The second book I finished for the Asian readathon was another tor.com novella - I've read a few of them over the past couple of months and enjoyed them overall. We follow two middle aged women, Rosa and Hou Yi, as they join forces to stop the sunbirds from destroying the countryside. It is a quick and interesting read with two unusual characters and an age (middle aged women) that I haven't read from the perspective of before. I liked the overall story and the fairytale/folktale elements from red riding hood and goldilocks but I found myself losing interest vey quickly unfortunately.

Rating: 3.5/5

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this fantasy novella as much as I thought I would. I have previously read a fantasy novella from Tor.com that completely blew me away and this just did not impact me the same way.

I really enjoyed the fairytale retellings in this novella. The author manages to reinvent them and reimagine them in such a unique way. The book is also gloriously diverse.

What I had a problem with was the world building. Since there is limited space to truly explore the world, I found that I did not have enough information to clearly understand everything mentioned within the tale. I still do not completely understand how the 'Grundwirgen' work and how they come to be. Can everyone turn into animals? Can all 'Grundwirgen' turn back into humans?

The reveals at the end were not something that had a strong impact on me and I felt like the reunion between certain characters at the end was completely rushed and not given enough attention.

Overall, this magical retelling of some of the most well known fairytales set in a world of shapeshifting was an interesting read that explores love and family but it did not captivate me as much as I thought it would.

This gorgeously written sapphic novella re-imagines the well-loved fairy tales we all know.

Rosa has left her Red Hood and gun behind, promising to never kill again. But when sunbirds start ravaging the countryside she has to team up with the Archer Hou Yi to save the people of her land. But shadows from their past haunt both women, and it soon becomes clear that they will have to confront them if they mean to complete their mission...

This is such a compelling, interesting read! As more and more of Rosa's and Hou Yi's back story is revealed, the narrative slips from one fairy tale into the next. But all of them come with an unexpected twist that changes the narrative. Whether it's Rosa's grandmother teaching her to shoot a rifle, or Goldilocks turning out to be a thieving scammer, the stories hold just enough familiarity to be recognizable, but still manage to be something completely new. This book is amazingly paced, always making you wonder what happened before and what will happen next. It's such an interesting, original and amazing twist on the original stories, and I could not recommend it more!

I should make something clear up front! Since I read this as an e-ARC, I didn't realize it was a novella until I saw the completion percentage on my e-reader go up really fast. Sooo in case anyone else also missed the memo, this isn't a full-length novel -- it's a novella!

This was such a fascinating, brilliantly done story. It's beautiful and fierce and I love that the two main characters are queer middle-aged women, both full of pain and regrets. This is a Red Riding Hood retelling, as the synopsis states, but there are also other well-known fairytales incorporated as well, making it a fun read for anyone who enjoys retellings.

There's a lot to wrap your head around in this story. It's very densely written, packed full of conflicts and themes and backstory. So much, in fact, that I feel like I need to reread it (maybe several times) to fully grasp everything.

As with many fantasy novellas, there's world-building, but not a lot of room to explore the world being built. Which means a bit more work for the reader to imagine a whole world beyond what's on the page, based on the vivid scenes and hints at what else is out there that we get from the story. It's a tough balance, because it often leaves reader wanting more and wishing for a full novel, even though part of the beauty of a novella is that freedom to imagine. And that was the case with Burning Roses. The world-building was vivid and beautiful and piqued my interest, but also made me lament not having many chances to explore.

It's hard to say much more without spoiling the story, so I'll just say that this was an enjoyable, thought-provoking novella! I'd love to read more stories set in this world and I'll continue to read everything S.L. Huang writes!

Thank you Tor.com Publishing and Netgalley for providing a free advanced e-galley of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Hello Gemmies! I have an exciting book review to share with you today. Please note: I received a digital ARC of this book (via NetGalley) from its publisher in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Burning Roses is a new dark fantasy novella by S.L. Huang. S.L. Huang seamlessly weaves together different western fairytales, Asian folklore, and magic into one intriguingly delightful tale! This story is so creative, it felt like a breath of fresh air. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Let me start with the characters because that is really where this novella shines. Burning Roses is an extremely well written character driven story. We meet our two main protagonists Rosa and Hou Yi as they go on a quest to stop monstrous firebirds from attacking villages throughout the countryside. During the quest both women must face their own personal demons and come to terms with the mistakes of their past. The first thing that jumps out at me is the fact that both Rosa and Hou Yi are middle aged. You almost never encounter a middle aged female lead in a fantasy story, let alone two. But don't let the age fool you, these ladies are smart, brave, and all around bad ass. I found them both to be relatable and complex especially as they try to come to terms with the bad decisions that brought them to where they are today.

