Fallen Beauty by Astrid Scholte
Read by Chase Brown and Rachel L. Jacobs
Publication Date: November 3, 2026
Summary from Netgalley:
A HAUNTING, WINTERY TALE OF ART, OBSESSION, AND THE PRICE OF LOVE.
Eighteen-year-old Thorelea Winyard has been a prisoner her entire life, forced to paint dead animals pushed into her cell. She dreams of the world outside her tower and everything she’s been denied. When one of her subjects comes back to life, Thorelea is thrust into a royal court where she can have anything she desires—aside from her freedom.
Here, she learns that the king and queen have ruled for centuries; their immortality is gifted through the power of their court painter, who dutifully updates their magical portraits. It is also here that she meets the sole other mortal of the court: Prince Kelter. Desperate to become immortal so he can join the ranks of the battalion waging war against a neighboring kingdom, he offers her a deal. Thorelea will paint the portrait Prince Kelter has been denied by his parents, and he will help her escape from the ruthless royal court.
They meet each night in secret. As they grow closer, they must face the monstrous realities of Thorelea’s powers. Will she be forced to choose between her heart and her freedom?
ALC provided by MacMillan Audio via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
Fallen Beauty was an enchanting, yet dark, fantasy. I loved the fairy tale feel to the story as well as the gothic atmosphere. The world building was vivid and lush and draws you in almost immediately. This is a world filled with obsessions, impossible choices and a magic that has a very high cost.
Both Chase Brown and Rachel L. Jacobs did an excellent job with the narration. Their voices were perfect for their characters and they both did a great job with conveying all of the emotions these two characters went through. They also both did a wonderful job voicing the other characters in the story with distinct voices and sometimes accents for all of them.
Both Thorelia and Kelter were great main characters. Both are strong willed and determined to do what is right. Their relationship grew over the course of the book, although there was of course an initial attraction on both sides. Thorelia was less naive about the world than I would have expected, as she was secluded most of her life in the tower. But she is a smart young lady that could adapt quickly whenever new information was presented to her. Kelter was of course the more worldly character, but he has anger issues, which given his upbringing is not too surprising. Still I liked both of them as characters and could get behind them easily. I wasn’t totally invested in their relationship though, they just didn’t quite work as a couple for me.
This was more of a plot driven story than a character one. The story is full of secrets and high stakes that are slowly revealed over the course of the book. There are a lot of themes presented, such as an exploration of greed, how history can be manipulated by those in power, immortality, and obsession. The villains of the story were despicable and greedy and would do anything to stay in power. The power of Thorelia’s painting giving immortality to those she paints was well done and an interesting aspect to the story.
As much as I enjoyed this one, I do feel that the story tried to do too much. This might have worked better as a duology, which would have given the characters more time to fully develop. There were other plot points that were sort of glossed over that would have benefitted from more details. This was definitely a story that you end up just going along with instead of thinking too hard about it. But that wasn’t a bad thing, as it was still an enjoyable story.
If you are looking for a dark fairy tale with characters that you can root for, this is one you should add to your TBR. There is an interesting magical aspect to the story and the writing is beautiful and vivid.
