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Bound by Briar: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast
Beauty wants answers.
Saving her father’s life lands Evanna in the haunted castle of Roseal and a thorny tangle of secrets. A twisted Beast rules here, served by ancient ghosts. They might be just who she needs to fight the invaders in her kingdom—if she can free her peculiar allies of their curse.
Unfortunately, they can’t tell her anything about it. Speaking the truth means a terrible end for Beast and ghost alike, but there is one unlikely castle servant willing to risk the game of half-truths and lies to free Roseal. Against all obstacles, Zare must convince Evanna to love the Beast and break the curse. But the more time he spends with Evanna, the more he realizes he’s not ready for the end . . . or to let her go.
This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast , with clean, slow-burn romance and page-turning plot twists. First book in an interconnected world of fairy tale retellings, which can be read alone or together.
Saving her father’s life lands Evanna in the haunted castle of Roseal and a thorny tangle of secrets. A twisted Beast rules here, served by ancient ghosts. They might be just who she needs to fight the invaders in her kingdom—if she can free her peculiar allies of their curse.
Unfortunately, they can’t tell her anything about it. Speaking the truth means a terrible end for Beast and ghost alike, but there is one unlikely castle servant willing to risk the game of half-truths and lies to free Roseal. Against all obstacles, Zare must convince Evanna to love the Beast and break the curse. But the more time he spends with Evanna, the more he realizes he’s not ready for the end . . . or to let her go.
This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast , with clean, slow-burn romance and page-turning plot twists. First book in an interconnected world of fairy tale retellings, which can be read alone or together.
473 pages, Hardcover
Published June 18, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 27, 2024
I was positively impressed by the concept for this retelling of "Beauty and the Beast," it's unique, has well-developed main characters, and a plot I haven't found in hundreds of retellings I've read.
This is the story of a master chef called Zare in service to the royal family of Drenda, now a ghost haunting Roseal Castle. He's a friendly, smart, and personable ghost, beloved by the kitchen staff with whom he trades cuisine secrets and still cooks with. The protection of the queen has allowed him freedom around the castle, although it's not all roses for him, because there is someone hostile to him: crown prince Kasar, who hates him out of prejudice.
When Drenda loses an unequal war, the castle people find themselves under a curse that traps them at Roseal with Kasar turned into a beast. Per the standard B&B rule, they need the love of a beautiful maiden to break the curse, but they have to wait long until they find such a maiden. Enter Evanna, not at all a typical Beauty but a difficult guest from the start, and Zare finds himself tasked with playing host and guide to her, to help Kasar in courting her to win her love to end the curse. Naturally, things don't run smoothly, and Zare, Kasar, and the whole of Roseal find their lives have become really interesting with Evanna living with them. How can they break the curse if they can't tell her about it as per the geas placed on them? What if she sets her sights on the "wrong" man?
My favourite plotline was, without a doubt, the relationship between Zare and Kasar. I can't think of any other B&B book where friendship overshadowed romance, as it happened here. I wasn't able to care about the romance, if I'm being honest, but seeing Kasar and Zare argue, talk, commiserate, scheme, banter, take and give counsel, help and defend each other, and even fight, was stupendous. These two were so wary of each other in the beginning, but at the end they were the dream bromance I wish was more common and as deftly done in books. For the first time in hundreds of retellings read, I can tell I have found a retelling that proved to me that "Beauty and the Beast" can be a redemption story about male friendship. I'm still in awe of it. Perhaps it's just my little heart that beats at the rhythm set by fairy tales and other readers won't see it the same way, but that's how it is for me, and I would've rated this book 5 stars on that alone.
Why don't I, then? Well, let me count on my fingers . . . The fey, Evanna, the epilogue.
It's going to be somewhat spoilery to elaborate on the above, so you can turn away right here.
I felt the fey were too much cartoon villains in spite of the story laying out that, in fact, they did have a good reason to be resentful of Drenda: they had been ousted from their land and massacred. Any peoples that suffered through this have a right to feel like thus, but instead of acknowledging the genocide, they're made to be utterly evil. They are portrayed as mindless orcs, vermin, that are evil because they simply are and always were. Who or what made them evil? It's never explained. They were expelled from their land because they were evil, always were. They come back and become the ultimate evil because they are evil, always were, and the revenge is just a plus, a cherry on the cake. Too simple and one-dimensional, isn't it? But the thing is, even LOTR's orcs had a reason for being so utterly detestable: Sauron. Here, there's no reason given for the fey being evil fey, an omission that makes the world feel poorer and underdeveloped.
