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A Wholesome Romance in Oz #3
Upon a Winter's Curse
Love is not for the cowardly.
Prince Lional vowed to never harm a living soul. So when the Wicked Witch cursed him into becoming a carnivorous lionman, forced to hunt animals to survive, it made him doubt his very nature. Worse, she transformed his subjects into an apple tree orchard for daring to be loyal. Lional isn’t afraid to take on the moniker “cowardly lion,” but what scares him is the thought that he may never cure his people.
After the Wicked Witch has been run from the castle, leaving a chaotic pile of dangerous wands, Lional must decipher which ones can save him and his people. But the prince needs help—even if it’s from someone who hates him from his whiskers to his paws.
Bellina served loyally at Lional’s castle until her father was caught in the curse-crossfire and turned into a tree. To save him, she has spent every waking moment studying wands and what they can do. Now, Prince Lional has reached out to her in hopes she can find the right wand to lift the curse. The catch? She’ll have to move back into the horrific castle and pretend to be married to the cowardly prince she blames for the whole incident in the first place…
Prince Lional vowed to never harm a living soul. So when the Wicked Witch cursed him into becoming a carnivorous lionman, forced to hunt animals to survive, it made him doubt his very nature. Worse, she transformed his subjects into an apple tree orchard for daring to be loyal. Lional isn’t afraid to take on the moniker “cowardly lion,” but what scares him is the thought that he may never cure his people.
After the Wicked Witch has been run from the castle, leaving a chaotic pile of dangerous wands, Lional must decipher which ones can save him and his people. But the prince needs help—even if it’s from someone who hates him from his whiskers to his paws.
Bellina served loyally at Lional’s castle until her father was caught in the curse-crossfire and turned into a tree. To save him, she has spent every waking moment studying wands and what they can do. Now, Prince Lional has reached out to her in hopes she can find the right wand to lift the curse. The catch? She’ll have to move back into the horrific castle and pretend to be married to the cowardly prince she blames for the whole incident in the first place…
282 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 27, 2025
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June 3, 2025
Love is not for the cowardly.
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Let's meet our characters:
Prince Lional (MMC): Our vegetarian cowardly lion who has his eyes set on Bellina (FMC) Well he was human before he is turned into a beast after declining to fight the Wicked Witch (she wanted his castle and he as like no, but I'm not going to fight you).
Bellina (FMC): Fierce chicken girl who is a wand expert.
Zolesha: Our Wicked Witch who wanted Wicker Castle and casted two curses: 1.) turning the prince into a beast and 2.) turning everyone else into apple trees.
Eureka: a talking cat who likes to wear clothes... what I thought was a minor character but instead she is actually quite a major plot point.
Straw: a scarecrow Glinda brought back to life. So he is alive through good magic. He kind of reminds of Pinocchio from Shrek. I'm not sure why 😂
Gillston: egotistical, doesn't take "no" for an answer siphon who tests wand by touching them.
Lintello: Gillston's lap dog... He would do anything for Gillston including turning on people and joining the witch's side.
Gloma- neutral witch, not friends with Zolesha.
The story starts with Zolesha being like "I want this castle for myself. I'm taking over" like a bad boss she is. She challenges the prince to a duel, and he doesn't doesn't want to fight her. She clearly doesn't like that and curses him to be a beast and says he will only able to eat living things. This all happened on the Winter Solstoz where good magic is weakened and wicked magic is strong, so Zolesha was mega powerful and good magic couldn't do boo about it. Our MMC is such a good boy that he takes a vow of pacifism- no sword, no meat. Well that gives Zolesha more power to do what she wanted and turns everyone into apple trees and takes over the castle for a hot minute.
Bellina, our FMC, comes back (she was out when all this happened) and finds her father and all the others turned into apple trees and blames Lional and tells him she will never forgive him. He makes an oath that that he will make things right. Eventually the wicked witch is removed from the castle and Bellina and her friends are bent on breaking the Curses (for her father, not Lional). This means tested all these wands to find the right one. It's noteworthy to mention that Bellina harbors a lot of resentment toward the prince for running away after he and the others were Cursed
Because we have the wicked witch involved in this story, it would only be fair to have a good witch- Glinda! She places a shield up to protect all inside. She will have the wand to cast the spell and only that wand can be used to nullify the spell if she needs to get into the shield. The shield will come down on winter solstoz because of the wicked and good magic thing.
Still in search for the correct wand, Lional and Bellina talk about how she can't identify the wand in question because Zolesha made it impossible to decipher the marks on the wand so no one can tell which wand is what... Which leads to them finding a Siphon (Gillston). He is supposed to resemble Gaston in the original Beauty and the Beast.
Gillston tests wands which is a painful process because he experiences the source and the consequences of the spell. The continues to be the routine: Bellina and Gillston keep testing wands .. well only a couple before Gilston calls it quits which irritates Bellina. She starts to hate Gilston more than Lional who she is getting closer to since he's trying to help Bellina more. Gillston becomes more of a hated character with each page.
After Gillston makes a move on Bellina who isn't having it, she lies and says she's engaged to Prince Lional. Oh how the plot twisted. She continues to keep up this lie by flirting with the prince. He plays along and says they will wed on the winter solstoz. Love the fake dating trope.
Gillston continues to test the wands and find the correct one. He is then greeted by a possessed crow by the wicked witch. He takes the wand that is the correct one and decides to hide it because of his jealousy.
Gloma comes for a trade. The Cursed Wands for protection on the winter solstoz. They all felt threatened so the run to Lional to tell him about the trade finding the wand that Gillston broke earlier.
Remember when I said Eureka is a major plot point? Well you find out she is a Turner, a partner with witches that are their most valuable asset. They are the only ones that can make the wands that are required in the casting of enchantments.
Bellina and Lional continue to fake-date/be engaged, but they are starting to not trust Gillston. So they pretend to write their vows to hide their scheming. I'm a sappy romance, so I loved this part. You start to see that Bellina is starting to grow feelings for Lional and forgiving him for his cowardness. The two continue to talk secret about getting a hold of Glinda.
We see Zolesha playing puppet master with the crows again. This time, she visits Gillston to convince him to pay on the wicked witch's side to get Bellina (he wants her and doesn't want Lional to have her). He agrees and now Gillston is another bad guy!
Finally, Glinda arrives and they all tell her that Eureka is a turner, the broken wand, and Gloma's visit. They come up with a plan with Glinda. They will control what the crows hear and see which will trick the wicked witch and in secret they could plan to fight back.
Lional and Bellina continue to grow closer but Bellina also is mourning her father. I liked that the author still mentioned that despite trying to be strong and taking care of everything, she still is grieving her father. I feared Belljna wasn't giving that sadness enough attention during the book.
I like how to wolves from beauty and the beast were included controlled by Zolesha. Lional and Bellina were attacked by the possessed pack and Zolesha wants them know that she will take what she wants. .
Lional found out that Gillston has the right wand but tells Lional that he will only give it to Bellina if Lional calls off the wedding and stops talking to her.
Finally it seems like Lional is onto gillston! He's not working alone. He is a spy working for Zolesha!
Lional promises not to marry or talk to Bellina until the solstoz. Gillston agrees to give Bellina the wand
Bellina knew instantly that Gillston had known which wand was right.
Want to point out the fight with Gillston, I do not think any skillet was harmed 😂
Because Lional is still taking the promise of not talking to Bellina seriously, it's hilarious to read them interacting with the cat but still talking to each other.
Now down to the last few pages:
They all meet with Gloma and a few other witches. She used the wand to bring everyone back from trees. The curse was broken at last! Hooray!
Everyone proceeds to tell Bellina how blind she is and the prince has loved her for a while.
It ain't a solstoz party until Zolesha walks in. She arrives and let Gillston out of his holding cell. Later we find out Eureka is captured by flying monkeys. And Straw! Because good magic is weakened, he just isn't alive anymore. The spell that brings his to life is temporary broken and the wicked Curse for Lional is greater.
The story continues as the battle for wicker castle begins. Witches, neutral and wicked are fighting and Gillston has arrived and ready to take down the prince. We see some character development with our prince Who is feeling brave with deciding to be in the front lines when crap goes down. Because of Gillston's desires to be better and stronger, be siphons the Curse and becomes a beast himself--having the beast strength and heart. Gillston broke the wand keeping Lional's Curse to himself.
Bellina hears Lional's cries and runs to him only to find Lional human and gillston the siphon, the beast. PLOT TWIST ✨
Bellina and Lional defeat Gillston. She outthinks him: she kept breaking wands on him and Cursed him with Zolesha's magic. Reera casts a spell to make his feet butter, and he fell into more wands.
There's still a major mystery. Where is Eureka?
