Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for a review copy of Malice.

The first time I read the synopsis, I knew it would be a story worth reading. It's seldom that a story is told through the villain's or perceived villain's perspective. Alyce is a dark fairy, rare and believed to be evil from birth. Feared and hated in the kingdom of Briar, Alyce is used to keeping her head down and making it through a day without drawing too much attention to herself. Though kind and a bit cynical, Alyce believes the lies and hushed whispers she hears from others, but regardless of what they see, Alyce is only buying her time until she can leave. But her plans suddenly change when she encounters the princess Aurora, her complete opposite in every way yet something about her draws Alyce closer.

One of the things I love about this novel is the portrayal that love, true love comes in all forms and is never what you expect it to be. Alyce attempts to desperately make a way for herself and clutches to the belief that things will get better if she only tries harder. I love Alyce's character and even love the story more for focusing on solely her and not Aurora, who serves as a secondary character. There's a message and question of how evil can be created and what our choice will be when pushed to close to the edge.

I am looking forward to reading the next book, because woah that ending!

This book was 5 stars all the way. I loved the twists in the familiar tale and the swoony characters. Have been telling all of my fantasy customers about this one and was super excited when the author popped in to our store to sign copies-I bought one!! 5 star read!!

This book is really good! I really enjoyed the different types of magics and how some was applauded while others looked down upon. The characters were really interesting too. The protagonist and her bird companion were my favorites, but the villains were especially villainous as well. There were several twists in the book, a couple that I saw coming and a couple that I didn’t. I’m really looking forward to the sequel!

***Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an electronic copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback.***

This book had a slow start for me so I dnf. Which is why this review took so long

I hope to one day go back and try again.

I honestly hadn't heard a lot of buzz about this book, but why is everyone sleeping on this book? This was such an intuitive and beautifully written book. The pacing is perfect, the characters are so strong and the tension and angst between the two girls is just perfection. I am obsessed with this book. Did I just read my favorite book of the year in FEBRUARY?!?

I'm catching up on all my ARC reviews, so don't mind this VERY LATE post.

I was super excited to receive an advanced copy of this off netgalley because a sapphic fairytale retelling is all I ever wanted, but unfortunately this ended up being a bit of a bust for me. This was basically a worse version of The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton, with one-dimensional female characters. Everyone could be summed up with stereotypes like "the one who cares about books" or "the petty one who only cares about fashion and beauty" in a way that felt very regressive. Plus there were so many info dumps at the beginning. that I was zoning out.

I've been excited to read this book since I first read the synopsis, and after seeing how much my friends loved it, I finally decided to sit down and read it.

I loved this and was intrigued by it all, from the society we're thrust in that cares only about beauty and material things to this fierce young princess that embodies her dragon-killing, warrior queen ancestors. I loved Alyce, how she tried so hard to survive despite the constant hate heaped upon her. She was tireless, strong, yet still full of love for those who deserved it. I hated Briar and it's people for their hatred and crimes against her, and they all honestly deserved what they got. I also really enjoyed the lore in the world itself, of this mortal kingdom that played a role in the affairs of near-immortals. I can't wait to see what this story brings next, and what the ending will mean for Alyce and Aurora. I also really enjoyed that even as this story deviated from the original tales of Sleeping Beauty, it paid homage to its origins, in both small and big ways.

My only complaint is that it took quite a while for things to really start happening, and it felt slow while everything was still building up. However, this part was integral to understanding the rest of the story, so I definitely understand why it developed like this. It makes me even more excited about the sequel, to see where what this book unleashed will go.

What a amazing book! I feel in love with this one. The story is spectacular, all the characters are super vivid. I recommend with my heart.

Alyce is an outcast. Known as Dark Grace, she is a half Vila, a race many consider to believe are vicious monsters. Tormented and abused by many, she is baffled when she meets Aurora, the Crown Princess. She treats her with kindness and doesn’t seem to care what Alyce is. Teaming up, the two try to find a way to break the curse that has been placed on the Briar heirs, including Aurora.

