"The sky is a velvet blanket littered with stars that wink at me for the first time in a week."
To Bleed a Crystal Bloom was the March read for #thatbonkersbookclub and… I was disappointed. 😕 It’s a Rapunzel retelling, which I honestly found a little strange and quite dark. 🕯️ Our protagonist has been locked in a tower since she was two, but now has this odd fascination with the man who put her there, as well as a weird creature living in the sea. 🌊
I just found the story boring. 😴 Nothing grabbed me, nothing made me want to keep reading—but I did, because I kept hoping it would get better. It didn’t… at least not for me. 🤷♀️ When we discussed it, the majority of us felt the same way, and at least two of us got the ick from the relationships, 😖 never mind the nauseating references to other things I never want to think about ever again. 🤢
A lot of it felt random and unexplained, and maybe that comes in the next book—but I won’t be sticking around to find out. 🚫 Sorry, Sarah, you didn’t hook me with this first instalment, and I won’t be coming back for more.
I do have a pretty copy of When the Moon Hatched on my shelf (and the next one on preorder 👀). I’ve heard that one’s much better, so I am looking forward to it ✨—but yeah… no more Crystal Bloom for me ❌📚
About the Book
"What a pretty flower to keep locked in a big, rocky tower."
Nineteen years ago, I was plucked from the heart of a bloody massacre that spared nobody else.
Small. Fragile. An enigma.
Now ward to a powerful High Master who knows too much and says too little, I lead a simple life, never straying from the confines of an imaginary line I've drawn around the castle grounds.
Stay within. Never leave.
Out there, the monsters lurk. Inside, I'm safe...though at a cost far greater than the blood I drip into a goblet daily. Toxic, unreciprocated love for a man who's utterly unavailable.
My savior. My protector.
My almost executioner.
I can't help but be enamored with the arcane man who holds the power to pull my roots from the ground. When voracious beasts spill across the land and threaten to fray the fabric of my tailored existence, the petals of reality will peel back to reveal an ugly truth. But in a castle puddled with secrets, none are greater than the one I've kept from myself.
No tower is tall enough to protect me from the horror that tore my life to shreds.
To Bleed a Crystal Bloom is a dark Rapunzel reimagining full of immersive imagery and breathtaking angst.
Originally from New Zealand, I've been living in Australia for the past ten years! My husband and I have three children together, so when I'm not writing we're out and about having family adventures.
I love sushi, peppermint tea, and plants—our house is basically a jungle. My other great love is anything snow related. We try to get away as often as we can on family snowboarding trips, and our dream is to one day have a house somewhere it snows through the winter months!
There's just something about the snow that feels magical.
I get back to New Zealand as much as I can to spend time with my family, so that's always a treat. Aside from that we live a pretty quiet life here on the Gold Coast.
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