The story returns from touching on the mystery of the cats safety. Lional and Bellina settle with the neutral witches regarding the cursed wands and the next step they plan.
Eureka is brought up again, and Lional proposes sending straw and his other friends to go find her.
Another mystery that was answered: how is Gillston alive? Eureka.... She was cursed to just be a cat and can't talk by Zolesha. As long as she wears the cursed collar, her magic is suppressed including her intelligence magic and Turner abilities. Zolesha did the same for Gillston. As long as the brace with wand touches his skin the curses are suppressed and his siphon abilities. This leads to Gillston continue to side with Zolesha.
The book ends with the four friends leaving to go find Eureka and Lional proposing to Bellina. And her saying yes.
It was a cute story. It was middle school age, and I found the names so cringe. But it felt like the author had some fun writing this. It was definitely something I would watch in the TV show, "Once Upon A Time"
P.S. sorry for the typos, I was typing this on my phone and very quickly. Wanted to get my thoughts out!
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Let's meet our characters:
Prince Lional (MMC): Our vegetarian cowardly lion who has his eyes set on Bellina (FMC) Well he was human before he is turned into a beast after declining to fight the Wicked Witch (she wanted his castle and he as like no, but I'm not going to fight you).
Bellina (FMC): Fierce chicken girl who is a wand expert.
Zolesha: Our Wicked Witch who wanted Wicker Castle and casted two curses: 1.) turning the prince into a beast and 2.) turning everyone else into apple trees.
Eureka: a talking cat who likes to wear clothes... what I thought was a minor character but instead she is actually quite a major plot point.
Straw: a scarecrow Glinda brought back to life. So he is alive through good magic. He kind of reminds of Pinocchio from Shrek. I'm not sure why 😂
Gillston: egotistical, doesn't take "no" for an answer siphon who tests wand by touching them.
Lintello: Gillston's lap dog... He would do anything for Gillston including turning on people and joining the witch's side.
Gloma- neutral witch, not friends with Zolesha.
The story starts with Zolesha being like "I want this castle for myself. I'm taking over" like a bad boss she is. She challenges the prince to a duel, and he doesn't doesn't want to fight her. She clearly doesn't like that and curses him to be a beast and says he will only able to eat living things. This all happened on the Winter Solstoz where good magic is weakened and wicked magic is strong, so Zolesha was mega powerful and good magic couldn't do boo about it. Our MMC is such a good boy that he takes a vow of pacifism- no sword, no meat. Well that gives Zolesha more power to do what she wanted and turns everyone into apple trees and takes over the castle for a hot minute.
Bellina, our FMC, comes back (she was out when all this happened) and finds her father and all the others turned into apple trees and blames Lional and tells him she will never forgive him. He makes an oath that that he will make things right. Eventually the wicked witch is removed from the castle and Bellina and her friends are bent on breaking the Curses (for her father, not Lional). This means tested all these wands to find the right one. It's noteworthy to mention that Bellina harbors a lot of resentment toward the prince for running away after he and the others were Cursed
Because we have the wicked witch involved in this story, it would only be fair to have a good witch- Glinda! She places a shield up to protect all inside. She will have the wand to cast the spell and only that wand can be used to nullify the spell if she needs to get into the shield. The shield will come down on winter solstoz because of the wicked and good magic thing.
Still in search for the correct wand, Lional and Bellina talk about how she can't identify the wand in question because Zolesha made it impossible to decipher the marks on the wand so no one can tell which wand is what... Which leads to them finding a Siphon (Gillston). He is supposed to resemble Gaston in the original Beauty and the Beast.
Gillston tests wands which is a painful process because he experiences the source and the consequences of the spell. The continues to be the routine: Bellina and Gillston keep testing wands .. well only a couple before Gilston calls it quits which irritates Bellina. She starts to hate Gilston more than Lional who she is getting closer to since he's trying to help Bellina more. Gillston becomes more of a hated character with each page.
After Gillston makes a move on Bellina who isn't having it, she lies and says she's engaged to Prince Lional. Oh how the plot twisted. She continues to keep up this lie by flirting with the prince. He plays along and says they will wed on the winter solstoz. Love the fake dating trope.
Gillston continues to test the wands and find the correct one. He is then greeted by a possessed crow by the wicked witch. He takes the wand that is the correct one and decides to hide it because of his jealousy.
