2.5/5 stars

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'm so confused about this book, but one thing I can confidently say is that this does not feel like a dime-a-dozen YA fantasy. I don't think I've read anything like it before, but not all of it agreed with me.

Let's start with the good things!!

While The Kingdom of Sweets has its flaws, I can confidently say that the writing was gorgeous. The prose was enthrallingly descriptive and definitely the highlight of this read for me.

The Kingdom of Sweets ended up much spookier than I expected, mostly thanks to the aforementioned writing style. The descriptions of various creepy things were graphic and richly detailed, definitely increasing the scare factor. Note: it's not a horror novel, but it certainly has darker themes than normally seen in YA.

The premise of a dark Nutcracker retelling was interesting and though this novel deviated significantly from the source material, it never lost the thematic thread that reminded me of the ballet.

Now some of the not-as-good things...

The main downfall of this well-written novel was its hot mess of a plot. It was a tangled knot of loose ends and half-formed ideas by the end with many questions remaining unanswered. The Kingdom of Sweets takes place over decades in a fashion rarely seen in YA, but in this case it just made the plot points feel disjointed and unrelated. For example, there was a lot of backstory that didn't come to light until the last quarter of the book and then never fully explained, creating a fairly unsatisfactory ending.

The characters were uncompelling and flat. I can appreciate the change in Natasha's and Clara's characters over the time covered by the book, but they started out flat and then fleshed out inconsistently. Natasha's character arc was the most well done, but Clara's was a mess using unseen action as a device to not have to actively develop her.

To be fair, the scope of the story made it hard to focus on details when writing. When covering 20 years of narrative in a 300-page book, some details are bound to fall through the cracks. Maybe the conclusion is then to try not to bite off more than you can chew and limit yourself to a more concise story with fewer moving elements to take care of.

This is not at all what I was expecting. I thought this was going to be a dark and creepy retelling of the Nutcracker from the other side, but that is not the case. I love the Nutcracker and I really thought this was going to be perfect for me, but the story is primarily after the Nutcracker timeline and the characters are hardly in this book. It is really about the twin sister Natasha and how she was mistreated and unloved. This book really shouldn’t even say that it a novel about the Nutcracker since 90% of the book is not even close to that. I wonder if I would have enjoyed the story if I didn’t think it was going to be about the Nutcracker?

Argh, the characters were horrendous. I couldn’t get attached to any of them. It made it so hard to continue to read about them.

The story is very slow and I had a hard time picking it up to read it. I almost gave up several times.

Thanks NetGalley and publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

"This gloriously transportive reimagining of The Nutcracker tells the tale of twin sisters, divided by envy and magic, set against each another one fateful Christmas Eve.

Light and dark - this is the cursed birthright placed upon Clara and Natasha by their godfather, Drosselmeyer, whose power and greed hold an entire city in his sway. Charming Clara, the favorite, grows into a life of beauty and ease, while Natasha is relegated to her sister's shadow, ignored and unloved.

But Natasha seizes the opportunity for revenge one Christmas Eve, when Drosselmeyer arrives at the family gala with the Nutcracker, an enchanted gift that offers entry into an alternate world: the Kingdom of Sweets.

Following Clara into the glittering land of snow and sugar, Natasha discovers a source of power far greater than Drosselmeyer: the Sugar Plum Fairy, who offers her own wondrous gifts...and chilling bargains. But as Natasha uncovers the truth about a dark destiny crafted long before her birth, she must reckon with forces both earthly and magical, human and diabolical, and decide to which world she truly belongs."

I've never been a fan of The Nutcracker until I read Leigh Bardugo's short story retelling, and now I can't get enough of them! Bring on the better Nutcrackers!

I have always loved the story of The Nutcracker and anything related to it. I was really excited to read this book and it completely blew away all expectations that I had for it based off of the summary preview. The author really captured the darkness of what is the extreme opposite of a young girl's dream of a winter wonderland into a nightmare. I completely sympathized with the main character, Natasha, and how just a simple word could change one's life as it did for her. Growing up with my own sisters, four of them, we were constantly fighting each other for attention or getting into trouble and blaming the others. I still wish there was a bit more to this story. I feel like the ending was a little bit rushed. I still had many questions, especially involving the creator of the Nutcracker. I would have liked to have seen what happened to Clara once things were said and done on her part. Did she get the life she always wanted and expected? How did things turn out for her in the end? But I am still very much pleased with the way the story followed only the one sister's point of view. I've never come across a retelling of this most beloved story and while it was not all sweet and full of childhood delights, I am glad I read it. It gives me expectations for future retellings and to be prepared to be surprised once again. Bravo, author. You did well. I definitely would recommend this to anyone who loves this Christmas tale and enjoy a darker version of events for a retelling. Keep up the good work!

