Kell Woods

This was a disappointing read.
It all started with the inconsequential capitalization of the German words used, which made reading really tedious at times, sometimes even infuriating. Either spell it all small or spell them all correctly, and especially never ever flip flop like Ms Woods did here with the word Fräulein. It might seem petty for some that I am so caught up in this issue but German is my native language and my brain stumbles of course over it when I see it spelled incorrectly. Which then leads to an interruption of the reading flow which lessens the joy of reading in general.

Other than that the story was highly predictable, especially if you know all the fairy tales Ms Woods was drawing from. The R scene at the end was unnecessary and felt like as if it was added just for shock value, which fell flat, which had mostly to do with the writing style.
The language was at times a bit too simple without being able to invoke a fairy tale like feeling at all, especially the dialogues came off very wooden at times (see what I did there?), and void of life.
For being the main protagonist, Greta is more stumbling through her life than anything, accepting everything just as it is without questions and without having real a though processes on her own accord, only finding out about the obvious things when she has her nose basically push into it.
Funny enough the most lively and exciting character was the book. (Now that would have made an interesting take, having that whole story told by the book.)

In the end, After the Forest is a book with its fair share of flaws, which I might have been able to over look, if it would not have been for the German spelling. The book didn't bore me necessarily, but it also didn't excite me. Too good for 2 1/2 stars, but technically not good enough for 3, if it would be possible, I would give it 2 3/4 stars, I guess.… (altro)

What an amazing debut! When I saw the description for this book, I was intrigued and it didn’t take long for me to get hooked once I started reading. I feel like this is the Hansel and Gretel story that I didn’t know that I needed. I had never considered what might have happened to these two characters after escaping the witch’s gingerbread home. I was quickly invested in this story and couldn’t wait to see what the future might hold for Greta and her brother, Hans.

Greta was a wonderful character who I liked right away. She seemed to have a good heart and I felt bad that she was put in difficult situations by the actions of others. She does use a magical book that once belonged to the witch who wanted to eat her and her brother years before to make her gingerbread but is careful so that she will not be labeled a witch. The book took several turns that I didn’t expect and I love the magic of the story. I thought that the romance added a nice element to an already delightful story.

I listened to the audiobook and thought Esther Wane did a wonderful job of bringing the story to life. I thought that she added just the right amount of emotion to her reading which added some depth to her reading. I liked the voices that she used to help bring each of the characters to life. I will not hesitate to recommend this entertaining story to others. I cannot wait to see what Kell Woods comes up with next!

I received a review copy of this book from Macmillan Audio and Tor Books.… (altro)