⤷ Author: Elizabeth Lim
⤷ Series or Standalone: standalone
⤷ Published: June 3rd, 2025
⤷ Genre: YA, fantasy, romance, retelling
Rating: ✨5 stars✨
Review Updated: 07/07/2025
A Forgery of Fate is a beautifully written retelling of Beauty & the Beast, with descriptive writing, amazing world–building, and characters that are so easy to fall in love with.
⤷ Synopsis:
Tru is a gifted artist with the ability to paint the future. But after her father is lost at sea, she’s forced to become an art forger to support her family. She settles into her new rhythm, creating forged art, selling it with the help of an old man named Gaari, and eating spicy noodles after. But her life is upended when her mother’s gambling debts come back to haunt them, looking for payment in blood, leaving her family no longer safe. So when a mysterious dragon lord proposes a mutually beneficial marriage contract, Tru has no choice but to agree. The contract involves high stakes and a dangerous lie, and in exchange for the safety of her family, Tru will have to paint a dangerous, treasonous, but hopeful future in order to fight the Dragon King.
⤷ Characters:
Before I say anything else, since all of EL’s books take place in the same realm, I absolutely loved the little easter eggs sprinkled throughout A Forgery of Fate! I may or may not have made a couple incoherent, elated notes in my Kindle upon seeing references to some of my favorite characters from Six Crimson Cranes ❤️
The characters in A Forgery of Fate were just as loveable! The one thing I love most about EL’s stories are her FMC’s, and Tru was no different. She’s brave, loves food as much as I do (although I may not be able to handle the same spice that she does), and is such a relatable character.
I also loved the dynamics between Tru and her sisters!
Elang is the hot, brooding, kind of grumpy half-dragon, and love interest. He seems heartless (well actually he kind of is given he doesn’t have his pearl), and wholly devoted to the mission, but as Tru spends more time with him in under the sea, she starts to see that there’s more to him than it seems, and starts developing an unexplainable connection to him. There’s a lot of mystery around their connection, and a large part of the book feels so sweet and frustrating at the same time.
Spoilers Below
The only thing I did not like is that Elang was revealed to have been acting as Gaari. Yes, it makes for some really sweet yet heartbreaking scenes at the end, but the whole idea of Elang acting as an old man and mentor to Tru for so long, getting to know her, dying as Gaari, and then coming back into her life as her cold, emotionally unavailable husband (but actually her Heavenly Match)…it just didn’t feel right to me.
Now, for the side characters: I have to say, I really love the idea of talking turtles, merfolk, dragons, and all of these different species living in an underwater realm. The two other important characters were General Caisan and Shani.
Every time he was mentioned, I literally couldn’t help but think that General Caisan just seemed like a Cogsworth. Maybe that’s just me, but I loved the comparison so much 🙂
Then there’s Shani, the little demon that, at first, I thought would be similar to Kiki, Ukar, and all the super supportive, sarcastic, humorous (almost sidekick-like) animals signature to EL’s writing. While she sort of was, I was in for a couple surprises as the book went on. I honestly don’t know whether I love or hate Shani anymore, but the scenes where her biting facade slips away into something a little more protective, caring, and of course, sarcastic make for some really nice parts of the story.
⤷ Plot:
The story of A Forgery of Fate really gives Beauty & the Beast vibes, and I was so there for it! Beauty & the Beast is one of my favorite classic fairy tales and after reading a book that takes inspiration from the classic so well, but still creates something new, I’m convinced we need so many more retellings!
Even past that, I really struggled putting this book down. I thought it was so well-written, especially the ending. For me, the ending is often what makes or breaks a book. Yes, I’m all for the happily-ever-afters, but there’s something special about an ending that brings together all the emotions, the sadness and tears, the smiles and happiness, and that’s exactly how A Forgery of Fate ended. It was the perfect way to wrap up this tale!
⤷ World-building:
There was such descriptive and beautiful writing about everything, but especially the scenery and world-building. I really shouldn’t have expected anything else 🙂
⤷ Final Thoughts:
🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨 / 5
Thank you for sticking around to read this pretty long review! I really enjoyed reading A Forgery of Fate! It had everything I’ve come to love from EL’s writing, and I fell in love with the emotional storyline, characters, and beautiful writing of this tale
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All thoughts are my own.