Thank you to NetGalley & Dutton/Penguin Group for the ARC.

I have been stuck in a fantasy spiral for a while now and so when I saw the chance to read a retelling of The Nutcracker I was all in. This was not quite like what I expected. It was dark, which I wanted but it also felt a bit chaotic.
***SPOILERS AHEAD****

The first thing of note is that there are twins in this version. Clara is not THE MAIN POV. It's her sister Natasha. The premise of the story is that their parents made a bargain with Drosselmeyer, the girls' godfather and town pariah, to even be able to have the babies. He then shows up at the christening and declares 1 twin light and the other dark. This defines them all throughout their childhood and how everyone else views them.

I will say that I didn't always know where the storyline was headed next but it just wasn't for me. This book has it all: dark mystery, the Sugar Plum Fairy, historical figures, magic, love triangles, and scandal. I recommended it to a few of my friends because while, I personally, found it just to be okay, it is well written and will likely be a favorite read for many.

Let me preface this by saying that I was genuinely excited to read this book, and thrilled for the opportunity to receive an ARC copy. I’d already added it to my TBR about a month prior to requesting a copy and had planned to seek it out, and I was absolutely ecstatic to be approved. Absolutely, everything about the description sounds perfect, and I’ve heard great things about the author’s previous work.
I felt like this book got off to a pretty good start: the writing is excellent and I was initially hooked. However, the enchantment only lasted a little while, and by the time I’d reached 20%, I was bored and miserable. I detest the main character- I don’t like a single thing about her. I started asking myself, who cares? I don’t care what happens to her. Not a bit. So everyone loves her sister because she’s pretty, and she’s the ugly one and no one notices her, wah wah wah. Ugly is as ugly does, sweetheart. You may be homely, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a brat about it.
I pushed through to about 35%, and I don’t even know, understand, or care what is happening to her. I have tried for a week to make myself want to keep reading, but when I do read another chapter, I find myself skimming to get past it as fast as I can because I don’t like it. I feel so sad that I don’t like it, because on paper, this book should be exactly the kind of book I’d love.
I reserve one star rating for books that could have been written by a grade schooler, and this is not that. It gets two because the author evidently has some talent, but this book just wasn’t for me. I may try to pick it up again after a few more weeks and see if I can try again- occasionally, it’s just my mood and maybe I’ll be able to finish it after all, but at this time I anticipate that finishing it will not make me love it more.

I'm on a dark fairytale and mythology kick lately, and this was a good one! Evocative prose and a great use of environment and scene made this a fun read.

This is a re-imagined telling of the story of the Nutcracker. The story seems good but the continuous whining of the ugly twin got on my nerves. Everything is either her beautiful, popular sister's fault or the mysterious man who loans people money in town and then curses their lives. I must admit I did not finish the book because I couldn't stand anymore wallowing in self-pity. The twins are also rather promiscuous which doesn't really feel right in a "fairytale".
I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them but this was a miss for me.

I devoured Erika Johansen's earlier works (The Tearling trilogy and prequel) and I was really looking forward to reading this one. It was a beautiful, haunting story and I both wanted to finish it but also not let the story end. Clara and Natasha are twins, born on Christmas. They are both cursed and gifted by their godfather Drosselmeyer and their lives and choices develop because of that. There are definite hallmarks of the Nutcracker story but it also takes on its own story, just as dark and fascinating. I really loved this book and will be recommending it to anyone who will listen.

While this was certainly an interesting twist on the classic Nutcracker tale, there were issues within that cannot be ignored. Other reviewers have pointed these out - such as the mentality of the female main character disliking her sister simply because she's "prettier" and thinking that makes her evil? There were just some things that didn't work - and while the prose was great and created vivid images, that doesn't make up for the content... Even so, I'm sure this book will find it's audience! I'll be sure to include it recommendations for winter reading.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Twins Clara and Natasha couldn’t be more different. Beautiful Clara is given everything, while Natasha must make do with her discards. One night when their strange godfather comes to visit, a magical journey is unlocked. The classic story of the Nutcracker unfurls, but with ominous twists. As the twins are swept away to a mysterious land, the Sugar Plum Fairy will grant their wishes- for a terrible price. Natasha must decide how far she will go to achieve her dreams and what sacrifices she will make along the way.

