This book was fantastic! I loved the magic, the bond of the sisters, the setting, the description, the gods they worshipped. That was a big run on sentence but this book was absolutely wonderful. The author did an amazing time with the description. It felt like I could picture everything so clearly in my mind and was there with Annaleigh and her family. It had love interests which are always good. There was also drama and mystery. There were some spooky parts which I loved. I actually found myself scared during a few parts. All in all I will definitely be picking up a copy when this is released and any other future books from this author as well!

House of Salt and Sorrows is more than just a retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." Craig does a terrific job building a world that is interesting, unique, yet believable, and she somehow does this without sacrificing story, character development, or readability.

House of Salt and Sorrows is atmospheric and compelling without becoming a gothic trope. A seafaring duke and his second wife are raising his eight remaining daughters in a castle by the sea. The first four daughters all met with an early death, as did their mother, fueling gossip that there is a curse on the family. Our protagonist, Annaleigh, the sixth eldest daughter (now second in the succession) believes one of the sisters was murdered and seeks to discover the truth.

What I love most about House of Salt and Sorrows is that it is not predictable YA fantasy romance fare. Annaleigh is not a stubborn Mary Sue, and the sisters are well-defined. I guess you could say there is a love triangle, but it's definitely not the focus. I also adore that House of Salt and Sorrows is a standalone novel. We don't need a book for each sister, and Craig avoids the series trap that many, many authors have fallen into these days for books that are better on their own.

Annaleigh has her own goals and ambitions, but she's not pigheaded about them or trying to achieve them at all costs. She also doesn't blindly run around bashing into everything as she tries to save her family from impending doom. She occasionally steps back and trusts that she's done all that she can to persuade them, even if she's wrong. In short, Annaleigh is a realistic character.

Actually, what I really love most is how interesting the world is which Craig has built. It's like Sea Witch but better. A series of islands, some with very unique sociocultural traditions and climates, but not in a trope-y way. The explanation of the different gods and how geography affects religious beliefs was intriguing without being an info-dump. While giving us a Greek/Romanesque view of gods as being more hands-on in the human population, the interactions are unique and don't necessarily need to be explained ad nauseam.

All in all, a really interesting and well done novel, especially for a debut.

First off I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Children's Delacorte Press for the opportunity to read and review House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig. Before reading this book, I have never read or knew anything about the story of the Twelve Dancing Princess. I love when a author takes a fairy tale and twists it into something like House of Salt and Sorrows. As from the synopsis, the story follows the lives of a family who is believed to be cursed. This curse is killing off the daughters one by one. The plot takes many twists and turns. I was not expecting several of them nor was I expecting the ending. The author does a really good job with the suspense of the plot and definitely keeps you on your toes. The character development is also pretty good. I could visualize each daughter and understand their personality. The book even turned a little scary a few times which I was not expecting. Not like horror scary just enough to creep you out a bit. House of Salt and Sorrows is definitely on my top list of reads this year and I can't wait to pick up the hardcover when it is available.

I have read quite a few retellings of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and this was definitely the strangest. Without posting spoilers, I will just say that a little over halfway through, this book turned into something completely different and unexpected. Honestly, I did not care for the tonal change. I greatly enjoyed the main character, Annaleigh, and her journey was fun to read. There were two possible love interests as well, and I really liked them both. The book was not wrapped up very well in my opinion. Overall it was a book I'm not sad I finished but just wasn't my cup of tea.

I am a sucker for fairy tale retellings and the story of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" has always been one of my favorites, so I was pretty well hooked before I even made it to the first page. Craig's macabre take on the tale did not disappoint, spinning an entirely unique vision of the princesses' fate that mixed elements of mystery, fantasy, horror, romance, and psychological thriller. The characters and settings were richly depicted in a world that I sincerely hope the author chooses to revisit.

My one complaint, and the only reason I did not give the book five stars, is that the ending felt rushed compared to the almost leisurely (but effective) pace of the building mystery of the princesses' curse that had me aching for a resolution. That resolution came, but felt comparatively trite after the careful layers the author built to reach that point. Regardless, I would happily recommend this book and look forward to future works by this author.

Once known as the Thaumas dozen, Annaleigh, and her remaining seven sisters have been burdened with tragedy. They reside in Highmoor, a manor by the sea, where their father, The 19th Duke of the Salann Islands, rules over the people of the salt. Annaleigh's mother and four older sisters Ava, Octavia, Elizabeth, and Eulalie, each died tragically, one after the other, inciting rumors of a family curse. Annaleigh is certain her sister Eulalie's death was not an accident. Disturbing ghostly visions, a mysterious stranger, and enchanted nightly balls might just hold the key to her families secret...if it doesn't kill her first.

