Fairytale Retelling

Top Ten Tuesday: Buzzwords or Phrases That Make Me Want to Read (or Avoid) a Book

Happy Tuesday everyone! I’m cutting it a bit close this week, but I’ve been looking forward to this week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Buzzwords or Phrases That Make Me Want to Read (or Avoid) a Book. They can be in the title, summary, marketing stuff, book reviews, blurbs, etc. These words or phrases can immediately grab your attention or immediately drive you away and make you go “Nope.”

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into it! I’ve decided to do both sides of the prompt, so I’m going to do ten of each!

10 Things That Make Me Want to Read a Book

Found Family

I’m an absolute sucker for this trope! I love it!

Grumpy and Sunshine

Platonic or romantic, this trope rules!

Retelling/Reimagining

I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. I love fairytale retellings or new spins on classics or legends with a magical, sci-fi, or romantic twist.

Friends to Lovers

I love to see best buds fall in love.

Second Chance

It’s sweet to see characters giving a relationship another go. Plus, knowing two characters have a history is always interesting. I like it both as a friendship or a romance.

Stuck Together

I love it when two characters or a group of characters are stuck together and forced to get along. The friction is so fun, whether platonic or romantic.

Parodies

I don’t indulge too often, but when I see a parody alluded to, I know it’s probably gonna be a lot of fun. These are especially interesting when they’re played completely straight.

“Spine-tingling”

Reading this phrase makes my spine tingle with anticipation.

“Charming”

This makes me think the book will be a little cozy without being too cozy. I like it when my books are sometimes a little cozy without being too cozy.

“Dark/Terrible/Hidden Truth”

I read this phrase or its variants and I immediately want to know what is up with this novel.

10 Things That Make Me Want to Avoid a Book

Enemies to Lovers

I really hate this trope. Like, I just don’t like the concept. Especially because it’s mis-used so often – it’s usually something more like “reluctant allies to lovers” or “neutral to lovers” or something else, but it’s marketed as “enemies to lovers.” Ugh. And I also hate phrases that related to this trope, like “icy hostility to fiery passion” (thanks so much ACORAR).

Love Triangles

I absolutely despise love triangles. They are beyond irritating.

Amnesia

I hate amnesia plots that are involved with romance. All it does is reset half of a relationship and make the other half miserable.

Soulmates

If this is alluded to in the summary, I basically always walk away. I hate destined love.

Forbidden Love

I’ve just seen this one too much – I’m more tired of this trope than anything else.

Damsels

I’m tired of damsels of any kind. Let both the MMC and the FMC be capable in their own ways. I don’t want either locked away in a tower to wait or two be a plot device.

Bad Boys/Girls

I’m kind of tired of them.

“Fierce”

I still see this word pretty often in synopsis, but I mostly saw it everywhere like two to five years ago. This one is mostly a case of seeing it too much and getting fed up with it.

“Bold”

The same problem I have with “fierce.” But I also can’t stand the phrase “bold [new] debut.”

“Dangerous Temptation”

I hate it. I’m not a big romance reader, so that might be why, but I still hate this phrase.

What are words or phrases that make you want to read a book? Which ones make you want to stay away from a book?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Hemlock and Silver

Happy Wednesday(-ish)! Ugh, for some reason this didn’t quite post properly, and then I immediately went to bed early because I was tired. Oh well, fixed it! Here’s hoping this turns into another streak for this post!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.

This week’s book is:

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher! 🍎🌿

This is a reimagining of Snow White, and it definitely looks interesting! I’m also just naturally attracted to fairytale retellings, so it’s inevitable that this would make it to this post, as well as on my list of anticipated books for August 2025.

This is one of T. Kingfisher’s longer books, and it looks like it might be the first of hers that I’ll read. I’ve read a few of her novellas though, and they were great, so I’m hoping I’ll like her longer novels, too.

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

LENGTH: 368 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Tor Books

RELEASE DATE: 19 August 2025

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind

Healer Anja knows little of politics but much of poisons. When she is summoned to treat the mysterious illness afflicting the king’s daughter, she finds herself against the clock, desperate to track down the source of the poison killing Princess Snow. But the chance discovery of a strange alternate world inside a magic mirror leads Anja to darker discoveries, including what really happened to Snow’s dead sister, Rose, and why their mother seemingly went mad and cut out her heart.

Aided by a taciturn bodyguard, a narcissistic cat, and a late Renaissance understanding of the scientific method, Anja must navigate the mysteries of the mirror world before the dark queen that dwells within rises to threaten them all.

Are you looking forward to Hemlock & Silver? What other books are coming out in the next few weeks that you’re looking forward to?

As always, thank you all so much for reading and have a fantastic day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Book Review: “Cursed” by Marissa Meyer

Stories are only half told until they’ve found a listener.

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

SERIES: Gilded Duology (Book #2)

LENGTH: 485 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Feiwel & Friends

RELEASE DATE: 8 November 2022

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer concludes her young adult retelling of Rumpelstiltskin in this sequel!

Serilda and Gild attempt to break the curses that tether their spirits to Adalheid’s haunted castle before the Endless Moon, when the Erlking means to capture one of the seven gods and make a wish to return his lover, Perchta, from the underworld. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear he doesn’t want just one god – he wants to capture all seven, and force them to bring down the veil that keeps the Dark Ones separate from the land of the mortals. Serilda and Gild must try to thwart his plans, all while solving the mystery of Gild’s forgotten name, freeing his younger sister who is trapped inside Gravenstone Castle, and trying to protect their unborn child.

Romance, adventure, and Serilda’s journey to finding her power as a woman, a mother, and a partner make this a retelling that Meyer fans – old and new – will treasure.

My Review

“This is the stuff of fairy tales. You are the stuff of fairy tales. Handsome princes who kill wicked huntresses and get themselves cursed inside haunted castles are the stuff of fairy tales.”

Ugh, this book. This. Book. I was really looking forward to it. I really enjoyed Gilded for all of its flaws, and I love The Lunar Chronicles. But I really didn’t like Cursed. Marissa Meyer really dropped the ball here for me.

Honestly though, I think I hated it as much as I did not only because I didn’t like it, but also because I didn’t really like any of the other books that I read in September. If I had read other books that I ended up liking, I might not have rated this reading experience so lowly. But I did read a bunch of books I didn’t like, so I did give it a low rating. Oh well.

(Also, sorry that this review took as long as it did. I just couldn’t find the motivation to write it after the amount of disappointment this book made me feel.)

Pros

  • The first book ▼

As much as I didn’t like Cursed, my experience reading it made me appreciate its predecessor more. This definitely could have (and probably should have) been all one standalone novel.

  • The prose ▼

This book was competently written. It’s the biggest reason why I didn’t end up rating it any lower.

Cons

“Are you reading fairy tales, miller’s daughter? Or are you living one?”

  • The characters ▼

I have a slight confession to make: I wasn’t quite as fond of our protagonist, Serilda, as much as I might’ve said. She was a very reactive MC and she made so many stupid decisions throughout the first book. And that didn’t change with this one. In fact, Serilda was even more reactive and made even more stupid decisions. She also didn’t do anything for the first half of the book (at least), which made it quite the slog to get through. It was extremely annoying.

Gild was a character that I really liked in the first novel, though. And I was anticipating Cursed somewhat in part because I expected that we’d be seeing more of him, as well as more of his interactions with Serilda, because of how Gilded ended. Nope. He doesn’t appear any more often than he does in book one. In fact, sometimes it felt like I saw less of him sometimes.

The other characters didn’t feel like they mattered. The kids were sweet, like they were in the first one, but they kind of started to irritate me after a while because they prevented the plot from moving forward. It was very annoying. And the villains – the Erlking and Perchta were also really annoying characters. Perchta was just a bee-atch and I could never quite tell what the Erlking wanted. He had weird interactions with Serilda that implied he might’ve been having character development in a certain way, but it was all for nothing.

  • The plot ▼

This book lost the plot. Nothing at all happens until after the 50% mark, and nothing major happens until like two thirds of the way through.

The pacing was also terrible here. Every part taking place over a couple days over one month worked in the first novel, but it doesn’t really work here. Even though Serilda has always been a reactive protagonist, but in Gilded it at least felt like she was doing stuff some of the time. Here, she doesn’t really do anything for much of the early parts, and the plot doesn’t move along. As a result, the last quarter of the book has to tumble over backwards to wrap up all of the loose ends, and even then, it’s not even close to a satisfying end to the story.

  • The romance ▼

Guys, it really sucks. I was looking forward to watching Serilda and Gild’s bond go stronger, and relationship unfold further here, but we don’t get that. Much of their bonding happens off-page and in descriptions. Ew. I kinda would have liked to read about their bond happening Meyer! There’s also just so much insta-love aspects happening with it too.

Final Thoughts

“Human, god, monster – we are all the victims of fate and fortune.”

Cursed by Marissa Meyer was majorly disappointing. Because of this I, unfortunately, can’t really recommend it. It just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Not that everyone who reads it will hate it like I did. I think other fans of Gilded and Marissa Meyer’s other works have a decent chance of enjoying it. So don’t just take my word for it.

What books have you read by Marissa Meyer? Which books are your favorite? What are your favorite fairytale retellings?

As always, thank you so much for reading, and have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar

My Links:

Goodreads
Instagram

First Line Friday: 9/22

Okay, so explanation time. I got sick this week. It has majorly sucked. So that’s why I haven’t hardly posted this week at all. Now let’s move on to First Line Fridays.

