Among the Beasts and Briars stole my heart. This book is a beautifully intriguing and twisted fairytale that took my breath away from the very first sentence. It is a gorgeous fantasy with world-building that is haunting and alluring. The plot was fast-paced and never slowed. I loved all the characters—they were all so real and well-developed. Fox is definitely going down as one of my favorites of all time. I WANT MORE! I can't wait to be able to hold this book it was so perfect.

I LOVED this book so much! It was so well written, the pacing was great - the story just kept moving along. I thought the character developments were great, and I loved how the main characters changed throughout the story. I especially loved Cerys, and how she was someone who always took the harder path because the easy one would leave others behind. I cannot wait to *hopefully* see more of these characters! (Please 🤗)

Firstly I gotta gush: THIS BOOK. Hands down this is my favorite story by Ashley Poston. It's creepy (has a lot of Over the Garden Wall and Drustvar (World of Warcraft) vibes). The ambiance is so well done. You can smell the rotting leaves in the woods, feel the fog, see the bent and gnarled trees.

The plot was solid. It's nothing super remarkable, but it was well done. It's a classic curse story with the main character all alone to fix the problems of the world, if they can. Even so, it's good. You really connect with the characters, especially Cerys/Daisy. You get enough time in her world before everything goes topsy-turvy to really empathize with her situation. She's, by all accounts, a normal girl. A gardener's daughter. What can she do to fix the world?

It's fast paced with some sass, heartache, and little hints of romance. My one complaint would be that I would have given maybe 10-20 more pages in the ending just to make everything have just a smidge more of a punch in the gut feeling, show a bit more of the repercussions of stuff. This ending is completed. while there is definitely a tease for an additional story (maybe more??) in this world, you don't need more books to complete this story. It's something Ashley did for her Once Upon a Con series, and I really enjoy it.

Cerys deals with a lot in this, and you see her start out as a super quiet girl. It's been years, but she has trauma. She grows and evolves through the story, overcoming obstacles. No one will save her, so she has to do all the saving herself. She's sweet and means really well. I loved how her magic (this isn't a spoiler; you find out she has it on the first page) was used. Her abilities are not something you would ever think would be much of a help in saving the world, but she uses them throughout the story, and it works well.

Fox was a mess. His character developed much more slowly throughout the story, but he changed and grew too. My one complaint with him was he didn't feel too much like an animal, but very human. I would have liked to have had him use weird words and sounds to try to explain things since he doesn't speak human languages, and have had him use body language to convey things more. In the context of the story, yes it makes sense why he thinks the way he does (more humanistic). I just think it would have been interesting to have him start out more animalistic and then progress to more human through the book.

I really loved this book. It was a fun ride. Just spooky enough to have my pulse racing while tender and also sassy. Fox is the repository of all the sass. 10/10 recommend.