Scarlett St. Clair is a guilty pleasure of mine, and this book was no exception. Spicy, vaguely ridiculous plot points, couldn’t put it down.

Gesela is minding her own business in the woods and getting wood for the fire. Until she gets cornered in the woods and made to kill the frog in the well to break the curse.



Gesela is thrown into the well and the frog is kind enough to show her a way out. She really wants to just save this frog and not have to hurt it, but in the end it goes south. The frog she killed wasn't just a frog, but a prince.



Woken in the middle if the night, Gesela is surrounded by the elven princes. They want to punish her for killing their brother and so send her to live with another brother who they call the beast.



Gesela and the beast clash. Lots of back and forth and her hate for him is shown. So how in 7 days is she to find out his true name and say it with love.



She gains letters and asks how to find his true name. The mountains and the story of how it came down to someone having to say his true name with love.



I have a love/hate with this book. I love retellings and have fallen for Scarlett's other books. However, I am not a fan that the beginning didn't have more of a backstory. But the romance concept just seemed not the standard I'm used to with Scarlett's other books. It was rushed and just didn't seem right for them to go at each other to in love in a week. I had a hard time with that part.



Overall, I enjoyed it but its not my favorite by Scarlett. But I look forward to reading more by her.

I used to love Scarlett St. Clair's writing, but unfortunately, I think I've outgrown it.

I do like how she approaches spice, but the plots of her books have kinda gotten worse in my opinion. I had a hard time following this world.

I love her first Hades and Persephone books! The first Hades POV and first Persephone POV.

4/5 Stars

4/5 Spice

Thank you to Scarlett St. Clair and Blooms Book for providing me with an arc to read and review.

I really love most of Scarlett St. Clair’s books and I was very excited when I got approved for this. It somehow got pushed to the side but I recently found the audiobook and listened to that and it was amazing. This world was so interesting and I loved seeing an even darker side to Scarlett St Clair’s writing. This book is loosely inspired by beauty and the beast i believe and I think those elements were done very very well.

I recommend this for fans of Scarlett’s writing and those looking for a quick dark romantic fantasy book.

"𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙛 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙣𝙤𝙩. 𝙎𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙄 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙝𝙚𝙧, 𝙄 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛"

𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵 𝘚𝘵. 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘳

𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪
In order for Gesela to save her village from the curse, it is her turn to bare the consequences. Gesela has to kill the frog in the well, what she didn't expect was to be banished to the enchanted forest to be the prisoner of the Prince of Thorns.

Our dear morally grey Prince has a curse of his own, cursed to forget his name and to start fading away, he is in search of woman who will love him, love him to the extent that she would utter his true name. With these two constantly bickering and Gesela getting into all sorts of trouble. Will they be able to set themselves free from their curses.

This book is a retelling of a number of fairytales, although I love my fictional grey men, Mr prickly over here did absolutely nothing for me, his arrogance and misogyny made me dislike his character. Gesela was impulsive, she had a strong character on her own but around others she came across as weak.

Rating
3⭐
4🌶️

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
There is no one fairytale that I could pin to this which was annoying. Also, the smut was excessive and took away from the story for me.

My gothic queen has done it again. St Clair stays true to the dark and eerie classic fairy tales in this short work. I have a soft spot for retellings and this will satisfy similar fans for sure

I didn’t realize this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling.

It’s short so honestly there were a lot of plot lines that either could’ve been expanded or shouldn’t come up in the first place. I think the author tried to add different elements to make this a fun retelling but I’m not sure it’s working here.

I guess it’s a short fun smutty read if you don’t think too much of it.

3.5 ⭐️

A quick read with a satisfying arc. This story pulls from fairy tales, mostly from Beauty and the Beast, where St. Clair makes them her own. The tension between the two main characters definitely earns this 4/5 chili peppers. The protagonist is an easy character to root for in her endeavor to break the curse of the fae prince that has her imprisoned. This story leads to many more potential books in this series from St. Clair, which I look forward to.

I read this book almost as fast as the main character fell in love with her captor. Gesela murders a fae prince cursed to be a frog and, as a punishment, is forced to live with one of his brothers. She then has to figure out the name of her fae captor to escape. However, pretty quickly readers learn that she only has a week to do it, and she has to be in love. As soon as the concept of falling in love in a week came into play, I was worried.

Some of the side characters that supported the story were so enticing and well thought out. I loved the bird who was a glorified taxi and only made a few brief appearances. I also enjoyed the creepy selkie man and the lore that was explained within that, but felt he didn't need to be sexualized so much. My main complaint though is that although there was lore and a driving plot, the main character and her love interest felt very half-baked.

Overall a good read. I initially had a hard time seeing any real chemistry between the MCs but it eventually came together nicely.

