I guess I was expecting something more from the book but I ended up being a bit disappointed. I didn't really connect with the main character and the romance was just there. Not sure if I would recommend.

Emeline Lark can sing a forest into the world. Except she doesn't mean to, and she doesn't want to. Besides, it's probably just in her imagination. She longs to see her name in lights as a musician. But when she receives a call that her grandfather—the man who raised her—has gone missing, she's forced to return to her hometown of Edgewood. Situated—well—on the edge of the woods, Emeline has never believed the stories of shiftlings and shadow skins, of curses and tithes. But when she ventures into those woods looking for her Pa, she eventually lands in a city in the woods, one ruled by a cursed King. Her grandfather is here, as are guards and other shiftlings. She makes the King a deal: She will prove herself a good fit for the King's singer if he lets her grandfather go. She only needs to then find a way to escape. The only problem is the woods really are cursed.

What a beautifully written novel. I love it when I keep wanting to read a book. The ones where you're conflicted about wanting to not put it down but also wanting to savor it. That was this book for me. It has this magic about it that draws me in. It's probably the setting and atmosphere. This book falls into that odd category of fantasy that isn't strictly Portal Fantasy but feels like it is. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, the Tufa series by Alex Bledsoe, Wildwood Whispers by Willa Reece. I'd say these books are roughly comparable in that they feature characters finding that the woods hold magic within. The Tufa novels especially, since music also plays a big role in that series.

I think the book's weakest area lies in the minor characters. Emeline was a fantastically frustrating character. A big theme coursing through this book is seeing things that are right in front of you. Sometimes I wanted to shout at her, "What are you doing?!" But she was well fleshed out and felt real. Then there's Hawthorne, a boy around her age—19 or so—who also becomes more developed as the novel goes on. And I can't forget the forest itself as a character. I thought that aspect was well done. But from there, the minor characters are varying shades of, "Yep that sure is your name" (Rooke, Sable) to "you're so close to being an amazing character" (Grace). Granted, it never took me out of the story. But beyond Grace, a lot of the other characters felt like they could've been anyone to me.

This book enchanted me. It was full of beautiful imagery and prose. It managed to pull off a few different surprises, too. But even if you find everything predictable, I think the way the story unfolds is still incredible.

Thank you to @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for an ARC of this gorgeous book! I literally just finished this and I am blown away by how lush and beautiful this book was! A solid 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟's for me! I loved how the author pulls you into this other world with vivid descriptions, stories and songs within the story itself. Emeline is such a cool main character and I really enjoyed watching her grow throughout the book! The world building was absolutely marvelous and there were twists and turns I was not expecting!

This fantasy novel has been one of my most anticipated releases since it was announced. I had high expectations for it and it certainly did not disappoint. This story was absolutely riveting, captivating, and enchanting. I never wanted to put it down.

In this story Emeline the forest of Edgewood always comes for her no matter how far she runs. With the scent of damp earth curling into her nose when she sings and moss creeping across the stage she can't help but feel as though the woods of her childhood that are shrouded in folklore and tall tales, are trying to reclaim her. But Emeline doesn't have any patience for silly superstitions and just tries to ignore it.

That is until her grandfather disappears, leaving only a mysterious orb in his wake. The stories Emeline has always scoffed at suddenly seem less foolish, and more alarmingly real than should br possible. She puts aside her skepticism to enter the forest she has spent years trying to escape, only to have Hawthorne Fell, a handsome and brooding tithe collector, try to dissuade her from searching.

As she refuses to be deterred, Emeline soon finds herself drawn to the court of the fabled Wood King himself. She makes a deal—her voice for her grandfather’s freedom. But little does she know, she’s stumbled into the middle of a curse much bigger than herself. This curse is one that threatens the existence of this eerie world she’s trapped in, along with the devastating boy who feels shockingly familiar.

Hawthorne who had been an enemy soon becomes a reluctant ally that she grows closer to every day. With his help Emeline sets out to not only save her grandfather’s life, but to right past wrongs, and in the process, discover her true voice.

I truly loved this novel so much. The characters and world Kristin created, and the story itself were all so magical. This book is certainly a new favorite. Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this story.

