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C.G. @ Paper Fury

what if i had another book coming out | introducing HAZELTHORN, coming Fall 2025!!

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Cannot believe I get to type this but…I have more books coming out!!

Announcing my next two Young Adult Horror books!! Starting with HAZELTHORN in Fall 2025 and a to-be-revealed second book in 2026. And you know what? I’m absolutely freaking out. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll probably know there is nothing I want more than to just write and write and get my books published, and having my dreams slowly coming true both blows my mind and humbles me greatly.

I’m so in love with this book: it is set in a decaying gothic mansion with a bloodthirsty garden. Sultry summer, dark family secrets, botanical horror, and murder. Think: KNIVES OUT meets BELLADONNA, by way of THE SECRET GARDEN but make it an unhinged horror from a Colin-esque type pov. You can also add it on Goodreads here!

So…I kind of maybe have five books coming out now.

Don’t Let The Forest in (YA horror, Oct 2024)
Hazelthorn (YA horror, Fall 2025)
You Did Nothing Wrong (adult horror, Winter 2026)
YA Horror #3 (Fall 2026)
Adult Horror #2 (2027)

Just me here being emotional that I’ve been given chances again after so long being dragged through the mud of the publishing industry. Like, I can’t believe it!? I feel like someone is going to pinch me and go, “Haha just kidding.” I mean, I started a Patreon out of desperation to have my work read again after 5+ years of rejections (this includes five books failing to sell). I had to change agents twice. I was rejected for being too autistic. I was told my writing style doesn’t sell. I was sabotaged by people who I was meant to be able to trust. There has been mess and setbacks–but I’m so grateful to be here and to keep writing. 😭

Okay I’m finished being sappy, I swear. I’m actually currently on deadline working on Hazelthorn as we speak (actually I’m procrastinating sleeping by writing this up finally heh; I admit this news went live on Instagram a while ago so if you want fast updates, that is the place to follow me) so will be excited to share more about it as it develops!!

So thrilled to get to write more creepy little botanical horror books for you!! 🍃

The Last Tale Of The Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi, an intoxicating fever dream of perfection

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The Last Tale of The Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi truly has a chokehold on me.

I’m obsessed with books that have prose so gorgeous you could drown in it, the ones where the sentences are so rich they take your breath away. I can’t stop thinking about The Last Tale of the Flower Bride and honestly I want to eat this prose with silver spoon.

“But she saw something in me. Something that turned her kiss into a knife that cut me free from the dark.”

The story is also this claustrophobic, glittering gothic meets fairytale obsession (such a me book if ever I read one) and the obsessive love of Indigo and the Bridegroom and their toxic secrets and shared, fantastical delusions was entrancing. I love how the fed off each other with their need for a life so entrenched in fairy tales and mythology that they didn’t have to really participate in reality. Everything was a game, or a dare, or a test. They way she is everything and he is nothing, and yet he proved her match in their battles of wit and whimsy.

I also really loved the split timeline, how in the past we get to see Azure’s point of view, the little girl Indigo grew up with, and their codependent friendship. It gives us this new angel to the story, this way to learn Indigo (we do not get to be inside her head), and I just loved this. The way the story is about two people’s adoration and obsession of this unknowable, rich, intoxicating person.

I saw the twist coming but I loved how it landed. And an old sentient gothic house that has opinions and changes as the book goes on?! Everything I want in a book. The whole thing is a gorgeous fever dream.

“You never forget the moment when beauty turns to horror.”

I also love how it was fully drenched in whimsy and fantasy but yet was it all in their heads? We shall never know. This is already my favourite read of 2024.

“This is why fairy tales are dangerous: their words sneak into your veins and travel into the chambers of your heart, where they whisper of your exceptionalism. They say: Ah, but remember the boy who walked into the woods and came out a king? Oh, but what of the girl who was kicked and slept in ashes? Remember the man who was only kind and so life bent around the shape of his smile? But we are not exceptional.”

Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.
But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage… or their lives.
Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

goodreads | amazon

Marked For The Pyre by M.T. Fontaine (Girls-With-Swords Bookmark Design!)

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Am excited to be featuring Marked For The Pyre by M.T. Fontaine today with MTMC Tours!!

I read Carved Amidst The Shadows (Book 1) a few years ago and was immediately sucked into the dark and complex world. It was giving Game of Thrones vibes with a touch of Mark Lawrence, and definitely addictive with the court politics, the revenge plots, and the intricately written characters. So excited to have the sequel in my hands now (isn’t the cover STUNNING). If you like grimdark fantasy, be sure to add this to your TBR!!

Seek a war, and you’ll find one. To overthrow the Stewards’ hold on the kingdoms, Kaianne and Andreiyes strike a tenuous alliance between their people – the Marked and the Carved. Yet uniting the two factions is proving a greater challenge than either of them anticipated. Marked for the Pyre is the second book in the A Brands of Taelgir novels, a dark epic fantasy series full of morally grey characters. Out now & you can read books 1 & 2 on Kindle Unlimited!

I had such fun designing this bookmark themed around a Marked For The Pyre quote!! Hope you like it. ❤️

Thank you to MTMC Tours and M.T. Fontain for the copy of the book!!

To overthrow the Stewards’ hold on the kingdoms, Kaianne and Andreiyes strike a tenuous alliance between their people – the Marked and the Carved. Yet uniting the two factions is proving a greater challenge than either of them anticipated.
The Carved blame the Marked for centuries of genocide.
The Marked are conditioned by the belief that all Carved are heartless and savage.
If they cannot put aside their differences, the rebellion is doomed. As more Stewards close in and with the king nearly on his deathbed, their window of opportunity is closing.
Meanwhile, Master Rau knows the royal couple is plotting. Torn between his allegiance to his Steward brethren and to his daughter, he struggles with how to proceed. When rumors surface that an old adversary has come out of exile for the benefit of the royals – the very same person who prophesied the Stewards’ end – Rau must decide between what he knows is right and what is best for the person he cares for most.
Plans are made. Objectives are drawn. But their futures depend on more than their choices.

goodreads | amazon | author’s instagram

Breaks Volume 1 by Emma Vieceli & Malin Rydén — an emotional, impactful comic

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Gritty, heartfelt, emotional and explosive: I really enjoyed my first introduction to the Breaks comics!

It was giving me Foxhole Court vibes, and look: I cannot lie. If a book even so much as whispers it’s similar to that, I am there in a heartbeat. I hadn’t heard of this webcomic before the chance came up to review this volume for Orbit UK, and now I wish I’d read them sooner!! This volume was so addictive. It leaves you with fistfuls of unanswered questions and a heart torn in two for the angry Cortland Hunt. Like, I finished this one and was immediately dying for the next volume. I need to know MORE.

The comic starts by introducing us to lone wolf, Cortland Hunt, who has an attitude problem, a short fuse, and a dark backstory that I’m itching to know more about. The person constantly pissing him off is Ian Tanner, resident school smarmy charmer and asshole…although maybe there’s more depth to him than he presents. Ian’s bestie is one of Cortland’s biggest bullies though, so Ian likes to pretend he can play both sides. Act like he’s not a problem to Cortland but also remain friends with an abusive jerk. But when things escalate really badly, Ian has to pick a side.

It’s very character and emotional driven, with the main plot being their fractious dynamics as the comic lays out threads to unravel later. The characters all felt real and dynamic, and the tension between Cortland and Ian often seethes with hate. It teetered on the edge of being a bully romance, but Ian gets crisply called out and actually owes up to a lot of his faults. I just have a soft spot for angry, confused queer books and this one was a stellar read.

Addictive and emotional, this one will keep you flipping pages and immediately clamouring to know more as you grow attached to the messy, realistic, fractious relationship of these two boys.

