Beauty (part of the short story collection Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer) by Tanith Lee
Breath of Life by Christine Pope
Books I haven’t read yet but which sound interesting:
Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
Masque by W.R. Gingell
Eye of the Beholder by Elizabeth Darcy
Beauty bySusan Wilson
Entreat Me by Grace Draven
“Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders… but her father isn’t a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife’s dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty–until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers’ pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed–and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.
But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it’s worth–especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.“ GOODREADS
This is the best book I read in 2018. It’s eerie, fairy-tale like and romantic. Naomi Novik is definitely one of my all-time favorite writers. I love love love her portrayal of girls and women and their relationships with each other. Both her main and supporting characters are fleshed out and equally engaging to read about.
The story revolves around two heroines whose fates intertwine more and more as the plot unfolds. Their male love interests (one is the king of some kind of ice elves, the other the tsar who’s possessed by a fire demon) learn to appreciate and love them for their characters, skills and actions.
Spinning Silver features almost every trope I love:
I finally got around to reading Receiver of Many a few weeks ago – a Hades/Persephone story by Kata Chthonia – and I was so addicted I finished the whole thing in two days. I loved it so much I had to paint it. Please take a look at the closeups! Persephone’s smile doesn’t show up very well on the full piece, and I’m fairly proud of the shadows on Aidoneus’ arm, haha.
I tried to keep elements that stood out to me, and the little things that made this story unique – Persephone twirls a lock of his hair, she wears a burgundy chiton, her sigil is the fires of Tartarus, while Aidon’s sigil is the darkness of the underworld. I wanted to play a little with the word “intertwined”, which was something I got a lot from the story; how both their destinies circled and converged to this point through choice and fate. You have her fire weaving through the tendrils of his darkness, and his hair curled around her finger.
Kata has a Kickstarter going on now to publish this story into book form, so please take a look! It’s one of the best Hades/Persephone stories that I’ve ever read.
Monsters and Villains 