When prim and proper enchantress Lady Alexandria attempts to bewitch a magic mirror, she ends up cursed—powerless, penniless, dumped in a strange land, and stuck in the body of an old hag.As if that weren’t bad enough, the mirror gives her two tasks: curse the prince whose arrogant cruelty she once ignored and find her way home—before the Magic Collectors find her and strip her of her powers … powers forever and before the mysterious woodsman who finds her lost in the forest discovers who she really is.
The prince she cursed must learn to love before an enchanted rose dies or he will remain a beast forever. Will her fate also be sealed when the last petal falls?
The tale of the enchantress from Beauty and the Beast.
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How have I not discovered this author before now?!? The Rose and the Wand is a wonderful blend of my two preferred types of books: Regency and Fairytale Retellings. I’ve read so many Beauty and the Beast stories, and this one is now among those at the top of my list, if not my new favorite! Changing the perspective to that of the enchantress shined a light on questions I’ve always had about the story. There’s magic and pride, friendship and sweet romance, and rescues and disguise. I highly recommend The Rose and the Wand and will read it again! I’ll be opening up the second in the series as soon as I submit this review!
Books about unlikable characters a difficult things to get in to. Are you supposed to love them? Hate them? Love to hate them? This one was a little confusing at first to me, if just because I had no idea how I should feel towards the protagonist-narrator: a self-entitled noble lady who could be contradictory in being both utterly snobbish and unusually kind. But I stuck with it and am glad I did; it’s a reworking of Beauty and the Beast but from the place of the enchantress, and her story of bigotry, love and acceptance was touchingly done.
Now I’ll say this: the first third or so confused me no end, not least because of Lady Alexandria’s attitudes. She also had this strange ability to jump to conclusions without supporting evidence, and those leaps of logic confounded me. Giles’ hot-n-cold nature was also just very strange. He’s a bit of a self-righteous ass to start with. The mirror making her to act against the beast, thus setting off the familiar narrative, seemed oddly forced.
But then the originality took over. I was blown away by the strange fantasy world that you expect to be some kind of magical 1800s France (because obviously) but what you actually get is a mash up of something more small town America of the same time combined with the usual. You know, magic, castles, lore that creeps in round the edges and immerses you completely. The foreshadowing of enchanters, sorcerers and Magic Collectors lurking around? Chef’s kiss! It’s beautifully done.
Alexia’s rehabilitation post-curse-giving is slow and meandering, but is a nice change of pace from the usual angst. It’s essentially slice-of-life. Her character arc is so subtle, the romance element obvious but in that softly-softly way; you can see it plain as day, but there’s no tears or tantrums. Side characters give scope for friendships that really felt they meant something. As the Lady thaws, it warms your heart. I’m glad that Woodsman came out if it having learned something too, though it’s not made obvious that he needed to. There was a tiny jump about at the end that got me a tad confused again, but it all works out in the end.
Strange characters, but a beautifully realised world that takes a fairy tale you know and decides, you know what? We don’t need to do their story again. Let’s see why things tuned out the way they did from the outside.