Sampler Review: Wolves and Roses

                Hello happy readers!  Looks like the weekend is upon us.  Sadly it’s a working weekend for myself but provided my sinuses calm down some next week should be better.  Since I am a bit behind and foggy headed the timing for this short review is perfect.  One of the authors I adore, Christina Bauer who writes the Angelbound and Beholder series that I am in love with has a new book/series coming out towards the end of this year, Wolves and Roses (Fairy Tales of the Magicorum #1).  So when a sampler was available I was all on board to get a taste. 

Rating:  EXCITED!!!

                So here’s the summary per Goodreads:

                Seventeen-year-old Bryar Rose has a problem.  She’s descended from one of the three magical races—shifters, fairies, or witches.  That makes her one of the Magicorum, and Magicorum always follow a fairy tale life template.  In Bryar’s case, that template should be Sleeping Beauty.

                  “Should” being the key word.

                  Trouble is, Bryar is nowhere near the sleeping beauty life template. Not even close.  She doesn’t like birds or woodland creatures.  She can’t sing.  And she certainly can’t stand Prince Philpot, the so-called “His Highness of Hedge Funds” that he aunties want her to marry.  Even worse, Bryar’s having recurring dreams of a bad boy hottie and is obsessed with finding papyri from ancient Egypt.  What’s up with that?

                 All Bryar wants is to attend a regular high school with normal humans and forget all about shifters, fairies, witches, and the curse that Colonel Mallory the Magnificent placed on her.  And she might be able to do just that—if only she can just keep her head down until her eighteenth birthday when the spell that’s ruined her life goes buh-bye.

                  But that plan gets turned upside down when Bryar Rose meets Knox, the bad boy who’s literally from her dreams.  Knox is a powerful werewolf, and his presence in her life changes everything, and not just because he makes her knees turn into Jell-O.  If Bryar can’t figure out who—or what—she really is, it might cost both her and Knox their lives…as well as jeopardize the very nature of magic itself.

  

Thoughts thus far:

                So this was only a short, three chapters, sampler so I don’t have a ton to go on but those chapters really got me excited.  Of course I was ready to read it given the summary and the author but seeing Bryar, in only that short bit I really like her.  I’m curious about the growling Knox character and I love the friendship between Bryar and Elle that has been shown thus far.  I am intrigued about the Magicorum and these mysterious disappearances, dreams and the like.  I can’t wait to get my hands on the full and finished copy but for now I can say this sampler really has me anticipating the book even more.  Plus come on fairytale retellings/re-imaginings are always fun and exciting.  Taking characters/stories/templates we know and turning them all around and remolding them is fascinating but this whole take on the life templates, just from what I have seen might be the most creative way yet! 

                Basically I need it to be out now but sadly I have to wait until October.