Really like the cover, and the blurb was interesting enough to reel me in.

I was very excited for this new take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. The theme of controlling/changing your own fate was definitely different than the original and for the better.

This was a bit of a slow start for me, but once I got around 25% the book fell into a nice pace and was easily consumed.

There were aspects I really enjoyed, like the imaginative world-building, magic system, and characters. Do check the TWs for one scene early in the book.

I would continue on in the series eventually, especially with the interesting info we learn at the end of the book.

This was my second ARC through Netgalley and I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. I really was drawn to the concept of this story because I love fairy tales as much as the next person. Loren returns to her grandmother's home and must live out her own fairy tale curse. The characters in the story all fill some sort of fairy tale role which was cool. However, I did struggle with getting into it. I wished there was a little more background in the first few chapters- I kinda felt like I was just thrown into the story and struggled with getting my bearings. I've seen a lot of great reviews for this one but I just couldn't get into it unfortunately. The author did a great job explaining the history and original fairy tales - I actually learned quite a bit. It's also clear that Loren, FMC, has a lot of growth by the end - she starts taking control of her fate, making decisions for herself, and I definitely started rooting for her at the end. Even though it wasn't my favorite, I still would encourage anyone who loves fairy tale retellings to check it out.

"All the what-ifs that herded me through life... it was infuriating...it was maddening to remember all the times I let other people's opinions keep me from pursuing my own happiness. "

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The plotline captured my attention right away, and I was excited to read about magic that influenced the lives of people based on fairytales. It was unique, but unfortunately I was unable to finish the book (I forced myself to read up to 70% before I gave up).

My first issue was with the POVs at the beginning. We're given a POV in the Prologue that I'm assuming is supposed to be mysterious, but then it changes to Loren's POV in the first chapter. It's confusing and could have been written differently to better fit the story.

My second issue is with the SA/trauma in this book. It feels like the SA was kind of just thrown into the book and randomly brought up when the main character needed to be seen as strong/a survivor. The mental trauma is basically glossed over by the other characters and Loren focusing more on the fairytale. I understand it's the type of topic that can be seen differently depending on who's reading it, but the way it was executed does not sit well with me. The chapter that focused on her being drugged/SA was super confusing and hard to read, in my opinion.

My third issue is with the amount of dialogue that this book relies on to keep the story going. There are parts where there is so much info just being dumped on you instead of being introduced to you in other ways. There were some chapters where I just kept hoping they'd move on from talking so much so that the story would progress, but it just kept dragging on.

I wasn't able to connect with Loren even when I was more than halfway through the book, which is another reason why I couldn't finish it. I really wish I loved it more, but unfortunately I did not.

Thank you to NetGalley and Auden Llyr for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars!

This book was a ride from beginning to end. At the start I wasn't sure how I felt about it and I'm still not quite sure.

To start, I absolutely love the idea behind this. I have never seen it before and it definitely threw me for a loop a ridiculous amount of times! But seriously! The amount of times I said "woah" in shock from things I didn't expect, or didn't understand for that matter, was astounding.
Now I want to make it clear it wasn't an error in the writing that had me lost, it was the twists and me trying to predict where the heck the story was going.
I was only able to predict 2 things and I am so proud because of the ride this book was.

The part that had me hesitant also was a strong writing point that showed skill. There was a LOT going on.

This fairytale then that then this and on and on. Some moments too when I would make a connection but the main character wouldn't even think of it so I'd be confused once again as to where everything was going. But these required good story intricacies where the possibility for loose ends or plot holes come in, but Llyr did great at tying all those up nicely.

Part of me wasn't expecting such a complicated world and was thrown by the mystery thrill of this so it biased my marking on it.

However, it was definitely a good book and I think I would enjoy it even more if I read it a second time since I would be prepared for all the jumbles. There's probably even details I missed! There was so much to take in.

Very well written!

