Review--Mountains Made of Glass by Scarlett St. Clair

 

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?

As I try to wait to get to the bookstore tomorrow (at last!) I found myself reading some shorter reads this week and finally turned to Scarlett St. Clair's Mountains Made of Glass, her Grimm Fairy Tale retelling! Yes, I waited wayyy too long to read this one. I can never really say why, too many books, too little time pretty much sums it all up for every TBR book ever! Lol.

This was definitely a mashup of fairy tales within the story and lots of other fairy tale like elements that we are all familiar with. Certain symbols, numbers, and all that whatnot. It was truly a great conglomeration of fairy tale aspects and tales! 

Gesela feels like her family has been cursed, her mother died, followed by her sister, and then finally her father. Her village pretty much hates her, or fears her because of the curse and it is for that reason she is "chosen" to be the one to go down into the well and kill the toad who is preventing the water from coming back. Should she die instead, eh, it's no loss.

But unfortunately for Gesela, she does not die nor does she fail in the task. She didn't set out to kill the toad but it kind of happened by accident and by doing so she angered its five elven bothers who come and kidnap her to dump her at their seventh brother's castle to be his prisoner.

Casimar is bit of mashup between the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin. He's considered a Beast and he too is cursed, much like our favorite Beast. He needs to find true love and be loved in return in order for his curse to be broken. He believes that Gesela could be the one to break his curse. In a roundabout twist, he gives her the Rumpelstiltskin ultimatum; guess my name correctly in so many days and he will set her free.

In true St. Clair fashion though, Gesela and Casimar are drawn to one another and it's not long before heat ignites between them. Suddenly finding true love doesn't seem so impossible, but will it be enough to make Gesela want to stay instead of seeking the freedom she so desires?

This was a fun read. I love a good fairy tale retelling and I love that St. Clair combined so many different elements from different fairy tales and wove together a unique tale befitting Grimm and Andersen well. I enjoyed that other added elements that seem more general fantasy as well as it helped to paint a pretty decent fairy tale.

This one also includes illustrations which were marvelous! I love that small illustrations were included as it's also befitting to the tomes of fairy tale collections I amassed growing up in which you get a small picture every so often! I also read the author's note to this one as I love knowing about authors' research for such intricate tales and this one proved enjoyable too! I also confirmed through this that she plans to write 7 of these novellas for the 7 brothers we've met! 

All in all, this was an enjoyable fairy tale retelling! It might have had a wee bit too much steam for my tastes, but that's just me! Lol. But otherwise I quite enjoyed this one and am looking forward to reading the rest of this series as they trickle into my hands!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars