The short stories in this world hadn't worked for me, so I went into this a little worried, but I ended up really enjoying it? It crept up on me, this novella. And by the end, I was so invested in these characters' stories. This redemption arc is probably one of the best I've ever read!

A sweet but solemn novella, Burning Roses is the tale of two battle women, Rosa and Hou Yi, discussing their troubled histories on a journey to stop a young apprentice and the fire breathing birds he called down on their land.

In this world talking animals are known to Rosa as 'gwundwirgen', accepted as part of the human race by some but not all. Her encounters with the gwundwirgen are spoken of in fairytale retellings including Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and Beauty & The Beast.

With trans and lesbian rep, Burning Roses is a magical tale of love and sorrow, heroes and villains, loyalty and betrayal.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the digital galley of this one.

Two women, both running from their pasts. When deadly sunbirds begin ravishing the countryside, Rosa and Hou Yi join forces to discover what’s at the root of this issue, and along the way, they’ll grow a friendship based on trust and shared sorrow.

I loved this book. It was relatively short (I finished it in under twenty-four hours), and the characterization was great. I loved both women, loved their flaws and failures as much as their kindnesses and triumphs. They are both stubborn and have lost so much, but there may be a chance at redemption, and their quest and friendship will reveal these opportunities, their friendship opening up their hearts for redemption and regaining some of what they’ve lost.

I really enjoyed the pacing as well. Rosa’s backstory juxtaposed with the current events and quest of both women. I feel like the story developed well, and I like how we’d get chunks of Rosa’s story but only snippets of Hou Yi’s.

I loved both the traditional folklore elements as well as the fairy tale retelling aspects of the story. From start to finish, I couldn’t have been more delighted with this book. It’s just what I needed this week, and I’d love to spend more time with these characters.

The best part about me being behind in my backlist is that, if this sounds good to you, you don’t have to wait for a release date, because it’s already out. So keep an eye out for it at your favorite, local bookstore or request it at your library.

Burning Roses is a short book, just under 150 pages, that manages to pack a really enthralling story with lots of world building - Rosa, also known as Red Riding Hood, has a dark past she's running away from, and joined legendary archer Hou Yi in a quest to bring down Hou Yi's former apprentice, a sorcerer turned evil, and the two women must confront their pasts on the way. I was a bit doubtful about two characters telling their stories in flashbacks (I detest flashbacks), but it actually worked really well here. These two battle-worn and weary women are fascinating in their own right, their world full of magic, talking animals, curses, love and loss - plus a lot of it is based on Chinese myths. It was surprisingly hard-hitting for such a short book and I had my heart broken and mended more than once. Both women are Sapphic (I think both are lesbians, and one is trans). It's a story about being more than the horrible things you have done in the past and learning to forgive. I really enjoyed this!

I loved S. L. Huang’s Null Set, which is science fiction (ish), with a heroine whose superpower is her genius at mathematics. Burning Roses takes us into the realm of fantasy with two aging women dragon hunters in a world in which humans can assume animal form, and distinguishing between them and true beasts poses critical moral questions. Each woman has her own tragic background, her own guilt, and her own path toward redemption. Rose, a European who came to this Asian-inspired land with her lover and daughter, has a long and tortured history through twisted fairy tales. The story pits the healing power of friendship against the crippling belief that one is beyond forgiveness. I loved the depth of the book, and also that the dragons are feathered, a bit like phoenixes. It’s not a long book, but one that should be read slowly, pondered over, and savored.

This was excellent! The story was told so beautifully I wish there had been more: Very excited to read more from SL Huang in the future.

This mashup of Eastern and Western mythology adds a new perspective to the idea of heroes and how their deeds affect their personal lives and the lives of those they love.

Two queer old women venture off onto one last journey—interwoven with fairy tales.

It was enjoyable! And so queer! And much family angst.

Old women who have hurt their children.

