Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately it’s not the book for me. DNF @ 12%.

I enjoyed reading this book. Although, I have never increased my unattractiveness by good deeds, I was able to relate to the main character as she continued to choose good despite the cost to herself. I definitely loathed the characters that were deceptive and mean spirited. If you enjoy mythology, sci-fi, or a good "dragon" story, you should read Coiled.

I read the description. Yet when I started this tale I found myself surprised. Not sure why, except that there was so much more to this book than I expected. It was deeper, more intense. The mythology of it was creative, and the characters absorbing in their journey.

A quick read, yet not an afternoon wasted as I found myself enjoying it and content to ignore the world for a time. Fun and fantasy, romance and adventure. A sweet tale and overall a delightful time.

This was a really creative type of fairy tale, and I found it fascinating as the story went on. The writing could definitely use improvement, but the level of imagination was brilliant.

<http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=65629>

A fantasy of serpents, twins and cursed
mirrors...

This is a wonderfully engaging fairy tale. My rating 4.75.

Princess Laidra and her twin sister, Ellea, were cursed at birth. Ellea is beautiful but her beauty is enhanced by her acts of cruelty to others, such as crushing a small bird. Laidra has the gift of healing but with every healing touch she becomes uglier with moles and wiry hairs on her face and body.

Laidra’s mother insists she cover herself with a cloak and hood and forbades her from healing. But Laidra still helps the servants when they are ill or innocents who are injured. Since she knows she is already hideous she finds her worth in healing and helping others.

In another empire Prince Calen and his twin brother, Volen, suffer from a different curse. Volen becomes a monster serpent if he is left alone with no one to see him; Calen becomes the monster when anyone sees him. Their father chose to protect Volen by assigning him guards to be in his presence at all times while Calen was sent to a private island with a servant who is invisible and doesn’t trigger the curse.

Volen and the King think that perhaps the curse will be cured, or at least ‘fixed’ if Calen murders (eats a princess) or if Volen marries one. They have planned to take Laidra to abandon her to Calen or they will marry Volen to Ellea.

Laidra escapes and comes to Calen’s island where he rescues her from the waves. Now Calen and Laidra develop a friendship as they talk and share music together, but never look upon each other. Could either of them risk committing the other to a life long tie if the curse isn’t cured for either or both?

Meanwhile the man/god who started the curses is surprised by Laidra’s play in events. He wants to continue to punish his old enemies. But perhaps the other gods will step in to allow the young people to change their undeserved fates.

I really found this a charming fairytale. It is a story of evil intentions and good souls facing obstacles. There is sorrow, fear, character growth and love. The writing is clean and a good blend of description and character building although there were a few scenes that didn't seem to have complete follow through. I am not familiar with the Eros and Psyche mythology that this is based on so it does make me curious about that story. It also made this story 'new' to me. I recommend this to readers who enjoy a good fairy tale with curses, magic and love.

I loved this. A beauty and the beast retelling with snakes

On a private scale of internal squees, Coiled would rate somewhere between 4.5 - 5 stars. On the cosmic scale of books I have read, I'd put Coiled at 4 stars. Which is just a grand way of saying that it hit a lot of sweet spots, I liked it very, very much, but it's not the greatest book I've ever read. (And is also a fancy way of saying it falls into the category of books-I-won't-admit-to-liking-this-much because of literary pretentions.)

Two sets of twins from neighbouring countries are cursed. As they come of age, they're pitted against each other, as curing one would permanently curse the other. Soon it becomes a race--which twin will win? And what will happen to the one that loses out? Coiled is basically a fairy tale/myth with gods and half-gods, curses and magic, and a quest. Well, more than one quest. They are personal quests to break personal curses, but that doesn't make them any less valid. There's a lot of personal vendetta and family squabbling and guilty secrets.

The... thing... between Princess Laidra and Prince Calen is tooth-achingly, diabetes-inducingly sweet, and has the added advantage of being old-fashioned and gentlemanly and will-he-won't-he-WHATAREYOUWAITINGFORPRINCE, which is what I love in a good guilty-secret read, which usually involves princes and princesses, because I don't read romance [ahem]. It IS, however, clean YA, and while there are certain--allusions? Fade to blacks? Almosts?--hints of impropriety (to come and hoped for), it mainly stays in the teenage royal fantasy plane.

