Published: March 7, 2023
Publisher: Sourcebooks Bloom Books
Series: N/A
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 219 (Kindle)
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Synopsis:
“Could you love me?” he whispered. The question stole my breath and burned my lungs in the silence that followed.
I wanted to answer, to whisper yes into the space between us, but I was afraid.
All Gesela’s life, her home village of Elk has been cursed. And it isn’t a single curse—it is one after another, each to be broken by a villager, each with devastating consequences. When Elk’s well goes dry, it is Gesela’s turn to save her town by killing the toad that lives at the bottom. Except… the toad is not a toad at all. He is an Elven prince under a curse of his own, and upon his death, his brothers come for Gesela, seeking retribution.
As punishment, the princes banish Gesela to live with their seventh brother, the one they call the beast. Gesela expects to be the prisoner of a hideous monster, but the beast turns out to be exquisitely beautiful, and rather than lock her in a cell, he offers Gesela a deal. If she can guess his true name in seven days, she can go free.
Gesela agrees, but there is a hidden catch—she must speak his name with love in order to free him, too.
But can either of them learn to love in time?
While I may have loathed the last Scarlett St. Clair book I read, I am also willing to get burned again so I picked this up on release day. Much to my delight, it was a very entertaining standalone that’s loosely based on Beauty and the Beast. I also read it in a single sitting – I totally stayed up too late.
The premise is basically this: the main character Ella is trying to break a curse in her village and to do so, she ends up killing a fey prince. His brothers show up and send her to live with the cursed seventh prince as punishment. The seventh prince, who goes by Casamir, says he’ll free Ella if she can guess his true name in seven days. The kicker is, that is precisely how his curse must be broken, but she must speak his name in love. SO DRAMATIC!
This is most unequivocally a love/hate relationship. Casamir is basically an animal when it comes to making women fall in love with him. The only thing he has going is the fact that he’s a generically hot dark haired fellow with big muscles and big dick energy. Ella is an angry woman who is very determined to escape her captivity even if it means possibly getting herself killed. Rather admirable. Of course the two are drawn to one another even as they feel they should in fact be repulsed by one another for, you know, moral reasons.
I would say this is like level 3 spicy (out of 5). It has some great steamy scenes but it’s not overly wrought. There was minimal but decent worldbuilding that keeps things interesting and the darker side of the fae was captured really well. I love the ones who are obviously less (or more) than just a pretty human with wings and magic. The ones who will definitely lure you in and then drown you on dry land. Mountains Made of Glass was a really fun standalone and worth the $3.99 I spent on it.
Powder & Page 
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