Cinder (GriMM Tales)

Here's DN Bryn's "Cinder." It's a novel the new multi-author series, The GriMM Tales.

["Cinder-Szule Reinholz has no intention of marrying his kingdom’s rake of a prince.

His place in the world is to keep his incompetent, destitute household afloat. It’s the only respectable thing he’s managed since his mother wasted her dying breath tasking him to do good, and the sins he’s stacked against that duty grow by the day—along with the bastards he’s stabbed and left for dead.

But while slinking through the royal matchmaker ball, Cin stumbles onto the prince mid-conquest. He’s whisked into a thrilling affair, as secretive as the magic that conceals his status and the feathers he leaves in his victim’s wounds. As Cin learns more of the prince’s familial burdens and perceived failures, his yearning delves beyond the prince's striking physique to his tender and attentive heart.

Cin’s nightly escapades are not going unnoticed by his family, though—not his time with the prince, nor his vigilante missions. Just as the King and Queen are presenting their own son’s hand in marriage like a trophy for the taking, they’ve offered a prize for whoever identifies the killer roaming their streets.

Caught between duty, desire, and something far darker, Cin fights for a future that doesn’t leave him trapped in someone else’s world—or their dungeons."]

I didn't think that it was possible to match the banter and flirting and nicknames from "Little Red Riding Hood," but the first time Lorenz called Cin "my dove," I full-on swooned. It wasn't pretty. Each and every time after, I got worse. It was glorious. They were glorious. 

It was an instant chemistry and a hesitant understanding and a need for more that was seemingly from nowhere. It was impossible positions and harder decisions and fate pushing them together while everyone else pulled them part.

This story was so classically Cinderella that I caught so many of the original details as they were happening, but it was also so unique that some of the original details were pleasant surprises.

I’m also obsessed with some of the twists that were added to layer this story and connect it to the series. Obsessed! 

Trigger Warnings: familial gaslighting and emotional manipulation, off-screen physical abuse of side character, death of an animal companion, minor body mutilation, chronic pain and dysphoria healed through magical surgery, and more.

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