I wanted to like this book more than I did - it was a bit too literal in its fantasy for my tastes, but I'll definitely be recommending it to genre fans.

3.5*
This story of a post-apocalyptic small town with a mysterious infamous mountain was delightfully enchanting! Switching between the main narrative, and one of fables about magical creatures and events happening on the mountain, keeps the plot engaging as you uncover more and more about the backstories of the citizens who are trying to band together and survive in seemingly hopeless circumstances, while plagued with local superstitions.
Thank you to the author and publisher as well as Netgalley for providing me with a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Leduc masterfully captures the darkness and hope of fairytales in this story of survival and community, weaving together magic, sorrow, and the wonder of nature.

The story captures attention right from the beginning with a tale of impossible love that is everything you'd expect of a fairy tale. It then takes us to a more contemporary setting as a meteor shower wreaks havoc on a city near a mountain. As we follow the survivors, we gradually learn their backstories and uncover the forces and stories that drive them both together and apart.

As the story progresses, the boundaries between the "real" word of the city and the magic of the mountain grow slimmer and the line between truth and story blurs, allowing for a captivating examination of what it means to be in-between.

There's a weirdness to the novel for sure. It's part post-apocalypse survival tale, part fairytale, part love story, part family drama. It's got humans and guns and medicine, but also centaurs, and screaming flowers, and transformations. It does not offer easy answers for how or why events happen. But all this weirdness is definitely delightful.

*ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
3.5
I didn't really know what to expect when I first started reading this one but after the first few chapters I was really intrigued mostly by the storyline and I FLEW through it.

Before reading this book, I did not know what to expect (and it's probably for the best in retrospect). The story starts out with a woman named Heather who has just given birth to twin girls. It is nighttime and she is trying to rest in the hospital. That's when "it" happens. Large meteors crash down to earth forcing Heather to flee with her girls and new husband, B. They hide in a basement with other people from the hospital hoping to survive the destruction. A little while later, they emerge and find the city has been mostly destroyed. The only place that remains green is the mountain. The city dwellers have always feared the mountain and no one has ever set foot there since Heather's father died on the mountain years ago. Now, the city dwellers have no choice but to band together and attempt to survive, but what if the earth and the mountain have different plans...
The Centaur's Wife is at once a post-apocalyptic story, a fantasy novel and a story woven with fairy tales. It is utterly unique and in a class of its own. There is so much imagination emanating from this novel.
The narration shifts a lot from Heather's perspective (past and present), to the other characters' perspectives (past and present) and to the fairy tales that Heather tells her twin girls. Fairy tales and fables become a central aspect of this story and become as crucial to survival as food or water.
I would highly recommend The Centaur's Wife for its abundant creativity and its hopeful message.

I wasn't sure what to expect with The Centaurs Wife as I've not read anything from Amanda Leduc before but the synopsis intrigued me. I found the alternating chapters based on the main storyline and the thought-provoking "fable" style stories a refreshing change from a lot of books I've read recently. All the way through there is a mystery element that comes together at the end, showing how the fables are purposeful and linked.

This fictional fantasy with a message gets a 3.5 rating from me.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.

The book was a mixture of fairy tales and reality, woven together throughout the chapters and scenes. I really enjoyed the fairy tale parts as they were slightly dark and interesting, not the typical ones that you heard as a child. The descriptions of the flowers and nature were beautiful in this book as well.
I enjoyed most of the characters, a few I wanted to know their thoughts and history a bit more however.
It also felt strangely fitting right now as it talks about the end of the world & how the earth is reclaiming it back from humans and making it thrive again. The world feels strange right now...it made me think about how well I would do if this happened. Realized real quick I probably wouldn't make it haha.

Overall, I'm giving it 3.5 stars. I think some people will really enjoy this one and the way the author has combined reality and fairy tales, but I just had a bit of a hard time following along with the story and it felt like it jumped around a bit too much. I also wanted to know more about the centaurs and wished we followed them throughout the story a bit more. I'm also unsure why we needed to add more characters near the end of the novel. It felt a bit unnecessary and confusing. Then there were a couple scenes that disturbed me a bit that involved the death of children, but sometimes I'm a bit sensitive with scenes like that! It was still a wonderful book full of magic that I'm really glad I had the opportunity to read.