#Kathryn Purdie

[ninasbookshelf]

january 2024 reading wrap-up

we made it through the first month of the year! i set a goal to regularly update this blog throughout 2024, and i did pretty well this month. i'm proud of that!

here’s what i finished reading in january:

The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell

Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

i also kept up with my usual webtoons (you can see my most recent webtoons post here), and i subscribed to a cute new webtoon called Mono and Mochi. i love it!! 💞💞 highly recommend.

how was your first month of 2024?

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases! (September 19th, 2023)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Standalones/First in a Series:

Nightbreaker by Coco Ma

When A Brown Girl Flees by Aamna Qureshi

How to Find A Missing Girl by Victoria Wlosok

A Prayer for Vengeance by Leanne Schwartz

The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

Of Dreams & Destiny by Sandhya Menon

All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyerr

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

Champion of Fate by Kendare Blake

The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

The Only Girl in Town by Ally Condie

The Collectors by Various

Running Past Dark by Han Nolan

Archives of Despair by Caleb Finn

New Sequels:

Shadow Coven (The Witchery #2) by S. Isabelle

A Crown So Cursed (The Nightmare-Verse #3) by L.L. McKinney

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Happy reading!

[lasfrases-de-tessa]

I cringe again, shaking my head at myself, "I don't even realize I'm doing it."

"It isn't anything to be ashamed of. Like I said, your voice is beautiful." A tingling sensation sweeps through my limbs, and I look down at my hands, fidgeting with the cuff of my sleeve. We grow quiet, and that silence makes my heart thump faster.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Burning Glass | Author: Kathryn Purdie | Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (2016)

[the-library-and-the-teashop]

The Forest Grimm

Author: Kathryn Purdie

Genre: fantasy, fairytale reimagined.

Format: novel.

Serie: yes, tome 1 of 2. (Tome 2 out in October)

Editions: Micheal Joseph/Illumicrate

Romance: allodyacishet romance with a love triangle. Kissing. No sex.

Other representation(s): disabled main character (scoliosis, chronic pain, MC wears a shoe lift)

Tw: blood, attempted murders, poisoning, scary woods, non consensual drug use, matricide, infanticide, cannibalism, starvation, ghosts, suicidal ideations (kind of).

Rating: 6.5/10

Tea association: a berry-flavoured black tea or a Pu'er.

.

I the small village of Grimm's Hollow, villagers used to live prosperous lives. Until their most precious possession, given by the mysterious Forest Grimm, the Book of Fortune, a strange oracle with the power to grant one wish to every villager after they turned 16, was taken back by that same forest after one villager used the book for a nefarious wish.

Soon after, villagers start disappearing in the Forest Grimm never to be seen again; they are called the Lost. And no one can go and look for them to bring them back because the trees of the forest themselves will stop any attempt at passing the treeline.

Three years later, Clara, the daughter of the first Lost, is still determined to find a way into the forest and reclaim her mother.

.

Honestly I had a hard time getting in the book at first, despite being intrigued. The second half was way better. In the end I wanted more, that is, the second book, which is not out yet unfortunately. Though the author actually give us a good enough final to not feel dissatisfied and the end of this first tome. But the epilogue is intriguing and set the foundation for the plot of the next book.

It's an overall good read. I genuinely enjoy this story, despite my aversion to love triangle, though I have to admit that as far love triangles go, this one wasn't completely unpleasant and actually made sense.

The plot itself had a few twists I should have seen coming in insight, some that I've partially seen coming, and some that just plain caught me totally by surprise.

The world building is set mostly on the Grimm fairytales, but twisted, cutted in pieces and used as the author please. The result is quite fascinating, It is actually fun to look for the clues of which characters is from which tale. Sometimes it's not what you'd expect. Sometimes the original fairytale is twisted beyond recognition.

This was a good debut! Worth your time.

.

Note about the fairyloot edition: it's really gorgeous.