House of Salt and Sorrows is a fantastic dark reimagining of the fairy tale 12 Dancing Princesses. Similar to the classic fairy tale, the remaining sisters are transported to an enchanted ball each night where they wear out their shoes, a mystery to be solved. Unlike the fairy tale, someone or something is murdering the young women. This novel is a dark fantasy with filled with Gods, Goddess, Ghosts, and magic. This definitely has some very graphic and violent content so it might not be suitable for some young readers. The novel was beautifully written with a unique twist on the original tale. I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed and felt a little disjointed from the rest of the novel but I'm keeping the 5 star rating for several reasons: I enjoy dark retellings, I love the cover, and the author used a fairly unique fairy tale versus one that's been overdone. This book hooked me from the first chapter and I really didn't want to put it down. I will definitely be adding this to my library when it releases so I can revisit it over and over again. As someone who reads quite a bit of YA fantasy, I feel like many novels begin to feel very similar. This was a very refreshing and much needed change from the mundane. This is definitely going in my favorites as a must read for 2019!

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

House of Salt and Sorrows was so freaking good! I honestly couldn't put it down once I started it. This book had so many freaking twists and turns in it that I didn't see coming. Now if it was because of the wine or how freaking tired I was - I have no idea or witnesses to prove this. Either way, I enjoyed the heck out of this book.

In it, you will meet Annaleigh. Now she believes some of her family members were murdered. However, no one believes her because of her evil stepmonster.. I mean mother. Enter her savior, I mean man crush.. I mean Cassius. Oh lord, was he swoon-freaking-worthy guys! The romance between them was completely ship-worthy!! I absolutely loved them and now I'm already missing this book that I can't wait to dive back into it.

Besides the romance and mysterious deaths in this book, it's super creepy. But it's like a good creepy because you are constantly at the edge of your seat.. Or on the tips of your toes. Mostly because you have no freaking idea what the hell this book is going to throw you. It's probably why I loved it so much.

Overall, I'm already planning on re-reading this book.

I have rarely struggled this much to write a review for a book. My thoughts are all over the place: I absolutely loved this book, but it also really let me down sometimes. I’ll do my best to articulate the many feelings I have about this book.
First of all, look at that beautiful cover! I just have to appreciate a cover that gorgeous. Second, I’m a sucker for retellings and I’ve never seen a popular Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling before. I actually wouldn’t call this a retelling as much as an original story with a retelling incorporated into it. The Twelve Dancing Princesses aspect wasn’t a huge part of the plot, but it was still there.
90% of this book was 5 out of 5 stars for me. The writing is incredible, incorporating fairy tales, romance, a little horror, and just overall AMAZINGNESS. I was obsessed with this book. A warning, though, that it is slightly slow in the beginning, but it didn’t bother me much. The characters were all so different and brought to life by Craig’s beautiful descriptions. I really enjoyed the creepy parts of this book, I definitely got goosebumps multiple times from reading this. There were so many interesting ideas woven so perfectly together: the gods these people worship, curses, princesses, close family ties. Perfect.
I just can’t get over the ending?????? 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 5% 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. I think the author should have given the ending a lot more attention and explanation.
I almost feel bad for the negative things I’m saying because I really did enjoy the majority of the book and I feel like the author did really well on many aspects, but I just feel too let down on the ending. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how such a great book could have gone this wrong in my eyes.
Minor spoilers ahead:
The romance was sweet and I did like the love interest, but I wasn’t convinced that Annaleigh really liked him all that much. It more just seemed like an intense crush that was turned into love because the author was desperate for romance. One second Annaleigh believes Cassius murdered her sisters, then (now that she knows he’s not a murderer) 75 pages later she calls him “her world”.

This ended up being a lot creepier than I was expecting! I thought it would be a Victorianesque fantasy/murder mystery as a spin on the old 12 Dancing Princesses fairytale, which it still was. But there was a really Gothic and twisted element to the story that was a welcome surprise.

All of the characters come off as at least a little bit sinister as you attempt to unravel the strange events befalling the Thaumas family. You're never sure what's real and what's not, which is disorienting in the best way. It's a really devastating story, even if it ends on a high-ish note, there's a lot of death and destruction. I'd suggest not reading while on any downers.

