Grim Lovelies takes the fairy tale of Cinderella and turns it on its ear. If you have ever wondered what happened when the fairy godmother turned mice into coachmen, this is the story for you. Anouk and her fellow servants have all become human thanks to the powerful witch they served. When the witch is found murdered, Anouk and her friends have only days to find a solution to remain human. Adventurous, creative and with all the elements of a Cinderella tale come to life, Shephard has created a cast of characters that are worth keeping up with to see if they get their fairy tale ending.

This is one of those unlikely stories that manages to be weird in the best possible way, as well as dark and lovely. Taking the side lined animal-transformed-to-human characters of fairytales and setting them free in the modern world where they start to discover what and who they really are was strangely charming. My one gripe was the way this ends on a cliff hanger – really not a fan of that. Still a thoroughly enjoyable read.

A vibrant and gothic adventure of witches, goblins and beasties battle it out in a wonderful new YA fantasy series that cleverly reinterprets the folklore and fairy tales such as Cinderella, set in modern Paris. In this case, the beasts magicked into servants take centre stage. Very enjoyable.

#Netgalley #GrimLovelies
Wonderful, imaginative, and twisted fun. Grim Lovelies is a book that you should not skip on in the young adult fiction area. It has great side characters, who become the main characters, of this novel. I would recommend this is a must read for 2018.

Grim Lovelies is the first in what promises to be an interesting series.
Anouk and her friends are beasties. They have been turned into humans by a witch, forced to serve her and do her budding. But then she is killed, and they get the chance to escape.
This group quickly come to see there’s more to their making than they’ve been told. Lots of people are interested in them and their capabilities - and not all for positive reasons.
In this book we have the essential world building and setting up of the characters/relationships between them. An intriguing ending that hints at interesting times ahead for Anouk.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

Wow what a story. I loved this book. A young girl is a house maid to a witch. She thinks that the witch is kind to her, but she does not know how evil this witch is. The witch is killed and soon the girl realizes that she will turn back to her true form. The twists and turns of this story will keep the reader engaged. A little wordy and slow at some points keeps me giving it five stars but it is a must read for fans of fantasy.

The premise of Grim Lovelies is amazing. It gives a voice to those little beasties... the animals who are turned in to humans by witches in fairy tales. You know, like Cinderella's mice/coachman etc. I really love fairy tales and retellings and the second I saw the blurb for Grim Lovelies and knew that it was going to be an amazing book and one that I would thoroughly enjoy reading. And I am happy to say I was totally right! I loved reading this book so much, that I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy once it's published so I can reread it.

Set in modern day Paris it is a wonderful clash of the magical and the mudane, Royals, witches, goblins and beasties share a world with Pretties (ordinary humans), who are completely oblivious to the magic lurking in the shadows. It's such a fantastic concept and I found myself wishing so hard it was true (just like I still expect my letter from Hogwarts even though it's over 20 years late...). I love the magical world that Megan Shepherd has created, it's wonderfully rich and having it bisect 'our' world made the tale all the more engaging.

The time/deadline element of the book is wonderfully done, just like Cinderella having to be back before the last strike of midnight, Anouk and her fellow beasties have a countdown too. The start of each chapter, after Mada Vittoria is murdered, has in large letters "X hours of enchantment remaining". This really added to my reading of the book... that anxiety of time running out, which you are reminded of every time you started a new chapter. This made Grim Lovelies impossible to put down.

There are so many fairy tale elements in the book, and I don't want to discuss too many of them, because the fun is in finding them yourself, but I will just say... keep an eye out as you read the books because there are wonderful little discoveries everywhere in the book.

There are so many wonderful characters in the book, I love Anouk, her voice is wonderfully refreshing to read and I fell in love with her almost instantly. I love Cricket, Tenpenny and even Hunter Black and Viggo... I loved most of the characters in Grim Lovelies, as they were all well written and so unique. In fact the only character I didn't like was Beau, now I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything but I found him to be a bit too possessive and overbearing.  There were several points in the book where what he said or did made me feel little uncomfortable. 

I absolutely loved Grim Lovelies, it is an enchantingly wonderful fairy tale told from a new and refreshing angle, I will be recommending it to everyone and I will definitely be rereading the book once it is published!

