Book picks similar to
The Reluctant Wife: a King Thrushbeard fairy tale by Nina Clare
fantasy
romance
fairy-tale-retelling
young-adult
Princess without a Palace: A King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale
Kristen Niedfeldt - 2016
But after she scorns one too many suitors, her father loses his temper with her spoiled ways and declares that she must marry the next man who dares to seek her hand! Unfortunately for her, the next man who proposes - albeit unintentionally - is only a humble, traveling minstrel.Now, cast off and penniless, she finds herself at the mercy of her handsome betrothed who intends for her to become a proper peasant. But after a lifetime of being pampered, ordinary chores and tasks are not as easy as she expected, and she soon realizes she will need her prospective husband's help if she hopes to salvage anything of her future. Will the two strangers be able to find a way to work together and perhaps free themselves from their forced betrothal? Or might they find that "happily ever afters" sometimes happen in unexpected ways?...(A retelling of the timeless Grimm fairy tale King Thrushbeard. This book is a clean and proper romance.)
Happily Ever Afters: A Reimagining of Snow White and Rose Red
Melanie Cellier - 2016
But they soon learn that a coronation is a beginning, not an ending. Not everyone in Rangmere is happy to see the young queen on the throne, and intrigue and danger lurk all around. The cousins find themselves fighting not only for their new kingdom but also for their own survival in the royal court. When a new threat emerges, the two girls must defeat it to both save the crown and secure their own Happily Ever Afters.
Traitor's Masque
Kenley Davidson - 2015
The promise of a new life, in exchange for her help. Simple, right? After all, the old woman has only asked for one night. One night, one beautiful gown, one dance… and one message to be delivered to a mysterious recipient.It should be easy. Maybe even fun. Especially when she can slip away into the night after the dance, leaving no clue as to her identity.But before she can escape the ball, Trystan makes a shocking discovery that leaves all her hopes in ruins. She will be forced to confront two very different princes—and choose whether to betray her kingdom… or her heart.If she’s lucky, maybe she’ll even survive to tell about it later.A thrilling, suspenseful retelling of Cinderella, Traitor’s Masque is the first book of the Andari Chronicles, a series of interconnected but stand-alone fairy tale retellings that feature strong heroines, romance, mystery, and deeply satisfying happily ever afters.
Pathways
Camille Peters - 2019
Ever since her father's abandonment, she's vowed to never experience such pain again. But the enchanted forest has different ideas. When the continuously shifting pathways lead her to a mysterious stranger, Eileen finds her promise to fiercely guard her heart increasingly difficult to keep. One night when she becomes lost in a storm, the enchanted forest's pathways lead her to the castle, home to the kingdom's Dark Prince, where Eileen finds herself entangled in what many consider an opportunity but which Eileen believes to be a curse: competing for the Dark Prince’s hand through a series of tests that judge one’s royal worth. Eileen is neither royal nor interested in becoming a princess. But the mysterious stranger she met in the woods has his own reasons for helping her succeed, although the cost of his assistance may be too high: that of Eileen's heart, the one thing she's vowed never to give. Inspired by “The Princess and the Pea” and "Rumpelstiltskin"
Beauty and the Beast
K.M. Shea - 2013
A small miscalculation sends her through the roof of an enchanted chateau. Stranded until her broken leg mends, Elle is forced to rely on the good will of the sour chateau owner —the cursed Prince Severin. Prince Severin—the commanding general and staunch supporter of his brother the crown prince—is cursed to look like a beast until a maiden falls in love with him. However, he has given up all hope of shattering the curse after several painful and failed attempts to break it. As such he has only disdain for Elle, leaving her to the devices of his bossy servants. This suits Elle perfectly as she dislikes the entire royal family, Severin included. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting pair, the chateau servants are determined to break the curse and spend the majority of their time pushing Elle and Severin together. After bonding over gardens, animals, and terrifying squirrels Elle and Severin show signs of friendship, and perhaps something more… But not all love stories can end that easily. After all, Elle is not what she seems, and Severin’s life is placed in danger when hostilities flare between his brother and the monarchs of a neighboring country. If they really want the love of a lifetime Elle, a loyal liar, and Severin, an indifferent beast, will have to use every trick they know to survive.
Beauty and the Beast
Jenni James - 2012
Fans of Disney, fairy tales, and fantasy will love the Faerie Tale Collection by Jenni James. A prince by day and a wolf by night—Prince Alexander has been turned into a werewolf and has one year to find someone to love the beast and break the spell, or he will be a wolf forever. He has nearly given up achieving the impossible, knowing no girl would ever fall in love with such a monster.Just when he is about to abdicate the throne to his cousin, he meets Cecelia Hammerstein-Smythe, while a wolf, and begins to hope for the first time in months. Can he balance both worlds as a human and beast, gaining the love and trust of a girl who has every reason to despise him?Cecelia detests the prince. She only knows Alexander as the arrogant monarch—the tyrant who has made her life miserable—though perhaps he's changed right before her eyes. He's not as full of himself as he once was. The prince is gentle now... but then again, so is the beast.