The dust jacket design is fairly close of the original except for the background that went from white to a beautiful green. The dust jacket is reversible and the other side is absolutely gorgeous with the main characters all depicted on it.

The naked book it also sublime and is a rendition of the book from the story, "Sortes Fortunae" (the book of Fortune), with foil on the hardcover.

The end pages show Clara and Axel.

And the sprayed edge is beautiful, with it's depiction of Clara in her red cape near the black wolf with the forest in the background.

This is an overall gorgeous edition. I just would have like a real binding, and not the sheets just glued together. It makes the book really fragile. I was scared several times to damage the book while reading. Not the best experience.

Though I'm really hoping that fairyloot will publish the second tome too. I definitely want the whole set.

[selkiemaidenfae]

books read in 2023: bone crier's moon by kathryn purdie

✧✧✧

“there's an old gallish phrase my father used to say whenever he'd have to leave for a little while... tu ne me manque pas. 'je ne te manque pas.' you're not missing from me. i'm not missing from you."

[meeghanreads]

Top 5 fairy tale retellings

Hello friends!! Welcome to Top 5 Tuesday!! This week’s topic is top 5 fairy tale retellings!! Now, I know this topic is not for everyone. In fact, it’s pretty much designed purely for me. But, as host, that’s my prerogative every so often. And, I’m not sorry. Sorry. But, for not being sorry. Not for the topic. I’ll stop now. Apparently, somewhere in the world 26 February is National Fairy Tale…

[shxpeshifterr]

[theheelerbooklifereads]

Thank you, Macmillan audio, and NetGalley for the ALC/ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Forest Grimm is the first book set in a new young adult romantasy series. We follow our 17-year-old main character, Clara as she embarks on a quest into the deadly and dangerous Forest Grimm to find a magical book called the Sortes Fortunae (aka the Book of Fortunes). Typically, no one ever makes it out of the forest out alive, but she will go to great lengths to break the curse that is placed on her village and to rescue her mother. What Clara does not know as she ventures through the forest, she and her friends that tag along will encounter some well-known fairytales.

✨I discovered Kathryn Purdie's books back in 2020 when Bone Crier's Moon came out and ever since I have been reading some of her books which I end up enjoying. When I saw The Forest Grimm go up on NetGalley, I instantly went to request it since I know Kathryn is an author I enjoy.

✨When The Forest Grimm first opens up with the villagers having their names drawn to see who would go into the forest to break the curse my first thought was: "is our main character going to yell-I volunteer as tribute?!" That part just made me think of The Hunger Games and no there was no one who yelled that they volunteered as tribute with those exact words.

✨Kathryn Purdie does such an amazing job setting up this world and the atmosphere. She really draws you in and makes you feel like you are in this dark, bleak forest with odd run ins with fairytale characters. I should note that these fairytale characters are not the Disney ones that a lot of us know but the darker ones that we encounter with the Brother Grimm Fairytales. You can expect Cinderella, Hansel + Gretel, Rapunzel, and a few other characters to appear in this book. With that being said I really enjoyed seeing the different characters and how they are portrayed as well interact with the main characters and the world.

✨When it comes to the characters, I for the most part enjoyed them but did find Henni and Clara to be aggravating at times. But I did love the friendship and the even more than friends' dynamic between Clara and Axel.

✨The pacing for the most part was great and fast but there were areas that felt like it dragged out. I was very engaged in this story and curious about what was going on and what would happen.

✨I've been seeing a lot of mixed reviews on The Forest Grimm about it feeling too young as well as other things. To put in perspective: I will be 28 this fall, and I did not find it juvenile or targeted for a younger range. To me this felt like a good, clean (no smut) romantasy retelling that I would have encountered when I was a teenager. Everyone does perceive things differently, so it is all good if people find this too young, but I just wanted to say for me it felt fine and I think many people who want a clean YA romantasy, a dark fantasy retelling, or to feel reminiscent of YA a decade ago then you'll enjoy this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxLLeHrgvuM/?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==

[someonelookingpraediti]

FairyLoot Unboxing

Enchanted Forest October 2023

October's theme is "Enchanted Forest". I was hoping for 'whimsical and mysterious', which isn't exactly what I got.

