Not Good for Maidens unfortunately fell short for me. I was disappointed with the world building and how much was lacking in terms of description. Things that seemed very important were not explored as well as they could have been, primarily the magic. We hardly ever got to see magic being performed when that’s an integral part of the plot. In addition, I found that the main character fixated on things that didn’t add to the storyline which annoyed me at times. The most disappointing aspect was that I really wasn’t emotionally invested in any of the characters. The most enjoyable part was the alternating timelines-it was well done and I didn’t find it hard to keep up with. This book is not for everyone but some certainly will enjoy it!

I really wanted to love this book. It has such a promising premise. However, the book dragged far too much for my tastes. It felt like a short story (or *maybe* a novella) plot stretched into book length. I had a hard time understanding the main romance--namely, why the two characters were drawn to one another in the first place. I wanted to love the pairing, but I didn't feel any connection between them. As for the goblin market, it is written with a beautiful sort of viciousness. Unfortunately, but by the end of the book, I found myself bored by the repetition of grotesque imagery. I wish I had connected with this story more, but in the end, it wasn't for me.

I've been excited for this book since I found out it was a Tori Bovalino book, and it was a fantasy horror about a goblin market that is twisted and beautiful, selling gorgeous wears and spilling blood through the stalls. It sounded so incredible, and I was ready to be disturbed. Trigger warnings: blood, gore, body horror

Oh, I love this book.

Listen, I know I'm not supposed to want to go to the market. I know it's bad place where bad things happen and I would probably die a horrible death, but the way that Tori writes it, the way she creates the pull, the lure, it made me want to go. Me, who usually doesn't want to go anywhere. She totally and utterly captured the urge, the desire, to go to this place where danger lurks but it is oh so beautiful. I couldn't even fault those who did venture to the market, because I understood why they wanted to. I understood the temptation, and I understood why the ended up doing it even at the risk of their life.

This also brings me to mention that I freaking loved the market. Oh, was it horrifying. It is terrifying at it's very core, bloody and butchered and sinking into the earth. It's a place where pain lives, and it's written into every corner of it. It's freaking terrifying, and the way it is written is downright incredible.

I loved Lou. I loved May. I loved Laura. I loved all the characters, and even ones I did not expect to love, I ended up completely loving. There is a bond, a tangled type of love between them. The kind that tugs and hurts and is sometimes just weird. But it's a connection, a tie, and something to fight for.

It's a book about wanting to find your place, about feeling like there is no place you belong. And the market latches on to that and rips from the feeling not belonging anywhere. But something also grows from that, in a horrifying, but wonderful, way.

This book is also really freaking queer. There are murder sapphics, and the main character is also ace! It's wonderful.

Overall, I really, really loved this book. It is dark, but beauty mixed in with it, the illusion of grandeur, of priceless ware, to cover up the sight of bodies and human flesh being eaten. It captures the darkness inside of it so well, well enough that jaw dropped at times when the book does not hold back on the gore. It is that good. I also fell in love with the characters, their yearning, their desire to belong, their desire to go after the ones they love. I adore so much about this book, and it is so, so good.

I was a massive fan of The Devil Makes Three so I was very excited to dive into Not Good for Maidens. Tori Bovolino’s writing style is accessible and readable, and she has a distinct talent for pacing stories in a way that slowly unravels the plot while not lacking in action. As a relatively hesitant fan of contemporary fantasy, I surprisingly really enjoyed the modern York setting and the magical underbelly of the Goblin Market.

The family dynamics between Lou and her mum and aunt was my favourite part of the story, I loved seeing how their ancestral magic and family traditions wove into the plot. The dual POVs and timelines was an interesting choice, and while I found it difficult to fully get into each characters head, I did enjoy seeing the two plot lines slowly meld together into the present.

The setting of the Goblin Market made for a thrilling and unique backdrop, and I found the almost clinical nature the violence was described with to be jarring and somewhat unemotional. That brings me to my only major critique— I found it very difficult to truly invest in the characters. I’m not sure whether it was that the POVs were so separate or perhaps they weren’t as fleshed out as much as I would’ve liked, but by the end I wasn’t hugely invested in how their stories resolved. Compared to the more complex characters in The Devil Makes Three, The Goblin Market was a little more surface level. Overall, I did enjoy the book and think it will appeal to a wide readership and especially the YA bracket in particular:

This book was incredibly creative and haunting. Full of love, horror, and hope. I absolutely adored this book!

This is a great fit for readers looking for
- LGBTQ+ Rep
- Horror & Goblin Lore
- A Coming of Age story
- A "Romeo & Juliet" -esque love story
- Family bonding
- Witches!

Tori's writing is beautiful and easy to read. It's perfect for people who enjoy flowing prose and vivid descriptions that take you to a whole new world.

Intricate, enticing, compelling, intriguing, mysterious, dark and so much more.
I was so excited to read this early, so thanks for the e-arc because this book lived up to my hype !
The alternating timelines were well-done, and it's rather rare for me to be that interested into two timelines, usually I prefer one, but that was not the case here : I loved both ! I appreciated every character, I wanted more !
I'm so glad I read it, a great discovery !

Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Publishing for my digital ARC for 'Not Good for Maidens' which is expected to be published June 2022 - review will be posted on Goodreads closer to that date!

I LOVE anything that involves the worlds of the fair folk, and magic, so I was really looking forward to this dark fantasy novel!
Only initial issue I had with this book was the pacing of the first 14 chapters. It felt like there was a very slow start, and the information felt like it was a little repetitive. It wasn't after Chapter 15 where there were more detailed flashbacks with May at the Goblin Market, and Lou herself travels the Goblin Market, that I felt things were really getting interesting. Part 2 was phenomenal, and halfway though it I realized I was almost done, and started to wish that the book was longer!