The Kingdom of Sweets is a rich and entrancing retelling of the Nutcracker. There is a sense of old and timeless magic that permeates the pages. I really enjoyed the malevolent figure of the Sugar Plum Fairy and how twisted her interactions with Natasha became. I also really liked Orlov, though I wish he had a little more page time. The most important and fascinating relationship is undoubtedly the complex love and hatred between the two sisters. The push and pull of their dynamic was realistic and haunting.

Johansen writes a dark take on this traditional story, where magic comes with a heavy price. The writing is filled with tension, making it impossible to put this book down. Readers who enjoy writers like Ava Reid, atmospheric writing, and compelling characters will devour The Kingdom of Sweets. Thank you to Erika Johansen, Dutton, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

this was such a dark take on the nutcracker!! i adored the theme and the ending. i would've liked to see a bit more variation in the descriptions for settings and people, but other than that, this was really good! i think the overarching message about who vengeance truly hurts is really important for our time. trigger warnings for deaths and extremely visceral violence though—i almost couldn't read through all of it and it wasn't in the description of the book. i'd recommend this if you enjoy dark retellings of fairy tales, but if you shy away from violence and dark themes in general, i'd avoid this one.

Johansen knows how to dive deep into the dark. This tale of twins Clara & Natasha, one labeled light and one labeled dark. Just after their 17th birthday they enter the Kingdom of Sweets, a dark universe filled with gruesome moments and fighting for their lives.
Nat goes back and forth from her time and the Kingdom. Lots of this tale is filled with horrors, but we see both Clara and mostly Nat figure out where they are supposed to be.
An intense look at the Nutcracker story with bits of war and history mixed in.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

Twins of disparate dispositions have an opportunity to exact their revenges upon one another after their forays into world where things aren’t quite what they appear under the rule of an entity occasionally called the Sugar Plum Fairy in Erika Johansen’s The Kingdom of Sweets.
Clara and Natasha are twins born on Christmas who are light and dark, charmed and cursed by their enigmatic and feared godfather Drosselmeyer. As the twins grow up, Natasha finds herself defined by and compared with her sister Clara, for whom life seems to go easily while Natasha is often overlooked. During one of their annual Christmas parties, the night before the twins turn seventeen, Drosselmeyer arrives suddenly with strange gifts, which include figures of a clown, ballerina, and nutcracker that move of their own accord. Transported to a candy kingdom that entices Clara’s base desire for sweets, Natasha sees the world in a different light, as one of false beauty, and upon meeting the ruler of the land who goes by multiple names, including Sugar Plum Fairy, Natasha is offered powerful gifts in exchange for a vengeful bargain. Striking the bargain, Natasha is gifted with what she thought she wanted and lives several years in that life, only to realize that it’s not what she made it out to be in her mind; with her end of the bargain come due at her family’s latest Christmas party, Natasha delivers but in the aftermath of that action she learns magical and mundane details that drive her back to the Kingdom of Sweets to make yet another life-changing decision.
With a dark and grim atmosphere, it’s easy to get swept up in the well-written prose depicting the haunting, horrific, and often gruesome, images presented as Natasha navigates both her world, deepened with inclusion of Russian history, and that of the magically twisted Kingdom of Sweets in this Nutcracker-inspired story. With a cast of characters who frequently exhibit their worst behaviors and qualities, there aren’t likable characters and while following Natasha’s perspective throughout the tale, readers are inundated with an attitude of superiority and whining that can be grating; there don’t have to be likable characters to enjoy a story, but it does become difficult to remain invested when there’s a stagnation to the characters, and action, for a prolonged period of the story as there was here throughout the first two-thirds that progressed slowly, though in the latter portion of the narrative there’s greater intrigue and some demonstrated growth in a few characters that propels the story forward unevenly toward its rather rapid resolution and conclusion.
Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen was a gothic fairytale that swept me away into the fantastical world that the author imagined. It subverted expectations with its deeply imperfect, sometimes vicious, main characters and its fierce exploration of love, jealousy, and betrayal.

This sickly-sweet tale honored the classic elements of the Nutcracker story that inspired it while adding dark, unexpected twists. It was atmospheric, compelling, and the perfect read for a blistery winter night.

