What if the witch gave Merida a different spell?
Merida’s impulsive ways have always driven a wedge between Merida and her mother. The princess would prefer to ride Angus, shooting arrows into the horizon rather than focus on politics and embroidery. But when her mother tries to force Merida to pick a husband during the Highland Games, they get in their biggest fight ever and Merida ends up in the hut of a witch who offers Merida a spell that will make Queen Elinor change her mind.
That’s how we know the story but Merida thinks she can shortcut it by taking the potion herself, figuring it will change her constraining position as princess.
Instead Merida ends up twenty years in the past and lost in the woods when she runs into a teenage version of Elinor who is running away from her own betrothed.
In a classic butterfly affect, Elinor encountering Merida in the woods means she never meets Fergus, nurses him to health and fall in love. Meaning Merida is potentially erasing herself from existence. Not to mention threaten the future kingdom of Dun Broch as its Fergus’ leadership that unites the disparate clans.
Rochon does a wonderful job with this Back to the Future/Highlands tale by sharing chapters between Merida and Elinor, Merida obviously getting the bulk of the character development and page time, but Elinor herself gets nice amount of insight and development into how she grew into the queen we see in the movie and softening thanks to the adventures she share with past Merida.
At first I was a bit worried that Rochon was going to reash Elinor as being just like Merida when she was younger, more interested in nature and exploring and running away because she doesn’t want to get married. Fortunately, she doesn’t as Rochon characterizes that Elinor was fine with her position but getting betrothed to an arrogant lunkhead she loathes is what she has a problem with. Especially as with the marriage, she won’t have any say in running the kingdom, her husband makes all the commands even though he’s the one marrying in.
Meeting Merida hampers that along with her rightfully pointing out that as a pampered princess she doesn’t know how to hunt, skin hares or fish, make a fire, or anything. So she agrees to smuggle Merida into the castle in exchange for wilderness lessons,
It is the love for her kingdom and family that convinces her to delay her freedom flight more and more as she, Merida and Fergus realize there’s a potential plot against the McCameron kingdom. During their investigation, she begins to envision how the kingdom could be run if she had the chance to rule (with Fergus by her side as she realizes how much his vision for Dun Broch aligns with hers). One where she could incorporate her love for the arts and literature with a more welcoming, nurturing side and ensuring every citizen has food to eat with other necessities.
As Elinor begins to see the potential good she could do if she stays, and how fufilling the responsibilities could be, Merida also begins to see how she too had been selfish and shortsighted. Her role as a diplomat mattered in uniting clans, ensuring prosperity and peace, and she should be paying attention to her princess lessons. Also in seeing how her grandparents’ rule and their more stern, traditional ways, she also begins to appreciate how her mother’s ways was more respectful and affectionate even at their worst arguements.
It is also incredibly heartwarming as Elinor’s friendship with Merida and burgeoning relationship, Fergus makes her realize that part of her constraining duty as princess is that she has focused all her life on responsibility and how all her actions relate to being a princess. Fergus and Merida are the first person to see her as Elinor first rather than Princess Elinor.
Fergus has scant page-time compared to his future daughter and wife but its memorable to see the young, cocky warrior who gets under Elinor’s skin and his utter loyalty to the kingdom despite being the McCameron’s main rival clan. You can see shades of the boisterous family man he’d become along with the current stance of warrior trying to prove himself. And yes, the romance between Elinor and Fergus is sweet and sparkling.
Merida really grows from impulsive woman to one who thinks things through and begins to understand how other lives. Not just her mother, but appreciation for the work of scullary maids and srevants, the servant hierarchy, and the history of her land in seeing the thinly veiled resentment between clans during this warring era.
Rochon nicely balances the potential murder plot with new romance and time travel, giving full arcs to Elinor and Merida but there are few faults like how Merida is not only contending with the time travel spell but the fact that she’s also turning into a bear because she ate the cake. I guess it gave Merida an additional thing to worry about but I feel if you took it out, it wouldn’t have changed much besides Merida struggling to hide her suddenly hairy body and claws.
Also Rochon is a romance author which is why Fergus and Elinor’s slap-slap-kiss-not-so-different romance works but I couldn’t help but feel taken out of the story when Rochon has Merida think about the barely concealed tension simmering between them. It reminded too much of a contemporary romance more than something from Merida’s thoughts.
Otherwise, it was a great novel with bits of Celtic lore, court intrigue and tartans.
4 arrows
Rachel Reads & Reviews 
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