The Princess Blog

Falling for the Doomed Bride  by C.K. Beggan is the second of many ARCs I received from the villainous multi-author series, To Win a Dark Heart , which will be the primary focus of my blog posts over the next few months. The book contains a crossover of "Sleeping Beauty" and "Bluebeard,"  though it uses these stories as background dressing for the main plot, which reads like an adaptation of Pirates of the Caribbean . I personally have never understood the appeal of glorifying medieval seafaring criminals, but fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean  movies will likely enjoy it. Both protagonists are presented on the morally gray side of the spectrum rather than misunderstood , which is perfectly acceptable for a villainous retelling, though not always the most relatable choice. Although neither "Sleeping Beauty" nor "Bluebeard" took place on a ship, this book makes it work by making these fairy tales the building blocks for a seafaring adventure...

Few authors are able to pump out lengthy fantasy novels with fantastic character and world-building as quickly as Celeste Baxendell . The latest book in her Bewitching Fairy Tales series is Sands of Deceit , an adaptation of "King Thrushbeard" and "Bluebeard," two lesser-known fairy tales that rarely get adaptations. I was pleased that this story was a direct tie-in to my favorite of her books, Cinders of Glass . Instead of a sweet, naive, and reckless protagonist like Liora, this book is about the "mean girl" who bullied her, Lady Gisele, who is equally relatable in entirely different ways. Gisele is cold, calculating, and worldly with an unexpected vulnerability at her core. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her redemption arc, especially since it reminded me of one of my own books, The Stolen Slipper . Lady Gisele has just about given up on her chances of succeeding in life. She comes from a ruined family, and to top it all off, the prince she was seeking...