The Cursed Rose

by Leslie Vedder Narrated by Lindsey Dorcus

Overview

The fate of a cursed kingdom rests on ancient secrets, broken promises, and fierce friendships in this gasp-worthy final book of the bestselling twisted fairytale Bone Spindle series.

**Perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson, Holly Black, and Marissa Meyer**

Not all curses should be broken. Not all fairytales end happily ever after.

Fi is a prisoner. Briar, a monster. Shane's a warrior. And Red is a traitor. What was once a formidable group of four fighting to reawaken the kingdom is now ruptured, torn apart by the wicked Spindle Witch. 

Confined to a tower with the monstrous Briar Rose, Fi is caught in the Spindle Witch's ever-tightening web. With the Spindle Witch on the verge of finding the Siphoning Spells and crushing Andar-with Fi's help, no less-Fi's only hope lies in decoding the ancient riddle of the Rose Witches before she loses Briar forever. 

Shane is desperate to save Andar-and her partner. She's on the hunt for a weapon left by the mysterious Lord of the Butterflies, which holds the key to the Spindle Witch's demise. Her love for Red has only fortified. But Red's betrayal puts her in danger from a new enemy-the Spindle Witch's executioner, the Wraith, a witch as powerful as he is cruel.

The future of Andar lies in the secrets of its past. Fi and Shane must take on the greatest lost ruin of them all-the Tomb of Queen Aurora. 

Filled with vicious bone monsters, new alliances, and surprises at every turn, prepare to be swept away by this taut, clever, and heart-filled series conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

2023-11-04
Treasure hunters Filore and Shane must stop an evil witch and save an enchanted kingdom in the third installment of their fairy-tale adventure.

Left separated and temporarily defeated at the end of The Severed Thread (2023), tan-skinned, dark-haired Fi and Shane (who’s white) must now gather their friends and allies to fight for their happily-ever-afters. Readers who have been following the series will be excited about all the threads that are finally tied off, such as the history of the spooky, enigmatic Spindle Witch and the fate of Filore and her Butterfly Curse. As in the first two installments, the well-paced prose is emotionally evocative and painterly. The author weaves together magic and romance in an action-filled plot and populates the book with characters who are distinctive, likable, and competent. One unusual characteristic of this trilogy is the fact that the three volumes feel much like one very long book: The first two lacked satisfying conclusions, and this third one reads like an ending without a beginning. Now that all the books are out, readers who want to join Fi and Shane on their gender-swapped “Sleeping Beauty”–inspired journey can do so from beginning to end, enjoying the full story arc.

A satisfying close to a magical trilogy. (Fantasy. 12-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159984982
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	02/06/2024
Series:	The Bone Spindle , #3
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Fi honestly didn’t know what she had expected, but it wasn’t this. It looked like a child’s ­room—​­or at least a prison that had held a child. There was a small, ­half-​­sized bed in a metal frame crowned with polished knobs and a tattered blanket that looked more like a spiderweb. On the pillow lay a twisted burlap sack in the shape of a doll, with large button eyes and a jagged smile that had clearly been cut and resewn. There was also some kind of pattern or writing on the wall, low to the ground.
Fi knelt to get a better look. It wasn’t a message at all. Instead, Fi ran her fingers across childlike drawings carved into the stone. Crosshatches and grooves showed where careless little hands had scraped something dull and metal over and over into the hard rock.
There was nothing special about the pictures themselves. They were just like the ones Fi had scratched into the dirt with sticks, mostly rabbits and dogs and other animals, but there were hundreds of them, painstakingly scored into the stone line by line. Fi’s stomach did a little ­flip-​­flop as she thought of the monster born in the shape of a girl, locked in a tower. How many figures were carved into the ­walls—​­hundreds? How many years would it have taken a lonely child to carve them? And could it really have been the Spindle Witch?
Fi traced a crow with an ­over-​­wide smile and then stood up with a shiver. She didn’t have forever to look around. A spinning wheel sat by a large open window so tall Fi thought she could stand upright in the frame. Beneath it lay a basket brimming with tangles of gold, which Fi assumed was unspun thread. There was an armoire on the other side of the room, and next to it a vanity with a tall rectangular mirror.
She headed to the armoire but was distracted by the movement of her fractured reflection in the mirror. The glass was scarred by long cracks that ran its entire length, splintering her image into an unsettling patchwork. Her broken reflection turned with her as she moved toward the vanity.
Only three things sat on the smooth surface: a little dish stained the deep red of the Spindle Witch’s lips, an ancient brush with a tarnished silver handle, and a gleaming pair of scissors. There was something important here, Fi thought, her hand hovering over the scissors. This was a clue, and her brain was desperately trying to put it together.
She reached up to tug on her ear, distracted. Dread slithered through the pit of her stomach, a foreboding feeling she couldn’t place until she realized that her reflection hadn’t moved when she did.
Fi’s head shot up. Her reflection was gone, and there was someone else in the mirror.
A figure with dark brown hair that fell around him like a tangle of spider threads sat on the other side of the vanity. He reached out, almost as though his hand would stretch through the fractured glass. "You have something of mine," he whispered. A strange smile twisted his lips as he lifted his face just enough for her to make out his features. One deep green eye fixed on her, the other closed under a crisscross of scars marring his tan face.
Fi leapt back, adrenaline pounding through her veins. Something of his? Even as fear prickled her skin, her mind was whirring. The man inside the ­mirror—​­could it ­be. . .?
Then, all at once, the man surged forward, his long hair wild, his face so close his ­scratched-​­out eye reflected in every crack of the broken mirror.
"Get out," he warned, his expression dark and sinister.
Fi felt as though those words had knocked the breath out of her. She stumbled back.
"Get out!" the man said again, and this time something slammed into her, like a gust of wind that hurled her backward.
A gasp ripped from her throat as she plunged toward the ­wide-​­open window. She tripped over the basket, and the backs of her knees hit the edge of the rough stone sill. She made one last desperate effort to catch herself, grabbing at the edge of the window as her back arced over the dizzying drop. The high wind whipped at her hair, and she felt like a thread as thin as the one from her dream was all that held her up.
The last thing she saw was the ­dark-​­haired man smiling in the broken mirror. Then she felt phantom hands on her shoulders, shoving her out of the tower into the empty air.

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