Not Your Average Beauty

Less than two weeks to go before the Scarred Beauty Book Tour & Release on December 1st! I am wigging out per usual before my newest release, but mostly excited to share the next stage of Vynasha’s journey with you.

If you have been following my posts about Craving Beauty this month, you can see we have been revisiting the world and the story. But in case you hadn’t been clued in, the Wylder Tales Series is a gothic retelling of Beauty & the Beast. Vynasha is not your average beauty, and in the following blog post we dive into the lore behind Craving Beauty & the message I hope to share.  A year ago Prism Book Tours hosted a book tour for Craving Beauty, filled with fun interviews, and top secret info on the characters & the world. The following blog post was first published in Nov 2015 on the lovely Bookworm Lisa’s blog.

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For centuries beyond count, mothers have passed down folk or fairy tales to their daughters. Each tale contained a valuable lesson. Snow White worked hard to earn her keep and waited for her prince to finally rescue her. Cinderella was rewarded for being obedient in the face of hardship. Sleeping Beauty waited for her prince to slay the beast before bringing her and the kingdom back to life. And Beauty agreed to an arranged marriage with a monster to save her father’s life.

If you look at the basic outline, it’s easy to be critical of classic fairy tales in today’s world. Most taught young girls lessons in submissiveness and obedience at all costs. If they were truly good at heart, their reward would come. The old world tales were part of the feminine tradition, a way for mothers to ease their daughters into the roles they would play out. Modern feminism teaches about the strength of women, our ability to rescue ourselves through independence and self-reliance. This is why most modern retellings of classic fairy tales spin the heroine’s role quite a bit. Today’s fairy tales teach girls to be strong, to take up arms alongside the men if needed, to create their own happy ever after.

“Craving Beauty” is a dark fairy tale retelling of Beauty & the Beast with elements of gothic romance thrown in the mix. There is no singing and dancing clocks and teapots in our heroine’s world, and Vynasha is no average “Beauty”. Like many modern fairy tale retellings, she displays a blend of classic and modern traits.

When we first meet our heroine, she has lost virtually everything in life except for her roses and nephew, Wyll. Her mother died when she was a little girl, and her father and brother, Ceddrych, have been away so long they may as well have died too. For a time she tried to make the best of things with her sisters, until a fire took their lives as well. She barely managed to pull her nephew out of the flames in time, leaving both of them horribly scarred. It took years for her to rebuild a life for her and Wyll, but her nephew never fully recovered.

Vynasha doesn’t care about the fact the people in their village fear them, or call her a witch behind her back. She tends her mother’s rose garden and tries to keep Wyll alive each winter. And she blames herself for the fire that took her sisters lives. The scars she carries outside don’t begin to match the ones she carries inside. With a new winter approaching and Wyll weaker than ever, she knows there’s little time left. She can’t wait anymore for her father and brother to return home to rescue them and decides to take action.

As I mentioned before, Vynasha is not your average “Beauty”. She was beautiful once, but now is covered in scars. She has little interest in romance or personal goals but doesn’t consider herself to be selfless. From an early age, like so many women today, she learned to get by on her own. Sometimes the prince doesn’t come in time and the damsel has to rescue them both. In “Craving Beauty”, Vynasha will discover that her inner beauty, like her bravery comes in many shapes and sizes.

The message of fairy tales is just as relevant today as it was centuries ago. Our culture and perspectives may have changed in the meantime, but all of us crave beauty and love in our lives. Like Vynasha, I went through times where I didn’t think myself worthy of love. But once I stopped searching for it, once I focused on the things that mattered most, love found me. I hope as you read Craving Beauty, no matter where you are in life, you are reminded how strong and beautiful you are both inside and out.

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If you would like to read more about our uncommon Beauty, visit the Goodreads Page

or if you really want to read more, please feel free to purchase at the following links

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