It was frustrating how long it took for the characters to declare their love to one another and even more frustrating to see what happened as a result. Walter does a phenomenal job in expressing Alice's rage and agony and I could totally empathize with her plight and her actions (perturbing as they seem) and as a result my feelings were swirling all over the place when I finished this book . Now I anxiously await the second book in the duopoly to see how Walter fixes things.

Everything about this book screams Morgan, and it was one of my most anticipated reads for a long time. I didn’t love it as much as I expected but the second half is really good and I’m excited to pick up book 2! The first half of the book felt slow to me; I wasn’t connecting to Alyce and it was a bit of a chore to pick up even though I loved the lore and worldbuilding. But when Alyce met Aurora it definitely picked up, and the last 100 pages in particular were so good! I like how Heather Walter has twisted the Sleeping Beauty story, it’s very clever. And the characters grew on me; there were parts that felt kind of info dumpy, while also being purple prose. I don’t know. But I would still recommend it, it’s a good story that took a little while to capture my full attention.

When I first generously received the arc from netgalley, I was stoked! But unfortunately for me I couldn’t find an interest in where the plot began to progress. Maybe sometime in the future I’ll pick it up and give it another shot.

I love villain stories. I really love Disney villain stories that get retold. I especially love when those Disney villains and the heckin princesses are a thing, oh my gosh. This was everything I wanted and then some.

Ooo I love fairytale retellings!!! This story has you rooting for the villain to get the girl instead of the prince.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

I finally got around to reading this. However, it just wasn’t for me. i think it’s because I waited too long to read it so my interest in it has gone down. I think I want to give it another chance down the line but at this time I just couldn’t get into it.

A great title and so was the sequel! I recommend this one all the time to fantasy readers, especially those interested in LGBTQIA titles.

This book is good I liked the premise of the book. But didn't really grab me and wanted to keep reading.

Fairytale retellings are always hit or miss for me. Malice was a nice, new take on Sleeping Beauty. I enjoyed that it is a sapphic retelling versus the typical retelling.

Magic is regulated in Briar. The graces are provided group homes to live in, and they provide their services to the nobles. Alyce, the Dark Grace, provides hexes and end of life services that nobles want, but everyone scorns. She lives her life in the shadows. And then she meets Princess Aurora, full of life, beauty, and love. Together, they try to find a way to break Aurora’s curse, to find a future. Touching story of love, magic, good and evil.

First book in a new series by a new author. With Vila heritage and abilities, Alyce is compelled to serve the crown as a dark Grace. Reviled by the general populace and shunned by the other Graces, she accepts the mistreatment until she meets another of her kind. Then she meets Princess Aurora who treats her with dignity and who appreciates her differences. Compelling storyline with a sympathetic antiheroine.

I received an advanced copy of this ebook from the publisher for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. The graces are described well. The world building sucks you in from the first page. This is a fast paced science fiction fantasy book, with great LGBTQIAP representation. I enjoyed Alyce's character. I highly enjoyed this authors writing style and plan to read more books by her soon. This book is in stores for $27.00 (USD).

I haven't read many fairy tale retellings, but typically when I do, they're sapphic. This was one of those and I really enjoyed it. It's a fantastical retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the villain. It often takes me a while to get into any kind of fantasy story, and that was the case here, but once I was able to view the world and its characters more clearly, I was pretty immersed in the story. I thought it was written well and the story itself was really cool. The ending was pretty killer and I'm looking forward to reading the second book.

I've never read anything by this author, but was intrigued by the premise of this.

Alice, a part veela is one of the Graces who has magic and works to assist those of her kingdom. Unfortunately, as a part veela, Alice is considered an outcast because her people cursed the royal line to die unless they can find a true love's kiss. Princess Aurora, the last living royalty meets Alice by chance one day and somehow they are drawn together, trying to find a way to break the curse that set all those years ago. Little did they know that the power to break it was closer than it seemed.

Firstly, I actually really loved having the story of Sleeping Beauty told from this perspective. I think it was even better than Disney's half-hearted Malificent because you were able to see the story so deeply within Malice/Alice's head. I think it lent so deeply to an understanding of her character and the world she inhabited. I also really liked the idea that essentially we had the anti-hero telling the story. It's such a satisfying viewpoint.

And TWIST. Aurora's true love being Malice. LOVED IT. My little bi-heart was like, YES. I am here for this. Because honestly the fact that this world already embraced love between different sexes so openly, why couldn't her true love be a woman? Screw the 'natural' order.

I do wish that things had kind of went differently with the patriarchal characters in this book. I still feel like they go away with a lot more than they should have. I also don't know if I really like some of the overall issues with the Graces and how they're treated.

But mostly, it was a good tale.

Thank you for the ARC.

Malice was amazing, I was sad to hear that it was only going to be a duology because these are twisted and messed up fairytale characters that I love to read about. I love the relationship aspect between her and Aurora and just the banter. It's very dark and twisted, excited to read the next book.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book had an amazing plot, but I felt the characters were a bit hard to connect to.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

5 STARS ALL AROUND!!! THE WRITING IS GORGEOUS. I JUST LOVED EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IN IT, ESPECIALLY ALYCE AND AURORA. <3 UGH CAN'T WAIT TO READ EVERYTHING HEATHER WRITES!!

Pretty, amazing, and queer equals pretty amazing! The only word I can think of to describe this book is beautiful! The fairytale part wasn’t very clear at the beginning but the end made up for it! I will highly recommend this one!

What a wonderful retelling / re-imagining of these characters and story! our heroine is the villain...but is she? the characters are well developed for the most part especially the heroine. other characters are developed enough to move our heroine along...and to keep secrets for later revealing. I enjoyed the book and although not a fantasy reader or an LGBTQ reader in general i found the book caring, tasteful and romantic. I'll be looking for the second volume!