It's hard writing about two characters at the ending of their lives. After the heroing is over. After much backstory has been expended and buried and retold until it's more fiction than fact. That's why it's so easy to write YA—young characters who are just discovering who they are, with little life lived, with their lives and potential far ahead of them.

I think that was why I enjoyed this story so much even while I was frustrated at many times, mainly because I kept feeling like I was jumping in halfway through in a series.

And I was.

Because Rosa and Hou Yi have spent their lives dedicated to hunting and killing monsters—even before teaming up they spent years being heroes...or at least heroes in their own minds. Hou Yi dedicated her life to fighting sunbirds and searching for immortality, to the point where it destroyed her wife and transformed her adopted son into a villain. Rose murdered were-people, dedicating her life to the eradication of the other until it came back to haunt her and her family.

Now both women are on the run from their pasts, and have come so far that the only way forward is backward—backyard into Hou Yi's mysterious past. But Rosa will have to confront her own history as well, and reckon with the awful things she did.

I really loved how the various cultures were woven through this story. There were Asian fairy tales and European fairy tales intermixed together, and a clashing of Asian and Latinx cultures and viewpoints. And there were trans characters! And queer characters! Everyone was gay! And I loved it.

I also loved how the book dealt with the concept of friendship and family—both the toxic and the healthy—and how one sacrificed in a healthy way and how a person recovered from a toxic relationship. Rosa had been exploited by her ex-girlfriend Goldie throughout her childhood and life, and the tendrils of that manipulative relationship drew out the worst of them and sent Rosa on a path where she constantly doubted herself and her connections with everyone else.

Anywho, I really liked Rosa and Hou Yi—the hero and the villain, and who is who depends on who you ask—and their complicated relationship. They are two old woman just hanging on for one more grand quest.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

A queer fantasy retelling of classic fairytales that merged Eastern and Western stories to truly mesmerizing effect. Two weathered, road-weary female warriors who have been brought together by time and circumstance, both of whom have also abandoned their pasts but cannot necessarily shirk their duties or their destinies. It was a lovely novella and I wish I could’ve lingered in the world even longer.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Two women warriors fight for forgiveness and love in an epic blend of Western and Chinese fairy tales.

Rosa has changed a lot since she witnessed a wolf killing her grandmother in the middle of the forest. She’s now the companion of Hou YI, a legendary archer who has lost her wife to the gods. The two women would like to retire but monsters are threatening villagers and they are the only ones capable of protecting them. Even if it means confronting the mistakes they both made years ago.

I didn’t know a lot about the story before diving into it so, I had no clue that it was retelling several fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the legend of Hou YI. It probably took me a bit too long to connect the dots considering all the hints dropped at the beginning of the story but, when my two brain cells connected, I had a huge “Eurêka!” moment. 😅

I didn’t know who Hou Yi was but, when I realized all the characters were inspired by fairy tales, I thought it would be nice to know more about this character. I’m glad I googled it because it added another layer to the story, I was able to see which parts of Hou Yi came from the legend and which were added by S.L. Huang. I don’t think you need to know all the fairy tales and legends to appreciate the story but I think you will get more out of Burning Roses by doing so!

I enjoyed the story from the start but I didn’t expect to empathize that much with Rosa and Hou Yi. They are both quite flawed and they are trying to ignore the mistakes they made but, they can’t help but to be plagued by guilt because of what they did. For me, it made both characters very relatable, I’m sure everyone can understand this “I did nothing wrong” attitude when you know you have made a mistake but you are trying to reassure yourself. It was sad to see how much their various mistakes shaped their lives and haunted them still decades after the facts.

I also liked the fact that the two protagonists are middle-aged lesbian women and that they had a platonic relationship (it’s not because two characters have the same sexual orientation that they have to end up together after all!). I don’t know why but I love reading stories following older characters, it’s probably because they have experienced a lot more things and have a very different outlook on life.

