I enjoy reading the new takes on old tales that have been coming out in recent years. They aren't are great, but it's still fun to read them! I'm a big fan of all fairy tales and this one was is a new one to add to my collection! It's a fun take on all the Grimm's ladies and Hansel, that I think many readers will enjoy. Fun story!

This was a fun, creative take on the fairy tales we all grew up with: Rapunzel, Snow White and Cinderella are all queens of different regions of a land called Grimm. Sleeping Beauty is set to wake up any day now, and there's an avenging witch - and a homicidal, wolf-faced madman - on the loose. Hansel and Gretel are on a mission to save the world, with the help of Little Red Cap, Rumpelstiltskin, and a magic-wielding chambermaid. This book had fun characters, lots of action, and some funny moments that made me chuckle. Sometimes the writing was a little juvenile and there were some inconsistencies in the story, but overall this was a fun read.

This book is based off the Grimm tales, with many of their classic characters make an appearance, but Hansel and Gretel are the two main characters. I enjoyed this story with all the fun twists and the author's take on these classics.

I love fairy tales and always have. It's never been about the happy ending, more the overcoming an obstacle.

Just Off The Path takes the familiar tales of Hansel & Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Cinderella and more and mashes this into one magical land. Queens rule different parts of the land, there's a murderer on the loose and Hansel and Gretel are called upon to save everyone.

The idea behind this story and book is great! However, Hansel comes off like an a$$ and kind of a pushover in every instance. While he was the main character of the book, the women are the clear stars. They come together in a spectacular finish and Hansel sits back and somehow still comes off the hero. Still, the idea of all the 'magical kingdoms' mashed into one was great.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is a very entertaining mash-up of lots of well known fairy tales, set in the Kingdom of Grimm (nice touch). A good read for all lovers of fairy tale stories and fans of the Once Upon a Time TV show.

I had just finished two deep emotionally involving books when I started Just Off the Path by Weston Sullivan. I had it waiting on my TBR list for quite some time, so I had completely forgotten what it was about or why I had chosen to read it.

As soon as I started reading the prologue about the looking glass on the wall, I realized it was a story based around the Grimm fairy tales. The prologue sets the scene with Rose pricking her finger and falling asleep, along with everyone in her castle.

Next we meet Hansel and Gretel as they are trying to prepare themselves for the long winter ahead with some hunting for food in the forest. They hear a scream and find a girl in the woods in a red cape. She is being chased by a large man, who turns out to be a wolf.

And so it begins. All of your favorite characters are here: Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin to name a few. Hansel and Gretel are the main characters and the story is told through Hansel.

i enjoyed this book. It held my interest, there were even some twists and turns as Hansel found out that not all princesses are as they seem.

"Now, the mirror couldn't sleep. It was left alone, halved, and halved, and halved again by her jealousy. It sat awake for years, predicting nothing, repeating everything. It was broken, and it awaited the awakening, the reckoning, the punishment--the world is in pieces, the man is in pieces, and the mirror? She is in pieces."

Welcome to the world of Grimm, and the far-off realms of Camelot, and Neverland.

If you ever wanted a book that included all of your favorite fairy tale characters, this just may be the read for you!

There are sightings of: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Cap (or Riding Hood) AKA Ceara and The Wolf, (as disgusting as ever), Rapunzel, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and so many more! There's just one...hitch--not every character in this tale is how we have all come to know and love them.

The story starts out with an enticing backstory, rich in its imagery to set the stage for the rest of the tale.

We follow the story of Hansel and Gretel, who are a part of a world steeped in the "folkloric" history of their nation. While the rightful ruler of Grimm, sleeping beauty Briar Rose, has been cursed and asleep for one hundred years, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Cinderella have been designated as rulers of their own individual realms. When an enemy from the past reappears after being locked away, all havoc breaks loose; friends become traitors, truth-tellers become liars, selfless characters become swayed by their own personal agendas. In an attempt to fight against the evil force, the three queens attempt to join forces to vanquish Gothel, but without avail. The turmoils of their own relationships, nations, and scheming get in the way of building an alliance together.

"Grimm runs rampant with fairytales. But that's what makes Gothel evil--the fact that she is the only one out of all of us who is willing to tell the truth. She is a villain because she is honest. Isn't that ironic?"

The way that this book started out, I knew I was in for a dark retelling. After reading so many retellings from a female perspective, it was interesting to see it from the other side of the coin. However, Hansel's musing of a female counterpart were a bit graphic and, for lack of a better term, foreign. Other than that, he really didn't have much else to think or say. He was naked a lot and always had to make sure that the reader knew when he was naked.

Nearly all of the characters could have used more dimension. While some stayed true to their character, others tried to derail their stereotypical traits to change the tides of the story--and it didn't work out as planned. Had the characters had more substance to them, it would have added so much more to the plot and each person so that they wouldn't be so transparent in their plans.

I felt that the book itself was broken up into three sections that weren't able to come together. There is this haunting, lyrical backstory about the mirror, but it is never really given a chance to shine again. The body of the text is a mishmash of things happening which...kept happening...and the characters are still running around not figuring out who's behind the scheming...when it is downright obvious. Thanks, Hansel, for being a boy who thinks that a pretty girl cannot do something against her better judgement. Really?

The ending was rushed and definitely didn't flow as well as the previous "sections".

With all of that said, I thought that the premise itself was brilliant, it just needed better execution and more detail. I felt this book was scratching at the surface of a brilliant. plot beneath.

Vulgarity: None that I recall?
Sexual content: Moderate. This may be towards the New Adult spectrum.
Violence: Some.

2 stars.

This is a really clever retelling in a dystopian world where the famous curse on sleeping beauty has riven Grimm into a series of small squabbling states. Rapunzel, the Queen, is clearly out of her depth and I found her the most fascinating of all the characters. I enjoyed the way in which nothing is as it first seems. And the way Sullivan plays with established fairytale characters is both smart and intriguing.

However, for some reason while there was never any risk of not completing this book, I didn’t love it as much as I had expected. I didn’t bond with Hansel, finding his constant negativity a real problem. Neither did I like Gretel very much. And as these were the two main characters who were at risk throughout, I wasn’t as heavily invested in the story as the stakes were raised and they were increasingly at risk.

That said, I’m aware this is the personal preference and the other reviewers have loved this one. If I have found Hansel more appealing doubtless. I too would have been caught up in the story, which is accomplished and clever. Recommended for fans of fairytale retellings.

While I obtained the arc of Just Off the Path from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.
7/10

A variety of fairy tale characters lived in an interconnected world. Their backgrounds were the classic fairy tales you know. Their personalities and current stations in life were not what you'd expect. The plot was okay but nothing riveting. This book did not hold my attention. I wouldn't have finished it if it weren't an ARC.

The writing style did not work for me. Some scenes did not flow smoothly. Too much information was given about the wrong things. A lot more could have been explored with the world building. A lot of time was spent on Hansel's rambling and incredibly boring thoughts.

All of the characters were one dimensional. I didn't particularly care for any of them. The main character was Hansel. He wasn't very proactive. The only thing particularly notable about him was his obsession with Rapunzel. She was so high handed and cold. I don't know what it was he saw in her. Gretel would have made a much better main character. She was a rule breaker who was willing to stand up for what was right. There were several other characters but they're not even worth mentioning.

I was so excited for this book. But unfortunately the story just wasn't for me.

Rating: 2/5 Stars
 I received a copy of this novel, in exchange for an honest review.
 I was really excited and intrigued to see what came of Weston Sullivan's novel. As a big fan of fairy tales, retellings and the television show Once Upon a Time I was eager to see how Sullivan rehashed and combined the story of Hansel & Gretel with the other works of the Grimm brothers. I'll start with what I enjoyed, and then I'll move on to what I didn't.

