Who doesn't love Merida? And a story featuring Merida and more magic after the events of Brave? Sign up everyone!
Merida ends up making a bargain w/ 2 gods in order to save her beloved home of DunBroch from ruination. But change is slow to come and hard won when dealing w/ Fergus, Elinor, and the triplets. The story Maggie Stiefvater has woven together is beautifully crafted with all the magic of Scotland and old legends. Don't miss this new epic adventure starring Merida.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Disney Press for this e-galley of Bravely.*

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Disney Publishing Worldwide, and Disney Press in exchange for an honest review.

Having read other novels by Stiefvater, I was interested to see her take on Merida and Disney's BRAVE. While I enjoyed this novel, I felt like some of the magic that is typically in Stiefvater's stories, especially when she writes about Scotland (and Ireland), was lost here. I'm not sure if that's because she was confined by Disney created characters or not. But something just wasn't quite right. It's still a good story, just... a little less magical.

I loved the dynamic between Merida and Feradach though! And seeing a little more of the triplets was fun. The plot drags at points but once time starts running out for Merida, the story gets going and is engrossing.

Atmospheric and fun, Bravely exceeded my already-pretty hopeful expectations.

Don't get me wrong: I was extremely nervous before going into this book, as I am with all Disney YA novels. Adding to a pre-existing, beloved story is always a hit-or-miss thing and it's even more dramatic when it's an entirely new story.

But a Brave story written by Maggie Stiefvater? I couldn't help being excited, even with my concerns. Super happy that my excitement wasn't unfounded. I really enjoyed this and if you love Brave (or even if you have no particular attachment to it) I think you will too.

It had its problems, mostly with exposition and pacing, but they weren't enough to take away from the enjoyment of the story as a whole.

This was - for the most part - exactly what I wanted it to be. It was a transportive read that captured the magic of Brave without feeling like a cheap rip-off that only has a plot if you've seen the movie. Stiefvater managed to keep the characters authentic, whilst building on what information we have and showing their shortcomings. And the new characters were so easy to care for.

One in particular - I won't say whom to avoid spoilers - but they were such a good character. Honestly, I'd want a sequel just for that character and the rest of their story.

And yet, I also don't want a sequel. I love the open-ending. It was a kind of... bitter-sweet happily-ever-after and that's my favorite kind of fairy-tale conclusion which is basically what this book felt like: a YA fairytale.

Like I said, if you're someone that loves the movie - or just enjoys Scottish folklore and bargains with gods - I would definitely recommend picking this up.

All in all, I'm really happy with this book and can't wait to have it on my shelves.

This is a book I really needed at the time that I read it.
We get to be re-inserted into Merida's story in a very atmospheric way. I can't lie, Stiefvater definitely had my mouth watering with her food descriptions.
I genuinely love that this book exists. I think in the same way that the Disney film did, it gives a place for fiery red-head heroines that you don't often see.

Brave, and Merida, have long been one of my my favorite Disney offerings. A fiercely independent, Scottish red head? And now a sequel to see what happens post movie? Yes please!

While this definitely skews youngers on the YA scale, it was a fun read. I would have liked to see some of the family a bit more fleshed out. Fergus and Elinor seemed a bit flat as compared to the strong personalities they had in the movie and even her brothers, while more detail was given, it seemed more "tell than show."

But the plot was enjoyable, and the it was a pleasure to see Merida having new adventures.

Thank you to NetGalley and for providing me with an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bravely by: Maggie Stiefvater

First off such a gorgeous cover!
Bravely takes place a year after the movie Brave. Fiery little Merida has to save her hometown of DunBroch in 1 year.

I thought it had a really great storyline. I will say I think it was just a tad to young for me. But overall well written beautiful book.
I seen it on the shelf just this past weekend.

Thank you NetGalley and Maggie Stiefvater for allowing me to read this one early!

Thank you so much to Disney Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Maggie Stiefvater, take a bow! This was stellar. I loved this twist on Brave and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this!
FRTC

Dark, magical and enchanting, Bravely follows our favorite Scottish princess, Merida, as she faces a challenge unlike any before in this sequel to the whimsical story of Brave.

Instantly, I was bursting with excitement about the idea of a new story set in the same world filled with Scottish inspiration, folklore, and all the Disney magic. Overall, I loved the dreamy, captivating setting and culture of Scotland. The descriptions of the alluring forests, snowy hillsides, delectable feasts, and the wide variety of mouthwatering foods had me wanting to book my flight to Scotland ASAP! I also adored Merida with my whole heart and loved seeing her narrative expand and grow in maturity.

