Spelled by Truth and Tresses

Enemies Ever After #10

by Rebecca L. Garcia, C.M. Hutton

She’s the daughter of a goddess, deadly and beautiful.
He’s a powerful warlock, unable to love.
She’s the key to his salvation and he's the lock that will keep her trapped forever.

Rapunzel has only ever wanted one thing–to find love. But when she's cursed to kill anyone she loves with a single kiss, Rapunzel guards her heart, ensuring she'll never hurt another person. But when a powerful warlock finds her, she's taken away from everything she knows.

Malachi wants vengeance against the goddess, Arayna, and Rapunzel is the key. Locked her away in a tower, he plots to destroy her. But she's more powerful than he first thought and keeping her contained is becoming increasingly difficult.

Games of revenge and love are deadly, especially when it can end with one kiss.

Spelled by Truth and Tresses is one of ten books in the Enemies Ever After series, a collection of standalone short novels featuring enemies-to-lovers fairy tale retellings with a touch of steam.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Magic

166 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 10, 2024

About the author

Rebecca writes dark fantasy romance, usually with gothic elements and always with morally gray characters. Originally from England, she lives in Texas with her husband, and two sons. She loves anything with enemies to lovers, slow burn, and lots of angst.

Find out more about Rebecca and check out her books here:
Website: www.rebeccagarciabooks.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/rebeccalgarciabooks

Reviews

[Ana-Maria Derzsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

◦ I've received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ◦

⮞ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 ⮜
The story contains a few characters and side characters but the story is being told from Rapunzel's side. I felt most of the characters were alright, but some of the interactions between them felt flat making me not care much abut them.

⮞ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝-𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 ⮜
The world-building was darker and gave you that impending doom feeling. I wanted more details of the academy they were at because I felt that was the point from where all the trouble started. But also the tower I felt it was a bit brushed aside and not much information was provided.

⮞ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝/𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 ⮜
I liked the way the story started. I thought it would be such a great dark Rapunzel retelling, but unfortunately, I felt the story ended up straying away from that main point and turned mostly into a very smutty story about two fated teenagers. The dark elements of the story were what kept me reading because I wanted to see how it will end. While I enjoy spice in books, for how short this book was the scenes were way too many, or so I felt it personally. I enjoyed the dark side of the story and I so wanted for the story to keep going on that part and not be a bit all over the place? I'm still unsure what the tower story was about, and why her a siren and phantom were fated? Or why her dad died in the end, I felt her dad's death would be a triggering point of finding more secrets but sadly It wasn't. I felt the story touched quite a lot of important information without developing it more so it remains on that dark rapunzel retelling vibe we got in the very few pages.

⮞ 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞/TW ⮜
The story has some darker scenes, like loosing a parent, killing someone and them being decayed, abuse. The romance in the story is smutty and I'd say is round 4 pepper flames. There's also the "pet" nickname.

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Review Policy

[Allyse Reinauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had big expectations for this book and wanted to love it so much, but it fell flat.
It was a quick and entertaining read, though it was lacking some structure and clarity. I think it felt rushed like it could have benefited from an additional round of editing.
I like both of the authors’ styles, but the plot had gaping holes and jumped around a lot which can be expected in a novella, but it wasn’t always an informed departure from one thread to the next.
I’m not saying don’t read it because it has great parts, I just wish they had used their full potential to bring this promising plot to life.

[Danae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this book could have done well as a full length fleshed out novel, instead of the short one that it is. Don’t get me wrong it’s impressive what they packed in such a short amount of pages. It’s also the main issue with this book, there was too much and not enough pages that things fell to the wayside only to be resurrected near the end, but I’ve completely forgotten that it was a thing. I kept being tossed out of the story because certain phrases felt like maybe it was a full length novel but they cut out the chunks that were relevant.
It’s an interesting take on a more paranormal Rapunzel that tried to be dark and gritty, but other then everything is either black, white or grey, I couldn’t tell you anything about the world or the magic system or about phantoms or sirens, which is sad because I’d love to be able to do that. I want to get excited about a Rapunzel retelling where she’s a siren and Prince Charming isn’t charming he’s a phantom that’s a little possessive and demanding.
I wanted to learn more about the Black Lily coven that died in the tower like we know literally nothing about it yet they kept talking about it like it was something important even so much as making a project on it (which again fell to the wayside because I think they had maybe three interactions where they weren’t immediately going into sexy times).
This book has a lot of potential unfortunately the short pages did it a disservice.
⭐️3
💧2

