Review: Brielle and Bear - Once Upon a Time Volume #1 - Salomey Doku - April 2025 Brielle and Bear - Once Upon a Time Volume #1 is an enchanting graphic novel that will sweep you off your feet with its whimsical fairytale charm, relatable characters, and a heartwarming romance. As a lover of all things fairytale, I was thrilled to receive this gem from Penguin Random House US, and I can confidently say it lived up to every expectation. The story follows Brielle, a first-year student at Once Upon a Time University, returning to the city of Rosebridge with a head full of dreams and a heart full of fairytale fantasies. As a self-proclaimed book lover, Brielle is passionate about all things related to fairytales, and her journey at university promises to be magical. But the real magic happens when she meets Bear, a shy yet charming vice-captain of the university's rugby team, at the local bookstore where she works. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and their blossoming relat...

The Forest and the Sea: A Cinderella Retelling Tracy Zumwalt Publication date: November 12th 2024 Genres: Fairy Tales, Retelling, Romance, Young Adult Reynette is desperate to escape the servitude of her step family at Laudermann Manor and the lustful desires of the loathsome, Sir Bjorn. Lord Ehrhart seeks to please his father and their subjects by securing a future wife and future Duchess of Badenberg. Will a chance meeting in the woods lead them to find their hope and future within each other’s arms? The people of Badenberg are preparing to celebrate the anticipated, Midsummer Festival. In the worn hallways of Laudermann Manor, a young servant girl longs for freedom and love. Bound by duty to her cruel step family, she yearns to attend the festival and meet a kind, brave suitor who will seek her floral wreath and therefore, declare his intent to pursue her. Her hope takes a turn when her wreath is sought by a mysterious, yet somehow familiar man. Meanwhile, Lord Ehrhar...

Review: Alice - Book #1 The Chronicles of Alice - Christina Henry - August 2015 Christina Henry's *Alice* is a haunting, dark reimagining of the classic *Alice in Wonderland*, set in a grim world that is as twisted as it is intriguing. In this version, Alice isn't a curious child following a rabbit down a hole—she is a woman trapped in a dilapidated asylum, plagued by fragmented memories of her past and the remnants of a terrifying childhood encounter. Her hair, once blonde, now hangs in tangled clumps, symbolizing her fractured mind and the horrors she's endured. The novel opens with Alice in the hospital of the Old City, a crumbling place filled with desperate souls. She has no memory of how she ended up there, only fragmented recollections of a tea party, long ears, and blood. It's a chilling beginning, one that immediately pulls the reader into a world that is anything but whimsical. A fire sets Alice free, but her escape unleashes more than just her own freedom. Al...

When Poesy Laroche was sold to the highest bidder, she found herself desperate to change her fate and disappears into the woods no one dares to speak of. The screams that come at night become only whispers of stories about the mysterious Lady Venom, whose manor is filled with snakes and horrors. And when Poesy gets lost within her maze, Lady Venom claims her as her own mistress, with no hope of escape. Fans of dark sapphic romances will devour Lady Venom Takes a Mistress by Kat Blackthorne, a spicy gothic twist on Medusa and Beauty and the Beast. Read Now! To be bid on was to be bought as a wife. To the winning bidder his prize, a maid, a servant, a child-bearer. That would be Poesy Laroche’s life, she realized, as she walked down the aisle to her future husband. He’d promised to break her into submission, and she knew his words were true. In an act of desperation, she takes the reins of her fate and dives into the woods we don’t speak of. The screams that come at night become onl...

Cannetella Elodie Rowan Publication date: March 2023 Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Romance A lush and dark fairytale retelling steeped in Italian folklore, Canetella is sure to please fans of Elise Kova, Sarah J. Maas, and K.F. Breene. Cannetella is doomed to marry. As the only child of the bankrupted King of High-Hill, her twentieth birthday spells the end of life as she knows it. Cannetella dreams of adventure, not refilling the kingdom’s coffers. Determined to keep her freedom, she hatches a plan: Cannetella announces she will only marry a man with a face of pure gold. Pleased with her impossible standards, she prepares for a life unburdened by a husband. But on the night of her birthday, a mysterious man appears. On his face is a mask made of the finest gold. The relieved King declares Cannetella will marry the man with enough wealth to save the heirless and penniless Kingdom of High-Hill. Cannetella is forced to wed and whisked away from the only home she has ever known....

Red Cambria Hebert (House of Misfits, #5) Publication date: March 18th 2022 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Fairy Tales, Retelling, Romance Once upon a time… An orphaned boy runs away, knowing he is better off in solitude than in the company of those with whom he does not belong. However, Little Red is not meant to be alone, his crimson halo a calling card to those far and wide. And so off he goes… into the woods to attract the eye of a wicked wolf. Better to see you with. Better to hear you with. Better to taste you with. Astoundingly, the woods are not a frightening place, and Little Red flourishes among the weeds and thorns until he isn’t so little anymore. And the wicked wolf he’s gone to catch? Well, this forest has more than one, and perversely, their snapping teeth and sharp claws make him feel at home. Years after walking into the woods, Red is expected to walk back out, carrying with him the head of the most dangerous predator. But those who sent him in...

Title: The Baby-whisperer and the Brute Series: Eastport Bay Billionaires #4 Author: Tru Taylor Genre: Small Town Romantic Comedy Cover Design: Emily Cover Design Photo: Eric McKinney, 612 Photography Model: Quinn B. Release Date: October 19, 2021 BLURB You can’t appreciate all the implications of the word “conflicted” until you come face to face with the guy you’ve been secretly lusting after for weeks... and then learn he’ll be signing your paychecks—Angelina Rappaport Some people might call me sheltered. That doesn’t begin to cover it. I’ve been practically sequestered my whole life. Constantly warned by my eccentric and reclusive mother against the “dangers of the world,” I was only allowed outside my home to attend a strict girls’ school. No parties. No sleepovers. NO boys. Ever. Even now in my early twenties, the extent of my social life is spending time with the adorable three and four-year-olds at the preschool where I work. I’ve hardly ever spoken to a man, e...