Then comes Evanna. I don't mind that she's no Beauty, because although Beauty being so sweet and kind and caring is a key characteristic, the reason she is able to see beyond Beast's exterior, that doesn't mean she always has to be portrayed as sweet and meek. Disney's Belle, for one, has a hot temper that the fairy tale's Beauty does not, but she still has her same core character. Evanna, though? She is dangerously close to a Stronk Wimmenz caricature, she quickly goes from inquisitive to plain nosy and invasive, she's abrasive when there's no reason to be, is plain rude, and has the men grovelling to her for their mistakes when she doesn't apologise for hers, she turns a deaf ear to warnings, and acts Too Stupid to Live in at least two occasions. I can't see how on Earth could Kasar possibly have fallen in love with this brat, it was too unbelievable that he went from pining for his lost princess to deciding this difficult and unlikable woman was the love of his life. At least Evanna's interactions with Zare make sense and lay the ground for what is to come, but her thing with Kasar was implausible, and the ending was beyond the pale. I think this was a case of creating a love triangle where one of the involved simply has to fall in love because plot.
I liked the ending, I truly did. But I didn't love the epilogue, because it was another excuse for Evanna Worship than the solid wrap-up it should've been. The epilogue should've been that bit where the end of the war is explained a bit, and at least mention what happened to the fey, because it can't be that the Roseal battle was all it took, and what happened with the Sedaharians too. Explain what the current political landscape is like after the rebellion. It wouldn't have taken more than a paragraph or two, it didn't have to be lengthy. It's a kicker that, it being Kasar's POV, he wouldn't even bother sparing a thought to this! He can't be so lovesick after all this time and only think of going to grovel before Evanna once again. His decision about the throne also doesn't make sense, because at no point before are we given to understand Oram is family, and now it suddenly turns out he is. So very convenient, and only to have Kasar stay celibate so he can pine for Evanna for all of eternity. At the very least there should've been a mention of going to pay his respects to General Lashiri's grave, I'd have thought he went to honour her for her great work in his favour. Really, the epilogue missed many chances and left several loose threads.
I'll keep this in my large B&B collection, for the lovely Zare/Kasar dynamics. It was worth the read.
Update September 2024: The author offered a free copy of this retelling, with a new cover and a different ending, that I grabbed out of curiosity.
Unfortunately, the alternate ending is even worse, way worse, than the original ending. In this alternate ending, Zare like in the originally published ending, and it makes it all the more cloying. The problems with the ending itself beyond the Evanna Worship stay, however, and there's no real improvement besides this romance between main characters.
I'm keeping my rating for the originally published version, but I'd give 2 stars to the alternate ending version.
This is the story of a master chef called Zare in service to the royal family of Drenda, now a ghost haunting Roseal Castle. He's a friendly, smart, and personable ghost, beloved by the kitchen staff with whom he trades cuisine secrets and still cooks with. The protection of the queen has allowed him freedom around the castle, although it's not all roses for him, because there is someone hostile to him: crown prince Kasar, who hates him out of prejudice.
When Drenda loses an unequal war, the castle people find themselves under a curse that traps them at Roseal with Kasar turned into a beast. Per the standard B&B rule, they need the love of a beautiful maiden to break the curse, but they have to wait long until they find such a maiden. Enter Evanna, not at all a typical Beauty but a difficult guest from the start, and Zare finds himself tasked with playing host and guide to her, to help Kasar in courting her to win her love to end the curse. Naturally, things don't run smoothly, and Zare, Kasar, and the whole of Roseal find their lives have become really interesting with Evanna living with them. How can they break the curse if they can't tell her about it as per the geas placed on them? What if she sets her sights on the "wrong" man?
My favourite plotline was, without a doubt, the relationship between Zare and Kasar. I can't think of any other B&B book where friendship overshadowed romance, as it happened here. I wasn't able to care about the romance, if I'm being honest, but seeing Kasar and Zare argue, talk, commiserate, scheme, banter, take and give counsel, help and defend each other, and even fight, was stupendous. These two were so wary of each other in the beginning, but at the end they were the dream bromance I wish was more common and as deftly done in books. For the first time in hundreds of retellings read, I can tell I have found a retelling that proved to me that "Beauty and the Beast" can be a redemption story about male friendship. I'm still in awe of it. Perhaps it's just my little heart that beats at the rhythm set by fairy tales and other readers won't see it the same way, but that's how it is for me, and I would've rated this book 5 stars on that alone.
Why don't I, then? Well, let me count on my fingers . . . The fey, Evanna, the epilogue.
It's going to be somewhat spoilery to elaborate on the above, so you can turn away right here.
