Gilded by Marissa Meyer is the first book in her duology of the same name, and is an intriguing retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm.
Serilda has been telling stories all her life, and when she is caught by the Erlking on the night of a hunter’s moon, to save herself she makes up a story about being outside to gather straw to spin into gold. The story does the trick, but on the next hunter’s moon the Erlking sends for her and locks her in a room in his castle, telling her she must spin the straw there into gold before morning or forfeit her life for making a fool of him. To her surprise, shortly after she’s locked in a young man presents himself to her, introducing himself as Gild and telling her that he can spin the straw into gold in return for something of value.
As you may guess Gild is successful, and Serilda is called back castle several times to add to the Erlking’s stores of spun gold, and in doing so gets to know Gild. She’s also intrigued by the mystery surrounding Gild, the Erlking’s castle, and the nearby village which all seam tied together somehow. She is determined to solve the mystery, and in so doing, hopeful that she can rid the world of the terrorizing Erlking.
Gild was a very interesting take on the Rumpelstiltskin story and is quite dark in some places, as you might expect from a Rumpelstiltskin retelling. There were a few times in the middle of the book where I felt it was a bit repetitive, but it wasn’t so bad that I wanted to put the book down. The ending left me wanting more and I’m looking forward to the sequel, Cursed, as soon as it is available from my library.
Life, Tea, and Everything 
Intriguing, I might look for this one.
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