ONCE UPON A DREAM; Happy Birthday, Mr Scorpio!

 I'm a Scorpio, yeah the sexy jealous kind,

You had me when you said hi...Hi!

I'm feeling fireflies - oh my oh my!

It takes one to know one, so Happy Birthday, Mr Scorpio!

Love always, mo caraid, 

Marie

xxx

BOOK NOOK: Forest of Hearts by M A Kuzniar

 ' "Would you prefer the cold embrace of death?" I whispered seductively, apparently unable to play nice. Gods, this stranger, this huntsman, had creeped under my skin. His chuckle was deep, dark. Delicious.'

Forest of Hearts is a beautiful reimagining of the fairytale, Snow White, and the latest offering from bestselling fantasy author M A Kuzniar who wrote the wonderful novels Upon a Frosted Star and Midnight in Everwood. 

I really love this author's work so I was especially delighted when the publisher, Simon and Schuster, sent me a ARC for review prior to the book being released. I have been engrossed in it for the past couple of days and it has been a very surprising read. M A Kuzniar is best known for her literary reinterpretations of famous ballets and her work is full of sparkling enchantment that dances off the page like the sugarplum fairies and swan queens she writes about. This novel however, is something of a departure from the dazzling worlds she usually creates.  Instead of bright snowy landscapes and innocent girls entrapped in magical realms, Forest of Hearts takes place in a very dark forest and the main protagonist is not exactly innocent - she's a murderer.

In its original format, Snow White is quite a dark fairytale and this novel takes that darkness once step further, into the Gothic fantasy genre, where hearts are eaten for breakfast and PG rated sexual tension bubbles beneath the surface - it is a YA book after all. In this tale Snow White is called Elka, the huntsman becomes her ally and together they are out for vengeance against the wicked queen. 

It is quite a compelling read and perfectly pitched for its target audience. Teenage girls are going to devour this in one sitting! The dark forest setting gives it Twilight vibes and in some ways it reminded me of the film, Beastly, as the forest roots of her mother's curse snake beneath Elka's skin like poisonous tattoos. Add in the forbidden romance with the huntsman sent to kill her and you have a melting pot of magical mayhem, murder and tender hearted love. 

In Forest of Hearts you will find angels of death, helpful house spirits, fantastical creatures, a forest demon, the cutest baby dragon, glass coffins for the undead and lots of snippy banter between Elka and the huntsman. It retains the charm of the original fairytale, but mixes in darker themes as Elka tries to come to terms with her actions, her trauma and the things she has been forced to do just to survive. In this story the heroine is struggling to come to terms with her own shadow-self as much as anything else, trying desperately not to become a monster like her mother, yet still win the battle and emerge victorious. 

Its an enjoyable book and perfect for those of you who like fairytale retellings and folklore from around the world. I'm already looking forward to M A Kuzniar's next novel! Happy reading!

Serene Blessings

Marie x

AD: This book was sent to me for review prior to publication by Simon and Schuster. It will be released on 23rd October 2025 in hardcover, digital and audio formats. It is available for Pre-Order now. 

BOOK NOOK: These Dreaming Spires

 "Every part of me, every cell, every atom died with you, and like Theseus there is no telling what I am anymore. 

I wanted to be strong, Art. I wanted to be noble like you always were, finish my work and not let this grief drown and consume me."

Ever since I read In These Hallowed Halls a couple of years ago I have been hoping that the publisher, Titan, would release a second anthology of Dark Academia short stories. This book, These Dreaming Spires, is just that and I was very excited to read the ARC that was sent to me a while ago, but I've been so busy with writing my own books that I have only just found the time to pick it up. 

Its an interesting collection and on the whole I found it quite enjoyable. It has some great stories with Gothic vibes and a few surprises for good measure. Here you will find restless ghosts, student rivalries, forbidden romance, secret cults, blood rites and more. I will say that this edition isn't quite as Gothic or traditionally Dark Academia as the first one was - in fact, this volume seems to lean more towards the sci-fi aspects of the genre, which isn't really my cup of tea.  Also, its a little heavy on the trigger warnings, but you'd have to be a real wimp to be bothered by any of the content in this book, as even the so-called body horror is so cartoonish as to be comical rather than actually horrific! But that's just the snowflake society we live in these days, where disclaimers are offered up as standard procedure, just in case someone takes offence. 

That said there were a few stories in this anthology that really stood out to me and that I very much enjoyed. Tallow's Cove, Within the Loch, Poisoned Pawn and The Coventry School for the Arts were clear favourites. I also liked Olivie Blake's God, Needy, Enough With the Screaming, in particular the aloof superior tone of voice of the main protagonist Seraphina, who was tremendous fun to read, despite her difficult circumstances.  These tales were all of a more typical Dark Academia vibe than the other sci-fi ones and so I liked them much better for that reason. If the entire anthology had been compiled of such stories I would have enjoyed this second volume as much as I did the first. However, if sci-fi is your thing you might prefer this second anthology. 