The sisterhood between Rosa and Hou Yi is also very beautifully done. This is a cautionary tale to not let past betrayals and bad decisions taint your future or destroy your family. You cannot heal past hurts until you are ready to be honest with yourself and those that you love. There are so many lessons to unpack with this story. The world building takes a slight back seat to the characters but not enough to take away from the story. We still get plenty of magic, animals that shift to human, and various monstrous creatures.

If you are a fan of fairytale retellings, family drama, magic, redemption stories, sisterhood, and kick ass heroines then go read this book! This gem published by Tor.Com is set to release on September 29, 2020 and is available for pre-order from all major booksellers. I give Burning Roses 4 out of 5 gems. I cannot wait for this story to be out in the world for all to read. Happy Reading!

A fairytale within a fairytale. This was a beautiful book and immediately drops you into the immersion of being a fairytale. It has the story of Goldylocks, Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, and more within it while maintaining its own separate story. It truly is a wonderful story and I really enjoyed it. I liked the theme of family, love, and forgiveness within it. The pacing was nice and the story wrapped up just fine. An overall fantastical read with elements of all of our favorite fairytales.

This novella was dark, sad, beautiful, and packed with meaning. It is a story about parents and children, about the pain of forgiveness, about grey morality, about the falsehoods we tell ourselves about ourselves until they are indistinguishable from truth. It follows the journey of two older women, Rosa and Hou-Yi, who live in a world where humans can turn into animals and animals to humans, where bears can speak in firebirds populate the skies. They are traveling together to find the individual who is controlling the firebirds that are ravaging several villages.

This little story is also an immensely clever retelling of a host of different fairy tales, all woven together into one story. I’m sure that I didn’t pick up on all of them, but I caught allusions to Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hoods, Goldilocks, and Puss and Boots among others. Each story is picked up an reimagined in a way that encourages the reader to see it in a very different way then they were told as children, prying away the veil that hides harder truths from our eyes.

I chose not to rate it higher in part because it was just a little too dark for my personal tastes, though it had a happy ending. I also feel like the world-building was ill-defined. This was a very character focused novel, and I know it can be difficult to establish an environment within so few pages, but I found myself confused by details such as Goldie’s talk of banquets and dances seemingly dropped in without much explanation. Honestly, the world didn’t really come into stark relief for me until the end when Rosa and Hou-Yi arrived on the island. The visual descriptions in this part of the novel seemed far more abundant than in the rest of the book.

Overall, a meaningful read. 9/10 for character, but more like a 6/10 for world-building.

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.- Goodreads

Rosa is all types of messed up within this novel and not for nothing after some time it is completely her fault. It is as if this woman just lives to be miserable.  Do not get me wrong. She experiences a very horrific trauma that harden her heart but as she gets older and that little voice in her head telling her that what she is doing isn't right, she ignores repeatedly to stay in the bubble of hate, despair and anger she created for herself.

I do not feel sorry for her. Rosa had every opportunity, prior to where the reader finds her, to do something better. She was pointless in her actions and didn't acknowledge the damage that she did until it came knocking at her door.

Without actually saying the words, I believe the author was trying to get me to sympathize with these Women even though they were fairly trash to those that they love and the people around them.

But these characters were written extremely well and this short novel (160 pages) was a good read. Within the first two parts there is an intensity that draws you in. The author does a fantastic job retelling not one but two fairy tales.  I loved how seamlessly she was able to do it.  

Overall, I may not have felt sympathy for Rosa but I enjoyed this book. Rosa had a part and it was played well. However, the ending could have been better. 

3 Pickles

This book was amazing! Strong plot! Powerful characters! A plot that held my attention the entire time!!!! I couldn’t put it down. I needed to find out what happened next!