I didn't really enjoy this book. It didn't make sense after the movie. Merida needs her entire family to change? Her mom went through a huge change in the movie, she doesn't need to change more! I feel like the moral was that change was better than accepting yourself. Merida made bad choices and the story didn't follow a cohesive storyline. It felt like the whole time she was flying by the seat of her pants. The final judge made no sense, because it was not an unbiased party. The final fight/climax made absolutely no sense, as it was not part of the plot until near the end. The romance plot was very lackluster and didn't feel natural.

brave is probably my favourite disney movie, at least out of the ones that came out when i was more adult than child. i was very excited for this book, though i've had mixed luck with the author. it sounded great though. the beginning and end were good, but the middle was a bit too slow for me and i really lost steam. overall the writing is much younger than i expected (i know it's YA). unfortunately even though i really wanted it to, it just didn't work for me.

This book was so beautifully written! I’m always skeptical of these kinds of books because there’s always a chance that the author will ruin the character or just go in a direction that I’m not fond of. This book, however, kept the wholesome and loving feeling that the movie contained. I was gripped by just the writing style alone and that was a huge reason that I kept reading. The story is great, but it wasn’t one that would’ve been good enough to hook me in, though.

In the movie Brave, we see Merida mature and realize so many new things about herself and her family that makes her appreciate and love them. In this, we see her mature even further and understand that other people have a different way of life than her and different goals. I think a lot of stories have a hero that is so dominant that their way is the right way so it’s so refreshing to see her accept the fact that not everyone wants her easygoing and adventurous lifestyle. She’s so mature in acknowledging that, while she thinks they’re crazy, she loves them enough to understand that it’s their choice. I absolutely love her!

We also got more secrets into the royal family of DunBroch that I’m pretty sure (if I heard correctly) is canon in the Disney universe. I don’t want to spoil anything for you guys but what you learn will definitely help you better understand the characters that we met in the movie! The author did such a great job incorporating new aspects of this world into the existing one we’re familiar with. She kept the feel of the story while adding her own bit of talent to it and I just admire it so much. I may start looking into the other books she’s written because my interest is piqued!

“There are two kinds of people. There are people who seek magic, and people the magic seeks. Which are you?”
Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for my advanced readers copy of Bravely.

I would like to start off this review by saying the ending of this book was amazing. However, let’s start with the beginning. I loved the writing at the beginning book, with its poetic style. I loved learning about the Gods in the story and DunBroch’s traditions, celebrations, and games. The beginning of the book was so engaging; I couldn’t put it down.
Merida’s adventure starts with her making a bargain with the Gods for herself and her family. I had a hard time feeling connected to Merida as a character, but it was easy to see her passion for her family. Which is the whole focus of the story, love and family. I loved that Merida’s brothers were older in the book. It was so cool to see them have more personality and differences from each other than what you see in the movie Brave.
I only have two critiques towards the book. The very beginning and the ending had more of a poetic writing style, which I adore, than the rest of the book. The writing was still good, but I just missed that lyrical writing you usually see from Maggie Stiefvater. My other critique is that when Merida made her travels to the other kingdoms, the story seemed to drag. Which isn’t terrible, I just preferred the scenes when Merida was speaking to her brothers or the Gods.
Speaking of the Gods, one of them was the best character in this book. Feradach, the god of ruin, was a wonderful character. I would read a whole book just about him. I don’t want to give too much away, but his and Merida’s relationship from enemies to friends was enchanting to read about. You could see the change happening between them whenever they were around each other.
Overall this was such a good read. I would recommend it to everyone, especially is you liked the movie Brave and like learning about other cultures. This book was filled with DunBroch’s legends and celebrations. Thank you to Maggie for writing this book, it was truly captivating.

There are just some writers where, regardless the topic and genre, they will always speak to you. For me, one of those writers is Maggie Stiefvater.

Bravely, positioned as a sequel to the Disney/Pixar movie Brave, takes place several years after the adventures of Brave. Merida has spent some time traveling and has returned to DunBroch only to find herself bargaining with two gods intent on restoring balance to the world at the potential expense of DunBroch and Merida’s family.

Merida must bring change to the hearts of her family in order to prove to the god of ruin that her family is worth saving. But what happens when she begins to question whether or not all ruin is bad? Is all change good change?

It took me until about half way to get into this book but after that point I was riveted. Maggie has a way of building and building character development until all of a sudden you are hit with some big character revelation you never saw coming. The magic of Maggie’s words is always there lurking, waiting to astound you.

