Bonded by Thorns by Elizabeth Helen is a spicy, fun, fast-paced, why choose romantasy. This is the first book in the incomplete Beasts of Briar series, a Beauty & the Beast retelling.
What to expect:
Spicy romantasy series
1st person, multi POV
Why choose // RH romance
Beauty & the Beast retelling
Fae world
Magic, danger & curses
Morally grey men
Touch her & d!e
Cliffhanger
I fondly refer to this type of book/series as a “vibe read” because you’ll need to be in a certain mood to truly enjoy it. I went into this book wanting something fun and easy to digest—I didn’t want a super in-depth world or magic system, I wanted to get easily lost in a good fantasy story with plenty of romance. The combination of the easy world building, banter, charming characters, and fast-paced writing kept me entertained and almost finishing this book in one sitting.
I personally loved how closely they kept this to original storyline because I thought they made fun/witty changes—like the men only turning into beasts at night, the staff becoming tiny forest animals, etc. While I can see this putting off some readers, it’s one of the reasons I loved this book so much.
Outside of the Beauty & Beast plot line, I found a lot of this to be pretty predictable, but I’m still entertained and planning to continue the series.
I chose to “hybrid” read this book using the physical book and Audible, and I HIGHLY recommend checking out the audiobooks because the narrators do an amazing job at bringing these characters and their personalities to life.