Rose Bound Magic by Caitlin Crowe Review

 During my long hours of school, I had little time to read long books. To solve this issue, I started reading shorter books that were less than 200 pages. Now that Thanksgiving vacation has started, I have more time on my hands to read longer books. However, I still want to review and give credit to those shorter books since they were all good. Rose Bound Magic by Caitlin Crowe was an enjoyable experience that I wish to share with the world. I had never heard of Caitlin Crowe before and it seems she has not written anything else so far. I hope that will change since this book was enjoyable.  

The book introduces the readers to Belladonna or Bell who lives alone with her father whose memory is fading. Her older sisters have both married and she never hears from them which worries her since both were unhappy with their husbands. Making ends meet by working at a library she is often met by a violent man named Roger who seeks her hand in marriage. One day Bell’s father disappears and she winds up in an enchanted castle while looking for him. There she meets the fey who are angry at her father for stealing a rose and they refuse to let him go. Bell offers herself up to stay in the castle instead and the fey agree to her bargain and promise to make sure her father gets by. Among the fey is a powerful women named Sidero who agrees to grant Bell three wishes (except she cannot allow her to escape the castle) and warns her about the beast. The beast turns out to be a man with no name with hundreds of scars all over his body who along with his dog Fluffy have been a prisoner of the castle for so many years. At first the man keeps his distance from Bell thinking she wouldn’t want his company but over time the two-grow close. Gifting him with the name Alder the two bare their imprisonment together taking comfort in each other. Bell also gets news of her family through a magic mirror and learns that her two sisters have returned to live with their father. Her oldest sister Poppy’s husband had died leaving her and her children very little money and her other sister Geranium’s husband had physically abused her forcing her to flee from home losing her eye sight in the process. Both sisters having been in unhappy marriages soon find romance with the baker and the doctor two kind men who would never harm them. Overtime Bell comes to love Alder but soon disaster strikes forcing Bell to make a heartbreaking choice that will affect her life and Alder’s forever.  

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be very similar to the Disney movie. I mean, it had a girl named Bell, a Gaston character named Roger and a library that Bell loved. Not to mention she and her father start out as outcasts in a town where no one really befriends them. But this book really changed once she enters the castle. I really enjoyed it but the ending at first made me very angry. It wasn’t until reread it (for the first time I rushed too fast eager to see what would happen) that I realized that everything was actually okay. It is an ending that I needed to stop and think about since on the surface it's not an extremely happy ending like how most of the books I read end. It took me a while to come to the conclusion that all was well but I got there. Anyway, if you are looking for a different short retelling of Beauty and the Beast then I recommend this book to you. I give it three out of five stars and I hope to see the author Caitlin Crowe write more books in the future. Until next time. E.V.A.