Thursday, March 24, 2011

REVIEW: Spinning Gold by C. Margery Kempe

Spinning Gold is a Naughty Nibble (short story) from Noble Romance Publishing that presents a gender-bending take on the story of Rumpelstiltskin. Both erotic and amusing, it’s a quick but delightful read.

Like the miller’s girl in the original tale, Freawine is the finest in the land at spinning the coarsest wool into the finest thread. Her talents have made her the target of envy, which only helps to further isolate her from the other girls in the village. What truly keeps her one step removed, however, is the fact that ‘she’ is actually a ‘he’. In order to protect him from being sent off to war, Freawine’s mother disguised him as a girl at birth, and taught him to act the part.

When his father’s drunken boasting puts him in a dangerous predicament, Freawine must not only worry about doing the impossible (spinning straw into gold), but the improbable (hiding his true gender from the Prince) as well. As in the original story, a magical little man appears to help make the impossible possible. The price he demands for each night labour is greater than the night before, until he demands the impossible – the first child born of Freawine’s union with the Prince – and the young spinner agrees.

Just how the story twists from there is a delight I’ll leave you to discover for yourself. It’s not quite what you would expect, but it is so entirely satisfying.

A fairy tale with a very happy ending, this is a story that’s sweet, funny, and tastefully erotic. When all is said and done, it’s the kind of story that just makes you smile in delight. I quite enjoyed it, and will certainly seek out more of Ms. Kempe's work.

1 comment:

  1. Oh you most definitely have me intrigued by that little twisty bit....

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