<b> Thank you to Netgalley for an e arc for review </b>


OH MY GOSH ❤️😍


This was so damn good. I can’t even describe my feeling at the end of this!

This is so haunting, beautiful, dark, twisted, fun. So creepy at parts and then so like majestic. This is an amazing story! It is a slow roller a little bit and normally that bothers me but I was just really enjoying the characters and the setting. It is kind of set in the past tense a little, the women are very much raised to just be wives. Go to balls and wear pretty dresses all the time. Definitely not a modern story, but I love historical fiction so I really clicked with this. I think it also should be labeled horror but uhm I almost had nightmares. Some of the scenes were like super scary to me lol. Very very creepy!

I LOVED the characters so so so much. Little Verity was my favorite I think, she’s just so cute and funny and I wanna squish her. The characters are really well developed and the world is too. I could picture everything perfectly.

I didn’t see that twist coming at all! I think it was super awesome and had me second guessing myself like 20 times.

The ending too though 😍.

A stunning fantasy! I loved the characters, settings and plot. Would Recommend!
Plus, what a gorgeous cover!

3.5 stars

I was incredibly excited to be approved for an ARC of House of Salt and Sorrows because I'd heard such great things. I was hesitant to start it, though, because I heard that it was scary, and I am a total weenie when it comes to horror/suspense. However, it wasn't as intense as some people made it out to be. That being said, I did enjoy this book! House of Salt and Sorrows is a lovely retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, set against a gloomy backdrop by the sea.

The sister relationships are so strong! The book opens with one of the older sister's funerals (I think that the first three have already died, but it's been a while since I finished this book). As one of the remaining eldest sisters, Annaleigh takes on the role of her younger sisters' carers.

I loved that Annaleigh is so kind-hearted, even with her stepmother whom she dislikes. It's a good characteristic to have.

The worldbuilding was so cool; I'm strangely into island-centered books, and this story is heavily impacted by the isolation of the island. The gloominess of living by the sea creates a quietly intense atmosphere surrounding the words.

Again, thrillers/horror/suspense is usually not my genre, but I really enjoyed this one! I especially liked the fantasy aspect of it; the religious system was interesting.

There were, however, some parts of the book that irritated me. The romance wasn't particularly interesting to me because it was so instalove-y that I couldn't take them seriously. I also thought the ending was incredibly rushed; I think everything happens in the last ten percent, having been built up so much and then all of the reveals being unveiled so quickly.

House of Salt and Sorrows was, overall, a nice read. The atmosphere was well-established, a soft gloominess that creeps up on you. I found this to be a solid debut. If you want something that will make you hold your breath, I definitely recommend this book.

**This review will be posted on my blog, Magical Reads, on August 4, 2019.**

A version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses set in an alternate world, a world with different gods and goddesses, religions and rules. The islands that the Thaumus family rules over are remote and devoted to Protus, god of the sea - the customs are different than those on the mainland, including a yearlong mourning period. After the death of her mother and four older sisters, Annaleigh hasn't been out of mourning for years yet her reaction to her stepmother's suggestion that the family cease and instead have a ball celebrating both the sixteenth birthday of "the triplets" and the pregnancy that might finally bring boys to the family doesn't excite her. At the ball, she realizes that the family is scorned for being cursed (in addition to breaking with custom) but her sisters are desperate to find husbands. And thus the dancing begins... There is a great twist here, and the world of the islands is well-realized. I'm hoping that the author revisits other old tales but sets them in this world as there are realms I'd love to explore.

eARC provided by publisher.

Vivid imagery, strong characterization, distinctive atmosphere, swoony romance, and shivers down my spine at every turn. I never knew what to expect and might be having nightmares for weeks! The belief system was particularly interesting to me. It felt like the best parts of Caraval, taken to the next level. I’ll definitely be recommending this one.

First - hello Erin A. Craig!  I can't wait to read more from you!  Second - not sure why it's taken me this long to sit down and write this review because I loved this! 

This book is haunting.
Heartbreaking.
Has amazing mythology.
It's twisty.
And there is a love story.

What more could you want?

House of Salt and Sorrows is a darker retelling of the Grimm's brother's The Twelve Dancing Princesses, with its own unique mythology.  There are parts of this book that are creepy AF, but in the very best way!  The world building is amazing, and I couldn't get enough of the visuals described.

I will admit HOSAS did read a bit slowly at times, but the mystery, the deaths, and the romance kept me turning pages.  I NEEDED to know what was going on with the Thaumas’ family!  And I couldn’t wait to see how Annaleigh’s story panned out.

All in all a good YA fantasy read; if you’re looking for a mystery with a dash of romance and a bit of a creep!

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig is one of my new favourite books. It is creepy and wonderful, and I know I will be going back and rereading on a regular basis. The storytelling is beautiful and haunting. The author blends thriller, horror, and fantasy genres in this Poe-esque tale.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by the Grimm Brothers. Craig definitely follows the brothers vibe with this spooky take on the story. The setting takes place in a fictional world, with gods and goddesses. Annaleigh Thaumas and her family of twelve sisters and her father live on a small island in a chain of islands. Her family is said to have been cursed after her fourth sister dies.

Annaleigh becomes convinced that her most recent sister's death was no coincidence. She believes it was murder. During this time she meets a handsome stranger on the main island and her childhood friend comes back to visit her family. As Annaleigh begins to look into her sister's death, disturbing apparitions begin to haunt her.

The Thaumas family begins to leave their mourning phase, and the girls begin to sneak out at night to magical parties where they dance and party all night. Is it really harmless fun or is there something more?

I was left breathless many times throughout the book. It ticked every box that I have, when I look for a book. It was creepy, beautiful, sad, magical, and well-written. This book came out of nowhere and left me thinking about it all day until I could sit down and continue reading. It haunted me long after I had finished. I truly cannot wait until the next book by this author comes out. This is one of my favourite new books and author.

This book is perfect for fans of Gaslamp fantasy, thrillers, or mysteries. Fans of Edgar Allan Poe and the Brontë Sisters will love this story.

House of Salt and Sarrows is an epic tale of family secrets, murder and mystery. The imagery and attention to detail from Erin A. Craig is unprecedented in this lovely tale with a hauntingly beautiful story line. I highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the darker twist to their stories.

HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS by Erin A. Craig is a haunting retelling of the fairy tale, The 12 Dancing Princesses. I received this ARC on behalf of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This post DOES NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS.

I will publish a post containing spoilers on Monday, August 12, on my blog, #MediaGalReads, to give readers the opportunity to read the story and form their own thoughts. However, here is the summary and my shortened review:

Why I was interested: I had never read a retelling of The 12 Dancing Princesses. It is a fairy tale you never really hear about being retold so that was an immediate check for me. Next, I love how the world building is inspired by the sea more so than forests and wide-spread acres of land.

Judge a book by it’s cover: The dark, brininess of the cover highlights the world so well.

What to expect: A dark, sea-inspired world, good mythology, some mild horror scenes wrapped together within an original retelling.

Why you should pick this book up: This book reminds me of an extended version of the ballroom scene in the Haunted Mansion ride at the Disney Parks but with a darker version of Ariel’s grotto. (I got some dark Disney vibes which I loved.)

Want more?: I will post an extended review containing spoilers on Monday, August 12, so come visit then for a more in-depth review!

Thanks for reading!

Marena Galluccio, #MediaGalReads
https://marenaelizabethgalluccio.com/blog/

It has been quite a while since I actually read this book and haven't brought myself to sit down and write the review, there have been much things going on here and the I chose to read in my down time rather than write. Maybe I didn't think I could do it justice. But that being said it had nothing to do with the caliber of this book. This book was amazing!

I have never read the story of the 12 princesses for which this book was based so I had no real preconceived ideas. But, 1 that title though! And 2, how gorgeous is that cover!!!

The blurb:
Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor manor with her sisters, father and stepmother. At the start of the story we are at a funeral for one of Annaleigh's sisters. The fourth tragic death of this family, with each being more tragic than the last. There are now whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Annaleigh struggles to find not only peace of mind, but comfort, as more tragedy strikes. She begins to feel as if she is going mad or if it's her family going mad. Or maybe there is something more menacing afoot.

There is mystery, intrigue and a little bit of romances. The story is beautifully told and tremendously vivid. Of course it is a dark tale surrounded by death but still managed to find a happy ending.

I absolutely adore this book and I hope that I can get my hands on a hard copy as soon as it comes out (maybe singed 😉😉)! I am extremely honored to have been given the chance to read an arc copy, and I think of all my arc this has been my favorite.

My little booklings, I think it's safe to say that, I whole heartedly recommend this book.
Oooobviously (I hear Snape here😉) I give this book a resounding 5 stars!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟


I owe thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy of House of Salt and Sorrows for a fair and honest review.

All I have to say is WOW!! I am shocked how much I loved this story! After I finished reading this book, I researched some reviews. I did not realize that this book was a retelling of a fairy tale called “the twelve dancing princesses”. I now have to read that fairytale! If you want the perfect gothic ghost story with magic doorways, romance, lots of suspense and family curses, then this is the perfect book for you. I loved the setting of this book with a mansion up on the dark waters of the sea. This is the first book in a long time where I was able to really picture the setting in my minds’ eye. After mourning the loss of some of their sisters the main character Annaleigh and what’s left of her 12 sisters start to believe they are cursed, and that they will eventually be burying more of eachother in the future. Were their sisters murdered in the middle of the night? Or is it something else all together? Annaleigh and her sisters start to see things and find things along the way of discovering what really is happening to their family. I can go on about this book but do yourself a favor. When it comes out on August 6, 2019 get yourself a copy! It is the perfect summer into fall book just because of the atmosphere.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book in advance. I cannot wait to have a physical copy of it!

I absolutely loved this book. It's a retelling of the fairytale The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but it's much darker than the original tale and it's quite original.

On a remote island lives a Duke and his daughters. There were once 12 sisters, but four of them have died and the family is in perpetual morning. Annaleigh is now the second oldest, and she begins to suspect that the most recent death wasn't an accident.

Fairytale retellings can be tricky. The reader already knows the basic plot, so there has to something different to pull you into the story. House of Salt and Sorrows takes a very original approach to the story. Having some of the sisters already dead at the beginning of the story makes this as much a mystery as a fantasy, and I really enjoyed that aspect of the story.

The world building is really well done. The sense of the island, the sea, the life they live is vivid and really comes alive. The island is beautiful and creepy and vividly described. The islanders worship of the sea god Pontus, and the pantheon of deities worshiped by other parts of the country were really interesting.

This book is my favorite read for 2019 - the moment I picked it up I didn’t want to put it down. The cover is insanely beautiful, it’s wonderfully written and completely immersive from page one.

The story follows Annaleigh, one of 12 sisters, and her life on an isolated, brutal set of island trying to solve the mystery of her (possibly) murdered sister.

The book is so full of twists and turns I was questioning my own sanity by the end. Do yourself a favor and IMMEDIATELY go and pick this one up!

The aptly titled House of Salt and Sorrows introduces a slew of new gods and beliefs from a family plagued by death and sadness. This story is steeped in folklore and superstitions that may or may not be justified. I loved that this story kept me guessing as to what would happen next, all the while, the plot was given the needed time to develop. This was a great retelling of The 12 Dancing Princesses that brought a fresh spin on tragedy and sisterhood.

I'm so torn on my feelings about this book. On one hand, I really loved that this was a reimagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and I found the haunting more horror novel parts of this book to be brilliant! Unfortunately though there wasn't that many of them really. I thought that this area in particular is where this author shined. I found her darker scenes to be the most vivid. I truly hope she one day decides to write a horror novel, because I'd read the hell out of it.

