In all honesty I do not know how to review this book because I did not enjoy it. I was really disappointed by the story, especially seeing where this book went after the way book one ended. There were many times that I wanted to just give up and DNF it, which says a lot because it isn’t a very long story. In the end I pushed through it and gave it 2 stars.

This is a sequel to the Spindle Splintered and it is just as fantastic as the first book. In the second book we are still rolling through various multiverses of sleeping beauty with our main character Zinna. She has tried to get into other fairy tales but no such luck. When at the wedding of her friends, she looks into a mirror while holding the shard, and se finally travels to a new tale. She lands in front of the Evil Queen from Snow white. The Evil Queen has Zinna’s book of fairy tales. She knows what happens at the end of her tale and she demands Zinna’s help to find a new multiverse where she can have a different outcome. Along the way a mirror is broken and must be mended, but so do the hearts of characters, and the actions that go with those hearts. I loved this book beginning to end. It feels like an end. There is no need of a 3rd book, but if one comes along, I will read it too.

Another enjoyable fairytale, this time aiming to answer the question, can you redeem the evil villain? Answer, probably, as long as she is hot, smart, compelling, and pleads her case very well.

I kid!

A little. Hotness is in the eye of the beholder. But seriously, I really enjoyed the introduction of Eva, the evil queen. I also really liked hopping around the fairytale multiverse, learning different versions of the Snow White tale, and reevaluating our MCs role in this overarching story.

The ending felt open ended enough where a follow up could happen but wouldn't be necessary. I found a kind of plot hole that was never looked at or explained (view spoiler) but I wasn't overly bothered, maybe cause I was also not overly invested in the outcome. It was just as good as its predecessor, you will be happy if you made it this far but I wasn't wowed. It was perfectly splendid.

Thanks, Netgalley!

First, I want to say that I enjoy her witty humor and adult language that we don't get from "typical" fairytales. This is clearly written for YA and adults. I wish the series were full-length books instead of novellas but Harrow does a wonderful job packing in what you need to know to follow the story. If you like audiobooks I would give this one a try! It's fairly short and really easy to follow. I can't wait to see where Zinnia goes next in the next fairytale multiverse novella.

Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty, is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues.

Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her story ends, and she's desperate for a better ending. She wants Zinnia to help her before it’s too late for everyone. Will Zinnia accept the Queen's poisonous request and save them both from the hot-iron shoes that wait for them, or will she try another path?

📚Book Review: A Mirror Mended 🪞

By: Alix E. Harrow
Published: June 14, 2022

After rescuing so many sleeping damsels and burning countless spindles, Zinnia Gray is tired of saving Sleeping Beauties throughout the multiverse. Just when she thinks she might be done saving princesses, she looks into a mirror and sees the gorgeous face of evil, asking her for help.

Alix E Harrow is a true queen of words! I cannot get enough of her work. ✍🏼

Having read the first book in the series and (surprisingly) loving the open ended nature of the conclusion, I was a little apprehensive to see how the story would continue. I loved the addition of Snow White’s Evil Queen and appreciated the flipped perspective into who’s really trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Learning about the big bad in this story was so fun and the romance made me smile!

I really enjoyed this next installment in the Fractured Fables series, but I was devasted to learn this will be its end. Please give me more queer retellings of fairy tales! 😩🌈

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you so much for sending me this #gifted copy, @tordotcompub! 🥰

I was unable to finish this before it was archived. I will be getting the audiobook shortly and finishing soon.

This was such a fantastic follow up to A SPINDLE SPLINTERED! This one was just as good as the first while managing to make the story feel fresh. They are written in an episodic way, which made this still have its own story arc without falling into second-book-syndrome. All of the characters were interesting and complex.

This isn't a life-changing book by any means, but I don't think that every book needs to be. This is a great book to read if you want something light and quick.

I can't recommend this series enough!

Thanks to the publisher for the gifted ARC!

Alix E. Harrow has done it again! This is the second Fractured Fable that I've listened and it was just as good as the first. The beginning started with a quick recap of Zinnia's life and a short summary from the first book.

I felt like Zinna's character was developed a little more in this story and I appreciated her independent nature throughout. It was interwoven with the Snow White story nicely and I enjoyed the different fairy tale dimensions! However, I missed her relationships with her best friends while she was in other worlds without them. In the end, I was happy where the story left off and look forward to the next in the series!

What a fantastic installment, and what I assume to be the conclusion of Harrow's wonderful Fractured Fairytale series. As in the first book, the narrator does an excellent job with Zinnia's voice and the voices of all supporting characters.

I inhaled the first novella in this series and I was thrilled to have the sequel lined up to listen to. It was cute and heartwarming, the characters are dynamic and you're rooting for them (even for the "evil" queen). Zinnia spent so long running from her story that she started to ruin the relationships in her story. This is the story of how Zinnia fell in love and learned to live happily, no ever after guaranteed but that's ok. As much I was hoping for a happy ending with Eva, I respect ZInnia going back to her story and living the best she can with the story she's been given.

This was an awesome follow-up to A Spindle Splintered. Harrow has become a must-buy author for me.

It is amazing how much story is packed into such a short book. I’ve gotten several friends to read this duology and they all agree. This book is a winner!

This was a fun installment to the series by Alix E. Harrow, but I'm just not fully convinced her writing works for novellas. It's so lush and beautiful and I really just want more from it than these short snippets.

However, I did really enjoy the discussion about how we perceive women and the flipped tale of the Evil Queen.

I will probably continue with the series.

The narrator of the audiobook was great.

This was much better than the first one. It's really fast paced but I think I like the charactersnin this one much better.
I physically read the first, and audio-ed the second, so that could also be why I like it better....

The first book in Alex E. Harrow’s Fractured Fables series definitely left an impression last year with it earning a Hugo nomination, something I respect even while this book wouldn’t be my personal choice for the award. I loved how the first book took a less-revisited fairy tale like Sleeping Beauty and gave it a new voice with a portal fantasy spin. And while I found the first book to be predictable, I did appreciate Harrow’s style as an author and was intrigued enough to pick up the second book in the series that released in 2022.

A Mirror Mended pivots in a different direction, and fairy tale, with its focus on Snow White instead. But it’s not Snow White herself that gets cast as the (anti)heroine - it’s the Wicked Queen. I get what Harrow was going for here by trying to humanize an unjustly villainized woman… but this has been done. And done rather often in recent media, especially after Disney’s Maleficent released years ago. I love that Zinnia got her love interest, and her story apart from Briar Rose’s, but I could see every plot beat here coming from a mile away.

What I can say about Harrow is that even if her stories don’t read as particularly groundbreaking to me, her voice is absolutely distinctive. And I’m finding that I can say that less and less the more fantasy I read, and even amongst the sheer volume of books I consume across other genres. She writes banter that feels organic and genuinely charming, instead of the very aggressive attempts at humor some authors use that misses so entirely I’m not aware should be funny until a character is laughing.

In the end, I think people who loved the first book in the Fractured Fables series are going to equally A Mirror Mended. Both books read a bit trite to me in their plotting, but have really put the author on the map as one who can write dialogue between characters in a way that makes them jump off the page. For that, I will continue to check out her works even if this one didn’t blow me away.

Thank you to the publisher Macmillan Audio for providing an audiobook ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

Holy shit what an ending!!!

At this point I worship the ground Alix and walks on and will preorder anything she writes, within or outside of the genres I read in. Short story, nonfic, scribbles on a napkin, I will happily devour.

First, the balance of the modern day and the modern dialect mixed with the old Grimm characters ye olde English somehow just works. The romance is just enough to be integral and necessary to the story without detracting from it, and was still somehow gut wrenching. Did I say I was obsessed? Yes I’m obsessed.

Somehow the short length of this story just works. It didn’t need anything else to be absolutely and utterly perfect. And it could just end here, and there not be any more in this series and be perfect, or she could add more to it and still achieve perfection. How is that even possible? I don’t know, just read it ok?

I really love this series and was not disappointed by A Mirror Mended. One reason is because they’re short. I know some of y’all love your 600+ pages books but I’m here for the quick reads. I still feel like Harrow crafts a full story here. Another reason is the retellings. Zinnia is a folklore major so I love how all the different versions of fairy tales come into play. Finally, they’re diverse. Lots of representation with queer and chronically ill characters.

There’s lots of action, a bit of romance, but it’s really a story about friendship. Overall, I would definitely recommend for people who like fairytales and multiverses.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* really like this series so far, its a fun twist on fairytales for sure, not something to recommend to children lmao but great for YA

Loved the narrator. Such a funny quick fantasy read. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a short story to get lost in.

This book didn’t have the same sparkle as the previous installment. And to be honest, I didn’t look into the blurb of the book before requesting it. I assumed we were going to be following a different set of characters in a different retelling. My bad for coming in with the wrong expectations.

I still enjoyed what this book was about, but I don’t really feel like anything happened. It felt very much like a middle book syndrome. Setting up for whatever comes next.

Zinnia Gray, a modern day sleeping beauty archetype, has spent a few years since her fall into a fairy dimension, traversing dimensions and getting women their happy endings, in the form that fits them. However, she is running from her own story. When she slips into a Snow White fairy tale, she has an unlikely woman to find a happy ending for.

This was a decent novella, however I felt that it wasn't as sharp as the first in the series. Here we see the Zinnia who doesn't know how to not be imminently dying, she doesn't know what to do with her time and relationships, and effectively disappears into the fairy tale dimensions trying to help as many people as she can, as the detriment of very own story. I felt like the romance was not very motivated and the story was just not as compelling. Overall, still enjoyed it.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the advanced audiobook!