I also really appreciated the addition of folklore into the story with the gods of life and destruction. I loved the polarity of the circle of life and rebirth and was excited to see where it would take the story. I adored the way the characters developed and how it intertwined with the themes of embracing and adapting to change. Although, I did wish for a touch more depth to the plot and more added to the ending of the book.

I loved being back in DunBroch and seeing Merida and her family again. If you’re looking for a fun fairytale escape, be sure to add this magical story to your list!

3.5/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I absolutely adore this book! It was such a fun and interesting story about Merida. I loved all the characters and the magic that this stories brings. I think the author did a great job bringing this already famous beloved Disney tale to life in this book.

I really enjoyed this book and I really can't wait to read more books from this author in the future. The writing was really great.

If you’re wondering if this is Princess Merida from the Disney movie, you’d be correct. I requested this book from NetGalley because Stiefvater is one of my favorite authors – I’d never seen the movie Brave. Knowing I needed the gist of the story before starting the novel, I spent an entertaining couple of hours laughing and snorting my way through the movie. I adored these characters and couldn’t wait to dive into this new story.

I’ve never been one for many fairy tales, but Merida is my kind of princess – mainly because she’s pretty much the opposite of what you’d expect from someone with that title. She can best nearly any opponent in archery, she informed her parents being married off and producing heirs isn’t something she’ll be forced into, and she’s constantly reminded of royal etiquette by her mother, the queen. How can you not love this girl? This story is set several years later when not much has changed – Merida is still adventurous and stubborn, the King Fergus boisterous, the Queen Elinor very royal, and the triplets still mischievous at ten years old.

Merida’s Christmas Eve doesn’t go as expected when she finds herself in the company of two gods – one of creation, Cailleach, and one of destruction, Feradach. The Kingdom of DunBroch has become sluggish and stagnant and is high on Feradach’s list of places to demolish. Naturally, Merida is distraught but, because she’s Merida and very clever, refuses to accept this. Instead, she makes a bargain with Cailleach – if she can get her family to change over the next year, DunBroch will be spared. If she fails, she’ll lose her home and family. Talk about high stakes and pressure.

Don’t expect this to be a cookie cutter Disney story. Bravely is darker and focuses on growth, survival, and reflection, along with epic journeys and and some grisly scenes. Merida learns life is about balance and realizes what’s most important – it’s a kind of coming of age story for her. Not everything is serious – I also laughed out loud several times over the antics of the triplets, Merida’s unfiltered comments, and the lively family dynamics.

After watching Brave, Merida immediately became my favorite Disney princess, and I fell in love with her family. Catching up with them in this novel set several years later was a real treat.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This picks up about a year after the movie Brave ends. Merida is challenged by a God to help Dunbroch adapt and grow and change to avoid living in stagnation and ending in ruin.

I was entertained by this book! Merida's world has always been one that I have been drawn to being Scottish myself and still having family in the highlands. I loved the scenery that Stiefvatter brought to life during Merida's travels, the lore she incorporated, all of it. There were some moments that were a tad slow, but by the end I was invested and slightly emotional.

Overall, well done and I enjoyed it!

I could not have imagined a more perfect choice of author to continue the BRAVE legacy. Stiefvater’s grounded yet almost irreverent style is excellent for Merida and her endearing, bumbling family. Cannot wait for the audiobook narrated by Fiona Hardingham!

"There are two kinds of people. There are people who seek the magic, and people the magic seeks. Which are you?"

When I first heard Maggie Stiefvater was going to write and publish a sequel to BRAVE from Pixar, my first thought was SHE'S THE ABSOLUTE PERFECT CHOICE TO WRITE THIS STORY. And I was not wrong. I've been a huge fan of Maggie Stiefvater over a decade now (holy crap I'm old) and I've always been blown away by her gift and ability to weave magic into her storytelling. She manages to take the dreary, boring, old world we know and inject it with life and beauty and reflections of the magic the world holds but few are truly able to see.

BRAVELY is no different. I'll admit, BRAVE is one of my least favorite Disney movies. I've always been a little turned off by the story and felt it lacking in more ways than one. My thoughts on it have changed slightly over the years. For instance, as a 17 year old, all I wanted was a love story—and BRAVE didn't have one. As I've gotten older, I've grown to appreciate that more about the movie.

When I finally had a chance to sit down and read BRAVELY, I was instantly swept up in the Scottish highlands, lost in a journey of magical proportions, making deals with Gods, making change in others and myself, and learning more and more about how important and precious family is. Maggie Stiefvater took her magical storytelling gifts and gave Merida a new story, a new life to live, she gave purpose to the triplets and made the reader understand and recognize how every character, every stranger we meet, has a story of their own. They're the main characters of their own story.

