I am so excited for this month’s Pile of Possibilities!
I found about this Book Tube Challenge from Chantel Reads and I watched all the host videos and compiled my list accordingly. The challenge is focused on Fairy Tale Re-tellings and after reading Heartless by Marissa Meyer in January I feel like I need more for this genre. I absolutely LOVED “Heartless” which is a story all about the Queen of Hearts before she became the Queen of Hearts. Someone left it in our Little Free Library and I am so happy I picked it up.
For the Faebruary Challenge (and you can get all the details here) I have picked out a few reads that will all check multiple boxes on the challenge. Here is what I have chosen:
“A pirate, a pixie, and a plot to foil Peter Pan…
James Hook never meant to become a pirate, and never dreamed that he would turn against best friend, Peter Pan. Every adventure and eternal youth awaited them… until a pixie exposes a shocking revelation. Tinkerbell’s information forces James into acknowledging that, far from being the benevolent hero he painted himself to be, Peter Pan was kidnapping innocent children.
After accepting the traumatic loss of his hand and of the family he can barely remember, James deserts Pan. In the fight to rescue the Lost Boys, Hook will risk everything, even if that means becoming the most notorious villain in Neverland… or losing the fiery pixie who is stealing his heart.
Can the original Lost Boy vanquish Neverland’s greatest threat?”
“A siren’s song holds power over skies and men.
Stella has never seen the sky until the day she speaks her oaths and is brought above the surface. After her first encounter with a land-walker’s ship forces her to sing up a storm that pulls a prince into the water, she chooses to rescue him.
When Stella’s blossoming affection for the prince is threatened by another, she makes a choice to trade her fins for legs. The phantom glass in her throat if she dares to use her voice and in her feet when she walks.
Captain Dillon Carvy is determined to have his revenge after a siren’s song costs him his both his ship and his favored position as the Prince’s captain. While searching for signs of the siren, Dillon discovers a struggling maiden instead. Pulling a silent girl from the sea, he sees the perfect opportunity to gain his position back.
A case of mistaken identity puts Stella right where she wants to be in the Prince’s palace. But unless she breaks her silence, continuing her charade may cost her the happiness she hopes for, and quite possibly her life.
“She is one of the protected elect. He is a shunned shapeshifter. Can Scarlett rescue her grandmother before her heart is stolen?
When her grandmother is cast out as unworthy after facing Hamelin’s annual Shunning, Scarlett knows she must brave the dangers of Darkwood Forest if she will have any chance of saving her grandmother. Her perilous adventure becomes a race against time. She needs to find Gran before the previously shunned get to her first.
Scarlett’s efforts came too late. As her magic dwindles the farther into the forest she ventures, she becomes hopelessly lost, and is forced to accept help from Greyson, the shapeshifting wolf who is stalking her every footstep—and who Scarlett suspects of knowing Gran’s location.
If she manages to save her grandmother, Scarlett is faced with another impossible join Gran and live her life as an outcast or return to the rest of the elect, safe but alone. As she struggles to find the right path forward, Scarlett realizes that more than her grandmother’s future is at stake. Her heart is too.
Can Scarlett resist her inexplicable, rising attraction to the shunned wolf she despises long enough to protect the woman who raised her?”
“What if Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on purpose?
Princess Aurelia’s kingdom is plagued by the Eternal Slumber, a disease progressively ensnaring the minds of her subjects. After Aurelia wishes for the means to revive her brother, her sinister fairy godmother presents an ominous Aurelia must stab herself with a poisoned spindle.
Accepting this fate plunges Aurelia into a nightmare where victims of the Eternal Slumber are being held hostage by a dark djinni. However, Aurelia’s brother isn’t the only familiar face she finds herself reunited with; Everett, the love of her life who mysteriously disappeared years ago, is there as well. As the djinni’s power grows, Aurelia must decide who to save before the djinni escapes and enters the waking world.
Failing on her quest could trap her in the dream world forever. Will she forgo her chance at a happily ever after and protect her brother, or will she choose to rescue herself and the man she loves?
No matter who she chooses, someone will be doomed to remain in the nightmare that never ends.
To Defy a Dream is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. It is one of twelve novellas in The Shattered Tales, a collection of twelve fractured retellings of your favorite fairy tales. They can be enjoyed in any order, so fall in love with the swoony sweet romance, magical adventures, and tale-shattering twists one happily-ever-after at a time!”
“Robin of the Wood spends her days robbing from the rich to feed the poor. But she and her merry band of brothers never seem to get anywhere. The more she steals, the more the evil Lord Guy “Bluebeard” taxes the villagers.
When Robin discovers that Lord Guy plans to marry yet again, she conceives a plan for a final, big score. As Guy’s wife, she will have access to his wealth. The lord is notorious for killing his wives shortly after he marries them, but Robin has no plans to be dead wife number four.
The only problem is that Lord Guy is devastatingly handsome, brooding, and nothing at all what she expected. If she isn’t careful, she might just find that he steals her heart before she can rob his riches.”
“England, 1381: Delia’s idyllic life as daughter of an earl is shattered when her father dies and his wife accuses Delia’s seven brothers of treason and murder. The youngest is only ten years old, but this doesn’t stop the guards from hauling them off to the Tower of London. There they await a grim fate, as child-king Richard II is executing anyone who poses a threat to his throne. Delia is their only hope for pardon and freedom.
Sir Geoffrey did not expect his first assignment as captain of the guard to be the arrest of boys so young. He dutifully imprisons the brothers, but he can’t ignore the sense, rooted in personal experience, that injustice and treachery are at work.
Determined to rescue her brothers, Delia secures a position as a seamstress for the queen. Her quest is all but impossible as the executions continue. Sir Geoffrey offers to be her ally, but should she trust him in a court where everyone has an agenda?”
So that is my list of potential reads for February. If you end up taking part in this challenge please let me know I would love to hear!
Until next time…
-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante
First up is 
“The Bridge of Belle Island” by Julie Klassen is the next purchase I made. I am not really a romance reader but I do love historical fiction so I thought I would give this one a try. Here’s the Goodreads synopsis:
Then I picked up “Husband Auditions” by Angela Ruth Strong. Again, not really a romance reader but this book seemed to have enough of a story line beyond the inevitable romance angle that I feel like it might be an interesting read. Here’s the synopsis:
I also picked up “The Soulmate” by Sally Hepworth.
And lastly I picked up “Drawing & Painting Expressive Little Faces” by Amarilys Henderson. I am really focusing on my art this year and drawing faces is part of that. I have had this book on my wish list for a while and when I saw it on Thrift Books I had to pick it up.
