All for a Rose

Alright. First off, I have to confess to being a long time Jennifer Blackstream fan, so you know from the start. Second, I’d like to point out that this Blood Realm series follows directly after the Blood Prince series (also of note, though The Pirate’s Witch is part of the first series, it is not crucial to either series) and though I do feel you can read the stories without needing the background, the small moments at the end of the book, as well as some of the characters within, will be lost to you if you haven’t read the first series. It is an amazing set of books, so I highly suggest giving them a read first.

All for a Rose is a Beauty and the Beast remake. If you don’t like fairy tale retellings, walk away now. If you DO like them, and like them with so much more depth and passion, then please give this a go! Even as a child I loved knowing the origins of the stories that Disney chugged out on their assembly line and secretly snickered at how far off they were (on purpose of course, but still). This is a gritty, heartbreaking rendition of the beloved tale of a woman who trades her life for her father’s to become the prisoner of a reclusive beast.

Maribel is not head in the clouds and flighty at all. She is very down to earth, level headed, and dependable. Her family, consisting of her father and older sister, recently found themselves uprooted from their lives when a bad turn of luck for her father sees them falling from mid level high society down to barely surviving on what they can grow. Maribel steps up and takes on the challenge not only with courage, but with relish. She flourishes in the country away from society whereas her sickly sister, a witch, grows weaker and languishes in misery in what she sees as an absolute hell. Maribel takes on most of her sisters work and also cares for her as best she is able. When her father accidentally insults the wrong man, the ‘beast’, and is sent home to bring his daughter in his place (he intends only to bid them farewell and let them know his fate, to his credit, as he is definitely a loving father), she actually finds herself excited to go.

Damon is a Naga; a being capable of taking on either a dragon form or a human one at will, and who has dedicated his life to saving changelings from harm. He was cursed by a witch and is stuck in a half-form between his two normal shapes with his lower half being tail and his upper mostly human. When he sends for Maribel he believes her to be the witch that cursed him and intends to make her change him back. He is confused when she turns out not to be the witch at all, but finds himself hard pressed to free her as she makes his life less lonely.

So we have the basic facets of the beauty and the beast story, and it moves pretty steadily from there with both growing to know one another and a rather convoluted story playing out and unraveling as we go. I really enjoyed Damon and Maribel both as people unto themselves, and getting to see them interact together was also very interesting. Mrs. Blackstream always does a wonderful job of fleshing her characters out and making them feel well rounded. We also had an appearance from a certain cuelebre (a tiny dragon like creature) from the Divine Scales novel.

I think what really clenched the five stars for me was the fact that through the book we watch Damon struggle with his animal nature. He’s stuck between forms, so he has the confusing problem of being stuck with multiple drives always clashing. That sometimes makes him very volatile and that very obviously upsets him greatly. Just because she comes to care for him, that doesn’t just vanish like some writers will have happen. Maribel has to come to accept him for what he is and embrace that while learning to deal with those quirks. I thoroughly enjoyed the romance in this book, for that reason alone (among others).

(spoiler)My heart ached for the sister, even if she did deserve some punishment. I haven’t seen any sign of a separate book for her, so I just tell myself she learned her trade well and made a better life for herself.