Overall rating: 4/5 stars

“So, what’s the witch lost, and where is it?’ ‘Her brother. He’s in a place that isn’t exactly there.”

Jean-Marc Charming Arundel is on a deadline to pay to the demon who helped save his father. On his journey to meet him, he decides to take a shortcut through the woods, where he happens upon a sprawling manor house. 

The house is charming and tends to his needs, but will not let him leave. He soon finds out the Mistress of the house has been cursed as a Beast, and that he and his two co-captives, Will and Hans, -brothers of the bear witch and the wolf leader- must figure out how to break the curse with only clues. Clues and something true and honest. Will one of them be able to break the curse before time runs out? 

“Now I don’t know about anyone else, but personally, I’m going to investigate the cellar.” “You think there might be a clue?” Hans said. “I think there might be a very good Riesling.”

This book was an unexpected delight. It felt cozy like a warm hug, that way that fairytales often times do. Magical and wondrous and told in a story tale manner. But there was a quiet intelligence, strong plot and subplots, and an air of mystique as thick as the forest that ensnared me. 

The different characters and stories we know and love were twisted and turned, though wonderfully recognizable, and then pulled together in ways I didn’t see coming. It felt as though Linwood weaved a stunning tapestry of every colour over a blank canvas.

“An honest word is better than a fancy word with no heart behind it.” 

The gender bent Beauty and the Beast slant was a nice twist. I adore this fairytale and making the beast female kept the story from getting tired, made it something new. It was wonderful to see the three male suitors, the kind man, the smart one, and the charming (pretty?) one, and have no idea which one was going to be the one to fall for her. 

“You think he should have a ‘normal’ life, because you miss yours,” she said. “Not everyone wants that.”

My favourite thing about this book was how the servants were written in. Instead of them actually being objects, or simply ceasing to exist, she made them invisible and noiseless. Absolute genius. Because Charming and the bachelors see objects like a candle moving around and assume they are magic or the house is, and you get that wonderful magic feeling, and it is later revealed that they were there all the time, silently working. A real explanation for the magic that is just as magnificent.

“But the magic surrounding this place is stronger, too—and wilder. Less inclined to be controlled.” 

I’m half German so I loved all of the German words and names strewn throughout. Especially Wohlabendberg and Johannes and Wilhelm. 

“Knowledge was almost always useful. Sometimes dangerous, yes, but almost always useful.”

As I read this book, I disappeared into the magical forest with its cottages and bears and wolves. I could taste the magic. I didn’t want to leave. After all, who wouldn’t love to be locked up in a fairy cottage with nothing to do but solve the mystery of love?

“We are more than the stories that are told about us,” Marie Blanche said. “And less, too.”

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.