4.25/5⭐️

I enjoyed this YA fantasy/adventure with some romance thrown in.

Emeline is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter with big dreams from the small town of Edgewood. She moves away from her beloved Pa to pursue her career but is mysteriously/continuously summoned by the Edgewood Forest (a place of danger/other worldliness) each time she sings. She returns home when her ill Pa disappears and tracks him down in the King’s City in the forest. But the forest has been cursed and is dying.

What follows is adventure and romance as well as heartrending choices made to save those people/places she loves most. A great story about what we’re willing to sacrifice for love and truth.

And…that cover is simply glorious!

My thanks to the author, #NetGalley , and #WednesdayBooks for providing me the free early arc of #Edgewood for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Emeline has always dreamed of being a professional singer. However, when she sings, nature comes calling with bugs and flowers showing up. When she returns home to find her missing grandfather, the woods call to her. Once within the woods, she finds herself at the mercy of the Wood King. Emeline must fight to get herself out and find a solution to the problems of his world.
Opinion
This is an enchanting read. It has the qualities of a good fairy tale. Magic is mixed in so well with modern day that it is easy to become immersed in the world. The ending is left open. I am hoping this means another book is coming. (Admittedly, the "open" ending could just be ominous.)
I'd like to thank Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book.

A romantic standalone fantasy for an older YA audience, Edgewood blends the real world with the world of the forest king, shapeshifters, curses, and witches. If you are looking for something magical and a little bit steamy with a strong focus on family and art, this one is worth a look.

The main character is around 19, though honestly she feels older to me, like early 20's. Regardless, this follows a young woman named Emeline who is a musician, raised by her grandfather who now has dementia. She has tried to run from the forest of her home, but every time she plays music, the forest follows her. When her grandfather goes missing, she returns to her childhood home, reminded of the superstitions she once knew, like that of tithing to the forest king for protection. Determined to save her grandfather, Emeline enters the forest regardless of danger, making her way to the city of the forest king where a curse threatens the woods around them. And of course, gets to know his handsome young tithe collector along the way...

This book deals a lot with complicated relationships- grief, memory, trauma- but also hope, healing, and love. It's also got this thread on the philosophy of being an artist and what it means to sell out in order to make it. It's sex positive and has a couple of semi-steamy scenes that feel appropriate for an older teen audience. (i.e. less emphasis on explicit description and more on poetic language for what's happening) I found some of the parts set in modern-day Canada to be a bit clunky, but I loved the bulk of the book which is set in the forest. I think a lot of readers would enjoy this one and if you're looking for this kind of fantasy romance, it's a good one to check out! The audio narration is also done very well.

One content note that's a bit spoilery (I'll try not to give much detail) but worth mentioning is the MC ends up discovering that she was the product of an abusive, not fully consensual relationship where her mother was the victim of that abuse. I actually like how this book handles that because it doesn't excuse anything but does it a kind of distance that might allow someone who has had a similar experience to process that trauma.

Overall, I think this is a very strong book and one that a lot of readers would enjoy. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This ya fantasy is set on the boundary of the contemporary world in the small town of Edgewood, where everyone pays a tithe or faces the wrath of The Wood King and his dark servants in the forest. Emeline left Edgewood and the grandfather who raised her to pursue her music career, but the forest is far from done with her. One night after a concert, she gets the fateful call that her grandfather has gone missing, claimed by the woods. A fast-paced start takes us to the court of The Wood King through a forest that I rate 10/10 for creepy vibes. The court has many trappings of a fae novel with shifters, a dragon, a curse, and a mad king in attendance. Unfortunately, the plot soon devolves into something predictable. There's a high reliance on tropes that steals the drama from big reveals because of their obvious nature.

Most plot deficiencies can be saved in my eyes with loveable characters. I will overlook all kinds of things if you put certifiably huggable people in front of me. Unfortunately, here our heroine is bland and largely defined by her musical talent. There's a little spark of life in the difficult decisions she has to make as caregiver for her grandfather when dementia robs him of his memories of her. She feels guilty for pursuing her dreams without him and longs for their relationship from before. It could have been a powerful plot, but it was subsumed by the romantic subplot, fueling contradictory arguments between Emeline and Broody Boy that seem to be more about driving up (sexual?) tension between the two rather than any kind of substantive conversation that might, I don't know, inspire character growth or a self-aware examination of feelings and motivations.

