Of Thorns and Beauty
Elle Madison and Robin D. Mahle
5/5
Based loosely on Beauty and the Beast, Of Thorns and Roses tells the story of a forced marriage between an impostor noble and a cursed king. Zaina has been forced into every decision for over fifteen years, she lives only to protect her sisters from their adoptive mother's wrath. When she is forced to marry a king with the eventual intention of betrayal, she just adds it to the list of the crimes she would happily commit for their safety. When she gets to know the king, she starts feeling guilty and wondering if there might be a better way.
Cliffhanger! But like such a good one. Words can't explain how much I loved this book, probably the best book I've read thus far in 2021. It may be based on Beauty and the Beast, but the story has so much more depth. Zaina is a great character who puts things above her romance while still falling into it. It's the perfect balance of intense while not being too overpowering. I think she had so much to deal with and I was screaming at some of her choices, but they weren't overwhelmingly stupid considering her situation.
The romance was, and I hesitate to use this word because it feels weird, but it was "swoonworthy". Einar and Zaina have the ideally built relationship, a little enemies to lovers and a nice and reasonable slowburn. I loved it to the whole time and I was so surprised to find it so beautifully written and just believable.
100 percent would recommend, it was a great read all the way to the end. Such a a great read that I'm almost 75 percent done with the sequel. If you love fairy tale retellings or just great romances I don't think you'll regret reading this one.
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