Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Shelby – ☆☆☆☆☆
The Glass Queen is the second book in the series The Forest of Good and Evil and can be read as a standalone with no issues. This was my first book in the fairy tale retelling series by Gena Showalter, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to grab The Evil Queen (book #1).

I was expecting a paranormally themed Cinderella. I didn't have high expectations as many Cinderella retellings have been disappointing, but this was an awesome departure from the norm! The Little Cinder Girl can be linked to anyone in the world of Enchantia. A world where trolls, shape shifters, witches & warlocks, dragons, mages, and everything in between lives. Magic is the norm, and oracles are sought after. As such, each kingdom has its own royal family and it just so happens that Ashleigh's father is the King of The Provence of Fleur. One would think this would make her a powerful princess; unfortunately, that title holds no power to the sickly, weak girl. A father who hates her, no friend outside of her mother, how is this girl supposed to survive?

Prince Saxon Skylair of the Avian Mountains hasn't had an easy life; exiled from his home at an early age, he was taken in by friends to make a life. Knowing his place in the family, he needs to prove himself to take his rightful place.

These are just simple summaries of the main characters, and in no way truly convey all that is going on. Enemies to the core, only one knows why. I loved the twists and turns, the constant questioning of the prophecies. I loved the way everything came together; I even loved the cheesiness as I am expecting it from a young adult novel. Above all, I want to read about the next retelling as I liked these characters!

This description really sold me into the idea of this book. The Glass Queen is the second installment in The Good and Evil series, but I did read this one before I read the first one, The Evil Queen.

Obviously TGQ can definitely be read as a standalone, but after reading the first book I can assure you, you'll want to read The Evil Queen to understand a little more of what The Glass Queen is all about.

Also, because most of the characters from book one are in book two and you can see a little into what their lives are after their story.

But this is all about The Glass Queen. The story gets 4.5 out of 5 blue stars in the Then There Were Books review book.

My gosh, to say this is a retell is almost lying.  There are some Cinderella elements to the story, like how the MC was treated as a slave almost, her having her mother die when she was young and the step family, but the similarities with her family stop there.

In this world fairy tales like "Snow White" and "Cinderella" are actual prophecies. But obviously not the Disney versions of the stories, but the Grimm brothers tales. With the gruesome details and all.

So we get our girl Ashleigh. She is born with a heart problem. She is mean to die no long after she is born, but her mother is not quite ready to give up on her so she makes a deal with whom she thinks is a regular witch.

Turns out the witch, "Leonora" is not a witch, but a phantom. This phantom has played a part in "The Little Cinder Girl" prophecy (Ashleigh's prophecy) without her really knowing she is doing so.

The phantom wants to have a body, a body she can call her own and she thinks she finally will be able to get rid of her host once and for all and just live as the person with Ashleigh. Leonora is basically keeping Ashleigh alive so she believes this time she will be able to do it.

Ashleigh and Saxon meet during her mother's funeral. She knows just a little bit about the Avian prince. She knows he has been exiled, but she doesn't know why. She knows he is handsome and that he believes she tried to burn him alive.

Because of the little stunt he says she pulled she is sent away to work her life at a Temple in the forest where she will never harm anybody again. Knowing that there is no way she can change her father's mind she goes and stays there hopping one day he realizes his mistake and comes to get her.

The day comes three years later, when the king requests for her. He doesn't do it because he misses her, but because Saxon requested her be his personal royal liaison during the tournament the king is hosting to marry off his stepdaughter Dior.

Saxon has a plan to deal with Ashleigh and the person he things she is, but that obviously don't work out as he has hopped.

Because Saxon knows her soul. He knows her on a deeper level and is hard for him not to develop real feelings for her. He has to fight not only on the field to win another girls hand in marriage, but his own heart to not fall for the person he believes Ashleigh to be.

One night there is  discovery that almost brings him to his knees and changes his prospective on everything. Now him and Ashleigh are working separately to change what is sure to come if the phantom takes over Ashleigh's body as her own.

Let me tell you this journey they take to finally getting to the bottom of things and finally fulfilling "The Little Cinder Girl" prophecy is such a while ride that you won't want to stop reading page after page.

There are dragons, betrayals that aren't real betrayals, pain, so much pain, magic and love. Love is the ultimate weapon there is to defeat the monster that has hunted Saxon and Ashleigh all of their lives once and for all.

Showalter created such an intricate, interesting and amazing world you won't be able to stop reading and falling in love with the every single detail.

I completely recommend you guys start this series and read The Glass Queen because it is such a fresh idea and just plain old awesome. I couldn't put it down and I bet you won't be able to put it down either.

Love it more than book one

I would like to thank Justine Sha for inviting me to read a free ARC, as well as Gena Showalter, Inkyard Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read it in exchange for an honest review.