Speaking of Broody Boy, Hawthrone is a typical ya love interest: moody, secretive, tragic, and misunderstood. This is a trope I can only get behind with active convincing. Merely putting it in front of me and expecting a thrilled reaction is folly. Emeline and Hawthorne's relationship is argumentative and juvenile (yes, I know this is a ya novel, but I've seen the genre produce so much better by modeling healthy communication and mutual support or at least growth towards that goal without idealizing toxicity). They strike out at each other out of insecurity and fear of vulnerability. A heavy secret festers between them, along with more superficial lies. When a betrayal is uncovered, it brings up a lot of questions regarding consent, respect, and agency that I do not feel are satisfactorily answered. In one of my least favorite moves in fiction, angst and self-pity go a long way towards camouflaging controlling, harmful behavior.

Side characters are largely ignored outside of tiny opportunities to push forward the plot. There's a sapphic couple on the periphery, but they have no discernable personality between the two of them beyond a willingness to help our protagonist. There's also a cruel manipulator who attacks even her friends with no provocation. There is no other dimension of her being, but somehow she hasn't been excised from the group or at least kept accountable for her actions. Finally, don't even get me started on the rape backstory for one character where the trauma is essentially resolved through magic.

There's a seed of something good here about memory and its loss, but it's piled so deeply under the pile of flaming garbage that is twisted, self-pitying ya romance tropes that it suffocates itself. For me, the opportunity is lost. I wouldn't recommend this book.

I was granted eARC & audio ARC access to Edgewood by Kristen Ciccarelli by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the approvals team at Macmillan for the access! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Edgewood is something of a coming of age story, something of a coming home story, and something of a reluctant hero story. Emeline can't run from the forest of Edgewood. It shows up when she sings at all her performances. Her relationships never last. Her grandfather's estate hasn't sold. When she gets the call that her grandfather has gone missing from his care home she's forced to return to Edgewood and face what she refused to believe was really living just beyond the treeline in order to get her grandfather back, but is she willing to make a sacrifice dear enough in trade for his return?

First of all, let me just get it out of the way and say that I adore the fact that this is so unapologetically a Canadian book. I'm not sure if it's better described as urban/low fantasy or contemporary magical realism, but it's Canadian through and through. It's set in Quebec, Emeline is fluently bilingual in English and French, and when she's out in the real world beyond the forest there are constant little nods to Canadian culture and things. I love it! I want to see more books like this. More books that feature Canada in an honest, subtle, yet unapologetic way. There's nothing stereotype here, I don't wonder if an American author chose to write a Canadian character, it's just pleasantly familiar. I feel like we don't see this in big publishing house urban/low fantasy, and we need to.

Ciccarelli's writing is beautiful! I quickly found myself completely taken in by Edgewood and the forest, fell in love with the scenery and the characters alike, and didn't want to leave. The fae characters and reluctant love interest Hawthorn reminded me of characters Ashley Poston might have written, particularly the demigod creatures of the forest in Among the Beasts & Briars, but this book is so much more mature and haunting. I loved the themes of learning the hard way where your heart truly belongs and figuring out just how much you would give up for the people you love. This book is full of people making messes when they act selfishly and making beautiful things happen when they act selflessly.

Although the atmosphere of the whole book was hauntingly beautiful, it also felt like reading a cozy mystery in that there was so much that Emeline has to figure out before time runs out, and if you're paying attention you'll figure it out before she does, but you don't mind being in on the secret a little early. I did predict every horrifying, wonderful, or heartbreaking reveal before Emeline did, sometimes paragraphs before and sometimes several chapters before, but at no point did I feel like Emeline was being too blind or dense to see it. It felt like she came to those realizations exactly when a person actually in her shoes should. We as the readers have the benefit of distance.

This book has definitely made me determined to track down copies of Ciccarelli's backlist! In fact, I've already added book one of the Iskari novels to my Libby wishlist as a reminder. I've stumbled upon a new favourite author. (And possibly one who spends time in my neck of the woods? If blustery island in the North Atlantic means what I think it means...)