These Dreaming Spires is a compilation of scholastic tales that feature ghostly lovers, magical chess games, toxic potions, twisted initiation rituals and an enchanted book, so it has a lot to offer.  It is perfect reading material as we head into the dark season and it will keep you company as the nights begin to draw in. Happy reading!

Serene Blessings

Marie x

AD: This book was sent to me by the publisher, Titan, for the purposes of review. It was released on September 2nd 2025 and is available in hardcover, digital and audio formats. 

ONCE UPON A DREAM: Happy Birthday, My Love!

 Enjoy your special day, my love...

Think of me when you cultivate your orchids - 

I'll imagine you chopping wood!

Love always,

Marie

xxx

BOOK NOOK: My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

 "I came to Oxford looking for a Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience. I chose to experience a lifetime."

I'm not usually someone who suffers from the fear of missing out, but as University season rolls around once more, I find myself feeling quite nostalgic for the scholarly life, having completed my own studies at the end of last year - for the time being at least.  So it was with a sense of reminiscence that I picked up this novel which is set at Oxford University. 

My Oxford Year starts off well, as the main protagonist, an American named Ella, arrives at Oxford University ready for her studies. She has a political job all lined up to return to in America, and meanwhile she is full of excitement about having the chance to spend a year studying the great authors and poets of English Literature at her dream university.  Then she meets Jamie Davenport, handsome eligible bachelor and her new poetry professor. 

To begin with this book has all the usual vibes of the sexy professor trope, which is one of my favourite tropes in both dark and light academia novels, although sadly it's less of a thing in real life universities - believe me, I looked for a sexy professor, but alas, in almost a decade of studying, there were no sexy professors to be seen - not a sausage! I was deeply disappointed.  Fortunately there will always be a sexy professor to be found in the pages of a book and this one is no exception. 

After a rather shaky start, Ella and Jamie find that they have much in common. They enjoy word-sparring on various aspects of history, poetry and literature. They both have a deep love of words, exploring the meaning that we give to them, how we use and abuse them for our own purposes and how words once written centuries ago can still speak to people in the modern world. 

He reads poetry to her, they exchange ideas and opinions and their mutual high regard for romantic literature soon spills out from the page and into their lives. In the course of this student/professor word-play sparks begin to fly between them and they fall into a relationship that neither of them planned and which is inconvenient to both of them.  Ella goes along with it against her better judgement, and who can blame her? A man who writes and reads poetry to me would capture my heart forever! 

The book takes a darker turn when Ella realises that Jamie is keeping something from her. She suspects that he is cheating, but the truth is far worse. What do you do when you've finally found the love of your life only to learn that they will be snatched away from you again? How do you even begin to start letting them go, when all you want to do is pull them in closer and hold onto them forever? Can you ever really get over someone you have had the meeting of the minds with? I don't think that you can, because everything else seems dull and performative by comparison, and personally, I would never want to. 

My Oxford Year starts off light and lovely, but it soon becomes a much more sombre read. It is a beautiful love story and well worth reading. It teaches that love is always unexpected and it may not look as you hoped it would, but that its worth the heartache just to be with your one true love, for however long you have together. It reminds us that love is a beautiful thing, no matter what the circumstances. It is quite a sad book, yet at the same time it is very hopeful too. 

This story has also been made into a film available on Netflix, so if reading isn't your thing, you might prefer to watch that instead. 

Enjoy, but have the tissues at the ready!

Marie x

AD: This book is published by Harper Collins and is available now in all formats.

 

ONCE UPON A DREAM: Soft Girl vs PTSD

"Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I rise."

Maya Angelou

Living with any kind of post traumatic stress is always going to be an uphill, possibly lifelong battle and because PTSD is an invisible illness, most people you encounter won't even be aware of your struggles.  They won't know, for instance, that aggression is a part of the condition, that amnesia is a daily occurrence, that random temper tantrums and sudden outbursts, seemingly for no reason, are one of the symptoms, or that being triggered so easily is both embarrassing and often frightening for you, even more than it is for them.  They will just label you as a stroppy cow, someone they can't be bothered with and they will give up and walk away. They may not be aware that PTSD is cumulative, meaning that it never truly goes away - it simply explodes to the surface of your personality with the next traumatic event or stressful period in your life. 