When I received an email inviting me to read this book, I was interested, but starting in the middle of a series makes my eye twitch, so I hit the library. Luckily the wait for the audiobook of the first book, The Evil Queen, was short. I listened to it, fell in love, and immediately downloaded the galley for Glass Queen and read it as soon as I could.

I loved it even more than the first book. Evil Queen saw Everly Morrow stumbling from the mortal world into Enchantia, meeting Prince Roth and Co. and having to discern who was friend and who was foe—as well as where they all fit in the Snow White “prophecy”—while learning about her powers, her true background, and the world she now called home. In Glass Queen, we remain in Enchantia, this time focusing on Saxon, the avian crown prince as well as one of Everly and Roth’s best friends, and Princess Ashleigh, who fights possession while Saxon plots to take control of the kingdom. The prophecy of the Little Cinder Girl, in which they both supposedly play roles, looms over them.

I love nothing more than funny, endearing, and charismatic characters I can relate to and care about, and that’s what Showalter creates. I was so invested in Saxon and Ashleigh—especially Ashleigh—and all the others (<3 Pagan and Pyre!!!) that the book’s flaws barely registered. I was so eager to gobble up the story that I didn’t even take the time to make any notes, but I recall a few issues nonetheless.

It never felt so slow that I grew exasperated, but the middle did seem to drag a bit as we were kinda-sorta-not-really paying attention to the tournament, and Saxon and Ashleigh were trying to figure out what the fuck Leonora was and what could be done about her. I finally started to lose patience with the playing house stuff in the stable; I skipped and hopped through some of that. The inner monologue could ramble and be redundant at times. Overall, it probably could have been a slightly shorter book and a slightly tighter narrative, but otherwise it seemed pretty well paced.

The timeline. I got pretty lost toward the end. The past lives were as clear as they needed to be, and I followed time at the beginning of the novel okay, but the further we got into the story, the more I got confused. First of all, when Asha first arrived at the palace, she wasn’t supposed to begin acting as Saxon’s liaison until after the first battle. Yet he took her straight from the throne room to his tent and she was his liaison from minute one. I’m not sure if that was an inconsistency or if Saxon just made the arrogant decision that she would start now instead of later and it wasn’t quite made clear to the reader.

The bigger problem was that, to my understanding, the tournament was supposed to go for three weeks, one big battle each week with little contests in between. It was after the second battle that Saxon’s mom and sister attacked Ashleigh, and it takes her seven days to recover. So I assumed the third battle was supposed to be that same day. Instead, another entire week passes while they play house in the stable. Did I miss something—always possible—or was there really an entire extra week between the second and third battles?

Saxon’s struggle with wanting to dislike Ashleigh despite being attracted to her from the moment they met was handled well and developed naturally, but once he gave up on trying to dislike her and was all-in on finding a way to be with her, he got a touch annoying as he swung between macho posturing (Touch her and die!) and sickly sweet fawning over her (I have a present for you. And another. And another. And another. Have I told you how much I love you? I love you more than this kingdom. I love you more than anything. Blah blah blah barf). Otherwise he seemed like an okay hero. Not sure I liked him as much as Roth, but he was fine. Oh, and it was nice that Showalter had him get pretty beaten up during the battles; he may have even lost if Noel and Ophelia hadn’t had a hand in things and he hadn’t trained through three lifetimes. It kept him from being a Gary Stu.

I loved Ashleigh. Other readers might find her annoying at times, but I didn’t. The only time I started to lose patience with her was when she needed to admit to Saxon that she’d figured out what Leonora was but kept putting it off, or something happened at the right moment to prevent her from telling him. That can be as annoying as the “five minutes of earnest conversation could have prevented the entire plot” thing.

Last thing, a bit random: It really bothered me that the rose was a motif throughout the story. I get that roses are considered romantic and that Fleur is the “flower kingdom,” but when I think “rose” + “fairy tale,” I always think Beauty and the Beast. And since B&B is and always will be my favorite fairy tale, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed whenever I read about roses here, because it reminded me I wasn’t reading a B&B story.

Overall, I loved this book and can’t wait for the next one. I already want to read both 1 and 2 again. I’m not sure which fairy tale will be retold next—if the clues are there, I missed them—but I assume it’ll have something to do with Farrah, thanks to Hartly’s—warning? Prediction? Foreshadowing, at any rate. Since book 1 was released June 2019 and this one is out Sept 2020, I would guess book 3 arrives Winter 2021 or maybe even Spring 2022 if she experiences delays. I shall be waiting eagerly!

Title: The Glass Queen
Author: Gena Showalter
Pub. Date: September 29, 2020
Rating: 3.5

This will be a mini spoiler free review. Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to read this. I’m always a fan of fresh takes on fairytales, and this book delivers that.
Unfortuantely, this book was seriously lacking. I struggled through the second half of this book. I loved the first 50% - the tension, the angst, the enemies to lovers and all the drama…plus the tournament aspect – I was totally here for it. I really liked Ashleigh and Saxon’s relationship in the first half. The “I can’t like this person, because I *hate* them” tension is one of my favorite tropes/plot points and it’s always fun to read. I ate up the tension and angst between the two of them.

Then…I don’t know what happened in the second half of this book. Between Ashleigh’s weird character flip, the awkward AF sex scenes/sexy scenes (some of the phrasing was ew) and just my general lack of suddenly not being invested, I was bored.

So bored.

I really couldn’t get past the awkward smut scenes and the weird as hell phrasing. I didn’t understand how Ashleigh’s character went from sheltered and naïve, to stereotypical stupid dumb blonde. It honestly felt like the second half of this book could have been written by someone else.

I don’t know, I just expected more, I guess. I honestly don’t know how to explain “I was bored” in more words than that. I was bored and I didn’t really care. I’m disappointed that it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be. I don’t think it’s a bad book, and I did like the fresh take it took on the “The Little Cinder Girl” fairytale. I liked the appearance of characters from the first book. Despite this book not being my favorite, I will be reading the next one. I’m invested in the world that the author has created and I’m really curious to see how she alters the next fairytale. Something big is coming to the land of Enchantia and I want to know what it is. The Glass Queen comes out September 29, so you still have time to catch up with The Evil Queen!

What an amazing book. spell binding and magnificent. This story truely pulls you in and won't let go. The characters are amazing, and so real, it's like you are part of the book. I love how the story unfolded and how it was told. This story is so unique and fresh.

This is a clever magical take on Cinderella. It's a sequel to the Evil Queen, but it could be read as a standalone. The worldbuilding is wonderful, and the characters are well crafted. There's a nice mix of romance and mystery, and there are even some dragons! The dialogue was a bit much, at times, even a bit cheesy. The book was quite long, and it could've benefited from a bit of tightening up during the editing phase. Fans will likely enjoy Showalter's latest.

Princess Ashleigh was born with a weak heart. To save her, Ashleigh’s mother took her to a witch in a hope that she would grant her some power and heal her. Instead, the witch decides to enter Ashleigh and bide her time before she can take over her body. This secret is only known by a few, yet an oracle predicts that Ashleigh will become the next Cinderella and protect the Kingdom of Sevon from the evil that once ruled. Ashleigh doesn’t know how she can be the next Cinderella, especially since she doesn’t have the basic qualities of a gracious princess. It doesn’t help that the man she is supposed to win over hates her. Will Princess Ashleigh fulfill this prophecy?

The Glass Queen is the second book in The Forest of Good and Evil series. Although this book takes place after the first in the series, readers could easily jump into this story and enjoy it without the foundation. The Glass Queen takes a story everyone knows and puts a fun spin on it. Fairy tale re-tellings have always been a popular choice for me and this one does not disappoint. There is romance and back-stabbing with twists of magic weaved throughout. Goodreads currently doesn’t have a third book listed, but I would love more stories from this twisted parallel world.

Gena Showalter is a well-standing author that I've been reading for several years now. I enjoy most of her books, and THE GLASS QUEEN was no different. A twist on tired fairy-tales, this was different enough to hold my attention. As usual with GS books, I love her characters, writing, and the worlds she builds around them. If I'm being honest, I don't have a long review prepared for this book because while I loved it, there was also nothing mind-blowing about it. And you know what? That's fine! I enjoyed my time reading this book and that's what books are supposed to do. Highly recommend it for long time fans of GS and fairy tales.

What do you get when you take a well-known fairytale, modernize it, add a dollop of intrigue, a lot of action, and a pinch of steamy romance? You get The Glass Queen, a modern retelling of the classic Cinderella story like I never imagined it in my wildest dreams.

What I Loved

I love what is done to the Cinderella story. My favorite part must be the unique “getting ready for the ball” scene. I will not explain why so that you can enjoy it for yourselves, but it is noteworthy. I felt like the novel is more of a direct retelling than The Evil Queen is but still turns the tale on its ear and asks the reader to reimagine what you grew up with as a given. In Enchantia, fairytale characters are reborn every generation in new and different combinations. Oracles declare if a child is a reborn fairy tale but not which character they are in the story. All their lives, they find themselves guessing which character they are – hoping for the hero/heroine and fearing the antagonist. It is such a fun journey as the reality of who each character is in the fairy tale is revealed in the most unexpected ways.

I loved the resolve, and quiet determination found in Ashleigh, the main character. She has an inner strength that is true of Cinderella. But is that the character she is? But my favorite character has to be Ophelia. In the story, she is described as a “plucky Oracle,” and her sarcasm and wit had me laughing out loud in pure amusement. She is delightfully wicked in all the best ways.

I love the inclusion of the dragon twins. In a set up reminiscent of Game of Thrones, Ashleigh finds herself the mother of twin newly hatched dragons. The dragons are affectionate and fiercely loyal, providing Ashleigh with the love and family she has not known since her mother died. It is touching and warms the heart, even when I stopped to realize that these are ferocious beasts that can do a great deal of harm and damage. They fill a need for Ashleigh that, as a reader, I want her to have.

To Read or Not to Read

The Glass Queen is a fun retelling that stands the well-known Cinderella story on its ear, in the most delightful way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was super excited when I was invited to read this book as I devoured The Evil Queen and loved it so much. I devoured this book as well and I loved it just as much as The Evil Queen if not more. I loved how Ashleigh went from this weak child to a strong-willed woman. over the course of the book and I loved Saxon as well once he stopped being a prick to Ashleigh. I was glad to see characters return from The Evil Queen and along with all of the new characters that were introduced. I still love Everly and Roth and I really enjoyed their involvement in this story.

I recommend this book if you loved The Evil Queen or if you just enjoy twisted fairytales.

Wow as per usual Gena doesn't disappoint. There are so many twists and turns in these stories that many of the characters could be one or more of the subjects to fulfill the prophecy. The story between Ashleigh and Saxson is a brutal display of love and hate. It isn't until Saxson is able to bend and trust that the stars all align. Thanks to the apple babies and King Roth everything / everybody finds their happily ever after. I truly love these twisted narrative of my childhood fairy tales.

Unlike what other reviewers thought, I thought this book was quite fantastic! I was hooked from the first chapter, I loved the characters. The plot was wonderful

Book: The Glass Queen
Author: Gena Showalter
Rating: 2 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Inkyard Press, for providing me with an ARC.

I just don’t think that this book was for me. It’s nothing that the author did or that there’s anything actually wrong with the book. I just don’t think it’s one for me. I’ve been reading a lot of epic fantasy and this was just a chance for me.

I honestly didn’t care about the characters either. They just weren’t what I was looking for in a book and just didn’t have that punch that I wanted. I mean, they were fine, but I just felt like they were kind of flat for me. I want something more and something a bit more fleshed out. I found it very difficult to keep everyone straight because of that. It honestly felt like the author was trying to write Sarah J Maas characters, but it just didn’t work. I think had we had some more development then it would have worked a lot more.

I felt like the writing was kind of flat as well. The overuse of the rhymes just didn’t work. I personally think that the book would have worked a lot better had the author chosen to drop them. I wanted something a little bit more and something a little bit, once again, fleshed out. I just think it would have worked a lot better. I just felt like the author wanted to cross that line, but couldn’t make herself. If you aren’t going to cross that line, then you really shouldn’t be bringing it up into books. That’s just my opinion and all.

Anyway, this book comes out on September 29, 2020.

Amazing would building as always and a great take on who is the real villain, why no be the villain? Hard to put down.

Wow! What a fantastic read! I couldn’t put this novel down! The characters were amazing and I loved the development. Love, romance, betrayal, fights, all come together. Some of the characters return for the first novel and new ones are introduced. Ashleigh is called the glass princess because of her weak heart, yet she is so much more than she appears. She is kind and strong in her own way, but is alone. She does not understand why Saxon, the avian prince, despises her and makes her life difficult. Saxon is strong, confident, and knows the truth about Ashleigh. Saxon cannot help but being drawn to her, but his words and actions state otherwise. But there is a much bigger plot in play, where each character has their own secrets and hidden agendas. When truths are discovered, Saxon and Ashleigh can no longer deny the feelings they have for each other, for it has happened before. But there are those who wish to stop their happily ever after. To have their happiness, the unthinkable must be done and their is no guarantee everyone will survive.
I received this novel from net galley and the publisher as an ARC. Thank you! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Holy Amazeballs, this book is everything that I want in a book! The chemistry between Saxon and Ashleigh is fire and smoking hot!! I love the characters. The villains are dealt with in a great way.
I can't wait for the next book in this series. Gena Showalter really knocked this one out of the park!

I loved the maps. A queen gives birth to a lovely princess. When she dies the king remarries a woman with two magical daughters. She is treated like a maid and servant and called Cinder. A prince is looking for a bethrothed . He is smitten with the mysterious Cinder. King Phillip and Queen Charlotte welcome princess Ashleigh. In tradition sickly babies like Ashleigh are left alone in the forest. Ashleigh is possessed by a phantom. A murder occurs and Ashleigh is devasted. She meets a young avian boy who she is attracted to. I liked the fairy tale concept. Very interesting