To comment on the audiobook, Caitlin Kelly's performance is spot-on. The pacing is easy to follow without feeling too slow (but not so fast us speed demons can't turn up the playback speed and keep up.) I don't think there was any sort of extra sound design in terms of effects added like some books I've listened to, but they weren't needed. I was completely immersed in Kelly's performance. I had no trouble following which character was speaking or thinking, but I also didn't notice any forced efforts to make characters sound different. This was simply a well-met blend between great writing and great narration.

A singer who can call to the forest is called home to Edgewood when her grandfather goes missing... all that is left is the magical orb left by the fairy kingdom... that she believed to be make believe. Now Emeline Lark must wander into the Fairy Kingdom to get back her father and discover a whole new world. An adventure begins and along for the ride is a handsome and brooding tithe collector called Hawthorne Fell who keeps trying to get her to stop searching for her grandfather. Emeline will do whatever it takes to get back her grandfather... even if it means making a deal with the Wood King himself and giving up her voice for her grandfather’s freedom. But little does she know she’s found herself in the middle of a curse much bigger than she could have imagined and now she must find a way to save all that is close to her discover her true voice. this was a beautifully haunting and romantic story. Emmeline must uncover dark family secrets, betrayals that break the heart, and figuring out what she truly wants in her future. This was such a beautiful story about finding your path and fighting for what you love. I loved how relentless Emmeline was in her pursuit of protecting her loved ones and finding herself. Hawthorne... oh Hawthorne, misguided, gentle, and sweet artist who loves books and drawing.... GOSH THAT ENDING HAS ME BEGINNING FOR MORE. I NEED A WHOLE OTHER EPILOGUE OF HAWTHORNE AND EMMELINE PLEASE. I have loved Kristen Ciccarelli’s previous works and this one did not disappoint! Please do pick it up once it releases!!!

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest view*

Edgewood is the type of story that grows on you. It quietly thrusts its roots in you from the very first page, maintaining a solid, invisible grip on you that you don’t feel until it’s too late. Before you know it, you find yourself halfway through the book with no desire to stop reading. This book is magical and whimsical; it’s a modern day fairytale full of twists and turns, heartache, and the power of love.

I don’t want to say much about the plot of this book. I think it’s best to go in blind and enjoy the ride. Edgewood is a story about dreams and how your dreams can change, and that’s okay. It’s a story about forgetting and remembering and how that affects those around you. At its core, Edgewood is a story about a girl who feels lost and unmoored, who can’t seem to find anything that can fill the void inside her.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*.

I did enjoy this book, but YA isn't much my speed anymore. The pacing was a bit slow in the beginning, but it did pick up over the course of the story. The characters were compelling, I just wanted more than this novel gave me.

Edgewood is a YA fantasy novel brimming with an atmospheric and woodsy setting.

Emeline Lark left the small town of Edgewood to try to make it as a musician in Montreal. The thing is, whenever Emeline sings, moss and the scents of the woods physically manifest, so try as she might, it’s not that easy to leave her hometown behind.

One evening, Emeline receives a call with news that her grandfather has gone missing from his care home. She ends up rushing back home to try to figure out how her Pa magically disappeared. When she finds out that no one has searched the woods right behind her Pa’s house, she sets out to do it herself.

Emeline has always believed that the tales about the woods were pure fantasy and silly superstitions. She has never put stock in the stories of monsters and fey kings and the giving of tithes. That there was a reasonable explanation behind the town’s misfortunes and accidents. That there could be nothing sinister behind the things that go wrong in Edgewood.

Emeline’s beliefs are proven wrong as soon as she enters the woods. Almost immediately, she begins bargaining with the Wood King for her grandfather’s freedom. She agrees to sing for the king. If the king enjoys her singing, he will free her Pa. If he doesn’t, tough luck.

I thought I would love this book. I usually gobble up fantasy reads with lush writing, a great magic system, and strong female characters. But I never truly warmed up to this one. Edgewood does have beautiful prose and interesting characters, but I couldn’t tell you much about the magic system. It could have used some more explaining.

I felt frustrated with Emeline at times. She couldn’t seem to grasp that the “Mad King” was actually unhinged and was constantly shocked by his behaviour.

At first, the romance was alright. I don’t mind the enemies-to-lovers trope. But it soon went downhill and into icky territory.

I found the pacing to be a bit inconsistent too. It dragged in quite a few parts. I generally prefer slow-burn books, but this one was a bit too slow.

Despite those issues, I still felt compelled enough to read to the end. I think YA fantasy readers will still find lots to love in this book, but I may have not been the right audience for this one.

Thank you to Wednesday Books / St. Martin’s Press for an arc provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

After her grandfather goes missing, Emeline Lark decides to go into the mysterious forest to look for him
Growing up in a small town filled with folktales about the forest and the dangerous Wood King, many in her town suspect that her grandfather was kidnapped by the Wood King as a tithe
Emeline just wants to accomplish her dreams as a singer and has never believed the myths she grew up hearing
However, upon wandering into the woods, she meets a mysterious and handsome stranger that she feels immediately drawn to
Thus a dangerous adventure unfolds as Emeline wrangles with following her heart and accomplishing her dreams


This is a story about remembering… and forgetting.. and love… and loss… and a lot of hope & courage
I fell head over heels in love with this magical and magnificent book
It is so romantic and whimsical, it mixes the real with the ugly, the magic with the truth and Ciccarelli oh so cleverly weaves little clues that brilliantly come together at the end… I am STARSTRUCK
The vibes were immaculate, I want to run to the edge of the woods and have the trees call to me and never come back 🥺🥲

While I enjoyed Edgewood, the story overall was a little under whelming. The story and setting itself felt fresh, but the actual plot surprises were a little predictable, and I didn't love our main character. For a 19-year-old about to go on tour opening for a band, Emeline was quite immature. I did quite enjoy our male lead, Hawthorne, and the romance plot that turned out to be whimsical and sweet in its origin story. However, this is being labeled as a Young Adult book but it more in the New Adult category with its two open door intimate scenes (there's a steamy bath tub scene which didn't feel very YA to me).

In the end Edgewood was a fantasy filled with magical woods, love, sacrifice and a very pretty cover.

I loved this one! Edgewood is a YA fantasy about an ambitious girl, Emeline, with a dream of a successful career as a singer/songwriter in the big league, but feels a continuous and annoying pull back to her small community, rife with the magic of the woods on which it borders.

On the verge of a big tour as a supporting act and a record deal, Emeline impatiently returns home after her grandfather goes missing. Although she's always been a skeptic of the community's magic folklore, she realizes the fabled Wood King has her beloved grandfather at his court in the forest and sets out to rescue him. Hawthorne Fell, the king's tithe collector, attempts to thwart her attempts to make it to the court but ends up becoming an ally she's not sure she can trust.

As secrets are revealed and the true nature of the curse on the forest comes to light, Emeline has to make a choice between the music career she covets and saving her grandfather along with the entire forest. There are so many twists and turns in this fast-paced tale and wonderful world-building.

The publisher's description says that Emeline makes a bargain with the Wood King of her voice for her father's freedom, but that doesn't actually happen in the book. She does make a bargain with the king, but that isn't it.

Edgewood is a beautifully written, atmospheric story about a girl who wants nothing more to escape where she came from only to be brought back to save someone she loves.

Edgewood grabbed me immediately from the beginning and didn't let go until I finished the book. I was enamored by the characters and the setting, which was a character in of itself. The story Ciccarelli wove was immersive, enchanting, and sometimes heart pounding. There were not only twists and turns (which some may find predictable), but also tender moments between the characters. I wanted to keep reading because I wanted to know more. My desire to see what happened next whether in the plot and to see Emeline's quest to save her grandfather or it was another moment between Emeline and Hawthorne kept me going.

I do wish more of the characters got more page time. Rooke started off as a particularly strong and interesting character, but then became a meer shadow of himself as the story continued on. Sable was a mysterious character I wanted to know more about; however, it never felt like her layers were ever deeply explored and so she stayed the same mysterious character by the end. I also wanted to know more about Edgewood and the forest as a whole. I deeply wanted more understanding of how the town and the forest worked, what shiftlings were, and why everything worked the way it worked. The descriptions of the places were beautiful, but also left me not feeling completely immersed. I never felt like I could walk into anyone place and immediately understand how it worked and feel the magic of being there.