I felt the fey were too much cartoon villains in spite of the story laying out that, in fact, they did have a good reason to be resentful of Drenda: they had been ousted from their land and massacred. Any peoples that suffered through this have a right to feel like thus, but instead of acknowledging the genocide, they're made to be utterly evil. They are portrayed as mindless orcs, vermin, that are evil because they simply are and always were. Who or what made them evil? It's never explained. They were expelled from their land because they were evil, always were. They come back and become the ultimate evil because they are evil, always were, and the revenge is just a plus, a cherry on the cake. Too simple and one-dimensional, isn't it? But the thing is, even LOTR's orcs had a reason for being so utterly detestable: Sauron. Here, there's no reason given for the fey being evil fey, an omission that makes the world feel poorer and underdeveloped.
Then comes Evanna. I don't mind that she's no Beauty, because although Beauty being so sweet and kind and caring is a key characteristic, the reason she is able to see beyond Beast's exterior, that doesn't mean she always has to be portrayed as sweet and meek. Disney's Belle, for one, has a hot temper that the fairy tale's Beauty does not, but she still has her same core character. Evanna, though? She is dangerously close to a Stronk Wimmenz caricature, she quickly goes from inquisitive to plain nosy and invasive, she's abrasive when there's no reason to be, is plain rude, and has the men grovelling to her for their mistakes when she doesn't apologise for hers, she turns a deaf ear to warnings, and acts Too Stupid to Live in at least two occasions. I can't see how on Earth could Kasar possibly have fallen in love with this brat, it was too unbelievable that he went from pining for his lost princess to deciding this difficult and unlikable woman was the love of his life. At least Evanna's interactions with Zare make sense and lay the ground for what is to come, but her thing with Kasar was implausible, and the ending was beyond the pale. I think this was a case of creating a love triangle where one of the involved simply has to fall in love because plot.
I liked the ending, I truly did. But I didn't love the epilogue, because it was another excuse for Evanna Worship than the solid wrap-up it should've been. The epilogue should've been that bit where the end of the war is explained a bit, and at least mention what happened to the fey, because it can't be that the Roseal battle was all it took, and what happened with the Sedaharians too. Explain what the current political landscape is like after the rebellion. It wouldn't have taken more than a paragraph or two, it didn't have to be lengthy. It's a kicker that, it being Kasar's POV, he wouldn't even bother sparing a thought to this! He can't be so lovesick after all this time and only think of going to grovel before Evanna once again. His decision about the throne also doesn't make sense, because at no point before are we given to understand Oram is family, and now it suddenly turns out he is. So very convenient, and only to have Kasar stay celibate so he can pine for Evanna for all of eternity. At the very least there should've been a mention of going to pay his respects to General Lashiri's grave, I'd have thought he went to honour her for her great work in his favour. Really, the epilogue missed many chances and left several loose threads.
I'll keep this in my large B&B collection, for the lovely Zare/Kasar dynamics. It was worth the read.
Update September 2024: The author offered a free copy of this retelling, with a new cover and a different ending, that I grabbed out of curiosity.
Unfortunately, the alternate ending is even worse, way worse, than the original ending. In this alternate ending, Zare like in the originally published ending, and it makes it all the more cloying. The problems with the ending itself beyond the Evanna Worship stay, however, and there's no real improvement besides this romance between main characters.
I'm keeping my rating for the originally published version, but I'd give 2 stars to the alternate ending version.
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August 27, 2025I'm a sucker for a Beauty and the Beast re-telling.
The concept of this book had me picking it up immediately and it proved to be unlike any other Beauty and the Beast retelling that I've ever encountered. For one, the protagonist is a very loveable ghost who wants nothing but to pursue the happiness and wellbeing of those he cares about. This book gives a nice long look into Zare's background and the political situation he's in before even introducing Beauty to the scene. Put frankly, I would die for Zare.
I think this book also has a very sweet message about community—sticking together in times of trouble. As for the specifics on that, you'll just have to read and figure it out yourself! :)
You'll love this book if you like fairy-tale retellings with big casts, political intrigue, twists, ghosts, emphasis on platonic love, and grander history beyond the scope of the fairytale itself. I think I'll be picking up the Sleeping Beauty retelling next! :)
The concept of this book had me picking it up immediately and it proved to be unlike any other Beauty and the Beast retelling that I've ever encountered. For one, the protagonist is a very loveable ghost who wants nothing but to pursue the happiness and wellbeing of those he cares about. This book gives a nice long look into Zare's background and the political situation he's in before even introducing Beauty to the scene. Put frankly, I would die for Zare.
I think this book also has a very sweet message about community—sticking together in times of trouble. As for the specifics on that, you'll just have to read and figure it out yourself! :)
You'll love this book if you like fairy-tale retellings with big casts, political intrigue, twists, ghosts, emphasis on platonic love, and grander history beyond the scope of the fairytale itself. I think I'll be picking up the Sleeping Beauty retelling next! :)
August 19, 2024
Tried listening to tbe audiobook and I couldn't get past the first chapter. I believe it's the author that is the voice for the audiobook. A professional voice for the audiobook is needed.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews