This was fine -- what really sticks with me is the imagery of the forest and feral magic. A dark little red riding hood with a powerful female protagonist was a nice twist on a faerie tale retelling. I also really like books that have characters that are morally ambiguous and grow and work through that. But despite that, the characterization is a little shallow and inconsistent. Also, love triangles are Not My Thing. ( )

This book had an enthralling first sentence: “In all your life, your only choice… is the path of needles or the path of pins.” It drew me in right away. I think it's a Rosamund-Hodge-thing; even with Cruel Beauty, my attention was captured with the first sentence.

The author’s writing style (descriptive writing and dialogue) is something to be admired. In some places, it is almost poetic, filled with metaphors and details. The following piece from the book is so cool:

“That is why I want you to come with me so you can be reconciled with God and find peace.”
“I’d rather confess to the devil,” said Rachelle.

I can see that fierce and feisty girl being rebellious and not caring about stating her honest and profane opinion, even if it gives others a rather disagreeable impression of her. I commend Rachelle’s strong, feministic and determined personality.

I enjoyed reading about the myths from the past that helped make the current story sense. The world building in the past and the present were perfectly interconnected.

However, at the start of the book I thought the story was more slow-paced, which I wasn’t a fan of, especially because I like fast-paced books. I enjoyed the second half of the book more, because it was filled with activity and liveliness.

Also, I grabbed this book because I highly enjoyed Cruel Beauty by the same author. I was looking for dark romance, which sadly wasn’t abundant in this book.

Anyway, I would recommend this book to readers who like to see a strong female protagonist with assertion and vigour in her soul. And of course… to anyone who likes magic. ( )

Originally thought that this was supposed to be a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, as [b:Cruel Beauty|15839984|Cruel Beauty (Cruel Beauty Universe, #1)|Rosamund Hodge|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1371652590s/15839984.jpg|21580669] was for Beauty and the Beast. I saw it a lot more in the other and probably would have liked this a bit more had I not thought that.

There is a lot of beautiful visuals and fairly interesting worldbuilders. Unfortunately, it feels like it should be more interesting than it actually is. There are some interesting concepts in there (bloodbound made by murder, etc), but they're barely fleshed out. On top of that, apparently the world was ending and... no one seemed to care? Except some people knew all along and pass along magic swords to save the day? Meh.

Rachelle is interesting enough. She regrets what she's done but is making the most of it. On the other hand, Armand and Erec make a pretty terrible love triangle and neither seemed particularly likable to me. Writing a love interesting without hands was... an interesting idea. Still didn't care about him.

Also, what's with all of the makeup?

Overall, it's not the worst book ever, but Cruel Beauty is better. So it goes. ( )

I loved this dark Little Red Riding Hood retelling. Rachelle and Armand are great characters. Their romance is not instant nor is it easy. I loved it. I will definitely be reading more by this author. ( )

I regularly enjoy going into a book blind, with no notion of what the book is about or if it is based on something. In this case, I knew the story was based on a fairytale, but I had not read enough about it to know which one, nor did I look closely at the cover before diving in. That being said, it was pretty obvious to me that this was a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. I didn't know about the second tale until I was finished reading (although I have never heard of the Girl with No Hands, so that wouldn't have meant much to me).

I really enjoyed reading Cruel Beauty, so I had somewhat higher expectations going into this one. The writing style was still excellent, and characters were well developed and had complexity, which is something I really like about a great book.

I highly recommend this for fans of Cruel Beauty, Nancy Werlin's Impossible, and Heather Dixon's Entwined. ( )