Loved this story of Merida! The family dynamics were delightful, entertaining, and as real families are, a struggle at times. It was such a pleasure to go on this adventure with Merida and her various friends and family members. The gods were entertaining and fun to get to know, as well. I would say that this story was more aimed at middle-grade than at a YA audience, but I loved it all the same.

This was so entertaining! A YA novel set after Disney’s Brave movie written by one of my favorite authors was an easy YES for me!

I loved how this story unfolded, the ancient deities, the bargains, the adventures, this book was incredibly immersive!

This felt like highibg a favorite story. It was heartwarming, a little sad at times, adventurous, and full of strength! It left me with a lot of the same feelings i have after reading some of my favorite YA novels.

Merida has a year to save her family and along the way she learns more about herself, about love, about loyalty and family! I adored that this family felt so real, just like in any family hurt exists and coincides with love. Merida has to figure out how to navigate those familial bonds and allow the members of her family to be who they are while she also grows into who she is!

Bravely was an amazing read! Maggie Stiefvater wrote a story that truly portrayed the story of Merida in a whole new way! At first, I was nervous this book would be the retelling of the movie "Brave". I was sadly mistaken when I fell in love. From the first chapter, you are taken on an adventure through the world of brave. You fall in love with the characters all over again and truly get to know each character even further than we did in the movie. I would recommend this book to any fan of the movie "Brave" or Disney in general.

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

“Later, as the snow began to fall on the shortest night of the year, as Merida went to the kitchen to get some fresh bread, as she stood there, looking in the fire and remembering, she heard a knock.” ― Maggie Stiefvater

This book made me cry in a very specific fairytale way. This is one of those books that I went into not knowing what to expect, but then it slapped me in the face with a lesson that I desperately needed to hear. I really enjoyed the expansion of characters that we know and love from the movie, like Queen Elinor, King Fergus, and the triplets (Hubert, Hamish, and Harris) and the wonderful new characters (and gods *eye emoji*) that we got to know along the journey. The ending? Ripped my poor little heart out. OW.

I would recommend this to any fans of the movie, Celtic mythology, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

I love a "what happens after" story, particularly when it is by an incredible author and about a story that I truly love. This book offers such a magical adventure and journey with some of the most wonderful characters I love to read about and follow in their lives. The world that Maggie Stiefvater creates is incredible and it is so full of magnificent writing and lush descriptions that it truly comes alive as it springs off of every page. I cannot recommend this enough for both fans and those unaware of the story of Merida alike. This is a grand tale and should not be missed!

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

I have never seen the movie. I went in blind and didn’t know quite what to expect. And even with pretty solidly low expectations, it still exceeded them all. There were times when I simply could not put this book down. Reality could wait until the fantasy finished. The main character was very brave and hot headed. The plot kept me on the edge of my seat. The setting was a character itself and I enjoyed every minute of it. The only thing I would take a point away for was the ver6 lengthy descriptions. I wanted all of the actions and carefully snipped descriptions, but I still loved reading it. I now really want to see the movie and make connections there. Additionally, I cannot wait to read more books by this author.

Leave it to Maggie Stiefvater to be handed the story of brave and whip it into something even more wonderful and magical. This is a fantastic novelization retelling of a story plenty of people are more familiar with today than they were 20 years ago. I was hooked from the very start and finished this book in one sitting., I would love to see the author so this with other stories as well.

I really liked this story. Great positive messages for young readers and just so many good lessons. Will for sure be buying a physical copy!

I don't usually read these Disney sequel type books but I love Maggie Stiefvater and everything she writes so I was pretty excited for this!

I loved this. The writing, the story, the scenery. It's all amazing.

