In a Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow I was delighted to once again find myself inside this fairytale multiverse. This book had all of the humor and heart of the first book in the Fractured Fables series, and I loved the even more grown up version of Zinnia we find in this story.

Since we last saw her in A Spindle Splintered, Zinnia Gray has rescued dozens of Sleeping Beauties like herself from their unfortunate fates and is starting to wonder if this repeated story is all there is.

But when she unexpectedly finds herself drawn into a different story altogether—and face to face with the wicked and beautiful Evil Queen from Snow White—Zinnia suddenly realizes that princesses aren’t the only ones who are desperate to change how their stories end.

Now, as Zinnia fights to survive in this fairytale-turned-nightmare, and it becomes clear that every decision she makes has far-reaching consequences, she begins to wonder for the first time not just if you can escape your own story, but if you even should. When you are willing to risk everything to change your fate, does that make you the hero—or the villain?

A Mirror Mended was a quick and fun read. It’s a well-paced page turner that kept me guessing and had me rooting for a happy ending for our smart and brave protagonist—and even occasionally for the villain.

Thank you to the author, Tor, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of the audiobook for review.

A Mirror Mended is the perfect sequel to a story that did not need a sequel. A Spindle Splintered ended with just enough wonder to leave you hanging but happy. With A Mirror Mended you have the answers to the questions left unanswered plus a few more.

After a hard health reset in the form of multidimensional fairy tale hopping, Zinnia Gray isn't quite ready to stay in her universe just yet. A Mirror Mended opens with Gray waxing poetic about her adventures through the many iterations of Sleeping Beauty. She is starting to grow a bit weary of saving other girls that have been resigned to her same misfortune. But just when you think she's going to make her choice to go to another tale, her traveling is hijacked and she ends up before the Evil Queen. In a fairy tale she's never been in before, and with fairy tales intersecting far more frequently that ever before, Zinnia and the queen must decide how their stories will end and will they ever find a happily ever after.

Amy Landon does a wonderful job of translating Harrow's characters into audio form. Zinnia's snark comes through perfectly and Landon's changing inflection for the Evil Queen works so perfectly.

Absolutely fantastic. Alix E. Harrow hit it out of the ballpark yet again with A Mirror Mended. It was a quick but super entertaining and fun read. I love the way she reworks the fairy tales and makes them her own.

✏️ ALC REVIEW- OUT NOW!✏️

📚66/100
A Mirror Mended
Format:🎧(ALC audiobook via NetGalley)

All the thanks to @netgalley and @macmillanaudio for the ALC in exchange for publishing an honest review!

I’ve mentioned A Spindle Splintered in reviews before- and I was SO excited to get my hands on this ALC! This may be one of the rare exceptions to the rule where the sequel surpassed the original. It had the same witty and whimsical style as the first, but I thoroughly enjoyed the more unpredictable plot here- and we love a good POV shift on a classic tale.

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*Spoiler Free Summary*

Zinnia is no stranger to fairy tales- in fact, both a literary degree and her former adventures through a Sleeping Beauty multiverse make her quite the expert. That is, until she is unwittingly pulled into a story that is not her own, and has to wonder how much control she has of her own narrative.

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Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an early copy of this book!

2.75✨

You know this is on me, because I found the first book to be extremely meh but was like “hey might as well try the sequel”…and try I did.

You know this book gave me really similar vibes to A Dark and Hollow Star, or left me feeling the same way. Both books didn’t do anything wrong but I left them severely underwhelmed. Both main characters gave me the same vibe so if you liked one I would definitely try the other!

Overall this just isn’t the series for me. I’m not mad I read it but I can honestly say I’ll never think of it again or remember what happened.

📚Book Review📚

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Book 2 in the Fractured Fables series. I really enjoyed the first book in this series so I was so happy to be approved for the audiobook from @netgalley.

In this next installment we follow Zinnia who is now a professional fairytale fixer into a new world. After going through so many versions of sleeping beauty she now finds herself face to face with the evil queen of Snow White’s story. The Queen has found out her fate and is wanting to create a new ending for herself. Will Zinnia help the villain? Is there more to her story? Can Zinnia make the hard decisions before the whole time continuum collapses?!

I really enjoy Zinnia’s character. She is spunky and just tells it how it is. The dynamic between her and the evil queen “Eva” is cute and you definitely want more for them. In this tale not everything is what it seems, and Zinnia realizes she has the strength to face whatever comes next. This was a great short read 💜

A Mirror Mended is the follow up to A Spindle Splintered, and it picks up soon after the first book ended. Both stories focus on Zinnia Grey, who is “a Cinderella”, which means she’s destined to fall into a deep sleep after pricking her finger on a spindle, (or apparently, anything else convenient and sharp) and need saving. Zinnia is no fainting flower, however. She not only refuses to accept that she needs saving, she travels the Cinderella multiverse saving OTHER Cinderella analogs in their own version of her fairytale, all while being on deaths door due to a rare illness. It’s A LOT and it’s amazing.

Without getting too much into the plot, Zinnia is transported (instead of to another Cinderella universe) to a Snow White analog directly in the lap of the evil queen. I want to say hilarity ensues, but it’s a little bit capture a little bit frenemy turns to lovers and a whole lot of surprising hijinks. We see her friends from the first book, and meet some new characters, it’s a lovely delve back into the world we met in Spindle.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and I thought the narrator perfectly captured the tone and voices of the characters. She brought just the spirit this book needed, and made me feel fully immersed in the story at all points. I’d love to listen to more books by this narrator and won’t hesitate to recommend books she performs in the future.

Full disclosure, I am a fairytale and Myth Junkie, so there’s a lot about this book that I love just for the sake of geeking out in my favorite sub-genre. However, it’s definitely not just because I love fairytales that I love this book. Alix is a knowledgeable and fun storyteller, bringing new life to old tales in an almost Marvelesque fashion and because of her writing I will gleefully read anything she produces in her Fractured Fable series.

Thank you NetGalley, Tor and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advance review copy of the audiobook for free in exchange for my honest review.

I did also post this review on Amazon, under Audiobook for the format, but it does not approve them immediately,

I love the narrator for this series! I've listened to some of her other work and she does a really masterful job of bringing the story to life. Unfortunately, the actual story feel a little flat for me. I was expecting a different story about Zinnia, but instead this felt like the same story as before just with different fairy tales. Zinnia's struggles are the same as they are in the first book. And while I am happy that there was finally resolution for her by the end, I wish book one had just been novel length rather than stretching out the same arc through two books.

I really just love this series so much. The first novella was a fave, and I love the direction that she decided to go in the second book — Zinnia’s been rescuing damsels in distress for five years, and she’s pretty over it. But then she jumps into a Snow White narrative, instead of Sleeping Beauty, and we have a whole new set of complications. Harrow pushes us to examine whether good and evil are really as black and white as the concepts are often presented by having Zinnia fall for the evil queen, who just wants her own happy ending. The narrator did a great job capturing Zinnia's voice -- her snark and heart are on full display here. While I didn’t love this book quite as much as the first, I still thoroughly enjoyed it!

I enjoyed the twist on fairy tales. Retellings are interesting to me and this was a unique take. The idea of being able to transport through various versions of the same story.

I haven't read the first in the series and overall I don't think it matters when reading A Mirror Mended. However, I think I would have more background information on the main character. I may understand how she is able to transport.

I enjoyed the narrator's voice and felt she fit the character well.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillion Audio for the opportunity to listen to this book.

TW: Violence, infertility, lots of medical and illness talk including terminal illness and death

All that to say, it's still a wild romp!!

Zinnia is back and this time its for the baddies!!! In a delightful shakeup from "A Spindle Splintered" we pop right out of the Sleeping Beauty story-verse & into the Snow White frame-- only instead of freeing the helpless Zinnia finds herself entangled with the Evil Queen. I love the conversations they have around the expectation of women in fairytales, the vilification of women & who is the storyteller after all. Also, Zinnia is very bi and I reveled in her bi-panic and sassy zingers as she sorted out her feelings for Eva. There are tons of pop culture references that just define Zinnia as a character, not limited to her quoting the immortal video, "Her sister was a witch!! You're gonna look at me & tell me I'm wrong, bro?" I SQUAWKED with laughter!!

I loved this story, the audiobook narrator is also a rockstar, shout out to Amy Landon for bringing our feisty feminist icon to life!! This is a novella so I highly recommend nabbing this baby and an iced coffee and making an afternoon of it!!

Thank you Netgalley, Tor books, McMillan audio & Alix E. Harrow for the ARC!! 5 ⭐️s is my honest review!!

I’m a bit disappointed. I loved the first book in this series and this just seemed messy and not as intriguing. I didn’t find that it dissected fairy tale tropes and stereotypes that the first book did.

the wicked witch of the east bro references are the best part of thisI loved this second part to the fractured fables series, the way the multiverse/fairytale take expanded into the second book was really well done. I was interested to see how this was going to continue, without it being the same book - but in a different font. In my opinion, I think this one was even better then the first, the world building and character building is incredibly detailed for the length; although, it does rely on the reader having some prior background knowledge of fairytale characters. I don't think the required background knowledge is actually a huge deterrent though, because it's all so surface level that you could just get it from movie trailers if you aren't familiar; the more unknown versions of the fairytales are explained well enough that you don't need to be a super fan to understand this book.

What I really love about the reader having some bias of fairytale characters going in the book though, is that Harrow uses that to her advantage by using that bias against the reader. Eva is a prime example of this and a great character in my opinion, the book starts with her being the villain - she is the EVIL QUEEN, so like literally a villain - and throughout the book you start to like her more and more and she ends up being referred to as Eva instead of evil queen. <spoiler> [Plus Zin literally falls for her and they hook up by the end of the book [fade to black] and I love their relationship and how it developed.] </spoiler> This book does a really interesting job of skewing the lines/making you analyze of who is good/evil and who actually needs saving, and I really enjoyed how they all contrasted off of each other to add to the story. The pre existing characters are also well done, I think at least, they aren't a main focus of the book necessarily but it is in the undertones influencing the plot which was cool and they come back in at just the right times. [my favourite is specifically Zellandine, but Charm also made an appearance at a very good time as well]

I can see where some people wouldn't like Zin but, personally I enjoyed her as a character; I thought she was funny 🤷🏼. This may turn some people off but, it also sold a few people already; there are a few pop culture references. The particular one that I am obsessed with [and I've got some people with] is a referencece to the tiktok sound/video talking about the wizard of oz where the person yells 'ARE YOU GOING TO LOOK AT ME AND TELL ME IM WRONG?' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoWE4ssR3mU - and when it came up the first time I nearly fucking pissed myself [it gets references at least 2ce]. There is also a reference to Chidi Anagonye ['the hot nerd'] from the good place at some point but it's fairly - if you know you know - so its not obnoxious.

I honestly wouldn't hate to see this series continue, although I feel like it has a high risk of getting overdone and repetitive fairly quickly. HOWEVER if done right, which based off this one I think is possible, I think it could be a very cool series. (it would be interesting to see how Alix E. Harrow gets the 'message' that ties in with fairytales to not become tired [if it were to continue]; but there are so many options for characters to add)

This is the second book in the Fractured Fables series and I quite enjoyed it!

I don't know why, but I have a hard time getting into these books. Even with the first one, the beginnings seem a bit confusing, where the story is being established, and I have a hard time following what's going on. But then the second half really gets into it and it's got me.

This was interesting because it really looked at heroes/heroines and villains in fairy tales and how they come to be what they are. This one definitely turned some classics on their heads and I really liked that.

I also really liked that it examined the idea of the HEA. This is the second book I've read recently that has done this and I am here for it. Is it really about the HEA or is it about that they lived? Or that they lived happily? As much as I love me a good HEA, I also really love that authors are examining why it is that fairly tales always end with that.

Hoping that Alix Harrow writes some more in this unique and intriguing series!

I loved book one of this series so I was overjoyed to get a review copy of book two. However, this one didn't have the same magic and world-building as book one. These are both novellas so they don't have a lot of time for world development but it was done so well in book one that I expected and hoped for it again in this book as we moved to a new subworld.

The narration was amazing and captured all the sarcasm, sass, and impatience of the main character Zinnia. Still overall really enjoyed the story and would come back for book three.

This series is so fun and I loved this book so so much, but I would have appreciated a little more world building. I also really enjoyed the narrator!

Absolutely love this series, and I’m so excited I get to review this one. It’s such a fun retelling of Snow White and its many iterations. The audio quality wasn’t fantastic in this- a little high pitched on s’s, almost like a shrill lisp, and at times it sounded a little echoey, but otherwise the narrator did a great job. The author packs a lot into such a small book, and I love her “villains.” Definitely can’t wait till the next one!

A Mirror Mended is the 2nd of the Fractured Fables by Alix E. Harrow. Narrated by Amy Landon, this was a ⭐⭐⭐ story for me.

I really enjoyed A Spindle Splintered, but this one fell a bit flat for me, probably due to high expectations. The narration was just as fantastic with all the angst and sarcasm of the main character! She brought Zinnia to life and made me laugh with all the tone!

Zinnia Gray has been helping her Sleeping Beauties in all the multiverses, when she gets a request from Snow White's Evil Queen. She gets caught in a quandary and it may send them both into the hot iron shoes of death!

I had thought this series would be stand alone stories all in a theme of retelling. This is a definite 2nd in the series, though as a novella, its not hard to put it together I bet. The plot was less surprising and fairly predictable. It didn't feel as fresh and I couldn't really get into this story. I think my journey in this series has come to an end, but if it sounds good to you, go for it! It will be available on June 14th.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @macmillan.audio for the chance to listen to this novella.

A really, really enjoyable story. I fully enjoyed Zinnia's escapades. I have not read the first book in this series but I didn't feel at a loss in any way because of it. I felt the story stood on it's own very comfortably. The concept of book characters jumping between versions of their own story was fun. The romance was new and fresh and I just overall enjoyed the whole experience. The audio narrator was fantastic as well.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, and especially Alix E. Harrow for the opportunity to read this ARC

After 5 years of rescuing sleeping beauties, Zinnea Gray is tired of helping princesses find their happy endings. Just when she thinks she can't stand to save another princess, she is pulled into another story. This time, Snow White's evil stepmother has found out how her story ends, and she wants a way out. Will Zinnea help the evil queen? Or will she go back to her life of saving sleeping beauties?

I enjoyed this one a lot more than the first While I did enjoy "A Spindle Splintered," it didn't really make a huge impression on me. This one though? Tons of fun. I found myself smiling and having a blast throughout the whole story. Because the first book was so short, I was unable to get very attached to the characters, but I found myself really attached and excited to read more about Zinnea during this book. The romance was *chef's kiss* and the growth that the characters go through was heartwarming and felt very real.

The narration of the audiobook was excellent. It was easy to distinguish who the characters were and the story flowed excellently.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an audio ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.