Book Review: Apples Dipped in Gold

I was a big fan of Scarlett St. Clair’s first fairytale retelling novella, Mountains Made of Glass, so I’m so happy her second book in her series came out last year, Apples Dipped in Gold. The overarching story is that there are seven brothers who are Elven princes living in seven kingdoms. They all have some sort of curse and need to break them. Mountains Made of Glass followed the seventh brother, Casamir. Apples Dipped in Gold follows the third brother, Lore, from the Kingdom of Nightshade.

The novella is a dual POV and as mentioned above follows Lore and the fmc is Samara. Samara is a young woman who lives with her three brothers who are all cruel and abusive. She works herself ragged to serve them and all she gets in return is mental, physical, and emotional abuse. Lore saves her life when thieves try to kill her and says she owes him a debt. He needs her to help him break his curse – to be hopelessly in love with a woman who does not know he exists – by traveling with him to the Wishing Tree. What she doesn’t know is that she is the woman he has loved from afar for the past seven years.

This was a really entertaining read. It’s dark, as most classic fairytales are, but not spooky which I appreciate since I’m a scaredy cat! The slow burn and tension between Lore and Samara was really well done, especially for a novella where insta-love is common. The pacing was fantastic for the story! I really liked Lore and Samara and hope we get a cameo or mention of them in future books.

The little bits of Lore’s brother, Cardic, and mentions of his potential love were really interesting and humorously included so I’m looking forward to his book!

Read this if you want a fairytale retelling with a dark romance and spicy twist.

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