Thank you to Orbit UK for the review copy!

Before Heartstopper, there was Breaks . . . the enemies-to-lovers queer webcomic sensation.
Cortland Hunt has made some dangerous mistakes. Now he’s waiting quietly for those mistakes to catch up with him. Ian Tanner coasts through life denying the spark of anger beneath his laid back exterior. When school politics and personal lives become a battleground, the pair find that what they share may just be their only safe haven.
Breaks is the story of two young men discovering who they were, who they are, and who they will become. It’s a love story . . . but a bit broken.
With millions of views and thousands of subscribers on webcomic platforms, Breaks is perfect for fans of popular LGBTQ+ graphic novels, such as Alice Osman’s Heartstopper, who might be looking for something darker and more mature.

goodreads | amazon | orbit uk |

Don’t Let The Forest In is now on Netgalley to request for review!

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Don’t Let The Forest In is now on Netgalley and Edelweiss to request an eARC for review!

This is my forestcore dark academia horror about two boys whose all-consuming friendship takes a dark turn when one of them realises the only way to stop the horrors clawing out of the other’s drawings is to destroy the creator. Coming October 29th, 2024!! If you love reviewing books early, you should definitely request it. 🍃🍄 My publisher is in charge of all approvals but I’ll have my fingers crossed for you!

Add it on Goodreads!

Request it on Netgalley here.

Request it on Edelweiss here.

of light and nightmares by alex b. harper (urban fantasy of monsters and magic)

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Let me introduce you to Of Light And Nightmares by Alex B. Harper!

When the monsters find you, the nightmare begins. Heir to her late parents’ fortune, Emmeline is happy to continue their philanthropic work for the rest of her days. But a rare public appearance sends her crashing into a world of monsters and magic. Of Light and Nightmares is the first book in a pulse-pounding urban fantasy trilogy that will leave you breathless as two worlds collide in a horrific showdown, where even the winners will lose.

Full of mystery and intrigue, we’re swept into Emmeline’s elite and glamorous world as she navigates latent abilities that mark her as a guardian. Definitely a page-turner and I always love when books feature siblings!! It starts quietly as we’re introduced to Emmeline’s world and her reluctance to lead a life in the spotlight–until the supernatural comes calling and she can no longer deny her life is far from ordinary. If you’re a fan of urban fantasy and ancient powers, this one will pique your interest.

Thank you so much to MTMC Tours & Alex B Harper for having me on the tour and for the beautiful copy.

“We have the unique job of ensuring bad things that don’t belong in this world don’t end up here.” She paused again and contemplated her next words. “For simplicity, you can think of us like demon hunters.”

I had so much fun designing a bookmark to compliment Of Light And Nightmares!!

I wanted to keep with a deep, mysterious nighttime theme, and I think this worked out perfectly. 😍 Complete with one of the iconic quotes!!

When the monsters find you, the nightmare begins.
Heir to her late parents’ fortune, Emmeline is happy to continue their philanthropic work for the rest of her days. But a rare public appearance sends her crashing into a world of monsters and magic.
Emmeline learns that she’s one of two humans who can see those marked to become a nainthe — guardians between the human world and the violent realm of demon-like monsters, the raizour. The guardians have spent decades searching for her — for without her, they are doomed to extinction, and the monsters will devastate Earth.
As Emmeline hones her newfound abilities, other dark and powerful enemies emerge, stacking the odds against her and the guardians.
And her time is running out—because the monsters have astonishing intelligence and a thirst for blood, and they are ready to execute their chaos.
This pulse-pounding urban fantasy will leave you breathless as two worlds collide in a horrific showdown, where even the winners will lose.

goodreads | amazon | author’s instagram

announcing my first adult horror two-book deal (!!) with St Martin’s Press

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I finally get to spill my EXCITING NEWS!

I have more books coming out!! Introducing my first Adult Horror: YOU DID NOTHING WRONG, coming summer 2025 from St Martins Press, with another book coming in 2026.