The one thing I wish wasn't as prevalent was the romantic element. Maybe it's my cold, un-dead heart, but I kind of feel like it takes away from the familial love and trauma if in the midst of mourning your sisters there's a week-old romance that gets all the grand gestures and statements. But it's based on a fairytale, so the heroine is expected to fall in love with the first person who says "bless you" when she sneezes, I guess.

On the source material, I really, really liked the answer to the question: "How do the princesses' shoes keep getting worn out?" Craig is quite clever with this storyline and it's one of my favorite parts of the whole book!

So at first I wasnt to sure about this book but once they started to get to the balls, man it picked up!
They want you to believe the bad guy is one person but I knew it wasnt because it was to obvious. Also can I just say that I really like this person.
With about 6 or 7 chapters left you think she has it all figured out. I actually thought it was the person it turned out to be around this point just because I hated that person the whole book. I knew they werent nice.
I was generally surprised with the way it all happened. The ending kept me guessing.
What is real and what isnt.
There are some kind of gross parts during this. I cant deal with maggots and there was a part with them

Erin’s writing in her debut novel was captivating. It was phenomenal. I quickly became entangled in Annaleigh’s emotions and thoughts from the beginning, and throughout the book, I couldn’t help but root for this character who felt so alive.

When it comes to retellings, I think sometimes the world building can be melodramatic or barely a part of the story. To me, I love the fantasy of a fictional world! I want to see, hear, and feel what the character does and to do that I need a well-developed world. That was all done perfectly here and was artful and enchanting. If I’m to be honest, reading about Highmoor and the islands was my favorite part.

I felt sorry for Annaleigh. She had suffered so much grief in her life, and now facing the death of her older sister Eulalie, it seemed that she’d always be in a state of loss. After losing so many, the people of the islands started to say the Thaumus family was cursed.

From the start, Annaleigh assumed there was foul play involved in her sister’s death and in the opening scene you can tell that it will play a big part in the remainder of the book. The first chapter set the stage for the atmosphere of the book, and I got to enjoy a gothic romance with mystery. The story unfolded nicely if albeit a bit slow at time, but I think that may have been an aspect of the book.

Even though Annaleigh was the main character, all of her sisters played a key part in the development of the plot. I really liked how the author included Verity in the story and the tragedies. She didn’t shy away from exposing such a young character to the morbidity of life, and I loved it.

Overall, it was a fantastic book, and I loved reading it! I’m definitely going to reading any future books by this author, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

I absolutely love fairy tale retellings and when I saw this was a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, which is one of my favorites, I jumped at the chance to read it. This retelling was very well done and did not disappoint. The writing was captivating, the characters well developed, and the setting perfection. I will be passing this one on for my teen to read for sure!

*I was given an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.*
House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig, is full of chills and thrills sure to keep you reading well into the night.
The story focuses on Annaleigh Thaumas and her journey to figure out the curse on her family. Once there were twelve Thaumas girls, but after the four eldest die in turn, people start to fear her family. Annaleigh never believed in the curse, but when she starts seeing ghostly visions she begins to think otherwise.
With the help of a handsome stranger, Cassius, she begins to uncover the mystery surrounding her family. As more deaths occur, she tries to to save her sisters before it's too late.
House of Salt and Sorrows is a great atmospheric read that will keep you guessing until the end.

Thank you for publisher and Netgalley for approving me an e-arc of this title.


Annaleigh thinks her family is cursed until some instances begin to change her mind. She believes that her sister's deaths are not a mere coincidence and seeks to find out the truth.


This is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale and very well done. Though the story was intriguing I did feel that the story was predictable. This did not take away from the entertainment factor. Though I have to disagree with others who said the story was creepy. I did not feel the creep factor, but as I said earlier, I still liked it nonetheless. I absolutely loved the mythology aspects and the romance was sweet.

If you enjoy fairy tale retellings, with some cool twists be sure to add this one to your TBR.

House of Salt and Sorrows is a gothic retelling of Grimm's The Twelve Dancing Princesses and while the original was creepy enough, Craig brings a thrill to this story.

Annaleigh is one of twelve sisters of the house of Thaumus. Four of her older siblings have perished in the last 5 years and the story opens with the funeral and eulogy of Eulalie. While three of her siblings have died of natural or "plausible" causes, Annaleigh suspects foul play with this recent death. She begins to investigate despite her sisters wishes and meets the hero, Cassius. Alongside this murder-mystery, the remaining sisters find a door that transports them to a mythical kingdom where there is no Thaumus curse.