The romance in particular snuck up on me and all of a sudden I was crying. This book is about balance and love and change and growth and it’s astonishingly beautiful in a way only Maggie could make it. You could tell she had the best time nerding out on a Celtic mythology and culture and I love that for her and us.

I did rewatch the movie before I read this. I don’t think it’s necessary as the book does begin several years after the events of the movie but it definitely informs the relationships that show up in the book and while not necessary does enhance the experience.

A beautiful and thought provoking sequel and lovely as its movie predecessor.

Thank you so much to Disney Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What an enjoyable book! This book takes place after the Disney movie. It's great to see Merida doesn't lose her spark. Magical trials seem to find Merida wherever she goes, so another one at home makes sense. Old Gods, triplet brothers, a Christmas wedding; what could possibly go wrong? Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

'Bravely' by Maggie Stiefvater might just be the sleeper hit of the year for me. I certainly loved the original Disney film and its fiery princess, but as this was my first full Steifvater novel.. I wasn't prepared for the depths I was about to slip into.

It isn't that the story starts off slowly per se, so much as.. it seems innocuous enough at the beginning. The time spent setting up focuses on the connection to the original tale as well as a sort of.. update as to where things stand now. We're given ample time to reacquaint ourselves with the family and their way of life.. to get used to the mostly content.. if somewhat lackadaisical existence they've meted out for themselves. Our princess however, is restless as ever.

When the threat makes itself apparent, it comes softly.. on hushed steps muffled by the gauzy cocoon of winter.. and that's really the elegance of the story. Throughout, as motives and histories are revealed, each revelation is delivered with precision.. yet it doesn't boom. It simply falls delicately into place like the snow.

As the story progresses, the pace definitely increases as well. Time is running out for Merida to accomplish her task and the beat of the writing is an undercurrent driving us along like the pounding of a heart struggling not to fail.

Ultimately, I became deeply invested in the characters Stiefvater brought to life. Not just Merida and her family, who are at once both flawed and wonderfully wholesome.. but also in Feradach and the machinations of the Cailleach.

I love that the author doesn't shy away from tragedy. This story is equal parts hope and dread.. misfortune and blessing. The balance constantly trying to right itself, which is actually perfect for the tale it has to tell.

Bravely is a Young Adult fantasy by author Maggie Stiefvater. This takes place after the events of the Disney movie Brave. Merida is back from traveling and finds comfort in the familiarity of her home of DunBroch. However, the lack of change has made DunBorch a target for a god of ruin, Feradach, and she's determines to stop him. She makes a bargain between Feradach and the god Cailleach, a god of new beginnings. Merida has a year to change DunBroch and her family for the greater good, while Feradach shows her why what he does is essential.

Merida is a strong-willed, passionate, caring and loyal. She is supportive of her family members changing and growing into who they are ment to be, even if it's not the path she wanted for them. I loved the different relationships she had with each member of her family. I enjoyed the repertoire she built with the god Feradach, as she helped him remember the good of humanity and he showed her the positive that can blossom from lose. By the end it turns into a romance, but I'll be honest it seemed unnecessary, I know, shocking coming from a romance addict . I really didn't feel romantic love between the characters but **shrug** maybe I missed something lol

Bravely was an enchanting story filled with magic, tricky gods, legends, and humanity. Merida is one of my favorite Disney princesses and it was lovely to see her come to life in a new adventure. It ends on a note of hope for a potential HEA for Merida's future, and fingers crossed that that means we might get another book in the future.

3.5 stars rounded to 4

I read the authors previous books and loved. Was hoping to love this one but ended up putting it off to the side for now. Might revisit later

Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater is a continuation of Merida's story from the movie Brave, and one that I was so, so excited for. Brave is one of my favorite Pixar movies, and I adored Merida as a protagonist, so I could not wait to see her shine in her own novel. I’ll be honest, though, I wasn’t entirely sure what this was going to be about before reading. As soon as I saw Maggie Stiefvater was writing a story about Merida, I immediately hit that request button, because what could be better than that?

This story is beautifully written in Stiefvater's familiar verse, which suits a fairytale setting so well. There was a lot of intrigue and mystery surrounding the story, and I couldn't help but search for answers at every turn. There’s also a lot to unpack in this book. Merida is tasked with changing all of DunBroch within a year, which is not a simple task. But the more everything changes, the more unsettled she becomes. Merida’s character was particularly interesting in this continuation. She was so focused on changing everyone and everything around her that she never really stopped to examine herself and how she could evolve and grow.

Plot wise, the beginning and the ending of Bravely were my favorite parts. They were filled with action and completely engaging, and they had me turning and turning the page to find out what happened next. By the time I got to around 75% left in the book, I could no longer put it down. The only thing I’ll say is that the middle did drag a little. This was due to the pacing, which, while I feel was spectacular in the beginning and end, was a little off in the middle. A lot did happen, but it very much felt like, “we went to this place and did this, then we went to that place and did that.” Had the middle been interspersed with a little more action and transitioned from place to place more smoothly, I think the novel would have been even stronger.

As for the characters, I loved that we got more background information and personality types for Fergus, Hamish, Hubert, and Harris. The movie really focused on Merida and Elinor’s characters and their relationship, so sometimes it felt like Fergus and the triplets were less three-dimensional because of that. I feel like the triplets especially needed more development, and this novel gave it to them. I'm especially interested in Harris and would actually love for him to have his own continuation novel to answer some of the questions left unsaid about him. After one particular scene towards the end, I had so many questions and I still don’t feel like I have enough answers about it, so fingers crossed for that sequel!

The characters were all the same people from the movies, but they were definitely different, as well. I wish I'd gone in with a bit more separation from the novel and the movie, just because nothing will ever reach your expectations when you do that, but even so, I still really enjoyed it. If I do reread this one day (which I hope to, now that I know how to approach it), I’ll definitely try to separate the two a little more—kind of like I do with book to movie or tv adaptations.

Despite some of my issues with Bravely, I think this was an interesting and engaging story that really did read like a fairytale. Maggie Stiefvater’s writing so perfectly matched this project, and I really hope we get to see what else she can do with DunBroch in the future!

A seamless continuation of the Merida story. As one of those to whom magic is attracted, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that Merida once again finds herself embroiled in a magical trial, this time a contest between two gods, and if Merida fails it means the destruction of her home and family. So Merida must set out to change all of her family members, to push them from the stagnation that's set in and set them on a course to revitalize their castle and kingdom. In the meantime, Merida achieves some growth of her own, and even causes an ancient god to question himself and his role in the cycle of life. As always, Stiefvater's writing is magical in itself, pulling you in with her brilliant imagery, her voice full of wit and humor, and just enough darkness to make you appreciate the light that Merida brings. Although aimed at middle grade, her writing is complex enough to draw in all ages.

It took me about 1/4 of the book to get used to the author's style of writing. I am so glad that I stuck with the book though, because it was not what I was expecting but so much better! I have read a lot of the Disney spinoff books, but this was the first one I read that felt like it was geared towards adults. It was nice to have a more grown up princess and see her story further down the road. For those of us who were the same age as Merida when Brave came out, you will find a similarly aged kindred spirit in this book. The lore of Scotland was explored more and you can tell that the author put a lot of research into portraying this era correctly. This is a book whose thoughts will stick with you and I definitely accept it as canon. A sequel to this sequel would be great because that ending left me wanting more!

4 stars, but a five in my heart.
I'll admit, as a Brave superfan, my expectations for Bravely were incredibly high. Given that I knew how much I enjoyed the author's other books, this just made those expectations higher. However, I will say, Stiefvater somewhat struggles with writing female main characters. I found Merida not as exciting as her other counterparts in the story, and that made the story not quite as fantastic as I expected. The pacing here was a bit odd, focusing on the more boring bits for longer than the more interesting ones. As the author has written mythology-based stories before, I was a bit surprised by the somewhat lack of magic this writing had for me.

Did I dislike this book? Not at all. The ending is what makes me want to make this a 5 star read and throw my CAWPILE rating away. The book made me tear up more than once, and I was invested in the story. This book was truly a joy to read and if you are someone who loves the movie, I think you'll enjoy this continuation of Merida's story- especially if you wanted a bit more of the triplets than you got in the original movie.


as CAWPILE: Characters: 8 | Atmosphere: 9 | Writing: 7 | Plot: 8 | Intrigue: 9 | Logic: 9 | Enjoyment: 9

I don’t know what is going on but there have been so many angsty forbidden romances lately! Haha! I went into this completely blind and didn’t know what to expect. I was actually surprised to realize this had a romance in it, which I wasn’t expecting, for some odd reason.

