“Change isn’t about getting taller or changing the roof over your head. Change happens in your heart, in your way of thinking, of moving in the world.” – 3/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: Nature Gods, changes, siblings, kingdoms and dangerous bargains.

Merida goes on an all-new, life-changing adventure in this original YA novel set several years after the close of Brave!

What if you had one year to save everything you loved?

ONE PRINCESS. Merida of DunBroch needs a change. She loves her family—jovial King Fergus, proper Queen Elinor, the mischievous triplets— and her peaceful kingdom. But she’s frustrated by its sluggishness; each day, the same. Merida longs for adventure, purpose, challenge – maybe even, someday, love.

TWO GODS. But the fiery Princess never expects her disquiet to manifest by way of Feradach, an uncanny supernatural being tasked with rooting out rot and stagnation, who appears in DunBroch on Christmas Eve with the intent to demolish the realm – and everyone within. Only the intervention of the Cailleach, an ancient entity of creation, gives Merida a shred of hope: convince her family to change within the year – or suffer the eternal consequences.

THREE VOYAGES. Under the watchful eyes of the gods, Merida leads a series of epic journeys to kingdoms near and far in an attempt to inspire revolution within her family. But in her efforts to save those she loves from ruin, has Merida lost sight of the Clan member grown most stagnant of all – herself?

FOUR SEASONS TO SAVE DUNBROCH – OR SEE IT DESTROYED, FOREVER.

I’ve been wanting to read more Maggie Stiefvater books, and when I found out she did this Merida retelling I thought this would be a good book to pick up!

So if you don’t know, “Bravely” is a book written based on the Disney movie “Brave”. It’s a sequel retelling that gets picked up a few years after the movie ended.

To be honest, I’ve watched “Bravely” once a long time ago, and since I knew I was going to pick up this book soon I tried watching it again. I ended up watching about 15 minutes before I gave up – I just don’t have patience to watch movies anymore -, so my attempt to revive my memory on what the story is about didn’t go as planned. In conclusion, I don’t remember a lot from the original story, so I can’t really compare the movie “Brave” and the book “Bravely”. 

The book was okay in the sense that it was entertaining but not super memorable. It was a little bland and the story wasn’t very interesting. I did like Merida and her crazy family, but the idea for the plot wasn’t great. The original plot was about her proving she didn’t need to marry, so this plotline could be picked up in this book by her finding someone who she truly loved and seeing love differently – at least that would make more sense than this “change” plotline.

With that being said, I understand how this book works as a fairytale because of the lessons behind it. Creation and destruction work hand-in-hand and are both necessary for growth and to give space for new things to bloom.

I’ve listened to the audiobook version and I was surprised that the narrator used a Scottish accent for the dialog. It was a nice touch knowing the origin of the story!

Also, just as a side note: they really did an amazing job on the cover because it’s truly stunning!It wasn’t bad, just okay. If you’re a fan of “Brave”, definitely read this one. I’m not sure I would still recommend it if you’re not really a fan of the movie?