I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a really fun retelling and mixture of two very famous fairy tales...and the twisting of them together was done very smoothly. (And I enjoyed the hint at the end of the book that Mathena's future would be as the witch in Hansel and Gretel.) I enjoyed the adult themes that were thrown into the mix: love and betrayal, incest, bandits instead of dwarves, and of course the magic. And I like what the author did with the "huntsman" Gilles and I super enjoyed Mathena's character as well. I feel like there were a few things that could have been developed a little more though. The characters were all fairly one dimensional and parts of the plot seemed to go so fast that the only reason I understood how the characters changed was because I already kind of knew the story and what was coming. However, the overall effect was good and like I said, it was a very fun read.