This takes place a few years after Brave, the movie. Merida is kind of stuck and stagnant. The whole castle is and that’s the issue that needs to be resolved. She doesn’t know what she wants from life but keeps traveling around. Like most gods, here they come to cause some chaos.

This book is hard for me to review. I wanted to love it but I found myself really trying to push through and not DNF. The plot is so slow and takes forever to go anywhere. We take half the book to hit the first of 3 places. Then the next two places are so fast especially, the last. They spend a couple of pages there when it was chapters for the previous. I wanted to spend the most time there because it was the most fascinating!

My favorite part about this book was the romance. I am not going to say more because I don’t want to give too many things away. It’s just such a slow build and then becomes quite angsty. I think this was the most mature part of this book. The writing felt very, very young. Considering this was supposed to take place in her teens if felt younger. I was really disappointed with Merida’s overall character arch too. I’m also not going to delve into that either for spoiler reasons. I will say, there are some contradictory things to the movie. In the movie, she and her mom finally understood each other. This kind of blurs that and I feel it isn’t true to the original story.

Overall, I did like this but I didn’t love it. Even though the plot was slow it was a decently fast read. I’m glad I stuck with it because I did enjoy the romance but there are a lot of things lacking here. This definitely reads for a much younger audience, so keep that in mind. The last third of the book is very rushed and feels a bit unfinished.

As a huge fan of Maggie Stiefvater’s, I was to excited to receive an ARC of Bravely from Disney Books on NetGalley. After reading it I can confidently say I cannot imagine another author who would have done justice to the continuation of Merida’s story.

Stiefvater writes in such a way that magic is an intrinsic part of every story, even when it is not fully present. The imagery is vivid, the emotions are strong, the plot is easy to follow yet hard to predict. As Merida makes a bet with gods of old and takes on the challenge of changing her family before destruction comes for DunBroch, readers get sucked into a story about family and nature, growth and magic.

This story is also an amazing continuation of the Disney/Pixar film Brave. The wild triplets are grown boys now, with their personalities expanded and separate from each other. Fergus and Elinor are the rulers we first watched on screen, but with time dulling some of their shine. New characters are introduced that add more depth and leave me wanting to know more about their stories, and while Merida stars in this book as much as in the movie, she has grown as well. She is just as determined, bold, and brave, but Merida is making new discoveries about her home, her family, and herself. For my part, I enjoyed this new exploration of Merida and all of DunBroch just as much as the film (and as an avid reader and Stiefvater fan, honestly a little more). If you are a fan of Merida, magic, and Maggie Stiefvater, this is a must read.

Bravely is about Merida from the Disney movie Brave and takes place a few years later. Another magical dilemma has come up for Merida to resolve to save her family from danger. It was interesting to to see other parts of Scotland during this time period through her eyes and the magic brought up in this story was intriguing. If it was an option, I would give this book 3.5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book to review through NetGalley.

While I found Merida to be her usual spirited self, I couldn't connect with this book like I did the original story in Brave. Bravely is much slower-paced, yet doesn't use any of that extra space to give details of what exactly happened to set up the plot. Instead, there are a plethora of boring characters there to just fill space.

I have to start by saying what a gorgeous cover this book has. It drew me in immediately!

The story is based on one of my favorite Disney Princesses Merida. I loved how Merida didn’t find/get saved by her Prince and live happily ever after. She was an independant thinker and was crafting her own way.

This book picks up years after and her family home/castle is in a slump and the Gods are ready to take things back to the beginning and start her small village over from scratch. She makes a deal with them to give her a year to change things and sets about doing just that. In this quest she also seems to be growing and searching for herself, to figure out who she really is and what she wants her life to be. This book has deeper meaning than a princess trying to save her Kingdom and on her quest, Merida learns a lot of things about herself, life and how to grow towards being the person she wants to be.

Bravely is a lovely story to follow up after Merida's story in Brave. It's rather quick, easy to read, and simply a feel-good book. I had lots of fun reading this as I loved the movie Brave, and loved getting to see other sides of old characters, especially the triplets. And I loved meeting new characters. It is truly an enjoyable read, filled with character development. And it is told in a way that does justice to the Disney way of storytelling.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Bravely was such a delightful read. It encompassed the same energy that the movie, Brave, did, with just a little more spine-tingling adventure to keep readers enthralled. The book was compelling and fascinating the whole way through, as Merida races against the clock to save Dunbroch.