This is the book about the darker side of fairytales. Not the princess falling in love with the prince and living happily ever after while surrounded by cute woodland creatures. These are the older versions of the fairytales that you rarely (if ever) hear...... stories where the princess gets assaulted, chased by murderous huntsmen, well, you get the idea. Loren comes from a family that has a long history of being in one of those fairy tales. So when Loren goes to her grandmother's home in Lointaine to recover after a concussion, she discovers she must act out her own fairytale. According to the resident expert on these matters, it is dangerous to try to avoid your fairytale, or to manipulate it. But if Loren lets her fairytale play out, she will be forced to give up the future she has been working so hard for.
This book was a slow burn, but once I got past the first few chapters, I really got into the book. Then the world-building took over and completely captivated me. This was a completely unique take on a book of fairytales, and since this is listed as book one, I am eager to see where the story goes from here. Just a side note - there is a long list of trigger warnings at the beginning of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and loved the message it sent about taking charge of your own path. This is definitely one you will want to read if you are a fan of things like deconstructed fairytales & fantasy fiction.

OH MY GODS!!!!!!!! Spell borne is an amazing book. When I read the description, I thought it was going to be a fantasy school setting, I was wrong!!!!
The book is beautifully written and full of surprises. A couple of major plot twists happen that you don’t see coming at all. They are well well done twists, and absolutely well done.
The characters themselves are wonderfully written too. A well written character is one of my favorite things in books. Kella is my favorite, she is perfection. I am a fashion history nerd, so seeing someone include a fashion history nerd in a book is wonderful because I rarely see that.
The scene of Loren freaking out over her artwork not being what she wanted, is just so true to people who have been struggling with their crafting after some serious life events. I know I personally am dealing with the struggle of writing again. I’ve stopped writing and I miss it. So, to see what I feel represented in a book, just hits me on a very deep level. That alone, makes me relate to Loren so much, and makes me understand her better.
Overall, without spoiling anything, this book is very well written. I relate to it so much, I highly recommend it. I definitely think people who are in their senior year of high school and on should read it. Especially if they are someone who is dealing with a lot of issues.
5/5 stars Fully recommend

This is an ARC review and here’s my honest opinion on this book

The premise of the story was great. As a lover of all things Disney I was looking forward to seeing how the fairytale aspect was going to be done for this book however I was really having a difficult time getting in to the story. It can’t capture my attention thus I can only read until probably 20% of the book, around page 80.

I’m not saying that I’m ready to DNF the book but I will probably try it again in the future, it may not just be for me this time.

Let me preface this by saying that Spell Borne had me hooked, has some really wonderful characters, and is incredibly well written, but the graphic on page SA of the fmc really fucked me up...

I don't feel as if the trigger warning was sufficient enough. The rape scene if very graphically detailed and does go on for several pages, and was just all around awful (obviously). Usually SA scenes aren't triggering for me, and I don't know if it's because the emotions conveyed were just so well done, but it really hard to read.

Other than that the book was truly wonderful and I really enjoyed it, but I just couldn't get past the SA

Loren grew up away from her mother’s hometown, unaware of the magic that would influence her life. Seems she was born a princess, but after her mother died her father moved them away from her grandmother and the magical town. Now, Loren is back and she is discovering what it means to be born a princess. Turns out she needs a lot of training.

The story opens with Loren being wounded when a man falls out of a tree and lands on her, leaving her broken and unconscious. A shifter finds her and works to save her, limited by being in the form of a wolf. Next thing that happens is she is awake in a hospital, doesn’t quite know what happened but is being questioned by the police about the murdered man who fell on her. Loren has some memory problems, is scatterbrained, and unsure of how to talk about what happened to her. Plus not everyone in town knows about the magic so she has to be careful about what she says to the police.