I’m still losing my mind tbh. Being an autistic author in publishing has never been easy, but I’ve been working relentlessly hard—and I’m sitting here with a two-book, six-figure, preempt deal and pinching myself that this is real.

The genre is: Unhinged Women. And oh, oh you are not ready. I ADORE this book and I’m also so so keen to be sharing more autistic characters!!

All the thanks to my agent, Claire Friedman, and I’m so excited to be working with Alexandra Sehulster and the team at St Martins!!

It truly feels so surreal that I have multiple books coming out when I’ve dreamed of this for over a decade. 😭😭 If you’ve followed me for a bit, you’ll know i’ve had a frustrating lot of setbacks in my author life for years. So I am, indeed, lowkey freaking out. I fought so hard to be here, to keep writing books, to dream of selling them…and now to actually see it start to happen is everything to me.

I wrote YOU DID NOTHING WRONG around April to August 2023 and sold it in December. Like WHO ME with a deal for the most unhinged horror I’ve written yet. Am going to scare you all a bit with this one but it’s worth it, you’ll be fine. (Probably.)

FROM PUBLISHERS MARKETPLACE:
Author of the upcoming YA horror DON’T LET THE FOREST IN CG Drews’s
YOU DID NOTHING WRONG, pitched as THE PUSH meets The Haunting of Hill House, about a young single mother and her autistic son who are whisked away by her new husband to a crumbling family manor they are intent on repairing—but when her son starts hearing things in the walls, poisonous dark secrets surface that threaten to ruin everything, to Alexandra Sehulster at St. Martin’s, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Claire Friedman at Inkwell Management (world).

Unholy Terrors by Lyndall Clipstone, full of darkly lovely gothic monsters

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Am obsessed with gothic books, and UNHOLY TERRORS is literally the perfect marriage of fantasy and gothic.

Monstrous, lovely, enthralling, forbidden. This hits every single gothic vibe you could want. I walked away from this book changed, because omg this prose–this prose. I want to eat it off a silver spoon. This book is so gorgeously written with such clever turns of phrase and evocative descriptions. It’s the kind of book that you want to drown in, that you will keep thinking long after you turn the last page. I also had the pleasure of blurbing UNHOLY TERRORS and am so pleased to gush further in this review!

“You would make a beautiful monster.”

The story follows Everline as she breaks her vows and ventures into the monster filled moors to find answers about her past. She is a warden of the wall, tasked with keeping monsters away, although she alone is without magic unlike the rest of the wardens. Everline is such a complex, layered character: so sharp and stabby and determined to be brutal, but then under the enchanted armour you catch a glimpse of how tender and vulnerable she truly is. She just wants to know why she doesn’t belong. Who she is. Where she’s meant to be. There’s also a fractious sister-sister relationship, as Everline and Briar end up unwillingly sharing this journey to save Everline’s best friend Lux (who is also Briar’s lover).

The memory of his bloodied kiss is like the touch of a ghost.

And I need to take a moment for Ravel, the boy who is so vicious and monstrous and spilling over with uncanny and inhuman claws and fangs–but yet is an absolute sweetheart deep down inside. The raw way he cherished Everline had me on the floor. Every time the book described Ravel, I was just [clenches fist] so enraptured. He is meant to be a mindless monster and Everline is confused why he seems so…human but yet not human. Their hatred for each other is so palpable, and the way they fall in love while still distrusting each other is addictive to read. It’s enemies-to-lovers the way I crave: claws and teeth and generational hatred and monstrous love.

I also deeply love books that deal with the complexities of families. There is so much hurt and angst here as both Everline and Ravel have complex relationships with parental figures and their siblings, and that really defines so much of their journeys.

