A heartless king trapped by a curse
A brave sister searching for answers
And a love so strong it will drown the raging sea ...
THIS FAIRYTALE IS CURSED
Prepare for stormy seas and swoony romance in this addictive retelling of Beauty and the Beast seton board a cursed ship where love blooms in the darkest of hearts ...
Ria is waiting and worried. Trapped in a coastal town at the end of the world, living in poverty with her two sisters, as every day more bodies wash ashore - bodies that were sailors on her father's ship.She is waiting for the day when the body is her father's ... and she knows the Heartless King will be to blame.
When her father surprisingly returns alive, he does so with a terrible choice - the Heartless King will spare his life in exchange for her sister. But what could the Heartless King possibly want with her poor, sickly sister? And what secrets are her father and older sister keeping from her?
Determined to save her sister, Ria decides that she must take her place. After all, it's not as though the Heartless King will have any idea what her sister looks like. And Ria has always loved the sea, and it seems like this time it's calling to her...
Quickly coming face-to-face with pirates and the Heartless King himself, Ria becomes a prisoner on his ship. The legends of his reign of terror haunt her memory, but the Heartless King and the ship itself are much more mysterious than the stories she has heard. As she slowly discovers the man behind the King's hood, she discovers that she is at the centre of a battle for revenge - as well as for the entire kingdom - many years in the making.
Can Ria unravel the web of secrets and figure out the curse before it's too late? And can she ever truly love someone without a heart anyway? When faced with a terrible choice, Ria must figure out who to trust and how to save everything she cares about...
With a pirate ship as the setting, this is an action-packed retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, but not as we know it! With themes of fate, love, the consequences of our actions and looking beneath the surface, this will be enjoyed by middle to upper secondary readers who enjoy YA fantasy romances.
Reviewed by Kate