The last part of Burning Roses was heart-breaking and beautiful at the same time. I didn’t expect this novella to shake me up as much as it did but, it made me cry tears of sadness and happiness and I’m usually not a cry-baby (except when I watch movies, then I cry all the time).

If you want to read an amazing story following two older queer women and blending tales and legends from Europe and Asia, look no further! I highly recommend this one!


I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a review copy.

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang is a fantasy novella that was not at all what I was expecting it to be. I would normally blame this on my intentional forgetfulness of blurbs, but in this case, I think the blurb also buries the lede. I would describe this book as an amalgamation of Asian (Chinese) fantasy and European fairytales, with a heavier dose of the latter than I expected.

When Rosa (aka Red Riding Hood) and Hou Yi the Archer join forces to stop the deadly sunbirds from ravaging the countryside, their quest will take the two women, now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, into a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality.

The story in Burning Roses follows our two protagonists, Rosa and Hou Yi, as they attempt to hunt down magical sunbirds and stop them from wreaking havoc across the country. A seemingly straightforward task, until Rosa starts questioning whether the sunbirds are sentient. As we learn throughout the story, Rosa has a dark past with talking animals

The extent to which the world was supposed to correspond to real countries was not entirely clear to me. My general impression was that most of the story was taking place in fantasy-China (or fantastical China, depending on how you want to interpret it), while Rosa has travelled all the way from fantasy-Spain to be there. Having Rosa be a traveller from foreign lands was an interesting and unexpected element. She provided a reference point for readers more familiar with European fantasy, which was the part I wasn't really expecting. In any case, the fantasy aspect of the novella was clearly the pertinent point, since the backstories of both characters have them being involved in several well-known fairytales.

I enjoyed this novella, even though it wasn't what I had expected — more fairytale than wuxia. I recommend Burning Roses to fans of fantasy stories with non-European settings, especially those that also enjoy a sprinkling of fairytales.

4 / 5 stars

First published: September 2020, Tor.com
Series: Don't think so
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

I love S.L. Huang’s Cas Russell series and was so excited when I saw that she was coming out with a novella. Burning Roses definitely lived up to my expectations! I loved the Red Riding Hood retelling plus there’s a TON of other fairytale references included. It was really nice to have older main characters and their friendship was so well done.

As much as I liked this novella, it really is quite dense. And both the plot and the world-building has me wishing this was a full-length novel. But I understand keeping it as a novella because it retains that fairytale-esque feeling.

If you’re looking for a retelling that feels fresh and unique, check this one out! Burning Roses was a great read and I’m looking forward to everything S.L. Huang writes in the future.

The idea of European and Asian fairy tales mixing together was appealing to me, but this story was a strong. There was a lot going on in the first few chapters but felt confusing not understanding some of the basics of the mythical creature the characters were encountering. Then there was too much backstory/going from past to present that it made the story hard to follow along. It ended with what felt like a cautionary, moralistic tale.
I did appreciate having two strong female characters who were older (40s-50s?) and were struggling with their past mistakes in relationships (marriage & parenting). But overall, too many things felt confusing or disconnected for me.

I really enjoyed this. Its so rare you get stories about older women. I love the normalness of the queer elements. The exploration of guilt, forgiveness and family was really good. I also thought the story was perfectly paced, it didn't feel too short or too long.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. There was so much to love about Burning Roses, a novella by S.L Huang. I have never heard of this author before and was delighted by her "fun facts" about herself: https://www.slhuang.com/fun-facts/ It sounds like she would be a fun person to have a coffee with :)

There are so many tag words that go with this book- queer, sapphic, older women, fairy tale retelling, Asian MC, Hispanic MC, mythology... and yet a lot of it worked really well together. If these 'tag words' interest you and you are looking for a fast read (approx 160 pages), then I highly recommend this story!

