I’ve been devouring fairytale retellings for as long as I’ve been reading. Even longer, really, if I count the many times my family read fairytales aloud to me as a kid. When I was four years old, for Christmas 1996, my grandma gifted me The Random House Book of Stories from the Ballet. Within its gorgeously illustrated pages, Geraldine McCaughrean retells beloved fairy tales and stories that have been featured as ballets, including Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Giselle, and more. After hearing these stories reread to me over and over again, I fell in love with fairytale retellings. It’s a love I’ve carried with me ever since. Now, I’m always on the hunt for my next great fairytale read, and I discovered one published this summer that has become a new favorite.
When I noticed that the beautiful cover of this book has a quote from Juliet Marillier, the queen of Fae stories, saying, “Magnificent. This is a must-read,” I knew I needed to read it. With its intertwining threads of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, this book stands out as an exceptional fairytale retelling you won’t want to miss.
The story takes place in the 1758 coastal city of Saint-Malo, Brittany. As conflicts brew between England and France, the Fae have slowly begun leaving Brittany. Lucinde Leon, or Luce, is the youngest of three daughters to a wealthy ship-owner. While she’s happiest when sneaking off to sail with her English smuggler friend Samuel, things take a turn after she rescues Morgan de Chatelaine, the son of a rival ship-owning family, from a shipwreck.
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Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·