Rebekah's Refuge - Meredith Leigh Burton (Golden Braids Release Day Review!)

A terrible plague is spreading through the land.  Can the norns stop it with their magical hair?  Little Rebekah’s mother is missing, taken by a man with his own need for magic.  Can Rebekah find her before her mother’s song goes silent forever?

 

This fantasy story is part Rapunzel, part family drama, and part Handmaid’s Tale.  It’s about the problems that arise when we try to take control of the world into our own hands.

High points:  The creepiest villain in the Golden Braids (Seriously. And he doesn’t think that he’s a villain at all).  The way Burton gives you a group of protagonists instead of a single heroine.  The fact that you’re not sure who the villain is until close to the end, despite all the information you have about him.

As in Burton’s other stories, the author uses the fairy tale as a jumping off point to explore wider social issues.  In this case, she takes a run at exploitation, pollution, and slavery in this short but gripping story of a girl’s search for her mother.

I had some unanswered questions at the end of this story, mostly about aspects of the worldbuilding.  If normal people can have norn children, how does that work?  How can norns be thought to be so different and dangerous if anyone can have a norn child?  Are there any norn men?  (Only norn women are mentioned.)  Would a hair transplant make you a norn?  (Don’t tell the villain!)

You can buy the book here!

Add it on Goodreads here.

I’ve reviewed one of Burton’s other books here.

Meredith Leigh Burton

Meredith Leigh Burton is a voracious devourer of fairy tales. She is a motivational speaker, teacher and writer. She attended the Tennessee School for the Blind and Middle Tennessee State University, where she received a degree in English and theater. Meredith hopes to convey through her writing that people with differences can contribute much to the world. "Snow White" has always been her favorite fairy tale. Meredith has written several fairy tales based on Snow White including Hart Spring, which can be found in her anthology, Blind Beauty and Other Tales of Redemption. She resides in Lynchburg, Tennessee. 

Find her online at:  Goodreads || Amazon

Golden Braids

The Golden Braids co-release has something for everyone!  You don’t even have to like fairy tales.  Tomorrow we finish up the release with The Dragon’s Flower.  To see the whole blog tour schedule and enter giveaways, go here.

Here are the other blog tour stops for today, August 8th:

Knitted By God's Plan - Five Reasons to Read
Light and Shadows - Five Reasons to Read
Interviews
Dreams and Dragons - Meredith
Character Spotlights
Reality Reflected - Rebekah
The Labyrinth - Martha
Dragonpen Press - Frederick