Loren doesn’t believe that she is living a fairy tale, but soon it turns out it’s just a matter of figuring out which one she wants to live. Her mother and grandmother were Sleeping Beauties, something no one wants for Loren. Loren still doesn’t believe in magic and pre-destination, plus she is still suffering from the accident. But soon the magic starts to affect her life, and she is not happy.

Loren feels that she, and women in general, have been forced into roles, and in her case, she is forced to be a princess and find a prince. If she tries to change things, there are consequences. But why should she be forced to live a fairy tale, and how does she follow a path that harms the least number of people? What tale would she chose to live, and what choices would she need to make to create that tale? Would she rather try for Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood, or some other tale?

*Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read this arc. All opinions are my own.

⭐ 2.5/5, rounded down because there are some wellbeing concerns that I think need to be addressed.

⚠️ TWs: on-page sexual violence, stalking, homophobia, generational trauma, violence

I have a lot to say about this one so settle in, folks. (Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley. Sorry that the first thing that you're getting in return from me is basically an essay.)

To start off, I do want to say I absolutely LOVED the concept for this story. Basically the idea is that stories have power and by retelling the same stories over and over again like we tell fairytales, we manifest them into a reality that convenes in a small town where the unwitting townsfolk end up swept up into IRL versions of these tales. Very Jungian, very narrative therapy. Very up my alley.

Unfortunately, I think this is a case where the execution did not do the story and concept justice. My issues are broken into two main areas: 1) processing/emotional issues, and 2) technical issues. (Not sure if this is a chicken or an egg sort of deal because they're definitely related.)

PROCESSING/EMOTIONAL ISSUES
As a therapist, this is probably the thing that bothered me the most, and also the thing that would make me the most hesitant to recommend this book to anyone else.

The short of it is that there was little to no meaningful exploration of the emotional impact of the major traumas that the characters face, making it feel like a gratuitous attempt to be "edgy " Which is SUCH a missed opportunity to meaningfully explore the ways that trauma in the media or in real life can shape one's narrative and how one can shape their own narrative surrounding traumas, especially given the concept underlying the story.

For clarity, I'm going to further break this down into issues with handling sensitive material and issues with handling representation.

A) Issues with Handling Sensitive Material: There is detailed on-page sexual violence around halfway through the book. I'm just going to be blunt and say: rape and SA should not be a tool for character development. End stop. It is not something that should be "endured" for the sake of growth or an arc. It is not something that happens to people to make them better. In general, SA is something awful that happens to people because of someone else's darkness and that those victims manage to overcome in spite of how awful it is. I don't know of anyone who has been SA'ed who is thankful for the experience. The only way I think such trauma can successfully be used as a plot device is if it's a criticism of the stigmas of such hardship and a call to action against them or, in rare cases, as a demonstration of the power dynamics of intimacy/gender/etc. and how the character navigates them in their specific sociopolitical context. Maybe this was the author's intention, but it does not come across on the page.

See, the trouble here is not that sexual violence occurs; it's that it is not appropriately explored nor are the effects of it appropriately accounted for in any way throughout the book. Leaving us with the problem above, where it seems like something for the characters just to have to overcome to they're growing and changing. To be honest, I don't even totally blame the author for this. This is a hard topic. In general, SA in books is a trope (if you could even call it that) that I wish authors included less often because it's very hard to acknowledge correctly and fully. In the case of this book, I think it was especially egregious because the characters are so focused on the rest of the plot (meaning the fairytale thing) that this terrible SA happens, and it's a big deal except for when it just isn't. At times, the author is clearly trying to make a point about destigmatizing the victim's side of the story, but in others the story skirts the emotional depth that I (as a trained counselor) think the story needs to be authentic. I don't know the author's history so this isn't a judgement of willingness or ability to have the necessary emotional depth but rather a critique of the delivery not being as holistic as it could be.

B) Issues with Handling Representation: The issues with representation stem further from the issues of handling sensitive materials. One character that experiences SA is also asexual/ace and another is gay. In real life, this can have some huge implications for people's identities/narratives and experience of sexuality, and also plays into major oppressive forces experienced by the LGBTQIA+ community. None of that is considered here. In the story, it's nearly just a footnote.

