Let me say first, overall I really enjoyed the premise laid out by the book...once I was able to find it. If the prologue, first chapter, last chapter and epilogue of this book were torn out of every copy ever printed or shared, the world would likely be the better. Additionally, READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS.

My issues with the prologue and 1st chapter differ from those with the end chunk. We open in the prologue which is mean to be our establishing event, an animal of some kind coming upon a crime or accident out in the forest. This portion is the inner monologue of this animal. The first chapter jumps ahead in time a few weeks and is narrated as the inner monologue of our female protagonist. Both inner monologues are clunky, heavy handed and painful to wade through.

However, once the character is primarily out of their own head and interacting with other characters, this story really took off for me. One of the things that I really REALLY enjoyed about this author and their story is that there was clearly research done. The characters and the story lay out really detailed information about a handful of subjects regarding the science of fairy tales and the various iterations of them over the centuries. I thought this added really nicely to a genre that is highly saturated and made this story feel unique and engaging.

There were portions of the story where even the main characters rolled their eyes and seemed over the "fairy tale" niceties of some character's behaviors. I was willing to overlook this as it made me chuckle as I was often rolling my own eyes at someone's out of place, over the top antics.

While I understand that many, if not all, of the original fairy tales were violent and trigger warning ridden, an event in the middle of the book felt jarring and maybe unnecessary for me. It came out of no where and in not in a good way. The tone of the book really shifted from that point in a way that I'm still mulling over.

That shift took another fast and hard turn in the final chapter where my main character finally "decides to take control" and decides to force the magic to her will. This scene felt very uncomfortable, something in the cold way she laid out her proposal and Connor's unemotional going along with it that some how becomes intimacy? Which led us to the epilogue where I have absolutely no idea what or why. I can only assume the author had an end goal they needed to reach to set up a sequel and just made it happen. It is formatted once again as an inner monologue and my unsolicited, very non-professional advice is for the author to steer away from this format in the future. I hate how harsh my review of this book feels because there were aspects I enjoyed, but I could not recommend this to someone without very explicit understanding of their tastes and needs from a book in that moment.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC.

This was such a unique concept. Some of the residents in this world are forced to live out these fairytale storylines and I haven't read anything quite like this before. I thought it was a fresh concept. That being said, I felt like the details and world building could have been better and the banter was a bit lackluster.

TW: SA , Abuse , Death

“Some curses start with Once Upon A Time”

This book originally caught my eye with its gorgeous cover art. It managed to keep my gaze with its twisting storyline and ability to keep me guessing.

We follow are Heroine Loren Hughes as she tries to escape the clutches of her family’s curse that spans generations. A curse that magic forces them on the path to a “Happy Ever After” no matter how Grimm it may be getting there.

I was excited to follow Loren as her path twisted and turned. The characters had depth to them that I didn’t expect and the big reveal left me craving another book. The book takes the overdone fairytale trope and turns it into something new and exciting ( I read the whole book in a day). Great read !

Trigger Warnings to keep in mind before reading this book is: SA, Violence, Cursing

The story is set in a place called Lontaine where most residents, but not all have sort of a blood line curse where they are forced to live out an interpretation of a fairy tale story. Our main character's family has always been cursed with the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty and Loren tries to turn the tide to Beauty and the Beast.

The book was an overall good read. There were chapters where I personally, felt like the banter or information given was a little too much but once we got passed those chapters I could not put the book down. The book cover is breath taking and I feel it captures the story well!

I look forward to more publications by the author!

The only thing I noticed about the book that needs to be adjusted if it hasn't already is Chapter 33 was posted inside Chapter 32 and then Chapter 33 was posted in itself. Other than that the book was marvelous!

the cover was what drew me in and I'm so glad I got to read this, it had everything that I look for in a fairy tale story. The characters were what I was looking for and worked with the story, I never felt like they didn't belong in this. I enjoyed the way Auden Llyr wrote this as it was so well done. I can't wait for more from Auden Llyr as I enjoyed reading this.

"I did read fairy tales — how else would I have known about the version where the Beast proposes? But I don’t remember them being this bad. Damn!” He physically recoiled from the board. That made me nervous, so I got up to see which checklist had bothered him. “This is making me uncomfortable in my role as Beast.”