 Firstly, I think Sullivan did a pretty good job at shaping the world of Grimm. The rules of the world are set up quickly, characters establish their relationships to one another early on and its easy to envision a country ravaged by a harsh and unforgiving winter. I think that the plot was interesting, but had a lot more potential;what could have been an interesting to and fro of vengeance and discovery was a lot of sitting around reading books and staring out of windows. There were a lot of convenient excuses for exposition and I wanted to see more of the world itself - we spend a lot of time stuck in one place.

 I think the characters also had a lot of potential, but they are often perceived as bland and unreliable - in that they will often behave outside of their established character rules. By this I mean that some of their personalities are unreliable and disjointed and there is no coherent drive for these changes besides Hansel's very very extensive exposition.
 Which brings me onto my next point - we spend a lot of time in Hansel's head and its a shame because he doesn't do all that much. He's a very passive character and a lot of the plot happens to him rather than it being driven by him. He isn't a driving force, and I was much more interested in some of the minor characters. Cinderella was my favourite and she was only present for a few scenes!
 A lot of Hansel's thoughts and feelings are written into the third person narrative, and there is a lot going on in terms of description. We spend most of the novel being told what to feel and what to think about certain characters. We don't get to discover it for ourselves; most of the interesting developments don't even happen on the page - we're just told about them! This isn't helped by the fact that Sullivan's writing style is clunky and long winded. I found the Prologue confusing and it clashed with information we are given later in the novel (the mirror featured in the prologue is supposed to be cracked, and is in pristine condition when found by our main characters). It took me a long time to get through the first half of this novel because so little happens in it. I never want to see another character look out a window, onto a city street feeling sorry for himself ever again. Seriously. It happens a lot.

 I can forgive spelling mistakes and grammar as this is a proof copy, so its important to note that those minor errors will not be contributing towards my final rating. There are some specific issues I have with the novel though, particularly with regards to the rampant presence of minor plot holes. I also have a problem with how Cinderella is introduced but I'll get onto that later. 
 As I began, there are a lot of plot holes in this novel. Some of them are so glaringly obvious it almost ruins my entire perception of the scene itself. I'll give you some non-spoiler examples. In the following scene, winter has come to the forest and snow is heavy on the ground. We are told that the snow is so thick that our characters are leaving trails in their wake:

 We instinctively rushed for cover, backing against an icy trunk of a nearby tree.

 I'm sorry, explain to me how you plan to hide behind a tree after clearly leaving tracks in the snow?
 We also have moments where Sullivan confuses his own established character rules. Hansel at this next point in the novel has been labelled slim, weak and much smaller than his bulkier, tall and very sparring partner Klaus:

 He didn't want to get hurt, and he didn't want to accidentally hurt Klaus.

 You have never before managed to lay a finger on Klaus. I don't think you're much of a threat now Hansel dear. We also have clear narrative mistakes where characters reference scenes that never happen:

He thought back to the letter they'd found in the Tower of Spindles.

 This never occurs in the novel. At all. Glaring mistakes that confuse the reader and detach them from the reading experience over all. Whats sad is these are only a few of the issues I have noted down! The entire experience is disjointed and messy and I hope for the sake of this novel that it's tidied up before its official release. I also don't think that Sullivan understands what translucent means. He uses it inappropriately, numerous times and I'm pretty sure skin and a bright red house can't be see through. 
 Honestly I think I have to stop there in terms of narrative issues and plot holes otherwise I'll never get this review finished. The last, most glaring issue I had with the novel was how Sullivan described Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin. I was excited initially, as this rendition of the Cinderella is a black woman with the magical ability to conjure and control animals. Sullivan however, others and exoticizes the character:

She was dark-skinned and exotic.
and
She was wearing peasant garb; an off-white maid's dress that clung to her bodice, showing off her exotic shape.