It's the sort of book my teenage self would have read over and over and over again. Now, I just read it, sigh, and go back to real life.

The serpent on the cover is also very cute.

Note: I received an e-galley via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I feel bad, but I did not really care for this story. I love the setting and I think the characters were mostly great, but this just did not do it for me. Not related to the content, the cover is really beautiful.

So I actually really enjoyed the premise of this book. It was a breath of fresh air in a crowd of fairytale retellings.

I had been looking forward to this story for some time. The world-building was good. The character of Laidra was especially well developed. She was strong but not pushy, humble but not a doormat. She didn't allow herself to be blindly used by others and spoke her mind when it was called for. I didn't feel as though I got to know Calen quite as well, but I liked him. The affection between the two main characters felt genuine and it was nice watching it develop.

Some of the secondary characters were interesting as well. I wish there was a little more closure on a few of them, such as Laidra's sister. Aside from an incident involving an animal in the beginning of the story, I had trouble disliking her as much as I felt I was supposed to. It seemed as though circumstances had a lot to do with the personalities of the two sets of siblings.

The story started off strong and had me hooked early on. I loved almost every minute of it, right up until about the 80% mark. Something about the way things ended just didn't sit right with me. I wanted a good ending, but perhaps I wanted the main characters to have a more active role in bringing about their happily ever after. Also, maybe things got wrapped up a little too well. I really want to say more here, but that would involve spoilers. Suffice it to say the ending left me feeling a little unsatisfied, and I wanted very badly to love it more.

The story reaches a conclusion, but I really hope there is a sequel later on. It was such a lovely story for the most part, maybe a sequel would leave things feeling a little more satisfying.

Rating: 3.5/5

I enjoyed this book. It gave me flash backs to what it was like to read Ella Enchanted back when I was in junior high. The story is sweet and simple, a very quick read and I enjoyed the time I spent on it. The story takes some cliches and the idea of princes and princesses and true love and twists them in a story that is entirely unique and it's own story. The innocence and sweetness of the book pulls you in and makes you root for the characters, and Burke tries to redeem even the worst characters (for the most part), making them human and relatable for their flaws.

The only issue I took was that the 'romance' line in this story just sort of all the sudden showed up. They've only met 4 or 5 times for conversation and they're already rambling about being in love with each other. For me, that was a little much, even for a book of the short nature and simplicity. As much time as was spent developing the story line for the trials, there was little time spent on building up the romance and the love that they have for each other.

Occasionally, there was allusion to sexual acts that seemed...odd to me in a book that seems geared to a much younger age. Which, I did often feel that this book was geared more to 12-year olds and the various age range, rather than the full-broad spectrum of young adult. Maybe that's just me being a little old fashion.

All that said, I think with a very a little bit of tweaking this book could be a very easy 5 stars. I liked the research into the mythology, the slight combination into the Christian aspect, and how the story was laid out and that the 'bad' characters end up with some redeeming characteristics, making them relatable. But there were just some developmental issues (from nothing to loving after 5 minutes?) and a little odd parts in the book for a story meant for such a younger age. (If meant for an older age, it needs a little bit of sophistication development, so half a dozen one another).

(any flow problems with this review are 100% my fault, I've been on cold medicine during the day but I wanted to get it at least written before I forgot the thoughts I had for it).

The era of retelling old myths has been alive and going for some time now with hits and misses along the way depending on the writer’s talent or interest in ancient folklore. This one has the makings to be on the interesting side: royalty, man-eating serpent, curses, magic and that oft used theme of love.

This is a take on the myth of Eros (more commonly known as Cupid) and Psyche. If you don’t remember, or never knew the myth, I’ll give you my personality infused rundown of the love story between the son of Aphrodite and a beautiful human girl who was the youngest daughter of a King and so beautiful stories of her were spread throughout the land.

People began saying she was more beautiful than the goddess of beauty – Aphrodite herself. This angered Aphrodite because she of course is a goddess and no mere human is going to be fairer than her. She sent her son, Eros, to force Psyche to fall in love with the most horrid creature possible as punishment for winning the genetic lottery.