I thought this was a pretty good start to the series and had an original feel to it. Anouk and four other "beasties" live together with a witch who gave them human form. After finding the witch murdered, Anouk and the other beasties leave their home. Anouk has never been out of the house, and I found her quite adorable in certain parts as she learned her way. There was also mystery: who killed the witch, where was one of the missing beasties, and will they be able to stop from turning back into animals?

There was also a cute side romance. It wasn't a big part of the book, but I found Beau quite cute and protective at times. He also made me mad at times, too! But I liked him and Anouk together.

Overall, the writing is well done and the descriptions were on point. I'm curious to see what happens next as it does end on a cliffhanger.

Loved this! Highly recommend.
The characters were original.
The topic was also original.
I want to be a grim lovely and join this amazing team!

I saw Megan Shepherd's name attached and knew it was going to be a well-written book, but it was also wild. If you want elements of magic, histories of magic and magical beings, and some good old fairy tale twists (the beasties turned human of everyone's favourite fairy tales), then really have to look no further. What really struck this as a 5-star book over 4, however, was that it did not fall into all the little tropes and predictable traps I thought it would. Oh, there's a hot prince? HOLD ONTO YOUR BUTTS.

For all the characters' arguments about things being or not being black and white, Megan Shepherd wonderfully paints everything outside of shades of grey even. Colourful story, beautiful setting (FRANCE), solid premise, excellent plotting, good pacing, <insert another positive adjective> humour and dialogue. I can't imagine I will be disappointed by the next volume of this story.

Fans of the Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red trilogy and various books by Diana Wynne Jones will love this book.

Absolutely fantastic.

This is the story of the secondary characters of traditional fairy tales-those whose fate is oft forgotten when it comes to Happily Ever After-and what happens when their narrative takes center stage.

The feel of this book is very much that of a traditional fairy tale, but the author has put a unique spin on the concept. It's also incredibly propulsive, with some humorous allusions to a squad pulling a Job, like the animals from Cinderella starring in an episode of Leverage.

Racing against the clock is a good plot device for YA...it holds the interest of an audience that often becomes indifferent easily and propels the reader along with such speed that they're less apt to notice plot holes and iffy writing. That sense of compelling, I-can't-stop-reading action is present here in spades, but it feels especially impressive here because it's there for its own sake. There are no plot holes or draggy segments where the less dedicated reader might lose interest.

Extra points too for a book that certainly has plenty of appeal for adult YA readers, but is also not too much for the younger end of the YA spectrum.

Terrific ending as well, and one that has me VERY excited for the next installment.

Grim Lovelies is an enthralling adventure. Anouk and her friends used to be animals, until they were turned into human slaves of a witch. Now they are on a deadline to find a way to stay human or else return to a numbing animal existence. This is a grim foray into the darker side of fairy tales. The suspense and tension will hook the reader and keep the pages turning well into the night.

This is the easiest 5-star review I've given in a long time. The premise of this book alone was enough to have me excited, but from the very first pace, Shepherd pulls in the reader and sets the scene for what is a wonderfully exciting, adventurous, heartwarming tale of a ragtag group of "beasties" (that's animals turned into humans by a malevolent witch to act as her personal servants) fighting to retain their humanity and set the world right. Once I started this book I couldn't put it down - I read late into the night, woke up early in the morning to read more of it, and just found it a complete delight.

The character development here is great, particularly for Anouk, who went from being quiet, demure, and as hesitant about the outside world as she was excited by it to a fearless, badass leader who refused to take the easy way out and stayed true to what she believed was right. Obviously because of the YA-intended audience, there just had to be a romance in here (I SO wish writers would stop with this - there's more to the world than falling in love and it's possible to write an engaging, powerful book without it!) but thankfully Shepherd didn't focus on it too much and it was easy enough to ignore. I especially appreciated that <spoiler>Beau was returned to his animal form at the end, though I imagine Anouk will be working to reverse this in subsequent versions</spoiler>. Additionally (and totally non-related), I imagine there'll be an uptick of non-Francophone readers Googling "se faire foutre" and "merde" after reading, which makes me laugh.

All in all, this was a fantastic read - highly original, totally engaging, and really charming.