Fate Be Changed by Farrah Rochon Series: A Twisted Tale #17
Published by Disney Publishing Worldwide on April 2, 2024
Genres: JUVENILE FICTION / General, Young Adult Fiction / Fairy Tales & Folklore / Adaptations, Young Adult Fiction / Romance / Clean & Wholesome, Young Adult Fiction / Royalty
Pages: 464
Format: Hardcover
Source: Bookstore
What if the witch gave Merida a different spell? This New York Times best-selling series twists Disney*Pixar's Brave into a fast-paced story in which Merida is sent back in time.
If you could change your fate, would you? Merida understands that as princess of Clan DunBroch, she has certain obligations--but that doesn't mean she has to like it. Especially when one of those obligations means losing her freedom by becoming betrothed to a man she has never met. Merida balks at this tradition, but her mother Queen Elinor insists that Merida must do this to embrace her role as future queen.
Determined to chart her own path, Merida follows magical wisps to a witch's cottage, where she is given a magic pastry and promised it will incite "a great transformation" in her mother. But instead of feeding Elinor the pastry, Merida eats it herself.
Merida awakens in the past, a now-teenage Elinor holding a knife to her throat and accusing her of espionage. She's been transported to a time when the Clans MacCameron and DunBroch are bitter enemies. And it just so happens that the timing of Merida's arrival has kept Elinor and Fergus from meeting.
Will Merida be able to bridge the rival clans, help her parents fall in love, and change her own fate?
My Review
Before starting this post, I must ask Reader if you are a Disney fan. If you are a fan then what movies or stories do you like best? As a kid who grew up with Disney movies, I love many of them, but there are some that come to mind rather quickly for me. My favorite ones are Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, Brave, and anything Winnie The Pooh. With that being said, you can imagine how excited I was to see Disney put out a new series known as A Twisted Tale Series. I own three of them, and I am sure you have already guessed it has to do with the movies I mentioned above, and Reader, you would be right. I own the one for Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland and Brave. Have you heard of this new series? I recently read the one based on Brave and loved it. Let me tell you a bit about it.
In the movie Brave, we follow a young princess named Merida, who is obsessed with archery. Obviously, she lives in a castle. I mean, what princess doesn’t? She lives in Scotland with her mother, father, and her three younger brothers. Did I mention that the three are identical? Like any good kingdom of the time, she is promised to be wed to another clan in order to keep peace among the clan members. Whoever wins the tournament that her father puts on each year will win her hand in marriage. I should say that Merida is not your typical princess, and she has absolutely no interest in marrying. She wants to live her life on her own terms. There is a bit of hope, though, because she is the one who gets to choose the final game, the one in which her groom will be determined. Merida decides that the final game will be archery. She does this because the oldest sibling is allowed to participate, and well, that would be her. Merida decides she is going to play for her own hand. Consequences be damned. Reader, as you can imagine, this does not go over well with her mother, the queen, and a fight between the two ensues, resulting in the queen turning into a literal bear. Now, if you haven’t seen the movie and want to know more, then I seriously urge you to watch it because it is so good.
Fate Be Changed picks up right at the scene after Merida competes for her own hand in the movie. Again, if you haven’t watched the movie, I urge you to do so because this book will be so much more enjoyable if you have, and it will make more sense. The fight between mother and daughter goes very much the same in the book as it does in the movie, ending with Merida finding the Witch in the woods. This time, however, she does not give the cake to her mother because she realizes that the tradition of her needing to marry will still remain. She comes to the realization instead that if she wants any authority over her own life, then it is not her mother who needs to change; it is herself. This, my friend, is where the twist comes into the story, and let me just say I was there for it. Merida eats the cake.
At first, Merida did not feel any different, but it did not take long for things to change dramatically for this princess. She passes out in the woods, and when she comes to again, she is somehow in the past with a knife shoved in her face. The shocker is that the knife holder is the teenage version of her mother, Elinor. Can you imagine waking to your teenage mother holding a knife to your face? YIKES! I love that Merida is sent back in time to when her mother was Merida’s age. Seriously though, why is her mom holding this knife, and how on earth is Merida supposed to return to her own timeline? Merida’s arrival at this time has changed the meeting of her parents, but does that mean it has also changed their love story? Rather than Elinor rescuing Fergus, she is dealing with Merida, a stranger she has found in the woods who doesn’t seem exactly right. Merida’s arrival has changed the course of history. No pressure to make it right again (she says with sarcasm).
In A Fate Be Changed, we follow Merida as she tries to navigate her leap back in time. We discover that Elinor and Merida are more alike than one would gather from the movie Brave. This does not change the fact that Merida now needs to bring her parents together. The problem is that Elinor can not seem to stomach Fergus and his arrogance. Not to mention the minor fact that someone may be trying to kill the king or that Elinor is trying to escape the dreaded fate of her upcoming marriage to a man who isn’t Merida’s father. Did I mention the slight inconvenience of Merida possibly turning into a bear, being stuck in this new timeline as such, and not being able to find the skilled witch who sent her back in time to begin with? I should say that when Merida finds the witch, she is not at all what Merida was expecting. Too much is at stake if Merida is not able to set things back on track. The job seems overwhelming and hopeless, as one can imagine it would be. I am including this quote from page 212 because I think it fits so well “There are no insignificant people in this world, Merida. We all have our place and play our parts. One person’s actions affect another, and another, and another”.
I enjoyed watching Merida discover who Elinor and Fergus were before they became her parents. I also like the friendships that she forged with them. If it had only been a different time, I believe they would have become very good friends. I also have to say that Merida is one of my favorite Disney characters, with all of her determination and knowing what she wants and doesn’t want. If I am being honest, this story just made me love her even more. Reader, if you are looking for a fast-paced retelling based in Scotland, then I think you will be pleased with this book. If you want a time travel retelling with strong female characters, then give this one a go. If you love Disney and the movie Brave, then please pick this story up because I do not think you will be disappointed. Have you read any of the books in A Twisted Tale Series? If so, what have you read? Oh, and I would be interested to know what is your favorite Disney story or Disney character. Until Next Time, Reader, Happy Reading.