Well Eros couldn’t do it since he fell for her too. Psyche couldn’t find anyone to love her for more than her beauty so her father went to another god, Apollo, who prophesized that Psyche would need to be taken to a mountain top, left there alone and a serpent far worse than the gods would come take her for his wife. The King actually did leave his daughter there alone to befall her fate.

One day she’s whisked off to this enchanting place where she never sees her husband; only hears a voice. To lessen her sadness her sisters come visit but she’s warned by this mysterious husband of hers not to let her sisters push her into anything or she will ruin the incredibly odd marriage she has. They manipulate her into believing she’s married to that dreaded serpent from the prophecy so she lights a candle one night to see who she’s been sleeping with and discovers it’s Eros who leaves her because she didn’t trust him enough to not care who she was married to without proof.

After he abandons her she goes to Aphrodite and begs her mother-in-law for help who like most stereotypical mother-in-law’s wants to make her suffer. MIL tells her she has to complete 3 tasks or she’ll never see Eros again. Psyche does it but that just pisses off Mommy Dearest even more. The rest of the In-Laws had to intervene and tell Eros how his mom was abusing Psyche. He decided to forgive his wife, got pissed at his mom, Zeus made Psyche a goddess and everyone lived happily ever after.

In Burke’s story Psyche becomes Laidra, Eros is now Calen, Zeus is Jovan and Aphrodite is Zephia. Their personalities and other traits are altered too. Calen really is the ‘dreaded’ snake and a twin. Laidra is beyond repulsive covered in hair and warts with a withered body; like Calen is also a twin. Each set of twins was gifted/cursed with a mirror consequence. For every person Laidra helped she became uglier. For every person her sister hurt she became more beautiful. When Calen is around people he becomes a monster; a serpent so he must remain alone. When his brother is around people he remains a normal man but when he is alone he becomes a monster.

An oracle is consulted and they are told that a princess must be dangled in front of the Serpent. Laidra ends up on the island with Calen but can’t look at him only hear his voice. For love to be proven true three seemingly impossible tasks, including one of collecting water into a flask, must be done – another similarity to the original story.

Like with any mythology there will be characters you love, others you hate and some who bring out a bit of both. Thankfully Burke writes with a quick pace as the dialogue and action moves the story along with little drag. Certain sections I found more interesting than others simply because some of the characters were so hateful and egotistical it was easy to grow tired of their storylines quite quickly but eventually even their horrid personalities are needed to bring everything together. Myths were used to teach lessons and this one is no different.

'Coiled’ is a well-written retelling of the story of Eros and Psyche. In this case, there are a set of twin Princesses and a set of twin Princes with a mirror curse cast upon each set. Their fathers, the two Kings, are friends, and like all fairytale Kings, they set out to unite their kingdoms via marriage of their children.

The mirror curses are such that Princess Laidra becomes more and more ugly on the outside as she uses her gift to heal people and show them kindness. Her sister has the inverse, the other half of the curse. Princess Ellea’s outward beauty grows each time she is mean or nasty. While the girls’ curse is tied to their personalities and choices they actively make, the boys’ curse allows them less control. Each Prince has a human form and a serpent form. One Prince remains human unless someone lays eyes on him, and the other remains a serpent until someone lays eyes on him.

As a result of their curses (and some rather nasty parenting), Prince Volen and Princess Ellea are paraded in front of their kingdoms as the beautiful and human heirs to the throne. They easily maintain these positions by having guards constantly watch Prince Volen and for Princess Ellea to continue to be nasty in order to keep up her beauty.

Princess Laidra could actively choose not to help people, and her warts and scars would disappear over time, but that’s not who she is. Prince Calen has no such choice; even his own mother must wear a blindfold while in his presence, or else he turns into a mindless serpent.

As the Kings plan for Volen and Ellea’s marriage to unite their kingdoms and plot to resolve the curses set upon their children, chaos, romance, and intervention from mythological Greek Gods ensue. Enjoy!

I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s.

This is a beautiful love story. I love how Caleb falls for Laidra without even having seen her face. The drama during her trip to get the water was very well written and interesting. The only thing I didn't care for was how quickly Caleb fell in love with Laidra. Otherwise. A pretty solid book. I enjoyed it.