Hello everyone!
There aren't really any toads along for this one BUT, that doesn't mean we can't have fun, eh?
In any event, I picked the book off BookSirens, like I do with so many of my other choices, naturally.
Why?
Well, because it was a Thumbelina re-telling, of course!
I'm a sucker for Thumbelina. It's a lovely tale and it's been adapted into probably one of my favourite cartoons of all time, with just the right amount of comedy and romance to make it amazing.
So naturally, when I randomly stumbled over the copy of this book on BookSirens, I had to grab it.
Make sure to shake off all that fairy dust from your wings, then, as we take flight and learn all about secret heritage and family manipulation in A Wingless Hope!
Onwards!
A Wingless Hope, like I've said before, is a re-telling of Thumbelina. It begins when the prince of the Lunar fairies, Quinn, is five or six years old, and about to be betrothed to the not-yet-sprouted Briar, the princess of the Solar fairies.
Their bond happens, and the company gets attacked by red-cloaked assassins, who kill Quinn's father and thus transfer the magic to him, but Briar's seed is lost in the melee, and so is any chance for happily ever after for Quinn.
See, this is how it works: the King and Queen share the burden of a magic that fortifies the glade their people reside in, hiding it from sight and anyone who might stumble upon it.
Say, like goblins.
But almost twenty years later, there's still been no sign of Briar and the protective barrier is failing because Quinn has almost no more magic to give - meanwhile, Briar's been found by a human girl who moved her over to their farmland, which is where she's eventually found by Quinn and his men, in one desperate spurt before her family decides to up and leave to find another glade to live in.
At this time, she's also dying of poison to her flower (they're inter-connected) and they hastily marry her to Quinn by proxy so that she might survive to get the antidote.
Some colourful and funny confusion later (when she mistakes the captain of his guard for the King himself), Briar and Quinn are now on reasonably equal footing and starting to carefully edge around one another.
Quinn, having lost all his family but his sister and aunt, is starved for love, and he wants nothing more than to share a loving marriage with his wife. Briar, on the other hand, is unsure, still getting used to living among her people once more - and things get even more complicated once her biological family make an appearance.
Why?
Because to fully accept her status and power, she and Quinn have to perform a ceremony together where they both offer acceptance - and her brother gets in her head, telling her to turn Quinn down for her own safety and her own good.
Seeing as she believes her brother knows best (even though she's known the guy for five seconds compared to Quinn who's been her first and forever contact for the fairies!), Briar agrees, breaking Quinn's heart in the process - but also, where her magic had started healing his wings, which had been deformed from the fall that saved her sprout back in the day as he was saving her life, it now leaves him so he's dropped mercilessly into the claws of the people responsible for all the killing.
Turns out, it's his own aunt, in league with Briar's brother.
Why?
Because the aunt's husband was supposed to rule, but he died protecting his younger brother (Quinn's father), and so now she wants revenge, and to transfer the magic to herself so that she might rule them all, goblins included since she made a pact with them to terrorize the glade and its people to begin with.
Oh and also, the captain of the guard, whom Quinn trusts so much? Well, his family was killed when Quinn's mother died and his father received all her magic, kind of exploding it outwards in a bit of a mistake, so he's going to be the one killing Briar to ensure she DOESN'T receive the magic again in any way, shape or form.
Luckily, Briar's brother is actually a double-agent so he can deal with the aunt, and Quinn can go on to rescue Briar, allowing his other healthy wing to be clipped in the process as he defeats his life-long friend and companion.
Then they can mop everything up, Quinn and Briar get married and the magic is restored, and she can heal his wings again so that he can fly (flying her with him, of course!).
The finale of everything is when their son Lysander is born and they go to show him to the little girl who'd initially saved Briar so that Quinn could find her, and all's well that ends well!
Overall I liked this. Briar and Quinn are well-suited and well-matched, both yearning for love and family after having lost so much on each side.
I saw one of two shocks coming, was wrong about the second and the third was unexpected! So kudos to the author.
However I will say that I really do NOT like Briar's brother. There had to have been a better way than all the dramatics that ensued after his meddling. PLUS how did Briar go and trust a person she's spent 5 minutes with rather than someone who saved her life??
Anyway, that's why I docked one star, but otherwise the story flows well, the characters are likeable, and it's a quick read!
I saw one of two shocks coming, was wrong about the second and the third was unexpected! So kudos to the author.
However I will say that I really do NOT like Briar's brother. There had to have been a better way than all the dramatics that ensued after his meddling. PLUS how did Briar go and trust a person she's spent 5 minutes with rather than someone who saved her life??
Anyway, that's why I docked one star, but otherwise the story flows well, the characters are likeable, and it's a quick read!
xx
*image not mine
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