About the Book

Book: The Star-Blessed Author: Angie Dickinson Genre: YA Fantasy Retelling Release Date: March 10, 2026 Three legendary origins of power. Two royal bloodlines. One deadly curse. The kingdom of Stelauris is slowly dying. A season of poison infects the air, earth, and water with increasing deadliness each year, and a deep love of gold and power infects the failing mind of the king. His only daughter and first in line to the throne, Princess Seren, lives in tightly controlled isolation. When she is suddenly thrust into royal society, she struggles to hide the strain of untamed magic awakening in her blood. Seren’s newly appointed personal guard, Sir Corin, resents the exile of his people. As heir to a long-banished line of succession and the last of the land’s legendary protectors, he holds no loyalty for the current royal family and their history of unhinged cruelty. As death steals over the kingdom and the schemes at court grow deadlier, the princess and the guard are forced to face their fears, their troubled pasts, and the cost of personal freedom. The Star-Blessed is a reimagining and reinventing of two fairy tales: “Rumpelstiltskin” and “Cat-Skin” by the Brothers Grimm.

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About the Author

Angie Dickinson is a lifelong lover of magical stories that point to truth, hope, and redemption. She is the author of Truth Cursed, a YA fantasy with Enclave Publishing. Angie especially loves to read and write historically inspired fantasy, mystery, and fairy tales. She enjoys Earl Grey tea, reading too late at night, and spending time with her husband and children at their home in the woods of Michigan.

More from Angie

If you’re like me, I suspect you can still remember the soft sounds and smells of the local or school library that you visited in childhood. You can probably remember the thrill of finding a book that you longed to spend time paging through in peace. For me, the greatest thrills came whenever I found a beautifully illustrated fairy tale. Fairy tale collections were always my favorite, and finding illustrated versions by talented artists made my heart sing.

Reading and re-reading fairy tales as a child eventually led to writing my own retelling as an adult. I began with an unusual tale that was very familiar to me via its illustrated retelling: “Cat-Skin” by the Brothers Grimm has been gorgeously retold (and mercifully sanitized) by Charlotte Huck, and illustrated by Anita Lobel. This picture book for children is titled Princess Furball, and is one of my old favorites that never left me. I chose this story and its original source for my retelling, lightening the darker original elements in my own way, but including the story beats, themes, and motifs that were so dear to me. I put my own twist on the tale, which surprisingly (even to me) included a subplot that was a retelling of its own: “Rumpelstiltskin.” I have loved many versions of this familiar story over the years, but my favorite is an illustrated retelling by Paul O. Zelinsky. I have read this one to my children countless times, and it has always set my mind whirring with the different ways that it could be told again.

For my retelling, I lovingly mined these two stories, “Cat-Skin” and “Rumpelstiltskin,” and worked them together into a foundation for a new fairy tale. The frame holds pieces of the old tales, but it’s wrapped up in something brand new. This is a story of a young woman and a young man whose paths cross and wend down a road marked by destiny, shadowed by grief, and lit by courage. Their story is a new fairy tale, reflected in gold and fortified by the faithful gleam of the stars.

Interview with the Author

If you could travel back in time, what time period would you go to?

I would be fascinated to see what life was like in England and Ireland during the time of the Norman invasion. I suspect it would be a lot more brutal than I’d actually like to experience, though! I’d also love to visit the Renaissance era, or perhaps Georgian-Regency England and lurk about a Jane Austen drawing room.

What is your favorite hymn and why?

“Come Thou Fount” is my favorite hymn because it is full of truthfully, beautifully written reminders of who Christ is and who I am. I am a sinner in need of a Savior, and that is exactly who he is. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above. These lyrics capture the prayer of my heart.

What inspired you to write this book?

As a lifelong fairy tale lover, I always wanted to write retellings. While The Star-Blessed is very much an original tale of its own, it also combines two fairy tales that have always fascinated me: “Rumpelstiltskin” and “Catskin.” I wanted to see how I could reimagine and weave elements of those tales into my own story, and not only did that give me a jumping-off point and a loose framework to play with, it also provided me with an excess of inspiration. It was thrilling to incorporate the gold, the bargain, the vengeance, the name, the courage, the coat of furs, the gowns of the sun, moon, and stars, and so much more.

Share with me a few of your favorite things.

Swimming at the beach or boating on a hot summer day, gardening on a cool summer day. Snuggling up with my family, a cup of tea, and a good book or board game on a chilly winter evening. Candles. Babies trying to put on a hat. Cute aggression and happy tears. Berry pie with vanilla ice cream. The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. Stumbling across an example of God’s grace in an unlikely place. Pickled everything. Watching a good mystery with my husband. Crafting with my kids. Iced coffee. Finding the plot.