“Love wasn’t enough and trying wasn’t enough and nothing we did changed anything! It should have mattered. All that love and all that trying should have changed … something…”

The second book by T Kingfisher that I read and I hope that I will read many more because so far I am loving them! This one, unlike the other, is fantasy (with a dose of horror), and a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and what a hecking good retelling it was! Flipping it all around, twisting and turning it, making it different and new.

🌹 Toadling was such an interesting character and I was rooting for her to find the happiness she so deserves. She has been guarding this tower for years, hundreds and hundreds of them. All in worry. All in fright. Wondering if someone would find the tower, would get inside. Would ruin it all. I just wanted her to be happy. To live the life that was taken from her when this duty was forced upon her. I loved that Toadling could change forms and I loved how she loved her adoptive family, the Greenteeth. I loved reading about the moments she had there, how they were truly a family. Even when she learns about what truly happened to her, that she was a changeling, she keeps loving them.
🌹 For a bit of the book I thought that what was sleeping in the tower was good. Sure, it was something that apparently needed protecting, but it didn’t seem like a bad thing. But as the story continues we get hints, and then the backstory starts and I was just hoping that the Sleeping Beauty in rest there would never wake up. Not if we wanted to keep the peace.
🌹 I loved that Toadling slowly started trusting Halim and started to tell him the story of how she came to be here, what is in the tower, and why no one should go up there unless they are resolved to help out. To do the thing that needs to be done. My heart broke when we got the backstory. Toadling has been through so much. Not just hundreds of years and watching the world go by, but what is in the tower, well that ain’t a Sleeping Beauty.
🌹 The cover is so pretty! I am happy I got this edition as this is by far the best cover in my eyes.
🌹 I loved that despite the fact it was short (125 pages) it felt like much more than that. There was so much story in this one. And it never felt as too much, rather it was all just perfect.
🌹 Halim, the knight, was such an interesting character. OK, at times I found him a bit much, but in overall I loved that he was there for Toadling, didn’t shy away or get scared away when her backstory got darker and darker. Instead tried to be there for Toadling. Making her laugh. Give her a bit more happiness. I loved how he was there for her when things got really scary.
🌹 Reading about the fae realm, about the good fae, about changelings, about the goddess.
🌹 I love that this is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but much darker. Much better. Much more interesting than the direction most retellings will go. It is a whole different Sleepy Beauty.
🌹 The ending both pissed me off (but in a good way as in I was angry for Toadling’s sake) and made me happy. Yay, Toadling!

I would love to say more, but I don’t want to give too much away, I generally already try to keep it all secretive in my reviews, but in this book it is even more of a thing. This is one book you need to experience. I would highly recommend it!