Wow! There is a lot to say about this title. The first was that I literally could not put it down. I stayed up till 3:30 am reading it and then read it in my downtime at work. I love a good fairy tale retelling and the fact that this one focuses on Sleeping Beauty and seems to have a dash of Rumpilstilskin in it as well? Perfect.

This story had me forgetting that we were reading a villain origin despite the description for it. Myravelle had me rooting for her the entire time and I can honestly say that this book made me cry. The enemies to lovers aspect of the characters is compelling, making you want for them to be happy together and hoping that the story doesn't go the way that you think it will. There are quite a few world building aspects that I really like and I love how very few people here have clean hands when it comes to doing good or doing evil. So many people are looking out for yourself that just when you think you can trust someone, it gets yanked away from you. Beautiful writing. I highly recommend it and I honestly fell in love with the cover.

When this is released I will likely have a physical copy for the cover and to try and ply my friends to read it so I can make them cry like it made me cry. Keep some tissues handy. Keep an open mind, and look at this lovely retelling that makes you wonder what exactly makes a villain and what would misfortune drive us to do? Our male lead was my favorite character and I honestly wanted so much more of this story.

This gets four stars for me because of how well it was written, that it genuinely made me forget what kind of story I was likely going along for, and because it had one of my absolute favorite tropes in it. Beautiful story.

I really liked the story, but it moved around too quickly and there weren't enough details. Because of the lack of details, it felt like reading the idea of a story and not like a real book to me. The world building and writing style was okay.

First off, thank you to NetGalley and Quill and Crow Publishing for providing me with a galley.

Her Dark Enchantments is a Sleeping Beauty retelling (Malificent’s origin story) with a compelling hook — I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t like this one, but it one me over in the end.

At the beginning it was difficult to immerse myself in the story as there was a lot of telling, not showing. Things were moving at a fast pace without a thorough explanation of what was happening (sometimes, of course, this is done intentionally in novels to provide a sense of mystery, though this did not seem to be the case here) so I often felt lost and had to go back and reread passages.

That being said, there were still a lot of things I loved about this book! For one, it has enemies to lovers with light spice. I also really enjoyed reading about the magic system.

As the story progressed, so did the author’s explanations and descriptions, and eventually I found it was difficult to put this book down. It was fast-paced and action packed, atmospheric, and I found myself captivated by the romance.

I would recommend to anyone who loves romantic fantasy and fairy tale retellings!

Sadly a DNF for me. The books started out great, but it moved almost too quickly. I managed to get halfway through the book before calling it quits because I was constantly disappointed at the lack of details. The story line sounded amazing but it lacked the details and tension building to suck me in.

“𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒐?”

I received an early advanced readers copy and this is an honest and voluntary review!My thanks to NetGalley and Quill and Crow Publishing for providing me with a copy!

Book is released on April 25th so this is a spoiler free review!

Her Dark Enchantments is a dark, twisted villain origin story of Malificent from the classic sleeping beauty fairytale! It has enemies to lovers, an amazing magic system, faeries and even a little spice! If you like any of these things I 100% recommend giving this book a go!

I really loved the writing of this book! Myravelle is a really interesting and well written character and her development throughout the book was amazing! I loved that although it is a sleeping beauty inspired book- there are references to other fairytales such as Rumpelstiltskin and The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen (such an underrated fairytale, I was so happy it was included!!!) The world building was really interesting, for such a short book it was done incredibly! You learn a lot about the magic system and the gods they worship and this made the story really enjoyable!

The plot itself was very enjoyable- it was quite fast paced and always kept me reading to see what happened next. There was a really amazing plot twist at the end that I did not see coming! The one thing I didn’t quite enjoy as much in this book was how quickly the enemies became lovers, but that is just my preference and I completely appreciate some people don’t enjoy slow burn. I just think Byzarian forgot about his hatred for Myravelle quite suddenly and it could have been more of a slow transition, but then again this book is just under 300 pages so it’s understandable that the romance was a bit quicker paced. Overall it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book, I would 100% say this book is worth preordering just based on the amazing plot and world building!

Her Dark Enchantments by Rosalyn Briar is a captivating, well written, enchanting, intriguing, romantic, and beautiful masterpiece exactly as it is
This book was completely beyond my expectations of what I fathomed it would be
Rich in world building. Characters who are strong, and flawed. And a slowly building romance to devastate you. Yeah I freaking loved it.
HDE was pure magic. there’s no other way to describe it.
I got exactly what I wanted from this book, a true masterpiece.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review
are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Quill and Crow Publishing House for your generosity and approving this eARC!

Love having a mixture of two fairytales blended into each other? A blended tale of Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel and a dash of Wicked sprinkled in to offer a blended tale.

I love coming across books with their version of the story. Often they are beautifully blended with other fairytales offering up tales that are perfectly crafted with worlds and characters that pop off the pages and draw you in. That is what any author wants - to draw the reader into their world and keep them turning the pages until they have reached the very end.

For this story, the characters and world-building are unique. A world filled with the magic of Sleeping Beauty where if a tree limb falls the person or village falls into a deep, nightmarish sleep that only can be awakened by Dormrya trees, magical trees enchanted by the fairies to protect their realm.

