I’m sadly unfamiliar with. I actually love all of the books in her Faraway Castle series, but this one is my favorite so far.

Right now, it’s free in KU on Amazon

*Updated 1/23/21

If you want to save a little money buying these books, the first 3 books in the series are in a box set.