3★
“She lay awake most of the night, and at one point she had a curious sensation that something soft brushed by her side in the dark, though it was only the blanket, which had fallen to the floor.”

Sisters Alice and Judith, like most village girls, want to know where they will find love when they grow up.

When I was a girl, we used to twist the stem of an apple and with each twist we said a letter, going through the alphabet. Whichever letter was the one said when the stem broke or was pulled out was the initial of our future boyfriend/lover/husband’s first name.

Next, we poked at the side of the apple with the top of the stem, saying letters the same way, and the letter that broke the skin was the initial of the last name. Mind you, we moderated our twists and pokes to try to land on the letters we wanted. For Alice and Judith, it’s different.

“It was a game she played with the other village girls—quaint superstitions passed from one generation to the next. The spell required a maiden to take off her shift and place it under her pillow during the night of the full moon. The girl would dream of a man’s face, and in the morning, she would find an object by her doorstep that would offer a clue about her future husband’s identity.”

Judith didn’t remember the face in her dream, but the twig she found on the doorstep meant that surely he would come from the forest, the place that she loved. As the publisher’s blurb says, a handsome hunter, Nathaniel, does come from the forest, but he falls for the prettier sister, and Judith becomes pretty much a servant in their household.

She often wanders in the woods, collecting mushrooms and taking some time to herself. As the season is changing, Nathaniel speaks to her.

“ ‘It’ll be a bad winter,’ Nathaniel told her, coming down to stand next to her.

‘How do you know’ she asked.

‘I can tell. The skies warn us’” he said.

But she’d lost her taste for omens, so she shrugged, indifferent to his prediction.

‘Yes, it’ll be a bitter winter. You should stop with your mushroom gathering. The wolves, they’ll be eager for a morsel, and it’s growing too cold now, anyway,’ he said.

Then, for a moment, a prickle of something spread across her body, the faint stirring of dread. She shook her head dismissively.

‘Wolves never wander this close to us,’ she said. ‘I’ve lived here longer than you have.’”

I enjoyed the writing, which has a kind of old-fashioned feel about it, as if this really is a fairy tale from long ago. I hope you can tell that from the quotes I chose. I found it predictable instead of surprising, but I can see many other readers were entertained.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for a copy of #TheLover for review.

The general mood of this one reminded me of Mexican Gothic, though the use of fairytale and fantasy tropes and a general dark atmosphere evoked by these choices. Would recommend this one for folks looking for darker fairytales.

The Lover is a fairy tale about a women who believes the tales that the face of her lover will come to her in a dream but of course things do not go as planned thanks to her sister and a vagrant stranger who keeps appearing. The writing in this book felt like an old time fairy tale and of course had a Grimm ending. This deserves 5 stars because it contained everything a short story should have and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the book in exchange of my honest review.

My second Amazon Original story via NetGalley and I’m enjoying finding new authors. I’m not a big fantasy reader but I can commit to less than 50 pages. In that short time Silvia Moreno-Garcia creates a dark adult fairy tale. A woman knows that her lover will come from the forest to her village. But everything doesn’t go the way she thinks. The writing is excellent, creating a moody atmosphere, while giving enough details to bring the characters to life.

A short dark fairy tale about a woman who's lover will come from the forest, and two men who come from the forest to her village. I wish it had been a little bit longer, but it is a wonderful, moody story that can be read in a single sitting.

I typically don't enjoy short stories, but I absolutely loved this! It had such a dark, cold, almost folkloric quality, and it crept up on me. This is my first Silvia Moreno-Garcia work, and it made me so excited to dive into her backlist!

This was an average fairytale/Grimm retelling novella which I honestly would’ve rated so much higher if we had a little bit more, maybe 100/150 page novella would’ve been perfect just to get some more gruesome details!
Definitely an interesting little filler to add to your reading goal though!

Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for an eARC of this short story. Moreno-Garcia continues to be an auto-read author and this short story proves no different. She manages to create a great atmospheric short story in under 50 pages. This was fun though semi-predictable - definitely worth a read.

5 stars

Wow! This short tiny story really packed a punch. I had no clue what genre I was getting into when I decided to read this, and I still can’t really answer that.
What I can say for sure is that this was such a beautiful and lyrically written story. I loved every sentence.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love Silvia’s writing so much! This short story delivered in so many ways. It was fun and dark with Judith finding her actual lover. This had lots of great big bad wolf vibes throughout the story and I loved it.

this was my first silvia moreno-garcia work and i kind of want to shake myself for not picking up one of her books earlier. this was very short but intense, it managed to make me care about judith and the story in such short time that i was sad to read the last sentence.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the ARC!

'The Lover' is an incredibly quick read that evokes memories of the Amanda Seyfried Red Riding Hood movie, specifically the village. Moreno-Garcia embraces the darkness in her short story. The overlying emotion is one of suppressed longing and guilt despite the fact that the overarching plot line is around partaking in these sinful pleasures.

An eerie, atmospheric, short story. Clocking in at a little over 40 pages, this was an enjoyable dark morsel of a fairytale, perfect for a cozy fall or winter night!

Thank you netgalley for a review ebook.

This story accomplished so much while managing to be less than 50 pages, and I'm amazed. I've never read anything else by the author, but I will now! This reminded me of a Grimm's fairy tale—dark, sensual, and incredibly well told.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

A delightfully dark and evil short story to be told around a fire on a winter’s night.

Judith is a young woman living in a small village at the edge of the story. Her older, prettier sister Alice has always had everything laid at her feet, all her mother’s love, a husband and now the family guest house and shop while Judith has to work for her sister, who is mean and selfish. Now a widow, Alice is turning on the charm to captivate Nathaniel, the hunter who has come to the village, who Judith was sure is meant to be with her. However, in the wintery forest lurks another shadowy man who befriends Judith. An excellently told fairy tale with a perfectly grisly ending!

Silvia Garcia-Moreno is a must read author for me. This story, like her others, has a compelling female protagonist who is equally challenging the norms of her station and vulnerable. She is a master at creating these characters who you care about deeply in a few pages and yet, spend the whole story cringing at their every move. Poor sweet Judith is certainly little red riding hood in this one, but we're not quite sure who is the wolf, and yet know from page one that there is one. I loved the atmosphere and the suspense equally. Generally my criticism of short stories is that I wanted more. But in this case, I was quite satisfied with the story as is.

Thanks to the Amazon Original Stories via Netgalley for gifted access. All opinions above are my own.

"The Lover" is a short story by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a renowned author known for works such as "Mexican Gothic." Set against the backdrop of a brutal winter, the narrative follows Judith, a young woman yearning for love, and her sister Alice, considered the more conventionally attractive of the two.

When a handsome and refined hunter arrives in their village seeking shelter from the cold, Judith believes her long-awaited lover has finally come. However, her hopes are dashed when the hunter chooses Alice as his wife. The story takes an unexpected turn when another stranger, appearing disheveled and mysterious, emerges from the woods. Against societal norms, Judith welcomes both men into her life, each fulfilling different desires and needs.

As the characters navigate forbidden longings, a relentless winter storm and a lurking wolf add an element of tension to the narrative. The story explores themes of love, desire, and the consequences of yielding to forbidden impulses. By the thaw of spring, the characters must confront the consequences of their actions and whether their hungers have been truly satisfied.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia weaves a sensuous and wicked tale in "The Lover," blending elements of desire, fantasy, and the harsh realities of winter. The short story promises a captivating exploration of human nature and the complexities of relationships in the face of temptation.

The Lover was a quick, enjoyable, interesting, entertaining and unexpected read. I don't want to say anything else because I don't want to risk spoiling it for others.

I always enjoy reading Silvia Moreno-Garcia's work. She tends to write about women with no agency taking control of their lives in very dramatic and satisfying ways!

This short story is no different. It's about a woman named Judith who has long lived in the shadow of her beautiful and vain sister, Alice. Alice marries Nathaniel, a man with whom Judith had fallen in love. Around the same time, a mysterious stranger appears from the woods, seemingly to give Judith everything she's ever wanted.

I both loved and hated that this was a quick read. I could get my Moreno-Garcia fix over my lunch break at work, but also was sad to see it end. I think ultimately the length of the story was what it needed to be. Any additional scenes depicting injustices against poor Judith would likely only serve to frustrate readers.

One of Moreno-Garcia's most popular works is "Mexican Gothic," which I loved. This past year, I read "The Daughter of Doctor Moreau," and I'm really looking forward to checking out her newest, "Silver Nitrate." I also have "Velvet Was The Night" on audiobook, but haven't listened yet. I always feel like her work flies under my radar until months after it's been published, and then I'm pleasantly surprised to have a new Moreno-Garcia to read! Her work is always such a treat.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is always an auto read/buy for me. She never disappoints and continually releases great books and this is no exception. The Lover is a short story about a young woman who’s lover was foretold to come from beyond the forest. This book was equal parts haunting and inviting and I couldn’t get enough of it.