Annaleigh and her sisters are each flawed, exhibiting traits common to young teenage girls - greed, lust, and hubris. Annaleigh, however, grows as a character and really shows a maturity when she sets aside her quest and her nightly balls to help her pregnant stepmother plan the annual Churning (a solstice of sorts). In the meantime, her feelings for Cassius continue to grow and merge with fears that he may have had something to do with Eulalie's murder.

This all comes to a spectacular conclusion that reminds me of Crimson Peak in some way. While I love the romance between Cassius and Annaleigh, I can't help but wonder if the author tried a little too hard to give them a happy ending. Then again this is a YA novel and perhaps we can all use a happy ending.

One thing that I personally appreciate is that unlike many YA novels, House of Salt and Sorrows is a standalone. You heard me right, folks. This will not have two more books stuffed with filler plot and never-ending tropes. Craig was able to describe the world in great detail while juggling the mystery of the deaths along with the romance and the eight dancing princesses.

4 stars for House of Salt and Sorrows

To say I was swept away by this novel would be an understatement! From the opening pages, I was immediately sucked in, transfixed, and never turned loose. Annaleigh's character is what held me in not only her words and actions, but overall demeanor, mysterious air, and sense of wonder. Through glorious, decadent descriptions of events and settings, fabulous plot involvement and a beautifully told story, this is sure to be an instant hit for many. Highly recommend!

Folktales have been told and retold for centuries, and I am always up for reading something new. Often, the retellings are interesting but not very original. Erin Craig, though, has produced an imaginative, lovely, wholly orignal retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses which takes the kernel of the old story and builds a whole new world peopled by fascinating characters and customs.

The Thaumas Dozen is as interesting a group as I can remember from my reading. Twelve sisters, all different in their own ways with very different wishes for their futures. Tragedy strikes the family again and again as first their mother then sisters begin to die tragically. The family, it is whispered, is cursed, with the girls being described by hoped for suitors as “lovely as a bouquet of belladonna.”

Two sisters, Annaleigh and Verity, know something is very wrong and each works towards solving the riddle of their “curse.” Throw in the wicked (is she or isn’t she?) stepmother, an enchanted father, and all the glorious wickedness of Faeryland and you have a tale that will delight and capture your senses.

This will appeal to teens and adults alike, and Erin Craig is on track to take a place next to Marissa Meyer, Naomi Novik, and Sarah Maas.

I'm completely enamored of fairy tale retellings, especially when they are done with a sinister twist. After all, original fairy tales tend to be darker and deeper than the Disney-fied versions that they have become. If you don't know the story of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, essentially a King had 12 daughters. Each night, they were locked into their bedroom. Yet, in the morning, their shoes were completely worn out. The King promised the choice of his daughter's hand in marriage to the man who could figure out the mystery. The House of Salt and Sorrows takes this and gives it a wonderfully creepy gothic flourish.

For a debut novel, this is an incredible offering. It's a dark fantasy threaded with almost whimsical mystery and peeks of horror elements. Erin A. Craig weaves this eerie world with its own set of mythologies so perfectly, that you even begin to question whether what's happening is real. The horror components were the best part for me. Unexpected and gruesome, with a gratifying nightmarish quality, those little moments of disturbing terror play out in a way that any horror fan will adore. Yet, her overall storytelling vibe is hauntingly beautiful and almost poetic.

The characters were so well done. Even though there are only eight sisters living, the reader is introduced to each in turn. Each sister presents her own distinct personality and traits, even those that are now among the dead. You are drawn to have strong feelings about each character, which shows how well written they are. Annaleigh's father as the inattentive, almost neglectful father and of course, with all fairy tales, there's an evil stepmother...or is she? There are the handsome love interest and the best friend pining for the MC. All written in such a way that your estimation wavers throughout until you don't know who is being truthful. When you think you have it mastered, something else occurs and confounds you again. The ending was like being hit by a sledgehammer.

House of Salt and Sorrows is my #1 read this year, paws down! I'll be saving this one to reread again later. In fact, I kinda want to read it again right now. I can't wait to see what the author has in store for us next!

This book!! It was so beautiful yet dark. A story about sisters and the absolute heart break that they have to endure. The writing completely blew me away!

I read another reimagining of the 12 Dancing Princesses not that long ago, set in the Jazz era, and it was a very good and very entertaining. As good as that one was, this was better... It was dark and Gothic and weighty and extremely well-written, with horribly creepy details and marvelous characterization. The World created was wholly fresh and the way the plot and reveals played out was masterful. I will definitely be on the lookout for more from Erin Craig!