Mountains Made of Glass by Scarlett St. Clair
FIVE HUGE STARS

I mean...it's Scarlett so 5 stars immediately but beyond that this DESERVES 5 stars or even more. This was a short one but it had everything and I was left completely satisfied. It's so nice to reach the end and not have a cliffhanger. I love Casamir and Gesela, even if I was frustrated with them both at times. Isn't that the point? The book would be boring if we didn't shout at the main characters a few times.

Gesela kills a frog to break a curse and ends up in an even worse spot, the prisoner of Casamir. Casamir challenges Gesela to speak his name and gain freedom or remain his prisoner. An additional year for each incorrect guess she had made. Speaking his name isn't enough though, he needs her to love him. Good luck with that!

HUGEST of THANK YOU to NetGalley, Tantor Audio and ESPECIALLY Scarlett St. Clair for the opportunity to listen to and review this story. Javi Wilder and Lulu Russell did a fantastic job on the narration.

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#Spicy #Steamy #Romance #Fae #SpicyRomance
#Adult #Magic #Fantasy #FantasyRomance
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#NetGalley #TantorAudio #JaviWilder ##LuluRussell

Amazing story telling & great narration.
This is my first story for the author, but definitely not the last. I loved how the plot goes, hooking me from the beginning till the end. I can’t wait for the rest of the brothers’ stories.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

Ok honestly this was kinda weird. I’ll break up my review into 2 parts, the actual narration and then the story itself.

The narration at first was so breathy and quiet I struggled to hear it even with the volume turned up. It did improve as it went on and I think the dual narration worked well as we started to get Casamir’s POV. I will say that the narration style will likely be make or break for folks. It does feel like what you would imagine from a Grimm fairytales narrator, it feels a bit old world, stilted, and mysteriously. The narration isn’t overly emotional or dramatic, instead rendering the story very starkly. I found myself getting used to it as it went on, but certainly felt different than most audiobook narration I’m used to.

For the story itself. Well….listen do I come into at St. Clair books expecting masterful prose? No. Was it entertaining? Kind of. It wasn’t nearly as smutty as I expected, but it’s definitely got that hallmark hormones beyond reason aspect that I think St. Clair is known for. You’ll HAVE to suspend belief heavily and let go of a lot of the things you might usually expect like character development, romantic development, and an emotional arc as those are scant here. Everything moves very quick from one page to the next and while that’s somewhat expected for a novella, it’s definitely even more compressed here.

I didn’t hate it, didn’t love it, but I don’t regret reading this and I do think that for those looking for a dark, semi smutty fairytale novella, this will hit the mark. This isn’t in my usual genre of reading so it’s expected that this didn’t land for me but I think for St. Clair fans, this will be fine.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5, rounding up to 3.

TBH I chose this book solely based on the fact that it was written by Scarlett St Clair. I recently discovered her because of NetGalley.

As much as I wanted to love this book but it wasn’t a winner for me. The narrators are great. The level of spice is great. But the story just wasn’t for me. I’ve recently just gotten into sci-fi and fantasy so I’m still figuring out what I like.

I am actually a little disappointed in this one. This is one of my favorite authors. A Touch of Darkness is one of the best H&P retellings.

This one is a Beauty/Beast retelling and it starts off with a confusing interaction with the brothers of the MMC. I was left wanting more character-driven writing like before, but it jumped fast into the sexual attraction for these two. I was also a little cringe with the number of times the word C0(k was used. wow. If you want dark spicy smut go for it. Just wasn't my flavor.

Thank you for the ARC. #MountainsMadeofGlass #NetGalley

If you’re familiar with Scarlett St. Clair, then you know what you’re getting into here. This is a super fun and quick read that’s perfect for people who love their folktales and retellings a little dark and spicy.

I find it hard to fairly rate this given that by the end - I just wanted MORE. For me, this went by far too fast, which in some ways really added to the fable’s quality of the book. The plot and style of the writing was straightforward and simple. Once it became clear that the primary fairytale structure would be Beauty and the Beast there were few surprises.

Bite-sized and easy to enjoy as it was, all I can say is I truly hope there’s more to come in this vein from Scarlett!

Audio 4/5 - I was lucky enough to get to read this both as a physical and audio copy. Compared directly I’d recommend going with the audiobook, it was much easier to sink into the story!

This was my first read from this author but definitely won’t be my last! Mountains Made of Glass by Scarlett St. Clair is a fantastically short, enemies to lovers story of a fairy tale retelling. This novel is also wickedly fun & I feel like you can tell the author’s joy for this story is obvious amidst the entertaining writing (I did the audiobook which was great!).

It was such a whirlwind full of spice, twists & turns that create an entertaining fantasy tale. Because it is short, things happen very quickly & at a very fast pace. While I can see how more character development would be nice, I enjoyed this quick delight of a story.

This book is clever, quick-witted & full of banter. It’s also extremely fast-paced & short so it’s easy to get lost in it for an afternoon. Scarlett St. Clair has a magic for storytelling & I look forward to her next books!

Thank you to Tantor Audio & NetGalley for allowing me to review this book

Mountains Made of Glass is horrific, fantastical and sexy as h***. Scarlett St. Clair packed a ton into a rather small book. So many different fairytale’s and myths went into this one piece of literature, that it is hard to comprehend. By the end of this book I wasn’t sure what to think, which just left me thinking about it more and more. In my estimation, a book that you can’t stop thinking about is an excellent book indeed.

This novella is DARK. So if you are not in a place to read about death, murder, blood and some very light BDSM then this will not be the book for you. The two main characters are the definition of morally grey, they are not the most lovable, but that is what makes them interesting to me.

The audio of this book is superb. I particularly was drawn in by Lulu Russell. She really draws you into the story and has the most pleasant and atmospheric voice. I would highly recommend the audio format for this book.

I ended up really enjoying this book, far more than I expected. It was so different, well researched and had exquisite writing. I will definitely be on the lookout for the next books in this Fairytale Retelling series!

Ways you can turn this book into a drinking game and be drunk before reading 50 pages:
1. drink every time someone is called creature
2. drink every time someone is called vicious
3. drink every time something is called a "thing"

Thank god this was short because what was even the point? I expected nothing of this and *still* had my expectations drop-kicked to the floor. The dialogue? Terrible. The story? C minus for effort. The world? Just for the hell of it, apparently. The characters? Could not care any less. The spice? Lol

The overall potential to actually be good? OVERWHELMING AND UNDERTAPPED.

The only reason this is two stars is because it made me laugh, except I don't think it was supposed to. Why do I keep giving Scarlett St. Clair a go when I'm currently batting one for four of her books that I actually liked? Homegirl saw the discourse around Lightlark and how everything was described as an adjective + "thing" and said hold my wine.

I'm so frustrated that she never *digs* into anything. Just throws details out there because they sound good and then never does anything with them. Oh, she has fae blood? Just take my word for it because I shan't explain it and have lackluster sex scenes to write instead for no reason other than vibes. Gesela's home life, her parents, her sister, her guilt--St. Clair literally expects you to just forget about it because she's so fierce and hot and has a vocabulary that is half "fuck" and "you." The elven prince is literally no different. No characterization, only thinking about his dick every other paragraph.

I know there are editors at Sourcebooks. Like, people are acquiring these books. But at this point I am begging those people to do literally one single thing because this is what? Book five in a row I've read from one of your imprints that I wish I had not spent the time on? *Begging* you to actually help shape these books into something I don't regret reading.