Review--Curse of the Wolf King by Tessonja Odette

 

A Beauty and the Beast Retelling

A beastly fae king with a deadly curse.
A devious bargain to break it…

All Gemma Bellefleur wants is to leave her past behind and forget the day scandal broke her heart. But when she’s captured by a trickster fae king who threatens to hold her for ransom, she’ll find herself at the top of the gossip column yet again.

Unless…

Plagued by a curse that will soon claim his life, the human-hating King Elliot will do anything to save himself. And if Gemma can use that to her advantage, she might be able to bargain her way to freedom. All she has to do is help him break his curse.

There’s just one hitch—to do so, they’ll have to trick someone into falling in love with the beastly, brooding Elliot.

With a devious alliance made, their scheme begins, bringing Gemma and Elliot into very close quarters. Soon, an unexpected desire stirs where once there was only hate. But Gemma must fight it. For when the curse is broken, Elliot will return to his true form—a wolf—and be lost to her for good.

Can Gemma sacrifice her budding feelings to save the king’s life? Or will love force her to give up something even greater...her heart?

*NOTE this book is upper YA/NA featuring mature situations and some adult language. The romance is slow burn but leads to moderate steam.

Curse of the Wolf King is a complete stand-alone novel set in the same world as The Fair Isle Trilogy. Journey back to Faerwyvae or begin your adventure for the first time with this enchanting tale. Each book in the Entangled with Fae series can be read on its own and in any order. Happily ever after guaranteed!

 

I finally picked up Tessonja Odette’s Curse of the Wolf King and it was one of the most magical fairytale retellings I’ve ever read! There’s all sorts of varieties in retellings and this one has that right fairytale vibe that tells a classic tale in a new way and I loved every word of it!

Let’s face it, when it comes to The Beauty and The Beast we tend to think of the Disney movie versus the actual fairytale. And while there’s nothing wrong in that, it’s sometimes important to know when a retelling has similarities from one versus the other. (Forewarning though, I’m definitely going to be breaking out in song in this review! Lol.) Here our heroine is an avid reader and lover of books, but alas she does not have a caring father, but her one remaining sister is completely on Gemma’s side. 

Gemma and her family have moved to the Winter Court fairly recently in order to escape a scandal that Gemma became involved in. After having had a bad relationship, Gemma is ready to give up on love. She wants to find a job and be able to support herself so she can live the life she wants to live. Her father is vehemently against this idea, but she figures if she gets the job and herself squared away first, she can break the news to him then.

But when she goes on what she thought was an interview she finds herself a prisoner of a Fae king. When she refuses to offer him her greatest treasure in exchange for her life, he decides to take a different route on matters. For the Fae king has been cursed. If he does not get someone to offer him their greatest treasure of their own free will he will remain cursed except he will lose all his memories, lose his wolf form and the immortality that comes with it…he will essentially die. 

So Gemma promises to help him find love from another girl, one who would give up their greatest treasure. The Fae king can feel free to leave her and return to the forest that he desires afterwards. In exchange Gemma wants to be paid a sum that can send her away, to return to her late mother’s homeland and she can have a fresh start. The problem is getting her arch nemesis  to fall in love with the beastly king she names Elliot Rochester. 

This book was quite the delight! You’re able to see the familiar parts to the tale that is old as time! I especially loved that the gruesome man who pursues Gemma is named Gavin Aston! That had me giggling when I first read it! Gavin is very much in line with Gaston, but he’s maybe not as full of himself as Gaston was…by about 90% maybe? Lol. 

Naturally we watch Gemma and Elliot grow closer as Gemma tries to make him into a dignified man versus the wild animal he prefers. Though, as they grow closer, things begin to change. Simply put, “there’s something there that wasn’t there before!” I loved that their relationship took time to develop. In the original fairytale Beast was ready to marry Beauty that first night. Of course he was thinking of his own curse but classic fairytales are always ready to fall in love early on.

I positively had a blast reading this! I love when fairytale retellings still have that fairytale feel to them. The style of this writing was very easy to get into. Curse of the Wolf King had all of that and more. You’re not simply reading a different version of The Beauty and The Beast, you’re reading a new version, a new tale that will capture your heart in the way the original tale did but it’s so uniquely different it can’t replace that first one. For retellings are a whole new tale all on their own, even if we know that it will always end with “happily ever after!”

Overall Rating 5/5 stars