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.

Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

As a fan of Brown's novel I was immediately drawn into Jersey and related with her over her sibling issues, family life etc. The tornado was written beautifully, my attention was caught and I almost shed a tear at the way she refused to leave the ruin that was her home. I knew (Spoiler) her sister and mother had died but I thought that Jane her friend had too. I was kept guessing on that and she turns out to be alive (yay!) but Jersey's life doesn't go too well. I felt awful when I read about Clay and his family, I honestly thought Terry would make her feel better by almost being some kind of maternal figure, same with the grandparents but nothing was resolved enough to give them that chance to.

What I didn't understand was why Brown chose to drift over the passsing over of Jersey from paternal grandparents to the maternal grandparents. It was too rushed, the details breezing over my head and in the end I didn't feel satisfied as a reader. As an author I just wanted to rewrite the ending and extend the novel to give it more of a spark but one day maybe I'll write a novel like this.

A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies

A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies

This book was not the best in the world. It was pretty painful to read to be fair. Straight on I didn't like either of the two angel boys sent to capture her heeart and tidee her to whichever side. I just didn't care.

After reading Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and Amy bartol's Premonition serie, this book had to hit high for me to enjoy it because those two series are amazing.  I had no ties to the characters, I hoenstly couldn't care less if their world went up in smoke. it was that terrible a book.