Last year was particularly challenging for me in terms of physical healing after the riding accident, but the first half of this year was even more difficult. Back in January the flashbacks of the accident and the hospital began in earnest. They continued throughout the spring and into early summer, as my mind forced me to recall all the grisly details of the fall and what happened at the hospital. I relived those events in flashbacks every single day for over six months and it seemed as if the accident had set me right back to square one in terms of living with traumatic stress. It didn't help that I also had a couple of books to write, plus the final piece of work I was doing for my course at Oxford University. A stressful timetable opens the door for PTSD to come right on in. 

Obviously, this had an impact on my mood and its fair to say that my fuse was quite short for a while! After all, I am the rose and the thistle combined. I am soft and prickly all at once. I remember snapping at people, snarling when I felt they were getting too close for comfort, because the fact is PTSD makes you hyper-sensitive to even the slightest touch or good humoured jest. It all feels very much like a threat.

Being constantly reactive to such perceived threats is exhausting. I slept a lot. I cried buckets of tears. I felt confused, hopeless and completely abandoned. I was probably extremely difficult to be around back then and it does take a very strong individual to stick with you when you're going through the endless cycles of flashbacks and tantrums! Most people give up, move on and leave you to it. I don't blame them. I often wish I could give up and move on from myself, but I can't. I just have to try and live with it all as best I can. 

What I find most disorienting is that the PTSD symptoms are the complete opposite of my natural personality. While I will always have the feistiness of a Bruce, I am not an aggressive person by nature.  My true personality is loving and kind, soft and gentle, quiet and introspective, dreamy and creative. That's not who people see though. All they see is a woman who flies off the handle without warning. I'm like Taylor Swift's Mad Woman, but as the song suggests, it is life that makes me this way sometimes - it is not who I am at my core.  

Those who know me, know that I'm just a soft girl at heart, so when the PTSD symptoms rear their ugly head, there is an invisible, internal war going on inside me as the PTSD and the Soft Girl battle it out for supremacy! It's not fun. Not for me or for anyone involved.  Often, I don't know that the trauma is in charge of a conversation until later, after I've calmed down again. Then I will think to myself "Oh, I was speaking from my wounds just then," or "Oh yes, I was projecting my trauma onto that person. I wish I'd not done that." or "Oh, I pushed them away because I was scared to trust and get close. Now they must hate me". The problem is that by the time I realise this, the person I was talking to has usually gone off in a strop of their own and so things never really get resolved. 

Over the years of living with traumatic stress I have learnt to ask for time and space when I need it. I do this knowing full well that some people will never have what it takes to come back into my life and that's okay. It is my trauma, not theirs and they should not have to deal with it if they don't want to. As a soft woman, I understand this, but it does not make me feel any less abandoned.  

Most folk run for the hills at the first opportunity, never to be seen again. Yes, I can be that scary when triggered! I can be a complete monster, say hateful things, lash out - anything to remove the perceived threat from my life so that I can try to feel safe again. There is safety in solitude after all. If there's no-one around there's no-one to hurt you.  Yet, all I really need is a soft voice to soothe me and a gentle, understanding approach, but we don't live in an understanding world. It can be a very harsh world, and that in itself can be another trigger.

Of course, I don't expect anyone else to fix me. I don't need fixing. I am not broken. I'm strong and determined, ambitious and achieving, loyal and loving - I'm just a bit hypervigilant and perhaps too ready to do battle, too much of a feisty Scottish thistle and not enough of the softer English rose maybe.  Sometimes I just need a bit of space from others so that I can work through the latest round of flashbacks and trauma at my own pace, without feeling threatened by the presence of another person, without trying to figure out what they need from me or who they expect me to be for them.  

Time and space, patience and understanding - these are what bring me down from the ledge. These are the things that defeat the PTSD and bring out my softer side.  It's a bit like playing hide and seek. When the trauma is large and in charge, I need to hide myself away until I have it back under control. Then, once my softer side is in control once more, I feel like I am peeking out at the world and calling "Come out, come out wherever you are!"  Some will answer, most will not, but that depends on whether they are strong enough to handle me or not! The ones who answer, those who have been quietly waiting in my corner all along - those are friends for keeps, the ride or die type. Those are the ones I will learn to trust and want in my life. As for the rest - I understand and I let them go with love. That's really all you can do. 

There are other things that help to pull me out of a traumatised funk too. Spending time in nature or with happy, healthy animals is so good for me. The love and affection of animals never feels threatening and they are a very therapeutic presence, so I like to go and visit the llamas, ponies and goats at the local stately home, feeding them and enjoying the innocence of their energy. Animals always bring out my softer side. 

Unexpected moments of joy also help to dispel the belief that the world is full of people to fear and distrust. For instance, just recently my editor sent me a beautiful framed print of The Empress tarot card in Art Nouveau style, along with a lovely handwritten letter. It arrived through the letterbox one Saturday morning and I was both surprised and delighted by it. It was such a kind thought and it is always nice to receive a good old fashioned letter in the post. It cheered me up no end.  