Sexual violence aside, instead of exploring the ace character's viewpoint and how her sexual orientation affects her view of relationships (and how love might look in a fairytale versus to her), her orientation is mentioned and then otherwise not a part of her character at all. She talks about how she can't love someone who isn't attracted to her, but seems to ignore the fact that she generally is not attracted to anybody herself. (Except that she is also attracted or at least acknowledges the attractiveness of every male character she encounters? Idk, make it make sense.) I get that there's a whole spectrum of asexuality, and sexuality is separate from romanticism; my gripe isn't that the asexual character doesn't fit some box of asexuality that I think that she should fit in. My gripe is that the character seems to be labeled as asexual without a proper understanding of what the label may actually mean to that character. It comes across as inconsistent, not as nuanced.

Which brings me to the other issue...

TECHNICAL ISSUES

I'm going to try to keep this brief because my other portion is very long. But the writing style of this was very difficult for me to read, and there are tons of issues in terms of tone, consistency, and general story flow that really should have been caught by an editor and beta readers, well before this book made it to the ARC stage. The primary narrator has a concussion before the onset of the book, and the concussion continues to affect her throughout the book. If the goal was for her inner monologue to come across as if she had a concussion, this does a great job. However, as a non-concussed reader, I really really struggled. (Having that written out sounds kind of mean, but honestly that was my true experience.)

We switch narrators between the prologue and Ch 1 with literally no indication. The storyline jumps around constantly. Major plot points are introduced and then disappear without being appropriately wrapped up. At times, I wondered if parts of the book were included out of order because the information seemed relevant but not at the time that it was given. I felt like I could have used at least five chapters of exposition that were never included. So much of the information in the storyline was told to us through dialogue when it should have been shown to us through action. These technical issues made the book near unreadable for me, and I'm guessing for a lot of other folks as well.


CONCLUSION/TL;DR
I have to applaud the author for such an original concept. Honestly as a first draft, this wouldn't have been bad at all. The bones of a great story are underneath all of the execution issues I've listed above. But I think there's a ton of shaping that needs to be done here before this book really tells the story that the author seems to want it to.

How I love a strong female lead. Also I am so pleased my ship worked out 😍 beautifully written, witty and full of enough tension and action to please anyone. I cannot offer enough praise for Spell Borne ❤️

Some curses start with “Once upon a time...”

This book was really good! The storyline was so original and well researched. Who doesn’t love a good fairy-tale? If you do, this book explores all of them and is made for you!

I enjoyed following Loren on her sometimes dark and difficult journey. She struggles to learn more about who she is as her life is being dictated by "Magic". Ultimately with the help of friends and family she takes control of her destiny. But does she get the happily ever after? You need to read to find out!

Thank you @netgalley and @audenllr for giving me the privilege to review this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Auden Llyr for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Likes: The book was different than my expectations but I did enjoy the uniqueness of the plot and the general storyline. It was along the same lines as the series Once Upon A Time - magic, fairytales, a curse. I can honestly say I never read a book with this concept before. I enjoyed the casual style the author wrote in and the details and research that went into creating the storyline. I definitely think this should be classified as YA based on the characters and the inner thought monologue.

Dislikes: The way the book “set the scene” was overwhelming and made me work overtime trying to put the pieces together. I wish there was a slow introduction to the main character learning about the curse. I also wish there were more details of the environment and world building.

I struggled with the main character. I felt as though she was hectic and her thought process and priorities frustrated me. I also wish the book had multiple points of views, maybe even multiple “curses” to follow - that would have made the book fantastic. Overall, the plot did not always seem to flow - just a hard transition. I also think many plot points were never addressed fully or resolved.

