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Gilded Ashes (2014)

by Rosamund Hodge(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0062266802 (ISBN13: 9780062266804)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Epic Reads Impulse

series

Cruel Beauty Universe

review 1: I enjoyed this novella. It was a very interesting twist on the Cinderella story. I liked that Maia and Anax met before the ball. In fact, the ball was practically unnecessary. They formed a friendship as Maia tried to court him for her stepsister. All she wants is escape her mother's love. It has become a curse for her. To her, anybody she loves or who loves her is in danger. Most of the time they end up hurt. She will do anything to make her mother think she is happy, including to pretend to love her stepfamily and convince her mother's ghost that they love her. If she can get Anax to pick her sister for his wife, her family will leave her alone in the house she is stuck in and cursed in. Alone=safe. Anax also doesn't believe in love after being betrayed by hi... mores childhood love. He agrees to pick a bride to get his father off his back and to free up his former betrothed. His chats with Maia become the only bright part of his life. She is the only person who is ever truly honest with him. On her part, he is the only one she feels safe being honest with, for her mother doesn't have any reach outside her land. Neither of them planned on falling for each other, nor do they believe love and happiness might be a possibility. Can Maia escape her mother and find happiness for real? I really enjoyed this story.
review 2: Short stories are hard to do, because they ought to be as fleshed out as a full-length book, but with maybe a quarter of the words to do it with. This story, I thought, was absolutely lovely. It stood strong and proud all on its own, and I think that even if I wasn't familiar with the world, I would still think that. The characters, all new, were beautifully fleshed out, and the retelling was wonderfully imaginative, especially considering the format. Not only was it a fun read because I got to spend more time in the Cruel Beauty universe, but it was a good story all on its own, which is more than I can say for most of the companion short stories/novellas that come out and don't add anything significant or particularly interesting beyond learning a little more about some character or another while not fleshing out anything about the world. Those are fun to read, too, but this, to me, is in a class by itself. less

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