Beauty and the Beast is by far one of my favourite Disney movies. Girl gets given a library, magical dishes do the cooking and cleaning for her and she doesn’t have to leave her home to deal with the outside world. Belle is living the dream. I mean the fact that the Beast (a.k.a Prince Adam) is a nice guy and handsome doesn’t hurt, but my introverted soul yearns for the day I can never leave my house and just shirk my chores and read all day.
Now while ‘A Crimson Fate’ by C.M. Haines does not feature a library gift or self-cleaning dishes, this Beauty and the Beast retelling does justice to its original.
‘A Crimson Fate’ follows the witch Brinley after she is kidnapped by the wolf-shifter alpha Gabriel. Gabriel needs Brinley to break a curse that has been placed on his village. But Brinley has never used her magic and the curses deadline is fast approaching. While they do not trust each other, there seems to be a connection between them that they can’t deny.
I really loved still retelling. The plot was interesting and left me wanting to know what is going to happen next, so much so that I devoured this book in a single day. The world building with the political and magical system was explained nicely in bits throughout the story, which I prefer over a large exposition dump. I even enjoyed the multi POV.
The wealth of characters are great. The main characters drive the story and Brinley and Gabriel are likeable layered, but the extra characters are the ones that really make this story rich. You really get a sense of their personalities and even though you don’t always learn their whole life story you still get the sense that they have one.
My only grip with this story is the ending. Near the end of the book you get the big battle, which is expected. The tension builds and builds and then the battle comes and it’s great. Lots of action and suspense. But after all the build up and action I felt like it just ended so abruptly. I don’t mind the ending of the story, it sets up the next book, which I await in anticipation, but it was such a quick sudden end to the action that it fell flat for me.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who enjoys an action-packed romantasy with some spice.
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