Music also helps and films too. This summer I have been to see Brad Pitt's F1 film three times! It's so good and it is nice to hide in the darkness of the cinema, allowing a story to unfold in front of you. No effort, no stress - just the comfort of ice-cream and a familiar face on the big screen, making me smile.  Of course, my writing is a great comfort to me at all times in my life, whatever my mood.  Right now I am working on my next card deck and the deadline is at the end of this month, so it is a pretty busy August. It helps to keep my mind happy and gives me a positive focus. When I am writing I am in another world, so my softer side comes to the fore because I am in one of my happy places. It is safe to say that right now and for the time being, my Soft Girl has won the battle and she is firmly back in control! 

Perhaps the most important weapons in the war between PTSD and the Soft Girl are self-compassion and self-love. When the trauma induced tantrums and outbursts have scared everyone away, you have to learn to love and be there for yourself, because most people simply do not have the courage to be around you. They'd rather poke the bear and call you a mad woman. They are not strong enough to offer you the gentle, loving support you need, you have to do that for yourself. 

Of course, there is a certain resilient strength in that softness. There may be a world full of scary people out there, but so long as you keep the hidden, broken pieces of your heart soft, loving and kind, healing is always possible.  Bones mend, cuts heal, bruises fade - and so does trauma, eventually. Until then be kind to yourself and try to be soft with others. It isn't easy to come back into softness when you're triggered, it isn't easy to speak from your heart instead of from your wounds, but your softer side is the strongest part of you.  One day you will find the person who courageously waits out the PTSD tantrum and then coaxes your Soft Girl out to play instead, offering safety, peace and fun in place of trauma and stress.  And that's a friend for life! 

Serene Blessings

Marie x

BOOK NOOK: Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

"She had grown up drinking Courage Tea and the effects of that brew had lasted. When the bracelets came off, blue marks circled her wrists, and where the skin had been pinched for so long there were deep indentations in her flesh. 

She would have these marks all her life, and they would serve to remind her of what some people were willing to do for what they told themselves was love." 

Some authors have a voice so familiar it feels like meeting up with an old friend and enjoying a reunion right there upon the page.  Alice Hoffman is one such author for me. I love diving into her world of witches and witchery via the Practical Magic series of novels, and as we still have some time to go until the Practical Magic 2 film is released, I have been reading the prequel to the series instead.

Magic Lessons is the story of Maria Owens, the witch who cast the curse against love and the one who started it all. The novel begins in 1664 when she is discovered as a foundling child, a tiny babe wrapped in a blue blanket, abandoned on a cold January day. She is found by the wise woman, Hannah, a healer who trades natural remedies for payment in kind and who lives a quiet life on the edge of the woods.  However, it soon becomes clear to Hannah that baby Maria is no ordinary child. The wildlife is drawn to her, silver turns black as soon as she touches it, and she can call a flower to bloom with a kind word or two. Then she draws in her familiar, a black crow who will not leave her side and who is eventually named Cadin. All this leaves Hannah believing that young Maria is a natural witch, one who is skilled in the art of spellcraft and magic. 

As Maria grows up, her powers become stronger, more extraordinary and difficult to hide. The witch hunts are in full swing across England and Scotland and it is only a matter of time before Maria's gifts draw the wrong kind of attention.  For Hannah, this is a day that comes all too soon and she sends Maria to the coast, bidding her to take a ship and flee to America.  And so Maria's life truly begins, shaped by injustice, horror and prejudice. She is a young girl, forced to grow up too soon, but she makes the best of things and soon finds a place for herself in the world. 

Prequels can often be tricky to pull off, but this one is like a gentle whisper from the past, where the Maria we know from the gallows, whose hanging rope snaps and saves her life, is brought out into the open and given a voice that is entirely her own. Practical Magic is one of my favourite films - I actually prefer the film to the book -  and Magic Lessons gives a whole new background to that story.  Here we discover what led Maria to the gallows in the first place and why she felt the need to cast a curse on any man who dared to love an Owens woman.  While a knowledge of Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman would be useful, this novel is complete in itself and you do not need to have read the other books in the series to enjoy this prequel.  Then again, it's also the perfect excuse to re-watch the fabulous film, before you read this story!

Magic Lessons is a lovely novel, the language is lyrical and dreamy as Hoffman casts her spell upon readers. There are a few surprises, a couple of the most adorable familiars, lots of romance and as the title would suggest, some important lessons in magic are learnt and digested, for good or ill.  If you enjoy witchy novels, or you are a fan of the original book or movie, then you will probably like this beautifully written prequel to the series. Enjoy - and remember to fall in love whenever you can!

Serene Blessings

Marie x

AD: Magic Lessons is published by Scribner UK and is out now in all formats.