Spindle Fire

Written By: Lexa Hillyer

Publication:  April 11th 2017, by HarperCollins

Date Finished: May 13, 2018

Would Recommend To: fans of YA fantasy retellings (with little romance) and awesome but relatable heroines

Rating: 4/5

This. is. so. good! Nearly every aspect of this book is just perfectly executed, and I was completely enraptured! It was actually pretty close to five stars, but I need to stop giving out so many of those 🤣, and there was one teensy-weensy thing that bothered me... but I'll get to that in a minute.


In the kingdom of Deluce, there is a beautiful princess named Aurora. When she was just a baby, two faeries tithed from her both her voice and her touch. But she was cursed by the evil fairy Mafleur to die by the prick of a spindle. Fortunately, yet another fairy diluted the curse so that Aurora will only fall asleep... for a price: Aurora's beloved half-sister's sight. Now, as the curse comes to pass and Aurora's impenetrable sleep spreads a sleeping sickness across the land, Isbe must race to the kingdom of Aubin and retrieve who she believes to be Aurora's true love and the only one who can break the spell: the last remaining prince of Aubin. Meanwhile, Aurora isn't as unconscious as she seems; she is trapped in another fairy world, along with hundreds of other people... and her voice and touch. She is trapped in more ways than one... but does she really want to leave?

This novel is based on the tale of Sleeping Beauty, but it's so much more. Honestly. I'm just gonna break it up a little bit.

Mystery:

Through the entire story, the writing has a mysterious undercurrent that is so alluring. To maintain the perfectly-executed fairy-tale feel, Hillyer feeds us information a little more than most books do. However, there is still so much to theorize about and to shock you when the time comes. I personally did not see a lot of it coming, though it is slightly predicable (which only adds to the fairy-tale feel, if you ask me).

Characters:

This is probably my favorite topic of Spindle Fire I'm going to address because the characters are absolutely FABULOUS!!!!! There are two different princesses... and I mean it when I say they're different. Aurora, the legitimate princess who was tithed her touch and her voice, is a reserved, innocent character who devotes her life to reading as many romance novels as she can, almost as if she can escape her reality and dream her own love story out of thin air. As her arc develops, though, she learns what love really feels like and that, even if it isn't perfect, it's a beautiful thing. She also embraces herself as an individual and feels empowered now that she has her touch and voice and doesn't have her family hovering over her like a permanent shadow.

Isbe, on the other hand, was tithed her sight, but she never let that belittle her. She and her best friend, a stable boy named Gil, embraced the world and lived their lives to the fullest. She may be blind, but heck if she doesn't kick some serious booty! Like, the things she is able to accomplish with only her other four senses are incredible! And honestly, the way Hillyer executes Isbe's lack of sight is incredible, as well. She describes everything in a way that I can still see it in my head, even if Isbe can't and all Hillyer is describing is the other four senses. Lastly, Isbe would do anything for her sister, just as Aurora would do anything for hers; the sisters protect each other, and it's a beautiful relationship that readers should use as a model.

Oh, and that prince I mentioned earlier? He is a sweetheart, guys. Haha, moving on.

Narwhals:

You think I'm joking. You're mistaken. I am not joking. Narwhals are the best thing that happens to this world. We get some pretty decent world-building (enough for the story), so I got some respect for Hillyer. But for real, her random addition of narwhals into her world as the main source of oil is freaking genius. The whole idea of the narwhal has a mystical feeling around it that lends itself perfectly to that fairy-tale feel I keep mentioning. Plus, there's this really awesome scene where Isbe is on a ship and they're hunting narwhals, so triple thumbs up, Hillyer.

Romance:

Here's that teensy-weensy thing I mentioned at the very beginning. You all should know by now how much I love my romance, and the romance in Spindle Fire just fell short for me. There are two main reasons I can think of:

1) I'm tired of the best friend getting gypped.
Like I said, I love the sweet prince in this book, so it's kinda hard to say this. To clarify, I do definitely ship the prince's ship, and I really like how Hillyer executes their relationship, so this really has nothing to do with this book or author. I just need to get this out there. I kinda want a love triangle to end up with the best friend one day. Because in this book, it seems like the best friend actually has a chance... until he doesn't. This just bothered me a little as I was reading 🤣.
2) The other ship is a tad bit fast.
There was something really little that kept bothering me about the other ship, and I cannot think of what it was. The only idea I have is that it might have been a tad too fast in the whole scheme of things and that it didn't feel like there was a huge amount of chemistry there.

This isn't one of the reasons 🤣 but I honestly hate when the ship sails and the girl says something like

"She feels the kiss everywhere... the kiss she didn't realize she'd been waiting for, ever since meeting [insert name here], even when he had a dagger pointed at her throat."

That's a little ridiculous. You have not been waiting for this kiss since you met him. Stop. It just annoys me when they act like they have been in love the entire time when I know for a fact she was not thinking about kissing him at that exact moment. Alright, I guess I'm done 🤣.

Thanks for reading, and au revoir!