I think this is a hard book for me to review because overall I did not enjoy the writing style at all. It felt overly wordy and personally not in the enjoyable way. It was a hard to push through I almost DNF'd this. Granted too it might be that it's intended for a younger audience but l've read other middle grade books and this one just felt different.

I think I might have over hyped this up in my head too much from the cover and the idea of a Brave part 2 type of story. I found my mind wandering and not caring and for a book I thought would be a fun easy read coming from a Disney story did not find that. I love the movie Brave and adore Merida but this story seems to have lost that magic. Maybe if I had never watched or known anything about the movie version of Merida I could enjoy this story more. It was hard to connect with the characters too I think again the writing style had me detached. Overall this book I think just isn't for me. Maybe for a younger audience or someone who enjoys the authors writing style they would enjoy this.

This was everything I was hoping for and more. An absolutely fantastic continuation of Merida’s story.

Loved this! I really like that it takes place after the events of the Disney movie. I loved the deep dive into Merida’s world as she’s my fave!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

I am not sure why I never picked up any of Maggie Stiefvater’s books before (like The Raven Boys), but better now than never, right? I loved Bravely from the very first line to the end. It is hard to decide my favorite character though it might be easy to fall back on the protagonist, but I cannot pick one here. This is one read that both older and younger readers can enjoy together, and I am guessing can (and might) be easily transformed to the screen in some adaptation at some point.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital review copy of this book.

I really loved the movie Brave, it's one of my favorite Disney movies, so I had really high hopes for this book. However I feel like this book fell a bit short for me. I liked the idea of the story, that Merida had a year to try and save her family. I just felt like the execution was a bit off. Part of that was the romance in the story, I just wasn't a fan. While I liked the love interest character, I really just love the idea of Merida being uninterested in romantic relationships. I feel like as a character, Merida prioritizes just about everything before romance, and that's one of the things I love about her.. I love a romance, but not every story needs one, and I really felt like this one didn't. I think it would have been better if the time was instead spent on building her relationships with her family instead. I've hear a lot of really great things about Maggie Stiefvater as an author, but based off of this book alone, I wasn't super impressed. I think the story just felt a bit rushed, and off. I do think this is worth a read, it is an entertaining book, it just wasn't the super rich story that I was expecting from a story that is centered on Merida.

I've always been such a big fan of Maggie Stiefvater's writing style since Shiver and Scorpio Races and when I heard she was creating a cannon Disney book, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. The book takes place about a year after the events of the Disney movie Brave, where headstrong Merida chases a god into the woods. Once she found out what the gods had in store for her beloved family home, she became determined to stop it, making a bargain between the god of new beginnings and the god of ruin. Merida has 1 year to invoke change in her family in order to save them. I really liked this one. Just positive messages and a good story

If there is one Disney movie I wanted to see a follow up story for, it is Brave. Who doesn't love the strength, independence, and fierceness of Merida? This book does not disappoint with a good storyline and strong characters. I would recommend it to anyone who wants more to the story of Merida.

Teens who watched Brave when they were kids will adore how this novel continues the story and ages it up so that it's still perfect for them.

I'm really enjoying a deeper dive into Merida's world. Getting to know the triplets individually, thinking about our roles in the world and how much we are responsible for continuing to make it better. I'm still reading it, but have already started recommending it to my YA reading Disney fans.

This was such a fun continuation of Brave! I loved seeing so many of our favourite characters back. Merida cant sit still long and this was a really fun adventure to read about. Highly recommend for Brave fans!

If you're a fan of the film 'Brave', you will enjoy Maggie Stiefvater's 'Bravely'. As a sequel to the film, 'Bravely' gives readers more to explore with Merida's lore and is an all-around great read!

These Disney sequels tend to either be hit or miss for me. However Bravely was a hit. Maggie Stiefvater gave me Merida growing into her own, and learning to be the leader she needed to be. Merida grew older and wiser and didn't change who she truly was. She was still the same Merida we got in Brave and I loved that.

<i>"Change isn't about getting taller or changing the roof over your head. Change happens in your heart, in your way of thinking, of moving in the world. And if it were present at DunBroch, I wouldn't be called here. Moth to flame, osprey to water, salmon to birthplace; they have their nature. I have my nature."</i>

<i>"Before you left, you were a person who would do those things. Now that you are back, you are a person who has done those things. You would do them again. What mark has been left on your heart or in the world from the doing of them? You have been learning new skills and riding horses here and there for your entire life.[...] Some storms make a lot of noise but move no rooftops."</i>

TL;DR: A sequel to Disney/Pixar's <i>Brave</i> which sees Merida as an older, somewhat wiser version of our headstrong & impetuous princess (although she is still both of those things) -- but given more emotional & psychological depth through Maggie Stiefvater's deft blending of characterization and medieval Celtic mythology.

<b><i>Disclaimer: I received an ARC from Netgalley & Disney Publishing in exchange for an honest review.</b></i>

Vibes: Disney/Pixar's <i>Brave</i> + [book:The Raven Boys|17675462]

Genre: YA/NA Fairy Tale Retelling
*I know this is marketed as a YA novel, but honestly? Merida reads so much older than the...21 (?) she's supposed to be in this book. (Depends on how old you see her as in the Pixar film. I know she's technically 16, but meh. She acted younger IMO.) I would also say that Maggie Stiefvater's books are so layered and nuanced and sophisticated that "target age" is really tricky to nail here.

