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Beyond the Briar A Collection of Romantic Fairy Tales eBook Shelley Chappell

Download As PDF : Beyond the Briar A Collection of Romantic Fairy Tales eBook Shelley Chappell

Beyond the Briar A Collection of Romantic Fairy Tales eBook Shelley Chappell

Beyond the Briar is a collection of 4 uplifting and beautiful tales. They are fairy tales retold, however each of those stories are a delightful and unique twist on those ones we think we know so well. They were all wonderful but my personal favorite was The Sleeping Maid. I loved the main character Gorran, his steadfast loyalty to Caterina… it was so romantic and being the sap I am, it brought tears to my eyes. This is a lovely collection, a very enjoyable read, and I highly recommend it.


Tags : Amazon.com: Beyond the Briar: A Collection of Romantic Fairy Tales eBook: Shelley Chappell: Kindle Store,ebook,Shelley Chappell,Beyond the Briar: A Collection of Romantic Fairy Tales,FICTION Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology,JUVENILE FICTION Fairy Tales & Folklore Adaptations

Beyond the Briar A Collection of Romantic Fairy Tales eBook Shelley Chappell Reviews

I received this book as in a goodreads contest. I thought this book was a fun retelling of traditional fairy tales. The book started out with a strong retelling of Rapunzel, the next story wasn't as story, however the book picked back up again. I with my favorite was the retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. The author does a good job at setting the stories in vibrant settings.
"Beyond the Briar A Collection of Romantic Fairy Tales"
This collection of four delightful stories by Shelley Chappell sets a new standard of excellence in the fairy tale genre. Unlike most writers, Chappell has not attempted to regurgitate the traditional tales or rewrite them with character reversals, but has brought a refreshingly new approach to the genre. While there are some parallels with the fairy tales we grew up with, this writer has produced four tales which are almost completely original.
These exquisite stories are written with such skill that the reader is captivated from the first sentence, and though each tale is much longer than most in this category, Chappell manages to maintain our interest throughout. She elicits a warm emotional response through both the romantic content and the wonderfully descriptive language which carries the narratives smoothly and makes us feel that we are right there in each setting.
This collection should appeal to all age groups from tweenagers through to the elderly. I look forward to reading more of this talented writer's work.
Reviewed by Murray Fraser.
"Beyond the Briar" contains four stories based on Rapunzel, Rumplestiltskin, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, though with a little gender-flipping and changes in setting, Shelley Chappell manages to turn the familiar beats of each story into something innovative and unexpected. Once they're removed from the traditional European backdrop, it's striking to see how the mythologies, traditions and flavours of international cultures can change the shape and flow of the old stories.

"Stars on Dark Water" follows the template of Rapunzel, reinventing Rapunzel as a young man called Rudaab and setting the story in the Middle East. A merchant and his pregnant wife are separated from the rest of their caravan during a journey through the desert, only to find a beautiful oasis amidst the sands. It's there they drink from the pool and eat from the fruit trees, but it's while his wife is sleeping that the merchant meets the owner of the oasis a beautiful witch.

The price of having trespassed is the eventual marriage of the merchant's unborn child with the witch's infant daughter – though the merchant dies without ever sharing this agreement with his wife or son Rudaab. It is a shock then, when years later a strange and powerful appears in the encampment, demanding Rudaab's hand in marriage. Bound by his hair in the witch's tower, it's up to his sweetheart Azar to stage a rescue...

Next is "Ranpasatusan", a take on Rumplestiltskin that's set in feudal Japan. Sunny and her father are wandering minstrels and storytellers, never staying in one place for very long, and eventually travelling as far as the village of Hitachi in the east. There Sunny's father is critically wounded after he brags about his daughter's ability to spin straw into gold (even if he only means it metaphorically). But the local daimyo takes him at his word and insists that Sunny turn a room full of straw into gold if she wants her father to get the medical treatment he needs.

This is the part where you'd expect the gnomish Rumplestiltskin to emerge and cut a deal with Sunny, but there's a twist in how Shelley decides to portray Sunny's saviour – one that's rooted in Japanese history and culture. No, I won't give it away.

"The Sleeping Maid" is my favourite in the collection, which does not feature the usual displacement of locale or switch in gender (except in making the evil fairy a male) but instead opts for telling the tale from an unexpected point-of-view. When the sleeping curse strikes the kingdom and the briars grow up around the castle, the family members of those who work in the palace are cut off from their loved ones. How do they cope knowing that their daughters, brothers, mothers and sweethearts are slumbering in stasis beyond the briars?

Gorran the blacksmith was due to marry his beloved Caterina; now he finds that an insurmountable barrier separates them. The years roll past and Gorran grows older, knowing all the while that his betrothed remains young and beautiful, hoping that he'll live long enough for the promised prince to arrive and break the spell so that he might see her one last time...

Finally, "The Old Boot" is a take on Cinderella (with a dash of Beauty and the Beast) in which a young cobbler's daughter called Beauty befriends Miguel, a farmer's son forced into servitude by his wicked stepfather and stepbrothers. When Beauty catches the eye of the prince, she's forced to leave Hay-on-Dell for the palace and the necessary transformation into a princess.

She hates it, especially since she left her heart behind with Miguel. But on the night of the masquerade ball, she dances with a familiar figure – one who leaves behind an old boot in his rush to escape the guards.

Taking a European fairy tale, shifting it to a different part of the world and making a few extra tweaks when it comes to gender and motivation, is a simple but very effective formula in reimagining these familiar stories as something fresh and new.

What they all have in common is that romance that lies at each one's core, but these love stories (with only one exception) are between couples who have known each other all their lives. By eliminating the "love at first sight" narrative that's so prevalent to fairy tales, powerful and transformative love is instead portrayed as something that exists between best friends and childhood sweethearts, making all the couples and their affection for each other feel warm and grounded and genuine. It's easy to hope for happy endings if you can believe in the love as it appears on the page.
I thought I enjoyed fairy tales until I read this. What an enchanted journey it took me on. Chappell has a magical way with words that leads you through her own twist on the classics. I loved them, and my kids did too. I look forward to future publications.
I don't read about romance often but this collection is interesting. Each story has a "dark side " as well.
Beyond the Briar is a collection of 4 uplifting and beautiful tales. They are fairy tales retold, however each of those stories are a delightful and unique twist on those ones we think we know so well. They were all wonderful but my personal favorite was The Sleeping Maid. I loved the main character Gorran, his steadfast loyalty to Caterina… it was so romantic and being the sap I am, it brought tears to my eyes. This is a lovely collection, a very enjoyable read, and I highly recommend it.