There was so much to love about this book. I loved the origin story. It felt fresh and exciting, plus it being sapphic? Count me in!! I enjoyed Alyce’s voice too. There was something captivating about her sarcasm that I fell in love with.

Now, I would have loved more build up between Aurora and Alyce. Everything between them felt like it happened so fast and I would have loved some time for that to slow down and be more of a slow burn between them. They were great together and I loved their relationship, I would have just loved more buildup between them.

This was good and I’m eager to read this again before revisiting the sequel.

Malice by Heather Walter was pitched to me as a Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent retelling, but it far exceeded all my expectations.

Walter’s reinterpretation of the classic, and even her reinterpretation of the misunderstood Disney’s version of Maleficent, was refreshing with her own spin on it, with an interesting magic world building, and a beautifully romantic and modern twist on true loves kiss and the angsty, brooding, nontraditional love interest

I can’t wait to read the next book!

Thanks NetGalley for the arc!

(5/5⭐) I regret not reading g this sooner! I loved Malice! This is a very cool Sleeping Beauty retelling and I can't wait to read the second one. I could not put Malice down once I started.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC

I have to say I try to say away from a lot of retellings. I want to read original stories but with that said, I did like this book more than I thought I would. The clever way the author added her own twist was exciting to me and I like it. I wanted just a little more in the end but all in all for me this book was not bad at all. *This book was given to me for free at my request from NetGalley and I provided this voluntary review.*

Sigh I wanted to really love this story but sadly it fell a bit short for me. It could just be the time in my life I'm reading this book but I found it to be slow and very tell not show kind of thing and what i mean by this it feel bog down with explain everything that going on and I stop caring about half way though the story about anything that going on. there a curse and they need to break it and how they do it is just feels like the author is do check boxes of what need to be in this book. over all I just felt meh about the book i didn't love it nor did I hate it either. I'll continue reading the series but it won't be top priority either

You had me at storybook retelling. So magical and beautiful. I love seeing people take something we all know by heart, and breathing new life into it.

I really liked the premise of this book and think there should be more sapphic retold fairytales. I enjoyed Spindle Splintered that was also published this year, but this one was a complete miss for me. I just struggled with the worldbuilding at the start of the book. I didn’t find the premise for the society consistent and had trouble suspending disbelief. However, I had to keep myself from giving it two stars for the ending. It was a mess, and I won’t say more here because of spoilers, but I felt like it ruined many of the earlier themes by just metaphorically (and to be fair literally) setting everything on fire. It just felt like a mess to me at the end. This is a highly rated book with many people waiting for the second so your milage may vary, but it was very much not for me.

Absolutely loved this queer fantasy novel! This was a twist on the classic of Sleeping Beauty, and it worked so well. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this story goes next!

One of the best Sleeping Beauty retellings I have read In a long time. Alice (or Malice which is she so rudely called) is so raw, open and misguided that she truest believes she is the evil one and unworthy of love.

With the help of some very key players (including the crown Princess) she starts to realize, maybe everything she was ever taught was wrong.

How will she get from under the watch of the Royal family, the Graces, and everyone who mistrusts her because of her gifts? Are the people willing to change? And is true love really waiting for her in the end?

Cannot wait for the sequel!

This is a great start to a new duology and a debut author. It's a bit of a slow burn fairytale retelling and what's great is the originally to it. hearing someone put their own twist on it makes it more exciting for me. I would say the story doesn’t actually get going until you’re 100 pages in. When Aurora finally shows up, that’s when things get interesting. But I wasn't too interested in the info dumps because it was as much world building as you get in the story.
Full review to come on YouTube.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

When I first heard about this sapphic fairytale retelling I instantly added it to my tbr. I adore retellings and books with queer main characters, so I was expecting to love this one.

Unfortunately I just didn't get along with the writing style and there was a little too much info dumping for me, the book also had a few tropes that I don't typically enjoy, I still liked a lot of aspects of this book though, from the lovely budding romance to the super cool premise.

Overall, I would recommend this one to fans of fairytale retellings, especially lovers of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty!