Synopsis:

Loren believes this semester would be a breeze – merely concentrating on her thesis and attending seminars. Plus, who wouldn’t appreciate spending time in a charming, small hamlet like Lointaine? However, as it turns out, Lointaine is a town right out of a storybook, quite literally. The enchantment that governs the town is resolute in transforming her into a princess – the type that gets hunted by homicidal huntsmen, violated while sleeping, or forced to do chores for their stepsisters. Needless to say, this is not her idea of a good time. The local fairytale expert warns her that trying to dodge the fairy tale is perilous and she can’t afford to take this chance, especially since she’s already in hot water with the authorities.

Trigger Warnings:

Death. Gore. Violence. Sexual Assault. Sexual Violence. (IF YOU ARE A SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVOR I BEG YOU TO TREAD CAUTIOUSLY WHILE READING THIS BOOK BECAUSE IT IS NOT JUST MENTIONED IN MERE PASSING BUT IN VIVID REALISTIC DETAILS)

Thoughts:

My feelings about Spell Borne by Auden Llyr are incredibly conflicted. At times, I found myself deeply engrossed in the plot and the thrilling suspense it offered, while at other times, I felt as if I couldn’t continue reading. First and foremost, the world-building in Spell Borne was absolutely incredible. Auden has a gift for crafting a vivid and enchanting universe with her words, and it truly was a magical experience. I was deeply impressed by the extensive research that Auden had conducted to construct such a well-crafted plot. The incorporation of scientific elements into the storyline was another major highlight for me, and I greatly appreciated her efforts in this regard.

However on a personal level, I found myself questioning the necessity of certain aspects in the story, as I felt that Auden could have explored alternative routes to reach the desired outcome. This is not at all an insult to her writing in any way whatsoever but a thought that crossed my mind many times while I read through. While initially I did appreciate the author taking time to explain all the versions of fairy tales and the dresses and costumes specific to each fairytales, after a certain time, it lost it’s appeal and became burdensome. Even the scientific justifications became dull and felt unnecessary as the story went on as they served no purpose for the story progression.

Another thing I want to address is about the trigger warnings for this book. I believe there should be heavy trigger warnings, especially for rape because as a gang rape survivor who was drugged on a date just like Loren was, the graphically realistic way the author described that specific scene took me right back to that day. I am not sure whether Auden is a sexual assault survivor or whether she took her time to interview a SA survivor and she wanted to bring attention to the brutality that takes place during such a traumatic experience but the details were very real, and the shock and the numbness that comes afterwards they were explained so realistically. So I was extremely torn whether to applaud her or chuck the book out of a window, especially given how it took place was so sudden and unexpected.

Regarding the characters, I found Loren to be an outstanding protagonist, with her unwavering determination and resilience truly captivating me. Similarly, I was quite fond of Connor’s character as well. However, I do feel that there could have been more interactions between Loren and Connor, as his presence seemed to fade away after the first third of the book, making the conclusion feel mechanical and unconvincing. Kella was an exceptional character, and I must admit that I was disappointed with the way Auden handled her absence when Loren needed her the most, without surrounding her with male characters right after her rape. It felt as though she was just a device to satisfy the author’s desire to delve into fashion history.

To conclude my review, like I initially said, I am really torn about this book. I loved it and I hated it. Would I recommend this book to others? Yes, I would. Would I read the next installment? I might not.

I saw this book advertised on Instagram for a few weeks before finding out I could apply for the ARC. And HOLY SMOKES thank goodness I did.
This is a sensational fairy tale reimagining. Sensational!

Whilst the story starts out slow (a long monologue then a time leap, not much but I did loose track here slightly) The world building is familiar and easy to follow yet super captivating and engaging. The plot is full of hilarious little quips and still somehow remain so serious at the same time.
I sat on the edge of my seat the majority of the way through, through our female protagonist Lorens trials and tribulations.

It’s very clear that Auden likes to incorporate fairy tales into their writing and is obviously au fait with them, they use their knowledge and incorporated that into this magical, ‘spell’ binding book.

There is also a clear message in this book to ‘decide your own fate/take your own path’ and to stay true to yourself which felt really important to me as a female and I love reading about female protagonists who are the same.

I’m excited to read more by Auden, and thank you so much for this opportunity to read this arc!

I really wanted to like this book because the entire premise was something that sounded really interesting to me. However, for some reason, I just couldn't really get into the story. I did end up reading the whole thing and thought that it was extremely unique, I hadn't read anything like it before. I also appreciated the fact that there is a list of trigger warnings because there were some intense topics and scenes in this book that some readers might find disturbing.

It's clear that the author put a lot of effort and research into the history of fairytales and different versions of the fairytales. But to me a lot of the description of this throughout the book just started to bore me. Despite this I thought the story wrapped up in a nice way, with the heroine taking control of her own life and destiny

I love fairy tales, so I was intrigued by the premise of this book. "Spell Borne" by Auden Llyr is a great mash-up of fairy tales retelling. The book revolves around a young woman named Loren Hughes, whose life turned into a fairy tale, literally.

Fairy tales are real but not as you thought they were. Magic is alive and kicking in the town of Lointaine, and it forces residents who share a bloodline curse to enact fairy tales. Loren's family curse is to relive the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty in each generation. Loren goes to Lointaine to finish her studies and stays at her grandmother's house. While there, she finds out that magic is real, and it affects her as well. She doesn't want to spend the next 100 years sleeping (who would??) and tries to change her tale to the Beauty and the Beast one. Will she be able to change her destiny and have her own happily ever after??

I enjoyed the book very much. The book was slow to start, and I found the prologue, the first chapter, and the epilogue a bit confusing. However, once I got past the slow start, the book really started to take off for me. It is clear that the author knows her fairy tales (I read all of them in my early youth), and I loved the spin she put on them. While I appreciated the meticulous attention to the different fairy tale versions and the explanation of the magic, the over-detailed amount paid to mundane details such as clothes was a bit exhausting. I didn't have to know how many dresses, art supplies, and other items the heroine was buying.

Adventures, destiny, friendships, understanding yourself, and the courage to make your own path are some of the book's themes. I loved that the heroine decided to break societal conventions and take back control of her own tale and life. I would love to read more books in the world of Lointaine.

I rated the book 4 out of 5 stars due to the issues I mentioned. Nonetheless, I loved the book and recommend it to anyone who loves fairy tales. Just be aware that the book is based on all fairy tales, from the gentle Disney version to the darker older versions, so it isn't for the faint of heart.

* Some triggers are profanity, abuse, violence, death, trauma, and sexual assault.

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

I want to start by saying that I loved the premise of this book. It was unique, and it was obvious that the author did ample research on old fairy tales. In the beginning I didn’t love the writing style because it seemed to flip from very formal language (almost as if a thesaurus was used a lot) to informal language within the same paragraphs for no reason, but this became less of an issue and I kept reading. Once the main character got out of her own head, I was fully invested in the story. I’d say this was a solid 3.5, and could be bumped up to a 4 start at publication after a round of editing. I’m looking forward to more by this author in the future!

Let me say first, overall I really enjoyed the premise laid out by the book...once I was able to find it. If the prologue, first chapter, last chapter and epilogue of this book were torn out of every copy ever printed or shared, the world would likely be the better. Additionally, READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS.

My issues with the prologue and 1st chapter differ from those with the end chunk. We open in the prologue which is mean to be our establishing event, an animal of some kind coming upon a crime or accident out in the forest. This portion is the inner monologue of this animal. The first chapter jumps ahead in time a few weeks and is narrated as the inner monologue of our female protagonist. Both inner monologues are clunky, heavy handed and painful to wade through.

However, once the character is primarily out of their own head and interacting with other characters, this story really took off for me. One of the things that I really REALLY enjoyed about this author and their story is that there was clearly research done. The characters and the story lay out really detailed information about a handful of subjects regarding the science of fairy tales and the various iterations of them over the centuries. I thought this added really nicely to a genre that is highly saturated and made this story feel unique and engaging.

There were portions of the story where even the main characters rolled their eyes and seemed over the "fairy tale" niceties of some character's behaviors. I was willing to overlook this as it made me chuckle as I was often rolling my own eyes at someone's out of place, over the top antics.

While I understand that many, if not all, of the original fairy tales were violent and trigger warning ridden, an event in the middle of the book felt jarring and maybe unnecessary for me. It came out of no where and in not in a good way. The tone of the book really shifted from that point in a way that I'm still mulling over.

That shift took another fast and hard turn in the final chapter where my main character finally "decides to take control" and decides to force the magic to her will. This scene felt very uncomfortable, something in the cold way she laid out her proposal and Connor's unemotional going along with it that some how becomes intimacy? Which led us to the epilogue where I have absolutely no idea what or why. I can only assume the author had an end goal they needed to reach to set up a sequel and just made it happen. It is formatted once again as an inner monologue and my unsolicited, very non-professional advice is for the author to steer away from this format in the future. I hate how harsh my review of this book feels because there were aspects I enjoyed, but I could not recommend this to someone without very explicit understanding of their tastes and needs from a book in that moment.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC.

This was such a unique concept. Some of the residents in this world are forced to live out these fairytale storylines and I haven't read anything quite like this before. I thought it was a fresh concept. That being said, I felt like the details and world building could have been better and the banter was a bit lackluster.

TW: SA , Abuse , Death

“Some curses start with Once Upon A Time”

This book originally caught my eye with its gorgeous cover art. It managed to keep my gaze with its twisting storyline and ability to keep me guessing.

We follow are Heroine Loren Hughes as she tries to escape the clutches of her family’s curse that spans generations. A curse that magic forces them on the path to a “Happy Ever After” no matter how Grimm it may be getting there.

I was excited to follow Loren as her path twisted and turned. The characters had depth to them that I didn’t expect and the big reveal left me craving another book. The book takes the overdone fairytale trope and turns it into something new and exciting ( I read the whole book in a day). Great read !

Trigger Warnings to keep in mind before reading this book is: SA, Violence, Cursing

The story is set in a place called Lontaine where most residents, but not all have sort of a blood line curse where they are forced to live out an interpretation of a fairy tale story. Our main character's family has always been cursed with the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty and Loren tries to turn the tide to Beauty and the Beast.

The book was an overall good read. There were chapters where I personally, felt like the banter or information given was a little too much but once we got passed those chapters I could not put the book down. The book cover is breath taking and I feel it captures the story well!

I look forward to more publications by the author!

The only thing I noticed about the book that needs to be adjusted if it hasn't already is Chapter 33 was posted inside Chapter 32 and then Chapter 33 was posted in itself. Other than that the book was marvelous!