I was quite pumped to read this book sounded right up my alley.
<blockquote><i>There was just feeling, lighting the sky like fireworks in the summer night.I felt the roses below and with a beckoning gesture, I called two of them up to me...In my right hand was a slender red rose, its bloom just barely opening at the top. This was a rose with possibilities, its power red and dark...</i></blockquote>
<i><b>[book:Pricked|40494865] had an intriguing premise with creative world building and fleshed out characters, and a good mystery but in a nutshell, I found the story quite underwhelming.</b></i>

<b>Pros</b>
We get the relevant backstory of the characters and the history they shared, which I really liked about this book. We see their struggle with jobs, life, relationships making us warm up to our MC.



The mystery unravelling was quite entertaining with phrases derived from fairytales for instance (Let down your hair whose counter is Gothel is here) and the interesting layout of Bad Apple with their ambiguous politicals system further adding to the supernatural element.

<b>Cons</b>
The mystery was rather simple, it had the air of complexity at the beginning but it fell to the common mystery-solving pattern towards the end.
_Little bit of continuity problem in the first chapter
_ There were moments were relationship developments were rushed, <spoilers> Antioine developing feeling in less than 12 hours, and that too being a knight? LiL unbelievable. </spoiler>

<I> Thank you NetGAlley and Bleeding Ink Publishing for providing this E-Arc</i>

Approaches urban fantasy kind of from the back - the entrance marked "Fairy-Tale Universe, with Mystery Plot". But the protagonist, Briar, is the familiar kickass, smartass woman of urban fantasy, though with a somewhat fresh magical power: she can enchant roses to change people's emotions.

This is a power that grows during the story, disturbingly for her. Despite her noir-detective manner, she's good-hearted; she gets involved in the story problem because it looks like the only way to get her friend disenchanted from a curse that appeared to have been meant for Briar. This is a good approach to motivating the character based on her relationships without fridging anyone (since the friend is still around and able to interact, though she doesn't play a big role in the story).

A motivated character in a dynamic situation is always going to work for me, and I was quickly swept up. There were some issues; as is common for American authors, this author conflates nobility and royalty, and doesn't know the correct terms of address for them either. He capitalises terms that don't need it, and the past perfect tense is frequently conspicuous by its absence, which always interrupts the flow of the story for me. He uses "besides" when he means "apart from" (which could be a dialect difference), and has a tendency to said bookisms. In the pre-release version I read from Netgalley, some of the apostrophes were misplaced. The fairy-tale (and New York) references get a bit cutesy or cheesy at times, too. But some lovely phrases partly make up for this: "Do not pass denouement, do not collect happily ever after," or "an ostentatious gown with more blue ribbon in it than Michael Phelps’s bedroom."

I could take or leave the love triangle aspect, personally, but apart from that the plot and character interactions worked well for me, and I was surprised by the twist.

Far from a perfect book, but showing definite strengths, and promise as a series. I really hope the author learns to use the past perfect tense, though.

Fun start to a (I assume) new fantasy series. Briar Pryce lives in the Bad Apple, a sort of magic second city hidden from New York's primarily non-fey population. Briar has a talent that is unique in her already magic-rich world -- she can implant emotions into roses and, upon giving them to another, change the moods and feelings of others. Her work usually involves odd jobs, but when she's hired to find the missing non-fey of a fey princess, she quickly finds herself entangled in surprising intrigue.

The narrative is fun, light, and heavy on puns and references to a broad body of fairy tale lore. My only complaint is that the book was condensed into approximately three days, which made some of the latter plot development seem highly unlikely (even in a world of wisps, fairy grandmothers, and trolls). Nonetheless I very much enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the next in the series (I hope! I hope!).

Briar Pryce has the power to change the emotions of others by handing them a rose. It is a talent that has done surprisingly little for her, besides landing her a dead-end enchantment delivery job and killing any chance she had with her childhood-crush-turned-roommate. Worst of all, her ability might be responsible for getting her best friend transformed into a cat via a cursed muffin basket. Needless to say, Briar is nowhere near happily-ever-after. But that’s just life as a twenty-something in the Poisoned Apple, New York City’s lost borough of fairy-tale wonder and rent-controlled magic.

When Briar reluctantly agrees to help find a princess’s kidnapped boyfriend in exchange for reversing the curse on her friend, she gets the heroic quest she never really wanted. Unfortunately, the life of a noble heroine is not all it’s cracked up­­ to be – the hours blow, and Briar suspect that the Royal family employing her might be evil, Republican, or both. To complete the suckage, a killer smoke magician is stalking Briar as she searches both the Poisoned Apple and Manhattan for the missing boy. As tensions between the Poisoned Apple royalty ignite and civil war looms, Briar must figure out how to write her own happy ending–or she’ll just be ending. (Netgalley)

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review. It will be available on August 13th.

I’m a bit confused, to be honest: the book described above and the book I read are very different. The description made it sound like this book was going to be a a satirical fantasy, one full of puns and witty names. Not so much. Let me write my own description below, and then compare and contrast. That sounds very “middle school book report”, but it’s the best way I can think of to sort my muddled opinions into a coherent post.

Briar Pryce lives in the Poisoned Apple, a fairy-tale version of NYC, with her three roommates. There’s Alice, who didn’t play into this book too much; Cade, her long-time crush that she sort of accidentally be-spelled, causing no end of drama; and Jacqui , her best-friend-turned cat. Briar has an unusual gift: she can enchant roses to change people’s emotions. She’s roped into helping recover a kidnapped boyfriend to a royal, in exchange for a reversal in the whole “my best friend is now a cat” issue. There’s also Antoine, a knight sent with Briar to help her in her quest.

It was much more straightforward storytelling, with less quippiness than I expected, given the description. I still enjoyed it, but I do wish the blurb had been worded differently so that I went into it without expectations of a certain comedic type.

I really liked Antoine. He had a great sense of humor underneath his serious demeanor, and he tried really, really hard to protect and aid Briar, even though at times she really was a brat to him. Of course he ended up having a crush on her, which resulted in a rather annoying love triangle, what with the whole Cade situation (by the way, Cade was incredibly one dimensional. He might as well have been a block of wood). Antoine also adapted to strange situations quickly and kept the story moving at a good pace.

I loved Briar’s magical ability! It was incredibly unique, and the uses the author put it to were incredibly creative. I didn’t love Briar all that much as a character, but she had her moments. Her need to finish a crossword puzzle before she died made me giggle. I’m curious about why her power was so different than any others in the magical kingdom. I’m guessing that will be explored more in the next installment.

The adventure was fun, if a bit predictable, the writing was solid, and it was well set-up for a sequel. All in all, it was pretty darn enjoyable, but expect a YA fantasy, as opposed to a fairy tale satire.