Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas

Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas

Published by: HarperTeen

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy tale

Tagline: When the glass slipper doesn't fit...

Rating: ***

Ash & Bramble revolves around the protagonist Pin and her waking up from one situation, to be in another. She's a seamstress at first in this world called Story, but somehow breaks out of it with a boy named Shoe. However when chased by a Godmother, things go bump.

I wasn't too sure what to think about this novel.

My main thoughts were mainly about how little I cared about Pin and Shoe. Instead I was counting the pages, the minutes and stops until I could turn my kindle off and stop reading the damned thing.

Pin isn't our typical female protagonist. She's against the grain from the very start. I liked that she planned her escape. It was intelligent and smart but also different. Pin is just not any of the female characters in any traditional fairytale not because of any of what I listed above, but because when she's placed into this different situation she chooses not to be submissive and instead thinks for herself (yay!).

But it wasn't enough. She still needed the guy to rescue her and kiss her and all that. It's just annoying that it could have been amazing and strong but instead it had holes in it from how some male characters can kinda ruin the strong woman.

As far as fairytales go, I found this retelling a fantastic idea but didn't enjoy how it unravelled. It was different for sure. But I think if I was forewarned, maybe I'd have given it a miss.


Ash & Bramble can be bought from Amazon UK or Amazon US.