“The Shifter and the Mage: Retelling King Thrushbeard and Little Wildrose (The Intertwined Tales)”

Description:

“A mage with a temper. A shapeshifter with a secret. A fake marriage that starts to feel real.

Shyla Merrigan wants to become a King’s Mage, but after graduating from the Academy she is told she will not be starting an apprenticeship as she’d thought. If that wasn’t bad enough, she is invited to attend a party hosted by Alarick of the Wolves, the brother-in-law she despises.

When she hears that Alarick is planning to marry her off, she lashes out in a rage and storms away from the banquet. On encountering Adriel, a young man with the ability to turn into a thrush, she discovers there is a lindenworm troubling his home. If Shyla kills the lindenworm, she may have a chance of becoming a King’s Mage after all.

Adriel offers to be her guide. He also suggests they pretend to be married to protect her reputation.

Shyla agrees without hesitation, but as they travel together she begins to suspect Adriel is not who she thinks he is. Worse, she might be starting to develop feelings for him. She must decide which is more dangerous: fighting a monster, or losing her heart to someone who could destroy it.

The Intertwined Tales is a multi-author series of clean fairy tale retellings. Each novella entwines a famous fairy tale with a lesser-known story to create one happily ever after. These standalone stories can be enjoyed in any order.“

Personal Thoughts:

Note: I wrote this review this assuming that readers have read a Thrushbeard retelling before. I don’t mean to spoil anything, my personal notes of the characters and world building might contain “spoilers” for the story, but they consist of different elements of the retelling, so they aren’t labeled as such. I hope that made sense. Any huge, story spoilers are labeled.

If I love this book or not/reread. I read this book in one sitting and I enjoyed it so much. The King Thrushbeard retelling is one of my favorites, and in this one the main female character wasn’t spoiled or super reliant on the main guy and that was a nice change. The world building was very well written. I don’t think I’ve read a Little Wildrose retelling before, but I’m interested in it now. I don’t know if it was because the author mixed the two retellings or if what made me like it so much, but it was less dramatic, which I enjoyed. (I like low-stakes sometimes!) I almost didn’t read it, because the cover looked like a book I had previously DNF-ed. But I kept seeing in on my e-reader store and I am so glad I tried it. It is part of a series and is on Kindle Unlimited.

Characters-Shyla is such a refreshing character. If you had read different Thrushbeard retellings I think you will defiantly like this one if only for Shyla’s attitude. She is a good balance of the “strong female character” trope as well, because she is a warrior mage but she still has emotions, and furthermore emotions that aren’t purely anger. She is a very well written character. It was also interesting, because the book was solely in her POV. I think I have only read one other book like that, and the rest were a mix or only in the main guy’s point of view.

The main guy was nice, if not a bit frustrating but it wasn’t like in other retellings where he is trying to teach her a lesson or something, that always annoys me. I don’t have a lot to say here–he wasn’t vindictive, or angry. A decent character, with simple goals.

Christianity(magic/spoilers)- There is no Christianity or other religion in this book. There is “magic” that the characters are born with. They go to a school to train with it. Some are born with the ability to shift into four types of animals, bear, bird, wolf, and cat–this isn’t like werewolves or anything just to be clear. There are also three types of “magic” every person is born with in different degrees, Healer, Creative and Warrior. No spells or anything are cast. There are also gryphons (not a shifter form, simply animal) which I think was so cool, because I rarely read about them in modern fantasy.

Profanity- none

Romance- They pretend to be married as they are traveling, no ceremony or anything. It is meant to be temporally until she kills the monster. One kiss.

Violence-

Spoiler, click to read

She fights a monster and kills it with her magic. Not super detailed. She has to strangle it, which sounds worse than it was written.

Also, there are mentions of how her sister was kidnapped, I am amusing in a previous book, because her husband needed help with cursed Wolf. They ended up falling in love and getting married.

The ending felt a bit rushed, like it needed another 10-30 pages to flush it out a bit more. (Its is around 120 pages long, so very short but sweet). It was so cute!

I recommend this for 14+.

Personal Rating- 3 ⭐⭐⭐