This was a good story. If you are a fan of Disney, specifically Brave, you’ll probably enjoy this story of Merida and her year to save everything she holds dear.
Merida of DunBroch wants a change. She does love her family and kingdom but she’s become frustrated with the mundane daily life she’s living. Every single day is just like the day before. She wants purpose and adventure and a bit of a challenge would be great as well! Little does she know she’s about to get more that she could have bargained for.
When Feradach arrives, a supernatural being who’s tasked with rooting out rot and stagnation on Christmas Eve he has the intent to demolish the kingdom and everyone in it. However, the Cailleach, an old being of creation, gives Merida a choice. Convince her family to change within the year or else there will be eternal consequences.
In order to see this through, and under watchful eyes of the gods, Merida has to set off on three different journeys to kingdoms near and far in an attempt to inspire revolution within her family. She has just one year to see everything through.
This was cute. It brings back characters and lands that are beloved by fans. This is definitely one that fans should read.

Love these Disney retelling and Maggie Stiefvater brings an extra dose of magic!

I did find this to be a bit of a slow burn, but overall entertaining. Excited for the next retelling!

Bravely is a book that takes place right after the movie Brave does. It follows merida who has one chance to save everyone she loves. This was one of my most anticpaited reads for the year because a) based on a disney movie I love and b) it's written by an author I love! So of course I had to get an arc of it and read it! I finished this book this morning and it was so good! I would admit that I almost put this book down because I had felt like it was slow and nothing was happening but that's because it's setting up the world we already know and getting to catch up with our characters that we already know! So if this book didn't picked up the pace halfway through I would never finished it, but overall I enjoyed this book. The writing was beautiful! The world building was amazing maggie stiefvater could not go wrong with any books! Also I felt like it was a very open ending for more to come (hopefully)! Overall rating 4/5 stars! #Bravely #bravelybook #maggiestiefvater #disneybooks #letstalkya #rockstarbooktours #giveaway #maggiestiefvaterbooks #merida #meridaofdunbroch #princessmerida #pixarbrave #bravemovie #disneyprincess #yabookstagram #yalit #youngadult #bookstagram #bibliophile #bookish #bookworm #igbooks #igreads

I was given an AR copy of this book by Disney via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I'd give it four stars. I like the plot where you have two Gods fighting to do their jobs and Merida fighting to keep her family and home. I think there could've been a bit more action and development/storyline with the villain in this storyline.

I wish that there was more hinting at what was going on with Harris instead of just kind of throwing it out there. Instead of made him look difficult and sullen for most of the book for no reason.

And over all I wish there was more potential for Merida and love finally. I love that the potential is still out there with the open ended finale though I wish it could've happen here. I'm not sure how another book could come out of this story line.

Overall, it's a good continuation of the original plot. Without ruining that storyline. If you like Brave I'd recommend the read

Many thanks to Netgalley and Disney Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest reveiw.

I love Merida!!! She is my favorite Princess of all time!! I was so excited to receive this book and I had high hopes for it. It didn't disappoint. I love her strength and confidence and had to track her down at my visit to the Disney parks.

I loved Brave so to read the continuation of that made my heart happy. This book is split into parts. The story spans the course of a year and the entire landscape of Scotland. Merida has just a year to prove to the gods that DunBroch and her family are not stagnant and are capable of change, and she finds that change has to come from within as well as from without. I loved how the author perfectly fit the myths and legends into this story.

Why the 4 star? I was sucked in until the end and then it seemed to fall short for me. Still an awesome book and probably my favorite this year.

When Brave came out I instantly fell in love with Merida, mainly her strength and confidence. When I had just finished reading The Raven Boys I got so excited to see a new book by the same author centered around Brave. I instantly knew I had to read it. Bravely adds so much to Merida and her story and takes you on new adventures alongside our favorite sassy princess. Maggie added so much depth and development to her story that it was a true joy to read.

Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater, 367 pages. Disney Press, 2022. $20.
Language: PG (1 swear, 0 “f” + 1 British swear); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
The Cailleach, goddess of creation, and Feradach, a god of ruin, have opposing intentions for DunBroch. Unwittingly, Princess Merida gets tangled up in the middle, thanks to her sometimes un-princess-like choices and a little bit of trickery. Now she has a bargain with Feradach that will determine whether creation or ruin succeeds in directing the future of her clan, her castle, and her kingdom.
Stiefvater sets this book several years after the movie, though the exact amount of time that has passed is ambiguous. Merida is still headstrong and needs to do things her way, but I didn’t enjoy reading this book as much as I wanted to – maybe because most of the characters felt too flat, maybe because I didn’t like Merida’s attitude, maybe because I felt like some of the characters were changed too much from the movie, and probably a combination of those things. I did love reading about the god of ruin: how he tries to show Merida the necessary role of ruin in our lives and the miracle of change even if it doesn’t first appear to be a miracle.
Merida, her family, her kingdom, and those they visit in the book are all Scottish. The mature content rating is for mentions of alcohol, and the violence rating is for death and battle scenes.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Merida is my favorite Disney princess. So when I saw that this story was coming out, I had to read it! This expands on the movie a lot, with new adventures and lots of new fun things to experience with her. She is still the Merida we all love, but through Maggie, we see Merida with such a depth of character.

If you ever wanted to jump further into Merida's world and gain insight into her story, this is a must read. Spend a year with this adventurous princess and let her story move you.

I don't know how to feel about this book.

To start, I'm going to discuss the writing— perfection. Maggie Stiefvater has always been one of my favorite authors because of her lyrical and dynamic prose. She never disappoints me, so I loved getting to delve back into her writing, especially since it is a different sort than The Raven Cycle or The Scorpio Races. She was the perfect author to write Merida's story.

Furthermore, I liked how Merida continues to be herself fully and unapologetically after the events of the movie. Merida is still single and still adamant about protecting her family. The new characters did take me some time to enjoy and connect to, but that could be said for any book with already established settings and characters.

Now this reading experience was going incredibly smoothly until I started to suspect the ending. I don't know how I feel about Merida ending up, albeit in a round about way, in a romantic relationship. I know her love interest is different from the young men in the movie, but it still felt like she was coerced into this decision a bit. It didn't entirely make sense or feel like her own choice, and I disliked that because Merida has always been a princess that I've staunchly loved for her independence and strong will. I know the romance is only alluded to in the very end, but it... it feels off. I don't know how else to describe it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.
No one wanted to like this more than me. No One. I LOVE disney, I love fairy tale retellings, I love new takes on Disney fairy tales, I love Merida as a princess. but this just fell SO flat. I got through.... ~85% and I just really don't care.

for one, this book is a sequel to a movie - so it is ENTIRELY reliant on you having seen that movie to fully understand Merida and her family. Do I think most people who pick this up will already be a fan of Brave? probably. But I know Maggie has a pretty big fan base of her own and I think this will do poorly with anyone who is strictly a Maggie fan, and not a Brave fan.

While I had a general understanding of why we were doing what we were doing in this story I never felt the stakes. It all just felt random and incredibly Generic and Safe. This could have been about ANYONE and the story would not have changed, in fact it might have even improved it since there was nothing else to compare it to in that case.

I read a review that says Merida gets a love interest at the tail end of this story which is so .... NOT what her vibe is? I respect that she was basically a kid in the movie and this takes place far enough in the future she could have changed and grown but one of hte best things about Merida was her fierce independence and not needing a relationship. Some have called her Asexual and I think that is a far more fitted role to her.

Ultimately this book is entirely a miss from me.

This book was amazing! “Brave” the movie has always been magical, and this sequel is equally as fantastic. Split into parts, this story spans the course of a year and the entire landscape of Scotland. Merida has just a year to prove to the gods that DunBroch and her family are not stagnant and are capable of change, and she finds that change has to come from within as well as from without. This story made me laugh, and it made me cry. It is a five star read for sure, and I really really hope that there is a sequel to this sequel because I want to know what happens next!