In mood to let you hair down? It is only Tuesday and I want to climb out the window!

 

Enjoy these Rapunzel Themed Romance Novels! 

 

My lists are never in any particular order.

 

1. Zelle and the Tower by Rrebekah R. Ganiere

 

Sweet and naïve Rapunzelle possesses a dangerous and powerful magick. Her entire life has been spent in a mage tower built by her father, to keep her safe. Or so she's been told. Flint Gwyn has spent the better part of the last year wandering Fairelle, wanting nothing more than to wash away the pain of letting his family down. Between drinking and womanizing he plummets in to despair, with only Dax the werebear to keep him from getting himself killed. When Flint and Dax stumble into Zelle's tower while running from a dragon, she finds herself drawn to him in a way that awakens startling memories she cannot place. And the longer he stays, the closer she comes to losing her heart. Unable to control his feelings for the lonely maiden who brings him peace for the first time in his life, Flint fights to release her from her prison. But in doing so, he may very well bring down the wrath of an evil that's plagued Fairelle for a hundred years.

 

2. Tarnished Knight by Shiloh Walker

 

ne look at Jack Wallace and Perci knows he’s going to be trouble. Even surrounded by soul stealers, he’s a one-man wrecking crew. What does he need Grimm training for? He’s already hell on earth, a warrior bent on destruction. And something…more. 

He’s too strong and fast to be a mere mortal. Even covered in blood, he makes her forget she’s only here to do a job and get out. It’s twisted. Sick. She hasn’t felt this alive in three centuries.

 

Born with a natural talent for killing unnatural things, Jack has always known things he shouldn’t. The fact that Perci is one of them glows all over her. Giving him an unholy urge to see just how far he can push her before don’t touch me melts into touch me there.

When they come together, it isn’t careful or cautious. It’s heaven and hell, exposing all their raw and wounded places to healing heat, resurrecting memories of a destined love from the distant past. But the evil that destroyed them once before has tracked them here, threatening their second and last chance at forever. Demanding a sacrifice no one—Grimm or human—should ever be asked to make…

 

3. Rapunzel in New York by Nikki Logan

 

Galloping up a crumbling tower block, he crashed into the chamber where she was imprisoned! The Maiden gasped and said – that she was perfectly happy, thank you very much, and certainly didn’t need saving, especially by a smug, designer-suited billionaire, and why had he just kicked in her front door?

It’s sometimes hard for a modern damsel in distress to admit she needs rescuing – but at least this heroine plans to rescue her hero right back!

 

4. The Chocolate Kiss by Laura Florand

 

The Heart of Paris

Welcome to La Maison des Sorcieres. Where the window display is an enchanted forest of sweets, a collection of conical hats delights the eye and the habitués nibble chocolate witches from fanciful mismatched china. While in their tiny blue kitchen, Magalie Chaudron and her two aunts stir wishes into bubbling pots of heavenly chocolat chaud.

But no amount of wishing will rid them of interloper Philippe Lyonais, who has the gall to open one of his world famous pastry shops right down the street. Philippe's creations seem to hold a magic of their own, drawing crowds of beautiful women to their little isle amidst the Seine, and tempting even Magalie to venture out of her ivory tower and take a chance, a taste. . .a kiss. 

 

Parisian princesses, chocolate witches, pâtissier princes and sweet wishes--an enchanting tale of amour et chocolat.

 

5. Golden Stair by Jennifer Blackstream

 

A devil-may-care incubus with a ravenous appetite . . . 

Adonis is a demon prince determined to bury his desire for love in the pleasures of the flesh. Bound by a vow to maintain his physical form, Adonis requires a great deal of energy just to live, energy he can only absorb through the carnal arts…more energy than any one woman could ever provide. Adonis knows he could never offer a woman the fidelity she would deserve as his wife, and so carries on with his wild ways, his cryptic smile hidden behind a puff of smoke. No woman can reach beyond the heat of his embrace to touch his heart. Not even the golden-haired maid whose lonely eyes keep wooing him back to her side. 

