In a village cursed by a wrongfully made wish, lives a girl named Clara, who wishes to save her mother and the village. Despite knowing what her fate is, she enters the Forest Grimm, hoping to find her mother and lift the curse. Dressed in red, she and Axel, someone she holds closer in her heart than she admits, venture through the forest, where they encounter many things and people. Will they lift the curse?

I would like to start off by praising the beautiful cover. I adore the artwork.

This was a super enjoyable take on fairy tails. It was dark, but in a fun, page turning sort of way. It definitely kept me interested, wanting to learn more about the forest and the inhabitants myself.

I enjoyed Clara as a character. She is headstrong, Intelligent, yet flawed. I enjoy that she realizes her flaws throughout the book though. It’s also nice to see a character with a different sort of body structure, one Clara doesn’t allow to hold her back much.

While I enjoyed the story, there were a few characters I didn’t enjoy as much, but I think that’s a good thing.

If you like beautiful, dark and fairy tail type adventures mixed with romance and danger, I recommend this stunning book!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martins Press and Wednesdays Books for the opportunity to read this incredible book!

This was such a wonderfully entertaining and twisty fantasy book, I had a lot of fun reading it!

Based on the cover I had assumed that it was a Red Riding Hood retelling, which I guess it is, in a sort of way, but the book also includes a bunch of other retellings (which I'll refrain from naming since it'll be delightful if you discover it on your own). The different retellings were combined in such a cool way, and I'm really looking forward to more of those in the next book!

I also loved the development of characters and relationships in this book, it was really emotional and _real_. The ending was so cool, I'm excited for book 2 (and I hope we see a certain Oliver again 😭)

--- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of the book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC!

This book was so dark and fascinating, I loved the twisted takes on the individual fairy tales. It most definitely went in a few directions I wasn't expecting, and had enough action to keep me interested the whole way through.

Excellent cast of characters, and a great ending!

I recommend this book for anyone who likes dark fairy tale retellings, and books where characters go on a journey.

I always love reading books from Kathryn Purdie, and this was one of the best. I enjoyed the concept and thought it worked well in the fairy tale elements of the book. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and thought they worked well in the world. I loved the cover and glad I got to read this.

"Let me help,” I say to Axel, and break off twigs from the ash tree with him. We need to keep the campfire burning. It’s been hard to find any wood in the forest that isn’t green. There are no fallen branches or dead trees here. This ash is the only one we’ve come across. The trunk is split and most of the limbs are charred. It must have been struck by lightning."

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC!

This book was so dark and fascinating, I loved the twisted takes on the individual fairy tales. It most definitely went in a few directions I wasn't expecting, and had enough action to keep me interested the whole way through.

Excellent cast of characters, and a great ending!