Firstly I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC ❤️😘

Gesela lives in a village where curses are common, they happen often and when they pop up it falls to the villagers to take turns to try and break them. So when the well dry up it falls to her to kill the toad that’s taken up residence at the bottom of it. Unfortunately for her all is not as it seems and he’s actually an Elven Prince under his own curse (there’s a lot of curses 😏😏 I love it!!) and now Gesela has angered his many Elven brothers. Feeling the need for revenge and to punish Gesela they send her to live with their seventh brother, the Elven Prince called Beast…

I’m a huge fan of fairytale retellings and Mountains Made of Glass is perfect 😏❤️ I loved all of the characters, it was like revisiting old friends but they’d all had a wonderful makeover!! I like how hostile and feisty Gesela and the Prince are towards each other it makes you completely invested in their relationship. (Bossy/Feisty? 😏😂)

Mountains of Glass is true to the fairytale genre, romantic with more than a dash of spice (of course 😏❤️). It completely drew me in, I’m in looooove and I’m so so excited for the rest of the series!! 5✨ for sure!!

(Just adding that this is an Adult read 🥰😘)

My love for Scarlett St.Clair’s writing runs deep in my veins. This book was the most perfect retelling of Beauty in the Beast, or so how I interpreted it, and I would read it again…I probably will again. The retelling plot was different and gave off a dark vibe. The reading was short but still long enough that things did not feel rushed or confusing, I would telling anyone about this if they love fairytale retellings.

This was a fun one. I enjoyed how short it was because it was constantly flowing and the story kept my interest. A little too much smut for my taste but I know that comes with reading this author. The fairytale Easter eggs scattered all throughout it though made it so fun.

A village called Elk has always been cursed during Gesela's life, but the curse is not just one curse, but many. One curse causes the well to go dry in the village, so Gesela decides she will save her town and ends up killing the toad that just happens to live at the bottom of the well. The only problem with this is that the toad kind of is not a toad, but more like a cursed Elven Prince...Due to the "toad" dying, his brothers come for Gasela for her to be punished. For her punishment, she is sent to live with the seventh brother who is called The Beast. She thinks that he will be a total monster, but quickly learns he is not, and he offers her a deal: if she can offer up his true name in seven days, then he will allow her to go free.

I mostly enjoy Scarlett St. Clair's book, but I will be honest: I absolutely hated Queen of Myth and Monsters, so I was a bit hesitant to request this book in fear that it will not be any good, but thankfully I was proven wrong for the most part.

I did end up giving this book 3.5/5 stars because I just could not get into it at first due to how the book is paced and it felt like it lacked any depth to the world and to the characters. This all could be because of the length of the book, which is only 219 pages. I do wonder if the book was longer and fleshed out with more details to create better pacing, then would I have liked it more?

I should add too that I feel like the biggest problem for me with Queen of Myth and Monsters was that it was smut after smut with barely any plot line and for Mountains Made of Glass there was a lot of smut that started to overtake the plot, but it was not as bad as Queen of Myth and Monsters.

The thing I mostly liked about Mountains Made of Glass was the fairytale retellings, which gives that whimsy feeling, but it easily creeps in with darkness. Gesela definitely proves herself to not be like the Damsels in Distress like you see in fairytales, but she is moreover the one who will do anything to save herself and others around her even when she falls in love with a hot guy.

When it comes to this book or any book similar like A Court of Thorns and Roses that have the main character try to guess the riddle to finding something out, then I as a reader enjoy trying to figure out what the answer is alongside the main character. I may be good at guessing things in let's say thrillers, but I suck at solving riddles.

If you just want a short book with a lot of smut, forced proximity, and the prisoner/captor trope, then you will enjoy this book a lot.

I think I am going to keep going with Scarlett St. Clair's books to see if I enjoy her books more or not since this is my fourth book I've read by her now.

Mountains Made of Glass by Scarlett St. Clair

Keep a fan nearby because this spicey dark adult fairytale was a quick bedtime read that was very enchanting, and I can’t wait for more.

This novella had great word building, a storyline steeped with a lore, (both dark but captivating) and characters that were very familiar. Reading through it has “Beauty and the Beast, with a twist” along with “Rumpelstiltskin” vibes, but the bonus characters were great, and I found myself laughing out loud at several parts of the story. I really enjoyed the dual points of view, and the banter between the two main characters was very good!

I've been obsessed with fairy tales for as long as I have been able to read. While it may have started with the Grimms' fairy tales, I quickly moved on to Andersen's stories and to the collection of international fairy tales my mother thankfully stored within reach of my 8-yr old self. I've also become fond of fairy tale retellings and adaptations, so I was pretty sure Scarlett St. Clair's Mountains Made of Glass would be right up my alley! While this is in no way a deep or intense retelling, it is a delightfully spicy novella. Thanks to Bloom Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gesela lives in Elk, which is a truly cursed place. From golden apples to animal transformations, something is always going wrong and someone is always made to fix it, whatever the consequences may be. When her turn comes to help the village, she discovers that the frog she killed is in fact one of seven Elven brothers and that this is only the beginning of her trouble. Now she is stuck with the seventh brother and has to guess his name if she doesn't want to be stuck forever. Gesela is delightfully feisty and so done with most of the nonsense in Elk and the Enchanted Forest. But the prince, Casamir, is something else. Torn between intense attraction and intense dislike, the dance between the two is delightfully catty and steamy. I somehow hadn't expected the level of spiciness this novella would carry, so the first time I came across a swear word I was delighted. I haven't read an E-rated romance in a while, so I enjoyed the explicitness and St. Clair's willingness to engage with all the tropes from insta-lust to fairy dust. The romance is very much at the heart of the tale and while it didn't super-grip me, it made for a fun afternoon.