The featured book is “The Forest Grimm”, by Kathryn Purdie. The dustjacket is a colour swap. I prefer the new green to the original white, but it's not really a good design either way. But the jacket is reversible, and I really like the reverse jacket, and the colour matches the hardcase. The hardcase has amazing foiling, and there are full artwork endpapers with foiling on the border, and incredible artwork sprayed edges.

The first item is an embroidery kit, inspired by "The Forest Grimm". I never bother with these kits, I have no patience for embroidery, and I wouldn't know what to do with it once I'd finished it, so I'd end up binning it.

Next is a set of bag clips, inspired by "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". These are... awful. Bag clips are such an uninspiring item to get, and even as bag clips they're not very practical in design. A poor quality and unimaginative item.

The next item is... a spoon? It's a cottagecore themed spoon in the shape of a mushroom. It's not in any way practical as an actual spoon, since it's an odd shape, and there are bits of it that aren't glazed. It looks really cool, though. I'm just not sure what its use is.

And we have a photo album. This is a fandom neutral item, and it features a holographic foiled blue forest design on the cover, which I really like. Mostly, I think people use these to store spoiler cards, artwork, or author letters.

The final item is clearly the best, and it's such a great item, which I've never received in a book box before. These are page overlays, to go in "Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries"! I love, love, love page overlays! It doesn't have a list of which pages these match to, so I'm going to save them until I read the book, and fit them in as I come across the matching scenes.

This month's tarot cards are Sophia and Constance from "Cinderella is Dead".

Mostly, this box just isn't good. I'm not impressed with the majority of the items. However, the page overlays are more than enough to make up for the rest of the box - such an exciting item to get, and I really hope we get more of them in the future!

[bookishlyvintage]

The Forest Grimm, Kathryn Purdie [x]

[ninasbookshelf]

[easolinas]

Review: The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Outside the town of Grimm’s Hollow is the Forest Grimm – a magical place twisted by a malevolent curse that draws bespelled people into its depths and is slowly killing the surrounding farmland. And as you could probably guess by the name of the forest, “The Forest Grimm” by Kathryn Purdie wraps…

[lasfrases-de-tessa]

He grabs his dry shirt, yanks it back on, and steals an uncomfortable glance at me. I grin and wink at him.

[autumn--006]

Bone Crier's Moon Review

6/10

The book was good. The plot was good. However, it was not outstanding.

a) The writing was hard to follow when describing religion and the gods. It was described as a little more complex than necessary. I feel like there were so many questions and hypotheticals that should have been answered to make it make sense.

b) there were hardly any moments between Bastien and Ailesse that made it to where they had the opportunity to "fall in love" they had no moments and hardly any conversation. You can tell that it was definitely supposed to be a slow burn but the lack of moments between them didn't have me rooting for the pair when it finally came down to their romantic climax. There wasn't any real tension. Someone described it as an "instant-love" situation and that was 100% correct.

c) It really had me sitting on the edge of my seat. But I'm not sure if that's because it was so confusing that I needed to figure out what the author meant or if it was because it was a genuinely good plotline. I enjoyed reading the book but it was held in higher esteem in my head going into the book than coming out.

I will be reading and (hopefully) finishing the second book. I'm rooting for Casimir and Sabine even though I initially wanted Sabine and Jules to get along and hopefully have a romance ;). But coming to find out the author is Mormon, I'm assuming we won't see any LGBTQ representation in any of her books, including the sequel.

Had potential but didn't live up to the expectations. Deserves the little attention it has to be honest. it was an okay book but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know.

THE SPICE LEVEL WAS SO DISAPPOINTING ;-:

[between-the-pages657]

Bastien practicing his blade skills on the rafters is giving me major POTC vibes.

Like when Will and Jack are battling each other in the blacksmith’s shop.