Gold Spun by Brandie June

If Nor can’t spin gold, she can always spin lies.

When seventeen-year-old Nor rescues a captured faerie in the woods, he gifts her with a magical golden thread she can use to summon him for a favor. Instead, Nor uses it for a con—to convince villagers to buy straw that can be transformed into gold. Her trick works a little too well, attracting the suspicion of Prince Casper, who hates nobody more than a liar. Intent on punishing Nor, he demands that she spin a room of straw into gold and as her reward, he will marry her. Should she refuse or fail, the consequences will be dire.  

Desperate for help, Nor summons the faerie's aid, launching a complicated dance as she must navigate between her growing feelings for both the prince and faerie boy and who she herself wishes to become.

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As you can tell from the summary above, Gold Spun is a retelling of Rumplestiltskin, with Pel taking the fairy's part and Nor as our usually nameless miller's daughter. Here, she is the oldest remaining of a family of war orphans, her father conscripted and killed and her mother dead in a raid during the war. Receiving no help or support, Nor and her brothers have turned to cons and petty theft to keep themselves alive.

Although the war that killed her parents is over, the kingdom is being invaded by fairies, and there's a reward for turning them in. Nor comes across some hunters with a fairy, Pel, and manages to free him. In gratitude, he gives her a golden thread and a way to call him if she needs him. Which she promptly does, as her con with the thread falls apart and she's taken by the king. If she can provide more gold, he'll marry her. If not, she and her brothers will be killed or cast from the kingdom.

With Pel's help, she creates the gold thread and the king promises to marry her. As she gets to know him, she realises she's not as unhappy with this as she expected. But Pel is still lurking on the edges of her world, and the fairy war is following him. Nor will have to start choosing between her boys or bring the kingdom to destruction.

So. This is the start of an epic, really well thought out retelling of Rumplestiltskin...with a love triangle. And not just any love triangle; a love triangle between a peasant girl, a king and a powerful fairy. Love triangles almost always turn me off, and this one was no exception. I liked the relationship between Nor and Caspar; it was sweet and built up slowly, with each of them learning about the other. Whereas Nor and Pel just seemed to want to bone. Every time he was around Nor was drawn to his smoldering darkness and unearthly good looks and so on. Why couldn't we have it without the attraction? Nor's a good person, mostly; she could still have freed him from the hunters and he could still owe her a boon. That could be really interesting, actually; he doesn't like her, but he owes her a boon and his life...

Ahem. That's just my personal bugbear, though, don't mind me.

I really do love the way this is written. Caspar's family seem happy to allow girls to rule and don't have a problem with same sex marriages out of the direct line of descent, which is much more progressive than most countries in the real world today. The world building is great and we're introduced gradually enough to get a good feel for it. (I'd have liked a map, but I always want a map.)  There's definitely something strange going on with the fairies; I'll have to wait for part two, but I have my suspicions about the start of the war.

I kind of hope this is a duology. Maybe there's something startling going to happen in the next book, but currently it doesn't feel to me like there's enough story for a trilogy. (Plus, I get to read the ending sooner if it's a duo!) I am very much looking forward to seeing what will happen next, though. This series has really interested me and I hope to read the next part.

Gold Spun publishes on the 8th June, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.