Romance Meter: 🖤 🖤 ♡ ♡ ♡
There *is* romance, which I'm sure pisses some people off to no end -- Merida is, technically, the anti-romance princess; more on that below -- but I thought it was really, really well handled. Very in line with The Raven Cycle, where Blue & Gansy's romance is *there* but it doesn't dominate the entire plot, and it doesn't feel like a Romance story.

Character MVP: Leezie -- I got touches of Madison-from-She-Hulk as I was reading, mainly because what could have been a throwaway flat character was written with heart and nuance.

Verdict: 5/5. As to be expected with a Maggie book.

I love, love, loved this. It was both a wise and poor decision to read this over Christmas -- wise, because it made my mood-reading-heart happy, as the story starts and ends at Yuletide. Poor, because given everything going on around Christmas, it was hard to just sit down and read the way I would have liked to.

And Maggie Stiefvater writes with that extremely rare gift of combining beautiful & lush prose with a perfectly-paced plot.

THIS is what I want all Disney sequels and spin-offs to be. (And yes, Disney, I am still salty about that AWFUL Raising the Horseman story -- what Maggie Stiefvater could have done with that story....*shakes head mournfully at the wasted potential*)

What worked:

✔️ -- I can see some people not appreciating this, but I liked how Maggie handled Merida's character. If you wanted the *same* headstrong impetuous character as the film, you'd be disappointed, because Stiefvater's Merida isn't a teenager anymore; she's a young woman, and has matured accordingly. But the thing is that Merida *is* still headstrong & impetuous, since the catalyst for the plot is literally Merida running barefoot through the snow in the middle of the night because she's chasing down a stranger in the castle.

✔️ -- Feradach -- and his relationship with Merida -- is similarly handled well, and again, I can see this being something people took issue with.
If you saw Merida as the Anti-Marriage and Anti-Romance princess -- essentially the Anti-Disney-Princess -- then, yeah, I can see that.
BUT.
Just as Merida was never canonically queer she was never canonically Ace or anti-marriage. She was just Anti-Being-Ordered-Around-And-Told-What-To-D0. It's not that she *never* wanted to get married, she just didn't want to get married *then* because her mother told her to. She wanted it to be her choice, and I love how that ripples through the undercurrent of the plot. There are references to the events of the film, and the uneasy truce Merida and Elinor have.
And, really: it makes 100% sense that Merida wouldn't fall for a human boy and that she would fall in love with a god. Any human boy -- even in medieval Scotland -- would be too simple, too easy for her. And this Merida still loves a challenge and not taking the easy way out.
I even think that Maggie Stiefvater pulled a Charlotte Bronte at the end: if you want to, you can read the ending as ambiguous and platonic. (I don't; I chose to read it romantically, partly because...)

✔️ -- Merida's change.
This was perhaps the biggest nod to the story being marketed as YA, because in the end, Merida's change comes through having her heart broken. But as someone who didn't have their heart broken until they were in their mid-20s, this isn't a uniquely YA experience. And it does significantly and irrevocably change you, in deep and profound ways -- ways you can't fully understand unless it's happened to you. It's not something Maggie spends a lot of time on; it's enough -- if you've lived through it -- to say it happened, this is what Merida did, and this is where she ends up.

I would 100% read a sequel, Disney, if you choose to go that route. And also -- put authors like Maggie Stiefvater -- who can actually write stories with believable dialogue, an actual plot, and emotionally complex characters -- in charge of MORE projects instead of relying on Serena Valentino who has yet to do those things in a book that I've read. PLEASE.

"I have no interest in talking to you, and you have no business here yet. If I had my bow right now I would shoot you right through the eye; I don't care if you can be killed or not. I would do it for the satisfaction of pinning your face to the ground with an arrow." I am just going to add this to my dating profile because to the concern of my mother this is a mood. Overall, I think that this is a sweet read. I definitely think there were parts that could have been stronger, but overall I think that it was a book that was entertaining and quick to read.

This is a great book to give to Brave fans! Overall, I would definitely recommend it!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

I wanted to like this but I could not get into the story or the characters. I felt that it was pretty far fetched and not something I could connect to.

A fun sequel to the movie Brave. It was a fun read, but very YA, which was expected but I think I am just a bit too older for these types of books now.

Incidentally, this was my first book by this author which is likely not her most popular book so I should try the others. I love the Disney movie Brave, especially the setting, so I did enjoy this retelling. The audiobook narration was well done and I will not be hesitating to pass it along to my children at some point in the future.

As a longtime reader of anything Stievater, I was elated that she was writing a Merida story. There is so much depth in her world and character development. I will always read and recommend her books and Bravely is no exception. She is a phenomenal writer and brings this story to life.

For anyone who loves Disney's Brave, this story will immerse you back into Merida's life. A great tale for young adult, fantasy readers.