A damsel in distress with the power to destroy him . . . 

Ivy has lived in a tower, locked away from the rest of the world, for her entire life. Her mother, a witch who leads the resistance against the bloodthirsty kings of the five kingdoms, is her only company. Ivy knows that her battle-weary mother relies on the golden power flowing through her veins for the energy to continue the good fight, but she can’t completely smother the selfish yearning to see the world beyond the safety of their hidden valley…especially when her wildest fantasy almost literally falls into her lap. Despite their best intentions, they’re drawn together like phoenixes to flame—and if they’re not careful, they’ll both burn. 

An incubus can only deny his nature for so long . . . 

Long golden hair. A tower with no stairs. A witch with serious possession issues. Debilitating blindness. None of these are enough to keep a demon from climbing…the Golden Stair. 

 

6. Cress by Marissa Meyer

 

Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and prevent her army from invading Earth.

 

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she's just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 

 

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she'd ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

 

7. Rapunzel by Selena Kitt

 

Rachel runs Rapunzel’s, a high-end salon on the lower level of a downtown Chicago high rise and lives happily in self-imposed exile in an apartment at the top of the tower—that is until Jake Malden walks in with his teen daughter, Emma, and presents Rachel with a dilemma. 

Young Emma is determined to defy her mother’s wishes and get her long, beautiful, untouched hair cut off so she can donate it to charity to honor a friend with cancer. 

Rachel’s decision to cut the girl’s hair starts a snowball of drama, turmoil and hidden secrets rolling downhill on a course with destiny that no one is able to stop, one that ultimately threatens not only Rachel’s livelihood, but her slowly melting heart as well. 

 

8. Braided Silk by Ella Drake

 

Rapunzel was made with technologically advanced hair. As a trained Mother agent, Zel can't escape the DNA that makes her a pawn in corporate espionage. Kidnapped and held in a tower on Gothel Island, she falls to the sexual allure of her captor’s son, Langley, a man whose every tantalizing touch makes her forget she wasn’t born human. 

Langley Gothel protests the existence of creations such as Zel, but when faced with losing her, he sees the truth: Life is precious, whether born, modified, or shaped in a Petri dish. He does the one thing he's thought he'd never do. He has to give up Zel, or become a mod. But will that be enough to get them down from the floating islands and safely to ground?

 

9. The Crystal Heart by Sophie Masson

 

 girl in a tower. An underground kingdom. A crystal heart split in two, symbolising true love lost . . . 

When Kasper joins the elite guard watching over a dangerous prisoner in a tower, he believes he is protecting his country from a powerful witch.  

Until one day he discovers the prisoner is a beautiful princess - Izolda of Night- who is condemned by a prophecy to die on her eighteenth birthday. Kasper decides to help her escape. But their hiding place won't remain secret forever. 

Will they find their happily ever after?

 

10. Golden by Cameron Dokey

 

efore Rapunzel's birth, her mother made a dangerous deal with the sorceress Melisande: If she could not love newborn Rapunzel just as she appeared, she would surrender the child to Melisande. When Rapunzel was born completely bald and without hope of ever growing hair, her horrified mother sent her away with the sorceress to an uncertain future. 

After sixteen years of raising Rapunzel as her own child, Melisande reveals that she has another daughter, Rue, who was cursed by a wizard years ago and needs Rapunzel's help. Rue and Rapunzel have precisely "two nights and the day that falls between" to break the enchantment. But bitterness and envy come between the girls, and if they fail to work together, Rue will remain cursed...forever.

 

Vote on my Goodreads list so the best retelling win: Rapunzel Themed Romance Novels . 

This is a very enjoyable collection of 11 fairy tale retellings by romance authors, and while Cinderella pops up more than once, there are less familiar (to me) tales as well. With the adult content ranging from sweet and blush-free to oh-my-goodness-someone-hand-me-a-fan, there are stories to suit many taste levels.