Dark and mysterious! I loved Lou's story of friendship and family--the asexual representation was also a fantastic surprise! I was impressed by the author's first novel, and this is an excellent follow up that does not disappoint!

Not Good for Maidens, by Terry Bovalino, is a magical fantasy about the women of the Wickett family, as they confront their storied and witchy pasts, and presents, with the Goblin Market.
I loved this book! It was such a rich and layered world, and the characters were just as developed as the dual-setting, which really worked for this novel.
I love the idea of the “Victims” of the Goblins Market having designated protectors, and The Goblin Market itself was just as creepy and interesting as one might expect. I hope that there are future novels from Terry Bovalino in which to visit this amazing world.
I would recommend this book to anyone into witches and magic in their literature, and give it a strong 4 ⭐️.
Thanks so much to Page Street Kids and NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy.

This has just about everything I could ever want in a book: queer romance, strong women characters, magic and mystery, just enough adventure and action, plenty of gross icky slightly gory bits, and a whole lot of flawed folks learning how to navigate their traumas. I will desperately await any sequels or prequels and subsequent tales from within this universe,

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

I cannot and will never ask for a better book than this one. It had everything I love and I cannot believe perfection like this even exists.

I am a huge fan of anything having to do with the Goblin Market, but this brings the creepiness in full force. Not to mention, the locations are the places I love most in the world.

Oh, I love this book so much!

The market itself is utterly horrifying. This book does not dance around gore and horror. I often have a hard time with reading horror not because I don't like it (I LOVE horror!) but because nothing really creeps me out anymore. Listen, I'm 40-years-old, I've seen every horror movie out there, so it takes a lot to get me scared and this one did the trick. The author's writing is utterly incredible in the way she describes the horrors and how Lou navigates them.

Overall, I enjoyed this book much that I will probably own multiple copies.

I was sucked in by that gorgeous cover, and the book did not disappoint. The alternating timelines were very well done, the worldbuilding was intricate and engaging, and the portrayal of the goblins was especially intriguing. I loved May & Eitra's romance and Lou's character growth. And even though I know the Goblin Market is full of human body parts, I still wanna visit!

NOT GOOD FOR MAIDENS was a really compelling read and I would love another book set in this world.

“Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy..
We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits"

The Labyrinth meets Wintersong in this dark retelling of the Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.

If you enjoy:
- Dark goblin stories.
- Hereditary witches.
- Sapphic romances.
- Blood and berry stained cobblestones

then you need to pick this one up.
I LOVED THIS STORY SO MUCH.

Not Good for Maidens is deliciously dark and does not shy away from gore and body horror. Consider yourself warned. Don't expect this story to be about the sort of goblins you read in PG fairytales. These goblins are manipulative, ruthless and dangerous to humans. What you can expect though is gorgeous dark fairytale vibes and beautiful writing. The world created by Tori feels so luscious and well thought out.

The dual timelines worked perfectly between the two main protagonists May and Lou and I found equal enjoyment in both stories. Sensitive content such as trauma is also explored which I always appreciate as it gives some additional depth to a story.

I am also infatuated with both covers of this book so basically I will need to buy both. It's not a want, it's a necessity.

Just know that I am OBSESSED with every part of this book.

Thank you to Page Street Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this novel to read and review in advance.

I liked this a lot! It was a good mix of fantasy and horror, and I liked that it didn't paint all goblins as evil. I also liked that it was partially set in Boston haha. I'm not usually a fan of alternating timelines, but I thought that worked really well for this story.

This is a tough one to review because it didn’t work for me but it's hard exactly to pinpoint why. I’ll attempt to break down the goods and the bads as well as I can.

In this book, we follow two timelines Lou, an asexual teenage girl in America who finds that her family might have a big secret when her aunt Neela goes missing. The second follows her other aunt, May, as she explores the mysterious magical Goblin Market, 18 years ago and the fallout from that.

I sometimes have an issue with double timelines because I feel like they can get redundant. The past timeline is answering questions for us that the current timeline is still trying to figure out so in this case, we are reading everything twice. It made the first half of this book move very slowly. Even within this first half, I felt the ideas were repeated over and over again. It felt more like adding to a word count than actual worthy additions to the story.

Once I got to the second half of the book, I still found myself pretty disinterested in the story as a whole. I never understood why anyone would go into the Goblin Market. It felt like it wasn’t made clear enough the ‘pull’ since the one case we really see seems special. But also the magic system was never really made clear or explained properly. The whole separate world felt rather empty, rather than intriguing or mysterious.

Lou herself also felt rather empty. At one point another person describes her as a ‘little moon, just orbiting around others’ (paraphrasing) and that’s exactly what she felt like. I didn’t really understand or know her outside of her relationships with the other characters. Which made her a rather dull lead.

The concept however, is great. Goblins here seemed to be a more brutal version of Fae which is pretty popular right now and being drawn into a mysterious and deadly world is a great lead off. This is the first book I have read with an asexual lead which is wonderful! The writing is good, and even though I complained about redundancy earlier, I did really like the author’s use of lyrical repetition used throughout the story.
Also, this cover is super cool. But yes, this is generally a pass from me.

Thank you for this e arc!

Ok I had pretty high expectations because GOBLIN MARKET. This one was sadly a bit disappointing to me. It is two time periods and stories and sometimes it was confusing. I felt that there was nothing that would actually draw anyone to the goblin market- it made it sort of unrealistic to me that people would go when it was just green skinned goblins and gore. It was less creepy and more just ick descriptions. I think this will appeal to readers but just wasn’t really for me. I was intrigued enough to read on.

An appropriately creepy take on "Goblin Market" with strong Holly Black vibes. Great LGBTQIA+ representation,