I gave this story a four-star rating because it was beautifully written, completely unexpected, and resonated with me long after I’d turned the last page. This story isn’t for the faint of heart as it was oftentimes gruesome and bitter—and equally lyrical and thrilling. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.
“The Kingdom of Sweets” is a lot like its protagonist: difficult to love.

In fact, the standalone novel based very loosely on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s short story/Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet is genuinely hard to read for the first two-thirds of its length. This dark fantasy tinged with horror is expertly put together and cleverly weaves together fantasy with Russian history, but is also graced with characters who are uniformly unlikable.

As newborns, Clara and Natasha were blessed/cursed by the sorcerer Drosselmeyer – Clara was declared “light” and Natasha “dark.” And they grew up accordingly: Clara was beautiful and beloved by everyone, while Natasha was unattractive and ignored, taking her solace in a world of books. Then, at the Christmas party that marks their seventeenth birthday, it’s announced that newly-pregnant Clara is marrying the wealthy boy that Natasha is infatuated with – and both girls are given strange living toys by Drosselmeyer.

Soon Clara is whisked away into a magical Kingdom of Sweets, and Natasha follows her doggedly. But she soon senses that there is something profoundly wrong about this strange sugar-coated dimension, which is ruled over by the Sugarplum Fairy.

And as a bitter, jealous Natasha discovers the depths of her sister’s betrayal, she is offered a Faustian bargain by the Fairy – if she helps the Fairy destroy Drosselmeyer, the Fairy will let her kill Clara and take her appearance and her life. But the life that Clara seizes for herself isn’t as sweet as she hoped it would be – and as the years go by, she discovers that she can’t escape the sins of her own actions. Her only hope is to uncover the ancient magic that Drosselmeyer coveted, which may be her only escape.

Let’s be upfront about this: for the first two-thirds of “Tbe Kingdom of Sweets,” there are absolutely no likable characters. At all. Everybody without exception is a terrible person of one stripe or another, whether they’re a cold unfeeling parent, a murderous sorcerer, sadistic socialites or a shallow selfish sister. This includes Natasha herself, who is a bitter, hate-consumed person who has a heavy dose of Not Like Other Girls Syndrome, and deludes herself into thinking she is smarter and more insightful than everybody else. She would fit in well on social media.

As a result, I had to struggle to get through the first two-thirds of the book, despite Erika Johansen’s skillful writing and some well-written interlacing of Hoffman’s tale with actual Russian history from the turn of the 20th century. It just wasn’t enjoyable to be in Natasha’s head because I was so repulsed by the character, especially since the narrative doesn’t really hint at future growth, and I couldn’t really bring myself to care much about whatever ironic punishment she suffered as a result of her own actions.

However, things started to turn around when Clara reenters the story; the story becomes more streamlined and organic, and Natasha is forced to face the evil that has been brewing inside her for so long. It makes that last third of the book more poignant, more gripping, and more suspenseful as Natasha has to find a way to, if not undo what she’s done, then at least try to make amends while defeating the Fairy. It becomes more a story about redemption and forgiveness, which softens Natasha’s harsh, prickly worldview and how she looks at others, such as the priest.

But to get to that solid final third, you have to slog through the first two-thirds, which are simply not enjoyable to read. If you don’t mind that, then “The Kingdom of Sweets” is a solid dark’n’twisted version of the Nutcracker story.

Interesting, dark take on the Nutcracker. And the sister that wasn't. I love magic stories and I like them with an edge, always. This did not disappoint.
Thanks for the ARC.

DNF at 30%. Though this sounds like exactly my kind of book that I would love, it is terribly boring. Most of the content so far is repetitive inner monologue from the main character. Very little setting so far.

I cannot read a whole novel of a whiny MC.

E-arc from NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton to voluntarily, read and review.

I’m sure you’ve heard the story of Clara, the Nutcracker, and the Sugar Plum Fairy. But what if there were more to the story? A dark tale of magic and meddling, with not just one girl, but two. Twins. Dubbed at birth as Light and Dark by their Godfather Drosselmeyer for reasons unknown to anyone except him. Clara and Natasha have lived their lives by these labels. This story is all from Natasha’s perspective, centering around events at their family’s annual Christmas Eve parties through the years, but specifically the year they are turning seventeen. Betrayal triggers death and destruction beyond Natasha’s understanding. And she must live with the consequences of her actions.

The writing was good. I enjoyed the book thoroughly. But being a huge fan of The Nutcracker, I thought it would include a little bit more about ballet. It was quickly glossed over because the narrator is Natasha, not Clara. Nonetheless, it was an interesting story.