“How often would you … need me?”
Ravel moves a step closer so there’s only the barest space between us. The heat of him radiates against my own skin like a fever. “And what if I said I needed you every night?”
“Then I would come to you every night.“

Also a moment for the ruinous descriptions, the decrepit falling apart churches, the wicked saints and barren land and bone relics. It’s the kind of world that took my breath away. The overall vibe was also giving me Gideon of the Ninth meets Jon Snow at the Wall feelings, and just kind of loved that. If you want a fantasy that feels freshly unique while also paying immaculate homage to all the best gothic tropes and aesthetics, then you definitely need this.

The other vespertine look like monsters. This one looks like a monster wearing a boy’s face.
Yet he’s a monster all the same.

Read it for:
♡ rich, evocative gothic aesthetics
♡ ruinous, mouldering descriptions that are so gorgeous
♡ so, so atmospheric
♡ monster boy with secret heart of gold
♡ fearsome girls with armour and knives
♡ saints and bones and relics and sins
♡ monsters everywhere
♡ complicated family/sibling relationships
♡ forbidden romance x enemies to lovers

Monstrous boys and girls in armour and a romance that will sink teeth into your dark heart, UNHOLY TERRORS is an absolutely phenomenal read. The vibes were immaculate.

Thank you to PenguinTeen for the copy!

And though he’s never claimed to be anything else, I still don’t know which is the truth: the monster or the boy. Perhaps it is both a borderland where one eclipses the other. Horns and bones and claws, gentle fingers and soft breath and my name spoken like a secret.

*

He’s painfully lovely in the same way as a coiled snake or a nightshade plant full of bright, deadly berries. A loveliness that will lure you close so it can poison you.

*

The choreography of our violence is marked out on the ground like a pattern to be tailored.

A bloodstained tale of a girl torn between her vows and her heart, where falling in love may be the deepest sin of all…
Everline Blackthorn has devoted her life to the wardens—a sect of holy warriors who guard against monsters known as the vespertine.
When a series of strange omens occur, Everline disobeys orders to investigate, and uncovers a startling truth in the form of Ravel Severin: a rogue vespertine who reveals the monsters have secrets of their own.
Ravel promises the help she needs— for a price. Vespertine magic requires blood, and if Everline wants Ravel to guide across the dangerous moorland, she will have to allow him to feed from her.
It’s a sin for a warden to feed a vespertine— let alone love one— and as Everline and Ravel travel further across the moorland, she realizes the question isn’t whether she will survive the journey, but if she will return unchanged. Or if she wants to.

goodreads | blackwells | dymocks | penguin teen

published October 17, 2023

 

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (Cosy Light Academia Fairy Tale Fantasy!)

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Emily Wilde captured my entire heart in this beautiful story.

This is exactly my kind of book–steeped in fairy folklore where the fae are whimsical and clever and full of myths and wickedness and tricks and utterly unreal levels of magic. And I adored the set up of this! Emily Wilde is a human professor (an antisocial, introverted one at that) whose lifelong aim is to complete the first ever comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She does plenty of field work, tons of studying, and she views faeries through a very scientific lens. It was honestly such a unique and compelling story and I loved the framework.

The book is also told in journal entries. I do like this style of format, and it allowed us to be very intrinsically swept up in Emily’s thought processes and made her a very deeply empathetic character despite her stand-offish presentation.

Emily travels to a remote village in Scandinavia called Hrafnsvik as she works to complete her encyclopaedia, and the setting is so wintery and chilled and frosted over with ice. You can feel it on the pages. There is also a cosy element to the story overall, with the aesthetics of the cosy cabin and bookish scenes. It was giving Light Academia too, tbh, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

“One doesn’t need magic if one knows enough stories.”

“The Folk were of another world, with its own rules and customs—and to a child who always felt ill-suited to her own world, the lure was irresistible.”