While all of the stories are enjoyable, my particular favorites were those that drew on fairy tales that I am less familiar with:

Jeannie Lin's The Warlord and the Nightingale is based on The Nightingale and set in the same world as her Steampunk series, The Gunpowder Chronicles. Hanzo, a karakuri (clockwork figure) maker, is challenged to make a karakuri worthy of Lord Mizunaga, but is it just a toy? Is all as it seems?

Firebird Sweet by Elise Logan is the Russian inspired offering, a tale of fae and sidhe blended with the firebird and her golden apples, Deathless and Baba Yaga.

Sela Carsen's Runespell draws from Norse tales. Being saved from drowning by a Norse bear-shifter is all well and good, but what if the hell-cow of a wife that cursed him comes after you?

One of the best quotes of the collection is from Runespell, "So you got blindsided by a magical slut, it happens."

Also particularly well done were Cate Rowan's Kiss That Frog, which provided another favorite (partial) quote "...she supposed a couple of hundred years as a frog could quell any ego," and Cate Dean's Snow's Salvation, a short, sweet and clean Snow White and the seven thieves tale.

Nadia Lee plays with the Beauty and the Beast tale in A Happily Ever After of Her Own. For sci-fi fans, there is a Rapunzel tale by Ella Drake, Braided Silk, which raises the moral question of whether a person who is created rather than born should have rights.

If you prefer retellings of Cinderella there are the corporate tales of Love After Midnight by Dee Carney, with a bit of role reversal having the `prince' be the one who disappears at midnight, or After the Stroke of Midnight by Jennifer Lewis, where Sandy's fairy godmother is the building's Dominican cleaning lady. Jennifer Lewis gives one of the most well-developed tales in terms of character building while Danielle Monsch provides the most unexpected take on Cinderella, focusing on the Fairy Godmothers and providing a romantic interest in the form of a Fairy Godfather in her story Loving a Fairy Godmother.

Overall, a nice collection of retellings. I enjoyed a majority of them, with my only "meh" reaction being to one of the Cinderella tales. I did not read Jennifer Blackstream's What Big Teeth You Have as demon-centric stories are not to my taste.

 

3 - 3.5 stars, depending on the individual story.
I received a free copy of this e-book from one of the authors in exchange for my honest review.

4 Stars


This would have been SO MUCH better if it were a full length novel. Too short! Too short! I liked the premise and the survival aspect- the hint of a love triangle and the struggles. The author could have easily made this a full length book with the material she had. If only. Well I'm giving it 4 stars even though it's a super short novella because I really loved the story.

4.5 stars for the first 2/3's and maybe 1.5 for the end....the real issue with Desert Blade was the length! It started out so so well! Interesting story, great characters, awesome concept!....I do have to mention it did remind me a bit of Joss Ware's Envy books, but as I loved them this was a good thing, IMO... but by the last third everything felt rushed and it all sorta ran together...It almost felt like there was a checklist and the author was ticking items off to make sure they were included/dealt with before the "the end". I wanted more dammit! More details, more story, more time for the characters to work through their issues(talk!), rather then get their HEA solely because we're getting to the end of the book. And the book ends at a horrible place! I was just getting excited thinking the end that I thought was nigh, wasn't so nigh after all! Just when I thought the story was ending, it looked like it was going to continue on, but instead just stops instead...maybe it was just me, but it left me feeling sorta gypped. Oh and if it matters to you, there's also not much sex...two scenes I think....two well written if somewhat short scenes.So yeah, great beginning, but disappointing ending = 3 stars overall. I received an advanced copy of this title from netgalley

Full Review to be posted soon:I wished this was a much longer story it felt choppy and vague at times and the short length emphathise this. I wished more was expanded on the world-building because the setting and concept was great with mutated vines and fungus on the loose and causing world-wide hunger and riots. The ten year jump which showed a harder edged hero and a closed off heroine was interesting but there wasn't much of a connection between the hero and heroine even if they previously spent 2 weeks together - I just couldn't believe they would hold a flame for such a long period of time especially since they both appeared to be two different people. I did enjoy the author's voice and overall the story was an action packed read but it did leave me wanting more especially since I felt it held so much more promise.