Despite all of that though, I did love the discovery and message of forgetting and remembering and realizing where you truly belong. I liked that even though Emeline was desperately trying to run from her past, she eventually realized why her future lay in a place she never wanted to be apart of again. The story came nicely in a full circle from where Emeline started and where she ended.

Overall, this was an enchanting story that just needed a little more depth. I still would recommend it to others who want a fast paced story with a great message and magical forests. Even though I wanted more, I still enjoyed reading this book, and I constantly thought about it when I wasn't reading it.

Otherworldly mystery and fantasy collide with real world drama in this unique and heartfelt contemporary fairy tale. I really enjoyed this, not only was the writing great, but her storytelling was both fast paced and entertaining as well as thought provoking. She entertains you and makes you feel all the things. **Thank you so much to both NetGalley, Goodreads, and Wednesday Books for my eARC's of this book in exchange for my honest review!**

This book surprised me, I was not expecting to be as swept up in it as I was. I'm not as much a fan of contemporary settings and so usually prefer my fantasy to be more epic/medieval, this gave us the best of both worlds as it switched between the contemporary urban landscape and the medieval fairy world of the Edgewood Forest. However it was the world building and characters of Edgewood that really reeled me in, her spooky and beautiful fairytale forest/land was so well done, and populated with all manner of creatures both alluring and cruel. It had those fantastical but deadly vibes I love.

The Low Down:
You've got a cursed Wood King tithing the lands trying to prevent the fall of his kingdom and our heroine Emeline who thought she'd gotten far away from Edgewood, but now finds herself back and entering the woods determined to find her Grandfather who's been tithed to the King. You've also got Hawthorne, the mysterious and moody Tithe collector, and Rooke a changeling, who both hinder and help her on her journey. Add in curses and plenty of mysteries to do with the past, scary shadow skins and a dying world and you've got yourself intrigue and adventure aplenty. Plus a great enemies to lovers subplot, along with some very real world troubles and decisions to be made.

I can see a lot of the YA and NA audiences really connecting to this character and obsessing over this story. Highly recommend but most especially for those age groups.

*Thank you very much to Wednesday Books, Kristen Ciccarelli and Netgalley for providing me with a E-ARC of "Egdewood" in exchange for an honest review*

I really liked this. It had a blend of folktale plus paranormal with sass. I really felt transported into the woods.

Kristen Ciccarelli has an amazing new standalone. Edgewood is a dark fantasy that I couldn't help but be sucked into. The magic, the mystery, and uniqueness of it all had me quickly turning page after page.


The story centers on singer Emeline Lark who unfortunately annoyed me at times. Her denial about magical things, her pig-headedness, her one-track mind, and recklessness all got to me at some point or another but she had some great qualities too. Emeline knew what she wanted and was determined to get it and what she wanted was to sing. She put everything into her career and she did fairly well with the compromises she had to make. She also cared about people with her whole heart and was willing to jump into danger for them. Emeline's past experiences may have colored the annoying parts of her but I will say that she lived life and felt things deeply so overall she wasn't too bad.


I love a good dark and magical forest, Ciccarelli has done a fantastic job creating a dark and mystical background that is filled with all kinds of magical beings, some totally unique to her world, they add to the suspense and drama while making the forest that more interesting. However, it wasn't only the forest and the creatures in making the story fascinating, it was all the twists and turns. The things I didn't see coming combing with past events that made for a compelling read.

Several other characters were interesting but none more than Hawthorne Fell (I love that name). He lives in the magical wood and gets tangled up in Emeline's adventure. He's brooding, grumpy, and terribly handsome and drives Emeline crazy. The chemistry between the two is great, it constantly shifts from anger to passion but there is something also very sweet about Hawthorne, and Emeline can't help but be drawn to him.


Edgewood was an exciting dark fantasy centered on complex if frustrating characters, filled with love and heartbreak, set in bright cities and dark magical woods, dotted with dreams and nightmares. Kristen Ciccarelli has crafted a beautiful story that may have left me wanting more with its bittersweet ending but I'm so glad that I got to read it.