The story mainly features Emily and Wendell Bambleby, another professor from Cambridge who invites himself along on her expedition and who she is frustratedly annoyed at because she’s sure he’s trying to take credit for her work. They have a sort of frenemies-rivalry going on, except it’s mostly in Emily’s head (lmao). Wendell is just the most flamboyant eccentric academic idiot to grace a page and I absolutely loved him from the start. (Think Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle, basically, and you’ve got the vibe.) He is the sunshine to Emily’s grump. He is the extravagance to Emily’s frugal reservations. They are SUCH opposites, that they’re a total delight on page together.

I’ll also take a moment to say I suspect Emily was coded as autistic, and I’m unsure if that was intentional on the author’s part. As an autistic individual myself, I found the rep interesting, not bad, though not exactly landing true autism…so I wonder if Emily is just meant to be very introverted. Something to muse on, and I’d love to hear other readers’ opinions.

The overall plot is not face-paced, but I loved that. I loved the cosy village scenes, and the discovery of new fairies, and the pauses for Wendell shenanigans and the adventurous twist at the end. It’s infused with magic and told in such a lovely voice, and I throughly enjoyed every page.

Read it for:
♡ fairy tale vibes and folklore stories
♡ sunshine x grump (light) romance
♡ cosy dynamics and wintery setting
♡ stiff, grumpy characters learning to be loved
♡ light academia meets fairy tale magic
♡ journal entries format

Beautifully written, with characters you’ll grow so fond of, this is the whimsical yet cosy fantasy I have been craving and couldn’t love it enough!

Thank you to Orbit UK for the copy!

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.

goodreads | blackwells | amazon | orbit uk

published January 10, 2023

The Stolen Heir by Holly Black (Wicked Fairytales To Adore!)

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Being a huge fan of The Cruel Prince trilogy, my expectations were super high for The Stolen Heir.

And oh I am shouting, because this was so so so so good. I’m absolutely obsessed!! I adore Holly Black’s style of fairy tales and fairy worlds, and this was absolutely addictive, biting, wickedly magical, beautiful and powerful. I just felt so stuffed full of inspiration and excited magic when I was finished–I love this feeling!! I am absolutely pining for book 2, of course, and after the way this one ended–2024 is going to be a good year for books.

An important question is probably, “Can you read The Stolen Heir without reading The Cruel Prince series?” And yes! I think you can. It does have spoilers for TCP obviously because it’s set several years later. But this follows the POV of Wren, who was a minor character (and just a child) in TCP, and while her story is built off the events of TCP, she brings a brand new perspective and storyline.

Also let me just say I am OBSESSED with the dark fairy tale bent to this. How the folk were so vicious and monstrous and stunningly beautiful. How the games had that macabre bent. Wren has been through hell and considers herself a feral, guarded, sharp-toothed thing. She can’t possibly understand why anyone would like her, let alone help her, and distrusts Oak extremely. Gentleness under a feral exterior is one of my favourite types of characters to read about, so this just had me living.

“Stop waiting. Sink those pretty little teeth into something.”

“Perhaps it is Oak who is the fool, who caught a wolf and thought that by putting it in a gown and speaking to it as though it were a girl, it would become one.”

The story is full of the good old fairy tale tricks and twists too. I LOVED every single aspect of it, the schemes and “don’t trust anyone” vibes. There are new characters to adore and old ones to fall in love with all over again. Oak is such a complex character, you just keep finding out new layers to him as each scene progresses. Charmer with a dark side? YES.

Read it for:
♡ dark fairy tale vibes and folklore
♡ feral girl x charmer boy
♡ clever plots and twists
♡ beautiful prose
♡ mentions of old The Cruel Prince cast
♡ thoroughly addictive storyline

This story had me falling in love with dark fairy folktales all over again with it’s vivacious writing and stunningly layered characters and plot twists to explode your heart. Highly recommend!!

Thank you to Allen & Unwin for the review copy!

Return to the opulent world of Elfhame, filled with intrigue, betrayal, and dangerous desires, with this first book of a captivating new duology from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black.
Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.
Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, Lady Nore, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.
Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.

goodreads | dymocks | amazon | allen & unwin

published 03 Jan, 2023