First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.

What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?

If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:

📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page
📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
📙 Finally… reveal the book!

Here are the first lines:

Be still now, and I will tell you a tale.

It begins deep within Verloren, the land of the lost.

Do you know what book it is? Here’s a little hint. Or two or three, you know the drill by now.

Do you know the book now? If you don’t, here are some gorgeous pictures of novels to scroll through while you consider it…

Annnd the book is 🥁🥁… Cursed by Marissa Meyer!!

(Did you guess it?)

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

SERIES: Gilded Duology (Book #2)

LENGTH: 485 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Feiwel & Friends

RELEASE DATE: 8 November 2022

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer concludes her young adult retelling of Rumpelstiltskin in this sequel!

Serilda and Gild attempt to break the curses that tether their spirits to Adalheid’s haunted castle before the Endless Moon, when the Erlking means to capture one of the seven gods and make a wish to return his lover, Perchta, from the underworld. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear he doesn’t want just one god – he wants to capture all seven, and force them to bring down the veil that keeps the Dark Ones separate from the land of the mortals. Serilda and Gild must try to thwart his plans, all while solving the mystery of Gild’s forgotten name, freeing his younger sister who is trapped inside Gravenstone Castle, and trying to protect their unborn child.

Romance, adventure, and Serilda’s journey to finding her power as a woman, a mother, and a partner make this a retelling that Meyer fans – old and new – will treasure.

What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re most excited about?

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an excellent day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Book Review: “Thornhedge” by T. Kingfisher

The love of monsters was uncomplicated.

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

LENGTH: 116 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Tor Books

RELEASE DATE: 15 August 2023

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

From USA Today bestselling author T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge is an original, subversive fairytale about a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways.

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

If only.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

My Review

“There is a story,” Halim said, watching her closely, “of a beautiful maiden in a tower, enchanted by some terrible magic.”

“There cannot be a story,” said Toadling, almost inaudibly. “Everyone has been dead for so long. There cannot be a story. Who told you such a story?”

Thornhedge was a book I was looking forward to, ever since I first heard about it a few months back. I fairytale retelling? By the author of What Moves the Dead? Oh, heck yeah!

But I didn’t really like this book as much as I hoped that I would. Which has been a bit of a trend lately, unfortunately. (I’m looking at you Witch King. And you, the rerelease of Masters of Death.)

But I did like a few things about it. So I’m gonna talk about it. Uh, yeah.

(I’m just so eloquent, huh?)

Pros

I really liked the characters. Toadling was a very different take on the fairy who cursed the princess, and one I’ve never seen before. She’s nervous and insecure, but she has a phenomenal sense of duty that keeps her tied to the tower surrounded by thorns. She’s also curious, and longs to get a taste of the world(s) beyond her exile. Which is where our other major character comes in.

Halim was a great take on the knight in shining armor. Particularly because he’s not much of a knight – in his own words. He’s even more curious than Toadling, as that’s what led him to the tower to begin with, but he’s even more kindhearted. Even when he and Toadling meet face-to-face, he’s far more curious to her predicament than he is hostile, and spends the majority of the tale doing everything in his power to help her.

Beyond the characters, the other two things that I liked were the way T. Kingfisher built her world, and the lack of romance. Concerning the first of the two – I love the way that she weaves her stories (so far). The world building itself is just so intricately tied into the narrative in a way that I can’t imagine any other way to tell the story. I found it beautiful.

Regarding the lack of romance – I love gen relationships! There aren’t enough books completely free of romance out there, especially in the fantasy I’ve read, and it hurts me. I love a good friendship, and there aren’t enough novels where the main characters are just really close friends that exist. Particularly in a fairytale retelling.

Cons

As much as I loved the way the world building was, and how the story of Thornhedge was told… I don’t know how to explain it, honestly. I guess the novel itself just wasn’t quite for me.

This is nothing against the writing – I already said I liked it. I think the problem was there was too much background, and yet not enough. Maybe. Like I said, I think I just didn’t end up liking it as much as I’d wanted. I don’t know. So I’m not really sure what to put in my little con section here, lol.

Final Thoughts

She had so many choices and she had never had choices, never been given a chance to choose anything more important than what fish to snatch or what herb to pick.

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher was a very interesting and different take on Sleeping Beauty. Despite the fact that I didn’t quite enjoy it as much as I’d have liked to, it was still a very refreshing take on a fairytale retelling.

I think that people who’ve read and enjoyed more of the author’s work will probably like this one, at least a little bit. I also think that those who just enjoy fairytale retellings and retellings in general, will find something to like about it, too. (As well as my fellow gen lovers!)

So yeah, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

My Links:

Goodreads
Instagram