"Stepping through a gate, you’ll first be met by trees. They’ll greet you with white leaves falling like rain, dusting a crisp confetti across your path that crunches under your feet as you begin to find your way. Step carefully over the slick stones, or you may slip." ~ "The Sisters Grimm"



A lush epic adventure told across several time periods. The my of family and sisterhood is powerfully written. However, it's too much worldbuilding with not enough time. I'm thoroughly disappointed with the dry plot, sterotypical female characters, unremarkable villain, loose plot structure and sparse character development. There's enough magic in here to fill three books! The main problem is that the author tries to fit the plot of three stories into one book. This causes the plot to be unnecessarily hurried and not much character depth to appear. The main characters didn't even meet until they faced the villain!



What was frustrating were the multiple points of view. Every chapter rotated between the sisters Bea, Ana, Scarlet and Goldie. Just when I was starting to follow the plot, the action would shift to a new setting with no transition. Sometimes a single chapter would have two perspectives! With the amount of backstory for each sister, it couldn't have fit in just this one book. As a result, I couldn't develop a passion for any of the sisters. I went into this book hoping for amazing Grimm sisters set in a fairytale plot twist world, but it was impossible to keep the timeline of their lives straight. Think "The Time Traveler's Wife" meets "Lord of the Rings."



Final note: Major props for the illustrations at the end of the book. I loved getting to see if the sisters I pictured in my head matched with the artwork. It's stunning work and it reminds me of fanart for Sarah J. Maas's books.