Review: The Scarlet Rose

The Scarlet Rose is the second book I've read from Valia Lind's Skazka Fairy Tales, a series of Russian-inspired fairy tale retellings. This story is a fairly standard adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast." She made some small changes to the story to make it her own, but for the most part, it follows the Disney movie beat for beat. This comfortable and familiar retelling falls perfectly into the "cozy fantasy romance" genre that the Skazka Fairy Tales are categorized as. I enjoyed the love story from her other book, The Cursed Beauty, more than this one since it took the main character a longer to fall in love with the beast. However, The Scarlet Rose contains some interesting family dynamics by incorporating the siblings from the original fairy tale instead of making the "Beauty" character an only child and giving the "Beast" character his own family that he swore to protect.

A young lady named Nikita grows concerned when her father accepts a business transaction to a dangerous foreign land. While her sisters request expensive gifts from their travels, she only asks for the most beautiful flower to ensure he returns safely. Little does she know that this request will force her to sacrifice everything she knows and cares about. When her father returns with a magic ring that binds him to a beast in an enchanted castle, Nikita steals the ring and travels to the castle in his place. The beast, a cursed prince named Gavriil, is less than pleased with this arrangement but eventually comes to terms with it. During her time at the castle, Nikita is charged with researching how to break Gavriil's curse, which takes away his ability to read as a side effect. She then discovers talking statues of Gavriil's loved ones throughout the grounds that only come to life at certain times.

Although this book follows the story of "Beauty and the Beast" pretty closely, there are a few changes that make it more grounded in the Russian fantasy world of Skazka. The enchantress who curses the prince is Baba Yaga, the famous Russian witch who is spoken of widely in lore. Instead of permanently taking on the form of a beast, Gavriil is cursed to slowly lose his humanity over time and turn into a mindless wolf. When Nikita finds him, he is partway through his transition, giving him the traditional humanoid beastly appearance that most adaptations use. This provides more of an urgency to break the curse before he loses his humanity entirely. It also explains his motivation in binding Nikita's father to do his research for him. Every "Beauty and the Beast" adaptation has its own version of the castle's unusual residents. The curse on Gavriil's family and friends is tied to his own but is not the same as his. While most interpretations don't sympathize much with the other cursed residents of the castle, Gavriil is just as determined to break their curse as his own.

For me, the best "Beauty and the Beast" retellings have a strong love story, and this one doesn't quite hit that mark for me. Nikita slowly grows to love Gavriil over time, but it takes the majority of the book for her to come to terms with it. There is little chemistry built between them throughout the story because most of it focuses more on trying to break the curse on Gavriil and his family. There was also a "Gaston" character to create some drama who had little importance to the story outside of drawing a parallel to the Disney film. I would have preferred to spend more time seeing Nikita and Gavriil get to know each other and rekindle his humanity based on their common interests. There was also a ballroom dance that parallels the Disney movie that feels forced and doesn't provide an opportunity for the main couple to genuinely bond with each other.

The Scarlet Rose is a cozy and familiar retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" that fits neatly into the Skazka Fairy Tales series. While it doesn't stray far from the original tale, Valia Lind adds some interesting twists, such as the incorporation of Baba Yaga and the talking statues. However, the romance, which is often the heart of a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling, feels somewhat underdeveloped. Despite this, fans of the series and cozy fantasy romances will likely find The Scarlet Rose to be an enjoyable, if not particularly groundbreaking, read.