Golden Braids and Dragon Blades: Steampunk Rapunzel

Steampunk Fairy Tales, Book 4

By: Melanie Karsak

Narrated by: Lesley Parkin

Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Being the heir to Camelot is a tangled mess. 

Rapunzel has spent her entire life living in Merlin's cave on the coast of Cornwall. Under the protection of her faerie guardian, Gothel, she's stayed safe. Safe and bored. Dreaming of a life that looks more like a Jane Austen novel, Rapunzel fears she'll never have the chance to explore Victorian England's modern delights. Or meet a man. Or be kissed. Or anything else remotely resembling normal.  

When Red Cape Society Agent Ewan Goodwin's monster-stalking device leads him to Rapunzel - and her unusual pets - the pair's destinies entwine. Together, they must solve a mystery tied to the very roots of King Arthur's Britannia.  

Golden Braids and Dragon Blades is a retelling of the classic Rapunzel fairy tale set in New York Times best-selling author Melanie Karsak's steampunk universe. Journey to gaslamp London during the 19th century to see how Melanie puts a steampunk spin on this reimagined fairytale.

©2018 Clockpunk Press (P)2019 Clockpunk Press

Another Wonderful Fairy Tale

I love Melanie Karsak’s fairy tales… this is one of my favorites! The story and it’s characters and creatures are enchanting!

Great story! A fun read with some very legit magic.

I highly recommend listening to Golden Braids and Dragon Blades. The narrator is truly genius! And this creative retelling of the story of an old familiar fairytale is delightful and highly entertaining. It’s just the kind of exciting, romantic, and creatively unique story One needs to soothe the stress we all feel from the Pandemic. The story is engaging and entertaining without bringing the listener down with gory details or tragic plot lines. It’s a fun read/listen, true, but it also has legitimately deep elements of Druid-like magic expertly woven into the tale. And the author does a brilliant job of writing a fairytale that she parallels with Jane Austin novels in a way that gives the fairytale a footing in both them”real world” and the world of fantasy. The story and the narration just combine in a perfect and highly satisfying way!

An interesting take on old legends

You think you know the story of Rapunzel. You may have heard about a girl with long hair, that lives in a tower waiting for her prince to save her. This is not that story.

This steampunk Fairy tale brilliantly mashes the story of Rapunzel in with the legends of king Arthur and Camelot. This is also a companion story to Karsak's Steampunk red riding hood series, as we once again deal with agents of the red cape society. ( This totally stands on it's own just fine so don't worry if you haven't read the other books.)

Narrator Lesley Parking does an amazing job of bringing Rapunzel to life. She also brings other characters to life, but Rapunzel is the first person pov so she is most important to nail. I love Parkin's use of voice and accent to make each character unique. even non speaking characters felt represented because of how she portrayed the other characters interacting with them.

rapunzel meets pendragon

Did you ever think mother Gothel could be a good person there to protect rapunzel? Me neither, but this book proves this and sooooo much more. With the steampunk retelling of rapunzel with the pendragon mixed in the magic of the round table comes alive and the fight of good verse evil eminence against the one who is meant to be king....or queen.

Creative, Steampunk Rapunzel Remake

What I enjoyed:
-This is a truly unique, creative re-imaging of the fairy tale. I liked that it was different enough I did not know what was coming.
-Steampunk! It's hard to find good steampunk, and I think this was well done.
-It's clean. I think anyone 10+ would be good to listen to this. I'm 28 and also found it entertaining.
-The narrator was great.
-Fun mix with King Arthur and dragons.

The only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because I think it could have been fleshed out more to make it more realistic. For example; for someone who has lived completely in isolation, there was no sense of awkwardness or shyness when thrust into society, which I find unbelievable. But I get that it was meant to be just a quick, fun read. Highly recommend!

Delightful YA adventure/romance

Golden Braids and Dragon Blades: Steampunk Rapunzel by Melanie Karsak

Definitely a YA book, but delightful all the same. Near the beginning, one rather hilarious shout-out to "Tangled" and then it remains it's own story.

Well-written, good world-building and only one complaint about the ongoing use of the modern word, "okay" from a story that takes place in Victorian England.

The reader is good and does a variety of accents and male/female voices.

Another great twist on a classic tale!

I'm really enjoying listening to these twists on classic fairy tales! Well done Melanie and another great performance by Lesley! She has the ability to bring Melanie's characters to life and has a very easy voice to listen to. Characters are easy to tell apart and the sound is smooth...none of those annoying clicks and mouth noises that you hear in other books! For those Melanie and Lesley fans out there....check out the Celtic Blood Series. It's wonderful!