Dark, Spicy & Magical Fairytale
Mountains Made of Glass
Fairy Tale Retelling Book 1
Fairy Tale Fantasy, Dark Fantasy
Bloom Books
March 7, 2023
Kindle
"Could you love me?" he whispered. The question stole my breath and burned my lungs in the silence that followed. I wanted to answer, to whisper yes into the space between us, but I was afraid. All Gesela's life, her home village of Elk has been cursed. And it isn't a single curse—it is one after another, each to be broken by a villager, each with devastating consequences. When Elk's well goes dry, it is Gesela's turn to save her town by killing the toad that lives at the bottom. Except…the toad is not a toad at all. He is an Elven prince under a curse of his own, and upon his death, his brothers come for Gesela, seeking retribution. As punishment, the princes banish Gesela to live with their seventh brother, the one they call the beast. Gesela expects to be the prisoner of a hideous monster, but the beast turns out to be exquisitely beautiful, and rather than lock her in a cell, he offers Gesela a deal. If she can guess his true name in seven days, she can go free. Gesela agrees, but there is a hidden catch—she must speak his name with love in order to free him, too. But can either of them learn to love in time?
Mountains Made of Glass is not a Disney love story
I picked up Mountains Made of Glass by Scarlett St. Clair ready to read a few chapters and go to bed, but I couldn’t stop reading until I finished it. It took about five pages for me to realize I was all in.
Gesela doesn’t trust the Enchanted Forest—it’s taken too much from her. After losing her parents and her sister, she has kept to herself, living recluse and avoiding developing bonds with anybody in her village. However, when the village’s well goes dry because of a series of curses the town is under, the villagers decide it’s Gesela’s turn to chip in by killing the toad inside the well.
Gesela kills the toad but then it turns out the toad is an Elven prince under a curse, and his brothers come to Gesela to seek retribution. And her punishment is to go live with a seventh brother, who they all call the beast. The only way for Gesela to escape this beast is to guess his name in seven days.
The beast has seven days to make Gesela fall in love with him, or he will lose himself forever. But he is called the beast for a reason; because he doesn’t have a single Casanova bone in his body. Fortunately for Gesela and us, this man/fae is physically irresistible. In true Scarlett St. Clair form, she made us fall in love with the captor and throw our moral compass out the window in exchange for some undeniable sexual chemistry.
“Choke me,” I said. He did not need encouragement, and I had expected this because since our first encunter, he had had an obsession with my neck.
Gesela
This story is fast-paced, creative and magical. Readers will recognize elements of many famous fairytales and Grimm stories in Mountains Made of Glass. If you love a morally grey spicy dark fantasy romance, I suggest you pick this one up ASAP.
Darienne was 15 when her aunt gave her a copy of Princess by Jean Sasson, and she has been hooked on books ever since. Originally from Puerto Rico and now living in Maryland, she’s always looking to visit new coffee shops and bookstores. Her favorite genres include YA, spicy romcoms, and women’s fiction. Thanks to the Bees, she’s also now obsessed with romantasy series. Other loves include lavender lattes, sassy coffee mugs, sunrises, sleeping in, small-town charm, and big city lights. One day, she’ll write that book that lives in her head.