Honestly its so disappointing because Cinderella is in earnest - the most interesting character in the entire novel. Don't know why that's an issue? Read this article, because a woman of colour is going to be able to tell you better than I can. We also have characters use ableist language in terms of how the character Rumpelstiltskin (the only other character of colour, described as being "sickly brown") is perceived:

"Is he..." Hansel struggled to find a polite word. "Right?"..."In the head," Hansel said.
and
Hansel wouldn't believe he was anything more than a confused, half-wit hermit.

Honestly I was close to quitting the novel there and then, but I didn't and here we are. That's everything I have to say about Just Off the Path. Overall I was underwhelmed and disappointed because the novel had a lot of potential - I had really high hopes going into it. You can find the novel for yourself at its Goodreads page which I'll link below. I hope you found this inciteful or at the very least useful.

So yes, it's a fairytale mashup. Having just read The Carver before I read this it took me a moment to get it straight in my head which fairytale was which. Difficult when everything is already so jumbled.

Let's look at world building. This is a fairly standard fairytale world, not a huge amount to report. There's a lot of talk about different kingdoms (e.g. Snow White's Kingdom is mentioned a lot) but I don't think it was quite clear how far away that kingdom was as the action of this book is certainly limited to about four locations. Not in itself a bad thing, but I have read more creative fairytale settings in my time.

Magic-wise there wasn't a great deal when all's said and done since much of the kingdom is under Rapunzel's magic ban. Suffice to say, it seems that magic is something to do with having hands...that's about as detailed as I can get.

So not bad world building just not exceptional world building, I've read a lot of books with phenomenally intricate worlds of late and in comparison this is a little bit meh.

Characters, now this was a lot better than the world building. I'm not going to spoil things, but the way Sullivan handled the Hansel and Gretel backstory was very cool. Any time you pull together multiple fairytales you're going to have a lot of characters to choose from, I personally thought this selection was pretty good. I enjoyed the addition of Little Red Riding Hood as well as Rumplestiltskin. There's a lot of characters none of whom struck me as badly written.

Plot. This is where things get a little muddled. I just think this book jumped from one thing to another too quickly and it's hard to keep a handle on the rudder (as it were) and actually steer yourself to a satisfactory conclusion. I had to keep skipping back and reading bits again (which is fine on a re-read but I want the first read to be smooth!). There's a decent plot underneath all the confusion though, with some nice twists that keep you on your toes. It's not a predictable fairytale plot as such.

Is this book a groundbreaking addition to a market already flooded with fairytale inspired stories? Not so much. Is it a perfectly good fairytale mashup in and of itself? I would say so. I don't know that there was enough in this for me to really love it, but it was a perfectly enjoyable read.

My rating: 3/5 stars

By the way, I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I'm so very disappointed in this book. I was very much looking forward to a magical, yet intelligible retelling of the classic Hansel and Gretel story. Instead I feel like I've read the nonsensical ramblings of a tween who suddenly gets the idea to write a book one day!

I'm not sure if the copy I received on Netgalley was an uncorrected ARC or what, but it was rife with errors. And not grammatical ones, either. These were errors as if the author had forgotten they told you one detail previously, only to change it shortly after. For example (there were three errors I caught all within the first third of the book), all in one paragraph Rapunzel went from walking up the stairs to meet Hansel and Gretel to stepping "down into the room" to meet them. Eh??? And Hansel remarks about the luxurious "peacock feather-stuffed pillows" in the castle to later saying they were so luxurious, they must be stuffed with quail. The book is full of these little idiosyncrasies and they're so very distracting. Again, maybe this is an uncorrected proof and they'll get these ironed out before the release. If so, my apologies.

Anyway, even if the above is taken care of before release, the writing is rather unimaginative. There are also several lude scenes that just don't mesh with the rest of the book. Overall, this could've been great but it was very very poorly executed.