Ever wondered how Maleficent came to be? Well, you are about to find out. While Disney has told their version of Maleficent made to make her character a bit more sympathetic to the viewers, Myravelle was not given the choice of sympathy. She was thrust into the role of Wicked Fairy. All she wanted is freedom. Freedom for herself and freedom for her mother who is made to spindle yarn into gold for the king. Myravelle's magic can be channeled by runes. When she finds a man by her canvas, she awakens him by cutting a rune upon his chest and combining their blood. The man awakens with a wave of pleasure - yeah, not going into details there. I will leave it to you, the viewer to decide how. Needlessly, this ritual binds the two together.

Byzarien, on the other hand, is hardened. He has seen war, he has seen his brother die, and his family living in poverty. He knows that his meager soldier salary is never going to be enough to uplift them from it. This leaves him broken and unhappy. When he is placed into a slumber, it is Myravelle who awakens him and binds him through magic.

I loved the characters, the world-building, everything. Each character is unique in their own right. None of them are perfect but deeply flawed and each trying to find their own way in the world. The problem is that they are shouldered a reputation that they are forced to carry. This is what happens with Myravelle. She is a character broken and placed back together. A character who sees love as nothing more than unnecessary. She wants to gain freedom not only for herself but also for her mother who is forced to spin yarn for a greedy king. She is not meant to be a sympathetic character, but she does come across as one. She is a character that tugs at your heart. She never asked to become Wicked but she has no choice but to play it.

Byzarien - I don't know. I didn't feel any connection to him. He seemed one-sided and just boring. I could not find anything I really liked about him.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was really interesting take on three different tales. The author offered something that could interest all lovers of fairytales and delivered that promise.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you NetGalley for this review copy.

The first half of this book was really good, amazing even! I loved the way the author took their time writing out the scenes being descriptive.
I really wanted to like the second half of the book, however....
It was REALLY hard reading about all the bloody sex. "The blood made their bodies slide together." Gag.
And she really picked up the pace, rushing through the scenes. The romance itself even felt rushed. Byzantine pretty much went from hating Myravelle to being in love with her overnight.
Overall it was entertaining but I don't know if I would recommend it

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Quill & Crow Publishing House, for the early copy! I am leaving this review voluntarily.

4/5 stars

Sleeping Beauty meets Rumpelstiltskin? Yes please!

I'm a huge fan of retellings, and I'm also a huge fan of villains that are evil with purpose. It doesn't make them any less of a villain, but it crosses from morally gray into "this isn't right... but also you have a right" and makes them that much more human. So when I saw a retelling of Maleficent's tale with this written all over it? Sign. Me. Up.

Mryavelle fits right into this trope. She's raw, she's unpolished from her upbringing with rough edges, and she has a personality that is charming. Sarcastic, but it isn't just to invoke a reaction from whoever she's smarting back to. It's honest. It's this honesty and her little quirks that makes her seem real and jump off the page. Her growth is beautiful, albeit sad yet raw and real.

Byzarien, on the other hand, fell flat for me. He's hardened by his past and has prejudices that blind him to doing what needs to be done. This all makes for interesting drama, except... he almost just magically gets over it all at one point. I'll touch more on it below. I was never sold on him as a main character, which would've been fine if he was a side character, but he's a driving force in this story, and deserved more.

The book is a dual POV, bouncing between Byzarien and Myravelle, and the switch in POVs is well-balanced to show the correct perspective just when it's needed. I feel like a lot of authors don't do POV switches well, or do them just to fill in the story, but not here. In fact, it's used so well that it should've been used *more* to further fill in the story. Some of the story elements feel rushed, and the characters ditch a lot of their prejudices rather abruptly. How and why they lost them makes sense, but it's like -plot point happens- okay it's suddenly fixed and wrongs are righted. Pacing was off due to this. The first 50% takes place building, then it immediately jumps. The romance wasn't as well balanced, and I would've not only liked to see this more fleshed out, but seen the other characters fleshed out. The antagonists are textbook and have almost no context beyond "they're evil," which given the premise of the story, seems a little... lopsided.

The last 25%-ish had me gripped to the story, even though I knew where it was going because, well, it's a retelling. I loved the Rumplestiltskin story elements that added a breath of fresh air, even if some plot elements seemed ripped right out of Season 2 of Once Upon a Time.

Overall, this is a solid retelling! I would've appreciated more fleshing out, more pacing, and more attention to keep things from to jumping to "oh now there's romance" and "oh now this happens!" I feel like I should add, however, that I pick at pacing issues even in books I deem as 5 stars. If you love Sleeping Beauty, villain origin stories and enemies to lovers, you'll love this!

Sleeping beauty is one of my favorite fairytales and I love retellings! This book was so well written and so immersive. I was intrigued the whole time and just devoured this book! I’d love to see this author do more dark retellings!! Highly recommend!!

Based on the cover alone I was expecting a dark fairy tale, and this felt different from a traditional fairy tale, plus I love a good retelling of a classic (cue Sleeping Beauty). Having said that, I still found it romantic and magical. The writing was tasteful and elegant, and I'd say there were some slightly spicy moments, if that's what you're in the mood for. I was interested in the dynamic of the relationship between the two main characters, and I became very emotionally involved, especially towards the end.

Thank you to Quill and Crow Publishing House & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this arc

2 ⭑
“you should know, your scars aren’t as monstrous as you think.”
this sounded soo good so i was really excited to read it but it was just straight up boring, i couldn’t get into the story and i didn’t care about the characters. the romance part was too fast i really like books where the romance part develop through the book.
but thank you so much rosalyn briar for the arc.