Overall, I thought this book introduced a really interesting story. It could have used a little more cohesion and less “twists” - like one person having dragons but never fully addressing that? I enjoyed this book and think that I will think of it often due to never coming across a story like this before. I have recommended this book to multiple people now, so I think it did its job - it left me with something to talk about!

*Please remember, book reviews are opinions. I always encourage people to read ANYTHING that sounds interesting or speaks to them, regardless of reviews. Life would be pretty boring if we all liked the same things and thought the same way.

I loved the concept and I had fun with this book but the pacing... I abs hated the pacing. I wish it were more consistent. I am really glad that there were TWs in the beginning. It really helped a lot. The characters were okay but I didn't feel connected to them too much. Overall, it was a book that was good but not great.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing an e-ARC. 3 Stars

I thought this book was an interesting take on a retelling - especially since it kept me guessing which fairy tale it was telling until the end. It also wasn't a romance like many retellings tend to be. I definitely found myself rooting for Loren as she tries to break the curse and avoid being pushed into a relationship she didn't want.

Pros:
-The author clearly knew their fairy tales.
-The characters were well developed.
-It had a really unique magic system.

Cons:
-I felt like the ending was a bit rushed.
-Some of the plot points were predictable (which I guess is expected in a retelling)

I feel Spell Borne is a must-read for fans of fantasy and fairy tales

Once upon a time there was a girl who fell for a gorgeous cover and just had to read the book. So thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and it reminded me of the TV show Once Upon A Time but with the darker, original themes to the fairy tales. The author has definitely put in the work on the research of these tales and that really shone in the writing and world building.

I loved the characters and the dialogue between them was brilliant however I found the inner monologue of the FMC a little repetitive and this slowed the pace down for me. I would definitely read more of this series as I would love to explore other characters like Kella.

There are quite a few trigger warnings for this book and you should definitely check those before deciding to read.

Sometimes you need to write your own fairytale

Our main character Loren is thrusted back into the town her family originated from. She is unaware of the Magic that resides there and it quickly makes itself known after setting Loren’s destiny in motion. However, Loren does not want to repeat her family’s tale, but going against destiny can’t be that hard, right?

This story almost starts in the middle the exposition. It takes about 20ish percent to have a firm grasp of the world, the Magic, and what is at play. Since this is all told through Loren’s perspective, and she herself is trying to make sense of this, it doesn’t feel as frustrating. There are times that some of explanation feels high level, but it does fit into the characters and our heroine feels overwhelmed herself! It felt like her thoughts were captured nicely in streams of consciousness as well. Sometimes this was a little much for me, but it also made Loren more relatable at times.

Overall, the plot and world is interesting. While I am familiar with different fairytales, I still found twists and turns that kept me reading. Llyr did her research and it shows! She did not just take from Disney or the Brothers Grimm, but added other versions to the mix as well. I also loved the idea that if enough people believe in it, it can become real. I would love to see that idea played out more in the series. While a retelling at its core, Llyr made it more unique and fun. The story did not feel predictable at every turn. I hope to return to this world soon!

Thank you to NetGalley and Auden Lyrr LLC for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I'm about 10% in and feel like I've missed so many chapters. There doesn't seem to be any build up or character building, its as though I'm half way through the story with the explanations, not the start of the book.
This is too confusing at this time

Thank you NetGalley for providing this e-ARC, all opinions are my own.
I love the cover and the plot idea for this book. However reading it I realized this book just wasn't for me. The first half of the book was really boring to me, especially the planning of events. In the beginning the whole fairytale town reminded me a lot of the Once Upon a Time TV show. In addition the relationship with Henry made me very uncomfortable, I assume this was the point but had this not been an arc I would have DNFed the book at that point in the story. The ending felt a bit like just taking/trying out what or who was left to me.
I did however enjoy the painting and talk about Lorens art and nature.
I think people that enjoy seeing fairytales from different angels and like the idea of cursed fairytale towns and magic that influences people's lives could enjoy this book.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review