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Besides the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and verb tense issues, this story felt very chaotic. Transitions between chapters were sometimes very lacking, and it wasn't anyways clear why a certain part was included in the story, like a scene served neither the plot nor character development. I liked the characters more than another book in this collection, but they didn't always feel very coherent -- though I suppose you could blame that on the two being immature teenagers with immature desires and personalities. I did enjoy the dark twist on the typical Rapunzel story, along with the magic system/species built into the world. The descriptions bothered me a bit, either due to word reuse/misuse or only describing the colors black, gray, and white (unless they were eyes; those did get color descriptions.) Also, very little world building actually took place, leaving me confused about logistics, e.g. where the different characters live and sleep. Overall, it was an intriguing story with some editing issues and what felt like only superficial effort into creating the setting for the story.

[Lia Lovelace · Rating 3 out of 5]

strong start! i enjoyed the pacing, and quickly fell into the world of Zellie and Cade - especially as someone who can find fantasy harder to get into. as a Tangled lover, i enjoyed this take. although the last mhhh….40% went a little downhill? i cant put my finger on it but something was missing or misplaced. the plotline became too speedy? the subplot felt inauthentic? upon reflection i cannot write it out but that time was spent skimming. maybe my initial imagination of this story as a full length story would have worked better to flesh it all out? i dont really know. not a v strong argument ik, but there was just…something… 🤨 thomas? the mean chicks? or Elanore? gahhh- ??
the MCs relationship was a little instalovey than i had thought (moreso emotionally than physical bc their pull made sense), but i cant rlly fault that too hard for a <200 word story so i digress ✋🏽🙂‍↕️

[Chaos · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED IT!!!!!!!!! I adore Zellie and Jax is dreamy because dark, broody, and mysterious is such a flex. Out of all these books in the series, this one is the shortest and my second favorite!!! Oh it was so good. Not a huge complicated plot but still creepy in the way of Zellie dealing with her powers and the repercussions. It was disgusting how her mother treated her especially after her father's death. Even though it wasnt touched on, I dont think her father's death was a suicide. Not the vibes I got from how everyone acted. Another reason I loved this story so much was the lesson in accepting all parts of yourself. We all have darkness and light within us and we need to accept all parts or else it'll hurt us in the end. Zellie had to learn that. Not only was Jax there for her but her friends too. I definitely want to pick up other books by these two authors.

[Remy Wells · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a fun time reading this and I liked, but it felt rushed. I felt like there were lots of things that weren’t explained leaving plot holes. I was left confused over how things worked in the world and with the characters. The romance between Zellie and Jax felt like it was trying to be enemies to lovers, but we never saw the enemies part.

[Ashley Martinez (ilovebooksandstuffblog) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spelled by Truth and Tresses

A short fast-paced dark academia romance that was full of spice. There was a bit of enemies to lovers romance in there as well as possessive MMC, hate/love, and a bit fairy tale like romance.

[Georgea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Jax and Zellies relationship. This was so good, I love their dynamics. I wish this book was longer, and it explored the academy more. I would have loved to found out the mystery of her father’s death. I don’t typically read novellas but I really enjoyed this one.

[Emma Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible, dark & twisted retelling of Rapunzel with just the right amount of spice to not overshadow the story, but still keep you on your toes! Also, there’s a library scene… 🫠🤤

[Lynne]

I wasn't able to finish it this time, but I plan to give it another try in the future when I'm in a better frame of mind for it.

[H.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a lot different from the others in the series. I don’t really have too many words for it.

[Charlotte Andrea✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and delicious just as I expected!

‘“Most would be taken under your spell. (…) Yet I am immune.” (…) “Gods, it’s hard just being close to you,” he said, releasing a heavy sigh. “That darkness inside of you, it calls to me.”
I smirked as the dynamic shifted slightly. “Maybe you’re not as immune as you think.”’

🖤 Gothic Rapunzel retelling
🖤 Sirens, phantom and witches
🖤 Magical Academy setting
🖤 Mysteries
🖤 Enemies to lovers 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Dark themes so check TWs!

Really like the MCs and their banter/romance/spice as well as Josh🔥 Everything that was in this short story I loved and enjoyed, just wished for a bit more.
If it had been a bit longer to explore more of the world and magic systems in the beginning as well as the characters. There are still questions that wasn’t answered and that bothers me not knowing if they will ever come. The ending felt a bit rushed.

Thank you to Rebecca L. Garcia and C.M. Hutton for the eARC! All opinions are mine and made voluntary.