On the other hand I found this to be a slow read for me. More often than not I was just waiting to get to the next macabre scene because those were the ones I enjoyed the most. I think maybe the issue for me was that this story was being pulled into so many directions, a mystery, a romance, a thriller, etc. that it ultimately didn't fully accomplish any of them. It was as if the foundations were there but none were fully fleshed out and realized. The romance ended up feeling rushed, the mystery seemed to rise and then fall away and then rise again, and the thrilling parts were too few and far between. Sometimes compelling characters can help make up for this type of thing a bit, but I had a hard time connecting with any of them. Annaleigh more often than not thought about doing things rather than actually fully going for it.

Ultimately House of Salt and Sorrows just ended up falling somewhere in the middle for me. I liked the roots individually, but as we went along they kinda grew tangled together, suffocating each from their full potential.

House of Salt and Sorrows is a beautifully written retelling of the fairy tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”. Erin A Craig creates a magical world that will captivate lovers of fairy tale retellings. This book is a great combination of creepy, mind games, and a little romance thrown in, just for good measure. Highly recommended to readers looking for a dark fantasy, and I would definitely purchase this book for my library.

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pros:
- World: I really enjoyed the world this book takes place in. I enjoyed the idea of Highmoor and the Thalmus curse. It was fascinating to see how their lives were secluded from the rest of the world but still very much involved due to their father's profession.
- Religion: I am saying religion even though that may be the wrong term, but I liked how each area of the world worshiped a different God that was based on their livelihoods. But that being said, I feel like we did not get to know enough about the Gods others than Pontus which the Thalmus girls worshiped.

Cons:
-Twist: I predicted who was going to be the cause of her sisters' death way at the beginning and I never wavered with this guess, even when the author tried to get us to believe it was someone else. I feel like she picked the next obvious person after the one that is implied in the summary.
- Pacing: This book struggled to move the story forward. I feel like everything happened in the last 15% of the book and it took forever for things to happen that are stated in the summary. That is something that really irks me lately in YA when a summary tells you something that as a reader you do not actually find out about until way into the book.

Overall, this book was a disappointment. I wanted so much more with the mystery of her sisters mysteriously dying off, this mysterious stranger, and these magical balls the sisters were attending. But I feel like I did not quite get that and instead got this overly drawn out story that took way too long to pick up and grab my attention. It took me 12 days to read this and that was mostly because I never felt the need to pick this up to see what would happen. Eventually, I just told myself I needed to finish so I could start the next books on my TBR for the month.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book.*

I didn’t find the story very interesting enough to keep reading. It seemed bland and didn’t seem to be going anywhere. The story started off with a funeral for one of the sisters, Eulalie, and didn’t feel a connection to the story.

This is my favorite sea theme books I've read this year and my second favorite of all time. First, I have never read anything by Erin A. Craig but now I want to read more. Her style is mystical, cleaver and balanced. Second, the overall story was surprising. Halfway through the book, I was like this is just what I thought and wanted it to be, the boom! Out of now where it changes and become even better then what I thought it was going to be. Somehow this turned out to be a book I was needing.
Second, the characters. So if you don't knot this book is set by the sea where Annaleigh, our main character lives with her twelve sisters. I thought that I was going to have a hard time keeping who was who. But I didn't! Not only does each sister have their own personalities but each person in this book stands out on their own. I enjoyed the relationships between the sisters; they felt like real sisters who bicker but also sisters who watch out for each other.
Third, there is quite a bit going on in this story but it's all well paced and woven neatly together so that it's not rushed or to slow. There's balls, romances, and so much more that I can't say because of spoilers!

A perplexing mystery by the sea with an ending that will take your breath away!

I am a sucker for fairy tale retellings, so I had to read this. The writing of this book was good. The prose is pretty, and all the creepy and unsettling moments throughout the story were very well done. The ending is what gave this review a few deducted stars. It had me on a total roller coaster, one second I was like yes, this is going to be an awesome ending! Then the next second I’m turning back pages to see if I missed something. The “villain” was predictable and everything was resolved too quickly. there was five percent of the book left, and I was thinking to myself that there’s no way everything is going to be wrapped up nicely by the end.