I did have a difficult time getting into the story- as much as I wanted to appreciate a story about older women, their connection to their fairy tales at first (Red Riding Hood and a female Robin Hood), along with the world they were in was difficult to 'fall into.' Their initial conversations and experiences were choppy to read and enjoy, although I started to like the characters a bit more as I read. I was not a big fan of the ending, which I felt was rushed and hard to imagine.

As mentioned, there is so much going on in this book. There are strong messages of forgiveness, acceptance, and love throughout the story that I think are relatable to many.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor for an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Burning Roses is now available to read :)

Burning Roses is a short novella about Rosa and Hou Yi, middle aged and working together to stop Sunbirds from destroying their home.

Burning Roses is a fresh take on several different fairy tales, including Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Beauty and the Beast. For such a short story, it manages to pack a lot into it, giving new looks at all these different stories, while creating it’s own story of friendship and family, and the trial of taking on the Sunbirds. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from it when first picking it up, but I was pleasantly surprised by the creativeness in the retellings, and how much heart the story had.

The writing is Burning Roses was beautiful, creating that whimsical feel of a fairy tale, while having its own dark take on them. The writing pulls you in entirely, so that you live the stories that Rosa tells, and you’re travelling with her and Hou Yi. It’s fully engaging and engrossing, and it’s convenient that it is a short story, because you really can’t put it down until it’s done.

For lovers of fairy tales and retellings, Burning Roses is absolutely a must read. If you’ve not experienced a fairy tale retelling before, this is a perfect place to start.

This novella was the perfect blend of Eastern and Western fairy tales. It's a re-telling that brings Little Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi together, with a bit of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears + Beauty and the Beast mixed in as well. All of the characters are connected, there are LGBTQ+ relationships, and it's just dark enough to make these "Disney" stories so much better for adults to enjoy. This story isn't full of happy endings that fairy tales normally see, and I really liked that about it.

If you're looking for a quick read with a unique setting, a focus on character backstories, and a diverse cast, check out BURNING ROSES. Plus, the cover is beautiful!

Thank you to the publisher, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, for a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

This is a fun queer Asian mashup of fairytales. It truly feels like when east meets west. This is a beautifully written story. If I have one complaint it's that it definitely wasn't long enough. I know it's a novella, but I want more! I'll have to read more from this author. :)

I received a galley through NetGalley.

Burning Roses is an inventive queer mash-up of the folklore of Little Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi, with the two figures of legend teamed up to take on ravaging sunbirds and an apprentice gone mad. The writing is eloquent and beautiful--really, an immersive voice from the very start. Both women have darkness in their pasts that they must work through in the course of their journey. This is by no means a fluffy fairy tale retelling, but one centered around pain, regret, and most of all, love of family and friends.

The one thing that niggled at me as I read was that I wished more of the story was centered on the present and their growth; flashbacks are heavy throughout the novella. Even so, the end is wonderful and brings everything together nicely.

TITLE: Burning Roses

GENRE: Fantasy

SYNOPSIS: Rosa is an old woman with a lot of regrets. She has lived her years in pursuit of vengeance, full of hatred for any being she sees as less than fully human, and in her old age has come to recognize the deep effects of her failings. Separated from her family, bereft of purpose, she has joined company with Hou Yi, another woman seeking redemption. When Rosa and Hou Yi have to confront one of the mistakes from Hou Yi’s past, they go on a journey together and slowly reveal their troubled pasts. Full of magic and monsters, love and suffering, prejudice and restitution, this slim book is full of heart.

THOUGHTS: I liked this book. I don’t know that I was fully swept away by it, partially because it was a really short read, and I wished I had had more time with the characters. But what I read, I liked. I appreciated the fact that the two main figures had regrets and failings they had to confront. I liked that they were old—fantasy often focuses on young people, but more age diversity lets you deal with people who have more full life experiences. They have had time to go from idealists to people who realize their shortcomings and the shallowness of their own prejudices. Overall, it’s a book full of love—romantic, familial, and platonic. It believes in redemption, and in magic and miracles. And I liked it.