Weston Sullivan has an interesting approach to the world of fairy tales.  Unlike the well known series Fable, fairy tale characters reside in a fantasy world.  All of their stories overlap and merge.  With Briar Rose and the rightful rulers of Grimm asleep for 100 years, other kingdoms have emerged.  Rapunzel, Cinderella and Snow White (who we don't meet) are queens ruling various parts of Grimm.  The one unifying factor is fear of the Uninvited Thirteenth, the wicked witch who held Rapunzel captive, blinded her prince, and put Briar Rose under a curse.  Hansel and Gretel were also seen as her victims, though their story is not quite as history recorded.  Throughout Grimm, people are being murdered, their hands stolen for some nefarious purpose.  Brought to Rapunzel’s castle, ostensibly for their own protection, Hansel and Gretel discover that Gothel, the uninvited thirteenth, has escaped her prison and intends to get revenge.  Hansel and Gretel fear her wrath and the implications for Grimm - with Spring comes the end of Briar Rose’s enchanted sleep.  Unwittingly, Hansel and his sister are drawn into an adventure where they are forced to face the nature of their own story and that of Gothel in order to save Grimm.

Just Off the Path blends the fairy tales well, making the stories work together.  Although it's clear that Gothel has a softer side, she is still too one dimensional.  She never has a chance to be more than a wicked witch, despite Sullivan implying there is more to her.  I enjoyed the novel, but it is one I'm unlikely to pick up again.  It’s good, but not exceptional.  Still, it is a debut novel and Weston Sullivan shows promise as a writer.

3.5 rounded up 4 / 5

I received a copy of Just Off the Path from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

Excellent retelling! I have always loved remakes of classics and fairytales and such! This book I'd a great addition to my collection

An interesting "remix" of Grimms' Fairy Tales considered as a real, but magical, landscape in which many of the well-known principals preside over their own areas. The tone rejects the modern revisionist light approach in favour of presenting a darker tale, more in keeping with the originals, in which Hansel and Gretel are involved in magical politics and fraud. Well-written, with a noir feeling to it, Just Off The Path is just the thing for those who prefer their fantasy with a moodier touch.

This started off okay but I quickly lost all interest in it. I think one of the reasons is that out of all the characters the author could have chosen to be the narrator he picks Hansel, who is just incredibly dull and never really does anything proactive and changes his mind about everything twenty times depending on the opinion of the last person he talked to.

Oh yeah, and he has a crush on like every single woman in this book and it's super annoying. I was ignoring it for the most part but then about a quarter of the way through he's staring longingly at a portrait of Rapunzel and comments on how it brings out her "feminine vulnerability". This was about the time that my eyes rolled clean out of my head and I started skimming the rest of the book.

Also I felt like the plot was convoluted and drawn out. Really the whole thing was convoluted. I do have some amount of respect that the author managed to take like every single fairy tale character and put them in the same kingdom at the same time and give them all familial ties and make it more or less make sense, but it just became too much for me after awhile. I'm sure this will be a selling point for some people but I felt like it was better in theory than in practice.

Add to that the fact that 90% of the women in this book seem to hate all the other women around for literally no reason other than the 'oh women are always jealous of each other' trope and I was just not a fan of this book.

Many thanks to Weston Sullivan, Fire Quill Publishing, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I admit it; I'm a Lost Boy. I've never really grown up. And I LOVE anything to do with fairy tales. But Sullivan's book did not settle well with me. It's a personal issue I'm having with the premise, not anything that is inherently wrong with the story, although the author does seem to have a raging case of comma-itis. The plot was just so mirthless, so sinister, and so malignant that I was depressed the entire time I read it. Nothing positive happens. I realize that true Grimm fairy tales were rather grim lessons, but come on, lighten up just a little. I was never so glad to finish a book in my whole life.

Objectively it's a very well constructed story. Character development is strong. Plot is easy to follow and isn't strung out. Resolution is acceptable and some may not see it coming. But I just finished the tale feeling quite unsatisfied. Sorry

How many lies can you tell to protect yourself before it's time to tell the truth? Who will you harm by keeping your secrets? In true Grimm style this fairytale mash up is magic mixed with darkness.