I initially thought this was young adult but apparently this is actually an adult. I’m not sure why it’s adult. Other than maybe the “steamy” (if you want to call it that) scene nothing else really screamed adult to me.

The book read very much like young adult. Not in a bad way. It was enjoyable and easy to read. Minus the info dumps at times. Which is why this is more 3.5 stars but since I don’t do half stars I rounded up as 3 was too low.

Even though this is a sleeping beauty retelling at times, mainly the beginning, it felt a little like Walter used other fairy tales as inspiration as well. Cinderella for example. But I liked that. It worked for this story.

The romance in this was a slow burn. But I do wish we got more scenes of them together to really see the chemistry and potential love between them. Instead it felt more tell then show.

I did like Alyce. Even more so by the end. She is badass and I can’t wait to see what happens next with her character.

A couple of side characters got the side eye from me. I just felt I couldn’t trust them. Not necessarily because they did something, if they did I missed it, but because I just felt someone had to be untrustworthy. I ended up being correct with both characters.

A big message throughout this was knowing your worth and don’t let others hold you down/back. Also that being different doesn’t make you the villain/bad. I think these messages are important to be shown. Having characters learn this about themselves.

The book did feel slower paced at times. Not in a bad way. But very much that this book was setting up the sequel. We learnt so much in this which I was thankful for but I could have learnt without all the info dumps.

The story picked up in the last 30% where I couldn’t put it down. The ending left me intrigued to find out where the story goes. There’s so many different directions it could go. I definitely will be picking it up.