Gloma comes for a trade. The Cursed Wands for protection on the winter solstoz. They all felt threatened so the run to Lional to tell him about the trade finding the wand that Gillston broke earlier.
Remember when I said Eureka is a major plot point? Well you find out she is a Turner, a partner with witches that are their most valuable asset. They are the only ones that can make the wands that are required in the casting of enchantments.
Bellina and Lional continue to fake-date/be engaged, but they are starting to not trust Gillston. So they pretend to write their vows to hide their scheming. I'm a sappy romance, so I loved this part. You start to see that Bellina is starting to grow feelings for Lional and forgiving him for his cowardness. The two continue to talk secret about getting a hold of Glinda.
We see Zolesha playing puppet master with the crows again. This time, she visits Gillston to convince him to pay on the wicked witch's side to get Bellina (he wants her and doesn't want Lional to have her). He agrees and now Gillston is another bad guy!
Finally, Glinda arrives and they all tell her that Eureka is a turner, the broken wand, and Gloma's visit. They come up with a plan with Glinda. They will control what the crows hear and see which will trick the wicked witch and in secret they could plan to fight back.
Lional and Bellina continue to grow closer but Bellina also is mourning her father. I liked that the author still mentioned that despite trying to be strong and taking care of everything, she still is grieving her father. I feared Belljna wasn't giving that sadness enough attention during the book.
I like how to wolves from beauty and the beast were included controlled by Zolesha. Lional and Bellina were attacked by the possessed pack and Zolesha wants them know that she will take what she wants. .
Lional found out that Gillston has the right wand but tells Lional that he will only give it to Bellina if Lional calls off the wedding and stops talking to her.
Finally it seems like Lional is onto gillston! He's not working alone. He is a spy working for Zolesha!
Lional promises not to marry or talk to Bellina until the solstoz. Gillston agrees to give Bellina the wand
Bellina knew instantly that Gillston had known which wand was right.
Want to point out the fight with Gillston, I do not think any skillet was harmed 😂
Because Lional is still taking the promise of not talking to Bellina seriously, it's hilarious to read them interacting with the cat but still talking to each other.
Now down to the last few pages:
They all meet with Gloma and a few other witches. She used the wand to bring everyone back from trees. The curse was broken at last! Hooray!
Everyone proceeds to tell Bellina how blind she is and the prince has loved her for a while.
It ain't a solstoz party until Zolesha walks in. She arrives and let Gillston out of his holding cell. Later we find out Eureka is captured by flying monkeys. And Straw! Because good magic is weakened, he just isn't alive anymore. The spell that brings his to life is temporary broken and the wicked Curse for Lional is greater.
The story continues as the battle for wicker castle begins. Witches, neutral and wicked are fighting and Gillston has arrived and ready to take down the prince. We see some character development with our prince Who is feeling brave with deciding to be in the front lines when crap goes down. Because of Gillston's desires to be better and stronger, be siphons the Curse and becomes a beast himself--having the beast strength and heart. Gillston broke the wand keeping Lional's Curse to himself.
Bellina hears Lional's cries and runs to him only to find Lional human and gillston the siphon, the beast. PLOT TWIST ✨
Bellina and Lional defeat Gillston. She outthinks him: she kept breaking wands on him and Cursed him with Zolesha's magic. Reera casts a spell to make his feet butter, and he fell into more wands.
There's still a major mystery. Where is Eureka?
The story returns from touching on the mystery of the cats safety. Lional and Bellina settle with the neutral witches regarding the cursed wands and the next step they plan.
Eureka is brought up again, and Lional proposes sending straw and his other friends to go find her.
Another mystery that was answered: how is Gillston alive? Eureka.... She was cursed to just be a cat and can't talk by Zolesha. As long as she wears the cursed collar, her magic is suppressed including her intelligence magic and Turner abilities. Zolesha did the same for Gillston. As long as the brace with wand touches his skin the curses are suppressed and his siphon abilities. This leads to Gillston continue to side with Zolesha.
The book ends with the four friends leaving to go find Eureka and Lional proposing to Bellina. And her saying yes.
It was a cute story. It was middle school age, and I found the names so cringe. But it felt like the author had some fun writing this. It was definitely something I would watch in the TV show, "Once Upon A Time"
P.S. sorry for the typos, I was typing this on my phone and very quickly. Wanted to get my thoughts out!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2025
I really enjoyed the story and characters but I think i feel in love more with Straw then everyone else. This makes me very excited for the next book and him playing a big part
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