She isn’t beautiful enough to attract a suitor who is well connected and she seems to have inherited nothing of her mother’s other-worldly characteristics. Born into a noble house, Irina spends her time trying to keep beneath the notice of her father. Changing silver into gold is much akin to magic in their covetous eyes and so Miryem finds herself being drawn into an unwanted and seemingly impossible bargain.Īt the same time we make the acquaintance of Irina. They’re cold and seemingly heartless – I’m not really sure if they’re from the winter court of the fae but that’s what came to mind when reading about them. Creatures of myth, the Staryk only ride forth to take gold. Of course her exploits don’t go unnoticed and soon she finds herself on the receiving end of unwanted attention from the Staryks. Miryem becomes tired of seeing her mother suffer and basically, much to her parents shame and consternation, takes over the running of the business and does so not only with ruthless determination but also with a certain flair that demonstrates how well suited she is to the business.
Miryem’s father is a moneylender, but a very poor one who doesn’t seem to grasp the concept and very rarely collects the debts he’s owed leaving his family more often than not with a lack of food on the table, fuel to keep them warm and the basic comforts of life. In fact, she’s here to put the record straight. In fact I love the way that we begin the journey with the strong voice of Miryem explaining that not everything you hear in your bedside stories really happened in the way depicted. The story is loosely based on the original fairytale.
But, for now, yes, this is a beautifully rendered retelling of Rumplestiltskin that gave me chills reading, not just because of the cold and aloof Staryks that inhabit their own icy world, but also because of the shivers you feel when you’re reading a book that seems near perfect. I think the only thing that prevented this becoming the perfect read was a slightly stilted feeling that I experienced during the second half of the read combined with maybe one too many character povs. It’s beautifully written and some of the characters are just wonderful to read. And, in some respects I preferred this to Uprooted. A story that brings together the faint whisper of other fairytales and a tale that I was fully immersed in for the most part, in fact I’d go so far as to say I was all but convinced that this would be the one.
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