I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

I finally picked up my ARC of this book on a whim. I needed a new book to start, but it was already late in the day and I thought I wanted something on the shorter end, like a nice novella! As I was scrolling through my options I remembered Thornhedge and how much I enjoyed other books/novellas by this author, and next thing I knew I had my copy open and was reading.

I was sucked into this novella so quickly. The writing immediately drew me in, and it felt like a twist on classical fairy tale narration. It really felt like it was being narrated by someone who lived during the times that fairy tales are based on, and it adds almost this realistic layer to the standard fairy tale storytelling. On top of that, our narrator is someone who has lived through long stretches of time, but has locked herself away from experience most of it (and has also experienced a decent amount of that time as a frog!) It adds this extra layer to both the characterization of our MC and the narration itself. Honestly, even if the plot and characters themselves had been extremely bland, I still would have enjoyed this book based on the writing alone.

However, the plot and characters were also far from bland. I love the perspective that our main character brought, and I honestly fell in love with her so fast. She was just such a unique and fresh voice to me, and I felt so strongly for her, especially during the harder parts of the story. I loved how strongly she bonded and connected with her home, and how that bond remained even when she wasn’t there anymore. I loved her magic and her strength, and how she worried but persisted anyway. I also loved the knight that came to discover what was in the tower that she tried to keep hidden, and was the reason there was even a plot. He was kind and I loved how the two talked with each other, despite being from such different backgrounds and times. It made for such a soft fairy tale, at least in the present moments of the story.

Overall, this novella has just further proven to me the capability and range that Kingfisher has, and has me even more excited to get to more of her works! I definitely highly recommend this novella, especially for fans of stories and fairy tales.