Not to mention a little bit of love I've always wanted to see in Merida's story.

This has instantly become one of my new favorites, and will forever be accepted as canon in Merida's story. Wouldn't it be splendid if Pixar took this story and gave BRAVE a much deserved sequel?

I have been a Maggie Stiefvater fan for many years and have read most of her catalog. I wasn't sure about a Disney-fied Stiefvater, but I had to trust she would take it and run and make magic.

And she did!

As a parent and Disney fan, I've seen Brave a handful of times and adored spicy Merida, who stands up for herself and tries to fix her own future. Sure, she turns her mom into a bear, but who hasn't?

In this story, set a few years later, Merida is back with her family after some time traveling when she finds herself encountering a legend of Irish folklore, the Cailleach, and a lesser-known figure, Feradach. Feradach's job as an immortal figure is to destroy whole places or people to allow room for new growth. Merida certainly doesn't want her home destroyed, though, and the Cailleach strikes a deal with Feradach - Merida gets one year to change the circumstances of everyone in her household or they get destroyed.

With various members of her family, Merida travels to several towns, learning and healing and finding out more about the mysterious Feradach.

Stiefvater intertwines the myths and mystery of Ireland with a great, heartfelt story, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It doesn't have the grittiness of the Raven Cycle or the sizzle of The Scorpio Races, but she doesn't let it go saccharine, either, for being a pretty sweet story.

*Received copy for review.*.
I adore Brave, so I was excited to read another story about Merida. However, the pace of this book made it difficult to finish. The middle drug out so badly that I almost didn’t finish.
I’m sure that many who are fans of this author will enjoy this book but it does d not work for me.

4 stars! This is an official sequel to Brave, and it’s such a compelling mix of folklore, adventure and Disney canon.

I’m not a Brave fan but I am a huge Maggie Stiefvater fan and she managed to masterfully draw me in despite having only seen the movie once.

If you’re a Brave fan, you’re going to adore this book. If you’ve never seen Brave, you can start here and not feel lost. Thank you to the publisher & netgalley for the eARC

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bravely follows Merida, several years after Brave, as she works to change her family to prevent ruin at the hands of the god, Feradach.

A Maggie Stiefvater read is almost always going to be a good read, and Bravely is no exception. The author breathes new life into the beautiful world of Pixar's Brave without sacrificing or compromising the source material. If you're a fan of Maggie Stiefvater, or of Brave (or of both, like me!), this book is definitely for you.

The story itself was overall very sweet, and though we got to see Merida have action-packed adventures, there was also a lot of internal reflection and growth that I really loved. Pacing-wise, it was a little off-kilter, where some sections felt almost unbearably slow, while others saw so much action I almost got whiplash. It made for an overall entertaining ride, but I think there is potential for more balanced pacing throughout.

Overall this was a great time, and I'd definitely recommend it!

Maggie Stiefvater is one of my all time favorite authors, and I absolutely loved this retelling and continuation of "Brave"! I've actually never read a Disney adaption novel before, but I think I'm going to pick up some more after reading this because it felt like an extension of childhood nostalgia placed in a YA novel! The Scottish folklore in this story was truly captivating, and it reminded me of why I loved this movie so much as a kid. I definitely recommend this book, please do yourself a favor and pick it up!

Such an enjoyable YA sequel to the beloved Disney movie “Brave,” beautifully realized by one of my favourite authors, Maggie Stiefvater. Set three years after the events of the movie, Princess Merida of DunBroch is still a force of nature and every bit as “unprincesslike” as her mother feared after travelling around Scotland and learning more about her world. When she stumbles into an argument between the ancient god of creation, the Cailleach, and the young god of ruin, Feradach, Merida discovers that her own family is on the brink of destruction, both from an unbalanced magical scale and from a menacing new warlord. Racing against time, she is thrust into a year-long journey of discovery and renewal as she works to save and change those she loves.

I was so drawn into the atmosphere of this book - I love Stiefvater’s lyrical writing, and all of the images of Merida stomping around the misty Scottish moors were so great. The dark and dreamy tone really made it feel like a fairytale, and while there were some plot points that felt a little too convenient or unnecessary, I was willing to forgive them for the emotional value of the story. There is so much character growth contained in these pages, and by the end I really fell in love with all of the residents of DunBroch. Just a wonderful read, full of magic and adventure and folklore and danger and heart.

Thanks to Disney Publishing Worldwide and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!