Welcome to one of the June 12th stops on the blog tour for Gold Spun by Brandie June, organized by TBR & Beyond. (Schedule linked.) Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, author interviews, and more fun content!
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About the Book
Gold Spun
by Brandie June
Published 8 June 2021
CamCat Books
Genre: YA Fantasy, Fairytale Retelling
Page Count: 320
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
Content Warnings: One mild scene of cutting for blood magic.
If Nor can’t spin gold, she can always spin lies.
When seventeen-year-old Nor rescues a captured faerie in the woods, he gifts her with a magical golden thread she can use to summon him for a favor. Instead, Nor uses it for a con—to convince villagers to buy straw that can be transformed into gold. Her trick works a little too well, attracting the suspicion of Prince Casper, who hates nobody more than a liar. Intent on punishing Nor, he demands that she spin a room of straw into gold and as her reward, he will marry her. Should she refuse or fail, the consequences will be dire.
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Mood Board
I was assigned review & mood board, and I’m excited to try my hand at that because I’ve never done a mood board on one of these before. How did I do? (All photos from Pixabay.)
My Review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Consider liking my review on Goodreads.
I was granted eARC access to Gold Spun as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with TBR & Beyond book tours. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
Gold Spun is the most unique reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin I’ve ever come across, and I loved it! Nor traps a faerie and receives gold thread, which was only meant to be a temporary token to exchange when she finally called in the favour capturing a faerie entitled her to, but she had other plans. Trick the locals into thinking that she can spin straw into gold thread and she’ll be rich and beloved forever, right? Well, when word reaches the prince and he wants Nor to prove it before he proposes marriage Nor finds herself putting her life and freedom on the line.
Most of the book is presented in a single POV, Nor’s first person experience, but we do get snippets (particularly the prologue) in Prince Casper’s head. Nor is such a great character, and I loved spending so much time with her and her thoughts. She’s strong (stubborn) and witty, and very dedicated to her con artist ways. I routinely forgot that she’s supposed to be a teenager, because she felt like someone I could chat with as a peer and I’m …not a teenager.
Pel, the captured faerie, and Prince Casper are also very interesting and well-developed characters, though I must admit I’m not the prince’s biggest fan. Sometimes he annoyed me? I don’t quite know why. I guess while Nor kept making me forget her age, Prince Casper was very much his age and sometimes behaved in ways that really only sound like a good idea to young men his age.
The world-building is seamless! Hate dense info-dumps? No problem! You won’t find them here.
Love fairtale retellings? Even better! Although this clearly makes some major deviations from the standard Rumpelstiltskin plotline, it’s still very clearly Rumpelstiltskin. I admit I realized far later than I probably should have that Pel’s name is a nod to Rumpelstiltskin. I love the fact that this version cuts out the dishonest father figure entirely and puts the who gold spinning idea directly on our heroine from the get-go.
I do highly recommend this book to all fantasy lovers, but especially those who like fairytale retellings and re-imaginings. This one’s quite unique!
About the Author
Brandie June loves storytelling in all sorts of formats, whether she is marketing animated movies or writing fantasy novels. Most of her early life she was on stage or at least as close to the front row as she could get. Initially an actor, she got her B.A. in Theatre from UCLA and branched out into costume design and playwriting, eventually getting her M.B.A. Her first stand-alone play, a dark comedy about Oscar Wilde, premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival to a sold-out run and won the Encore Producers Award. As a writer, she is especially passionate about fantasy and mythology, has published several pieces in anthology, and is a recent finalist with The Writers of the Future Award. Her debut novel, Gold Spun, is a fresh retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin tale through the miller daughter’s POV. Except now the miller’s daughter is a con artist and Rumpelstiltskin is a mysterious faerie with a dark secret.
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