I should have known what I was in for from the beginning as the foreword just said 'For the f*ck of it'. St. Clair's story is beautifully irreverent, combining fairy tale creatures and themes from all kinds of different cultures together into a joyful whole. The writing is very straightforward but in a clear and descriptive way. It is quite hard, I imagine, to make it look this smooth and easy. As this is a novella, there is not a whole lot of back-and-forth, or wallowing in intense feelings. The speed of the plot, with the novella's length, means that you don't get any of the intense inner monologuing for pages and pages which often frustrates me. The switching perspectives between Gesela and Casimir is also fun, because it allows for one of my favourite tropes "fools who don't know they may be in love". It also added to the spicy scenes, because you got to see it from both points of view. I also enjoyed the way St. Clair played with some of the familiar fairy tale tropes, like the Prince Charming-figure, the selkie, or even the little elves in the closet. Also hello to a delightful enchanted Mirror! The ending, specifically the last chapter, was also a delight because it fully went along with the "f*ck it" approach and upturned what one might expect a fantasy heroine to do. I'm very much here for St. Clair's Fairytale Retellings and will happily dedicate a sunny afternoon to any future ones.

Mountains Made of Glass is a lovely mishmash of fairy tales, bringing together various traditions into a funny and steamy story of love.

Great vibes. What plot.

Rumpelstiltskin meets Beauty and the Beast meets Snow White

Quick read.

It's good romance but a melting pot of fantasy. On par with everything else I've read by St. Clair. Nothing serious but a good read.

TW: assault, mentions of past familial deaths, death, some horror imagery/themes, animal death

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Let me preface this by saying I am someone who enjoys Scarlett St. Clair’s work and in my humble opinion, the Hades Saga is her best work. Was this a fun, quick read? Yes. Is this a good intro into St. Clair’s work, to get a feel for her writing? Also, yes. However, to me the execution was lacking. I understand this was a passion project for her and I’m glad she’s delved into the fairy tale space. I definitely plan to read the subsequent books in this series, which are interconnected standalones (I think?).

My main gripe with this work is that it felt a bit choppy, rushed, and lacked range and depth. It’s a retelling, and while she heavily pulls from Beauty and the Beast, it is obvious, and intentional, that she has added in several beloved themes and aspects of various tales. In her Author’s Note, it is evident she is knowledgeable about her sources and was attempting to emulate the quick-paced, brusque, intentional heart of fairy tales, but while others have succeeded this one fell short. You can make a romance quick, impactful, mildly hilarious, and have it still accomplish its goal. Maybe my issue is that she was attempting to do too much in a roughly 200 page story. However, when I think about it, as far as short stories/novellas go, 200 pages is actually quite a bit, so that’s not an adequate excuse.

The writing in this one felt juvenile and I know what to expect from St. Clair, I mean I have read how she created Persephone, but my goodness, this lacked refinement. If the language had been tighter, each word purposeful, more could have been accomplished with less. Smut is good, in fact, sometimes I love it, but tension can be better, and the leap to establish immediate sexual tension and general “horniness” took away from the purpose and lessons in the story. Unless your goal is to simply write a purely smut-ladled book without a care for characterization, worldbuilding, dimension, and the like, then that’s fine, but I do not believe that’s all that St. Clair was going for here. It was evident she was wanting to pay homage to stories she loved, with a darker, more mature twist, and at that, she missed the mark, at least in part. Sex is good, but sex should be used to elevate your story and highlight moments, unless for the manner aforementioned.There were aspects of the story I enjoyed, like the opening curse, which leads to another curse, the crow named Wolf, and Gesela’s regret and love for her family. However, those are bits that are gingerly dolled out, constantly overshadowed by over explained and indulged elements of sex.

In my opinion if you have not enjoyed her previous work, especially Hades x Persephone (from Persephone’s POV) picking this one up will not be an enjoyable experience for you.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to receive both an ebook copy and the audiobook to review.

I'll start with the audiobook experience first. I absolutely adore the duel pov with voice actors changing for both the male and female's POV. The female voice actor, Lulu Russel, was exquisite. Her voice is extremely sexy to me, which is good since this book is smutty.

The book itself was meh to me. I liked the world and creatures chosen to be used in the story. This was easily inspired by Beauty and the Beast with its heavy enemies-to-lovers trope. The trope was very morally grey for both characters. However, there wasn't much external conflict other than him hating her and vice versa with reasonable motives.

I would recommend this to anyone who needs a short smutty fantasy book.