Fated: Cinderella's Story
Kaylin Lee - 2017
Then it all blows up in her face—literally.A violent, anonymous force has been targeting commoners in horrifying attacks. Now they’ve set their sights on Cinderella. Either that, or she’s losing her mind. It doesn’t help that she’s falling for a mage who’s way out of her league.Just as she manages to recover from the attack that left her scarred and traumatized, the city’s mysterious enemy destroys what’s left of her future. But when they go after her family, they cross the line. The whole city is in danger now.How much is Cinderella willing to risk to save the city that has always hated her?—Fated: Cinderella’s Story is a magical fairy tale retelling filled with hope, sacrifice, and sweet romance. It’s the first book in the planned Destined series, a collection of overlapping fairy tale retellings all set in the same magical world.
Brine and Bone
Kate Stradling - 2018
Ejected from the royal court, she spends her days at a sage's seminary, where her sparkling memories and destructive empathy magic prey upon her. Until the ocean rips her charming prince into its depths. When Magdalena discovers him washed ashore, her rescue-by-happenstance draws her back to the glittering palace and its stifling rules. But Prince Finnian's miraculous return attracts more than the nobility of the court. The eerie creature that spared his life would gladly reclaim it, even if staking that claim requires a sacrifice of flesh and endless torment. This novella is based on H. C. Andersen's "The Little Mermaid"
The Firethorn Crown
Lea Doué - 2015
Tradition forbids marriage with the man Lily loves, so she would rather rule alone than marry someone who only wants the crown.Fleeing an overzealous suitor, Lily stumbles into a secret underground kingdom where she and her sisters encounter a mysterious sorcerer-prince and become entangled in a curse that threatens the safety of her family and her people. Lily can free them, but the price for freedom may be more than she's willing to pay.The Firethorn Crown, a re-imagining of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," is the first in the Firethorn Chronicles, a series of stand-alone novels inspired by fairy tales and other stories. Follow the sisters on their adventures in a land where sorcery is feared, women can rule, and dragons fly.
The Midnight Dancers (A Fairy Tale Retold #4)
Regina Doman - 2008
The summer of her senior year, she’s more than ready for a walk on the wild side, and the door opens - literally - when she and her eleven sisters and stepsisters discover a secret passageway out of their historic home on the Chesapeake Bay. At night, boys in boats and a forbidden island beckon from the shore, and Rachel and her sisters jump aboard. The night becomes Rachel’s true world, and her daytime life becomes a disposable mask. Her puzzled father tries to tow his daughters back into line by enlisting the help of Paul, a med student with a seasonal job juggling at the town festival. But Paul realizes that simply blocking the girls from their midnight parties isn’t going to solve the family’s problems. So he embarks on a risky balancing act to gain the girls’ trust – and to make Rachel see that splitting her life between night and light is a dangerous dance.
Masque
W.R. Gingell - 2014
. . Bloody murder? It’s the Annual Ambassadorial Ball in Glause, and Lady Isabella Farrah, the daughter of New Civet’s Ambassador, is feeling pleasantly scintillated. In the library is Lord Pecus, a charming gentleman whose double mask hides a beastly face, and who has decided that Isabella is the very person to break the Pecus curse. In the ball-room is young Lord Topher, who is rapidly falling in love with an older woman. And in the card-room, lying in a pool of his own blood, is the body of one of Isabella’s oldest friends: Raoul, Civet’s Head Guardsman. The papers sewn into his sash seem to suggest espionage gone wrong, but Isabella is not so certain. Lord Pecus, as Commander of the Watch, is of the opinion that Isabella should keep out of the investigation and out of danger. Isabella is of the opinion that it is her murder to investigate, and that what a certain Beast-Lord doesn’t know won’t hurt him. . . . Will Isabella find the murderer before Lord Pecus does, or will she end her investigation as a bloody spatter on the parlour floor?
The Beast's Heart
Leife Shallcross - 2018
But if loneliness breeds desperation then I was desperate indeed, and I did what I felt I must. My shameful behaviour was unjustly rewarded.My Isabeau. She opened my eyes, my mind and my heart; she taught me how to be human again.And now I might lose her forever.Lose yourself in this gorgeously rich and magical retelling of The Beauty and the Beast that finally lays bare the beast's heart.
Bryony and Roses
T. Kingfisher - 2015
Their merchant father died trying to reclaim his fortune and left them to eke out a living in a village far from their home in the city. But when Bryony is caught in a snowstorm and takes refuge in an abandoned manor, she stumbles into a house full of dark enchantments. Is the Beast that lives there her captor, or a fellow prisoner? Is the house her enemy or her ally? And why are roses blooming out of season in the courtyard? Armed only with gardening shears and her wits, Bryony must untangle the secrets of the house before she—or the Beast—are swallowed by them.
Midnight for a Curse
E.J. Kitchens - 2020
She also knows the wisdom of agreeing with a powerful enchantress. So when she inadvertently gets mixed up with a cursed Beast and his enchantress, she finds herself tasked with the role of Curse Breaker. That’s not an easy position, for Beast has reasons of his own to keep his curse. There’s also someone else determined to break it by whatever means possible and claim Beast for herself, and she doesn’t take competition well.With wit, clean romance, and a touch of danger, Midnight for a Curse is a retelling of the beloved Beauty and the Beast tale.
Cruel Beauty
Rosamund Hodge - 2014
And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.