I received an advanced e-audiobook compliments of the publisher and NetGalley.
Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this new fairy tale. Kingfisher delivered an original and interesting story which was more compelling than any related to it. Love the world building and sense of time. Narration by Jennifer Blom is perfect. Overall 5 *****

T. Kingfisher usually leaves me enthralled and wanting more. I devour her books. This one just wasn't it. As far as retellings of fairy tales go, it's lackluster. I feel like it's possible that the Sleeping Beauty story needs a bit more development to bring something new to the table. The characters are just so....one note. Aside from Toadling, everyone is just a single trait. Toadling lured me into this story, and her backstory was tangled and interesting. The rest was just a telling of a tale that has been told before. I'm bummed. The prose was lovely because T. Kingfisher is insanely talented, but this just wasn't enough meat for a novella.

Thornhedge by @redwombatstudio - This was... cute? It was a crazy dark fairytale story mixed with the modern day and a present time male who wanted to be the hero but he went about it very nicely instead of the brutish MUST SAVE PRINCESS AND WIN HER HEART way.

This was such a unique Sleeping Beauty retelling, told from the perspective of Toadling and I really enjoyed that. I really liked her, and the concept of changelings and the new twist that gave to this fairy tale. This story was short, so I don't want to say too much and spoil something. I will definitely be picking up more T. Kingfisher.
I received an audio version of this book and I enjoyed the narrator. I can be picky about narrators but Jennifer Bloom was easy to listen to and did a great job!

I love a good little Tor novella and I love the essence of a dark fairytale! The storyline was so unique and one that I would not have expected. Toadling as a character was so sweet, always looking out for her duties trying to keep everyone safe. I loved her little backstory, but the flashbacks weren’t my favorite. The knight was also a fun character & I liked how he wasn’t a “special” knight but just a regular person! What else can I say about this little 100 page book other than it’s a darkly fun good time!

I thought the beginning with the build up went on a little too long with the tower scene seemingly only taking up a short part of the story. I kinda wish more happened or something bigger took place than just a push out the window. However, I love that toadling got to go home and be with her real family but also got the option of leaving to find herself. So pure and sweet!

I was thrilled to be approved for this ARC from T Kingfisher. I absolutely love her writing. This is the fifth book that I read/listened to. by her. I love it when she writes the opposite of "fairy tales.". In "Nettle & Bone", she writes about the princess killing the prince. In this story, she writes about the person watching over the princess in the tower. I enjoy the characters in the book Jennifer Blom did a great job bring all the characters to life.

I think I might’ve enjoyed this more had it been longer. And it took me almost a month to get past the 2nd chapter (I kept falling asleep at the same point in the audiobook). But once I (finally) got past that - i really liked this weird little reverse fairytale. I think at this point I’ve read enough of T. Kingfisher work to know that she is a phenomenal writer and storyteller, but not all of her releases are for me. Thornhedge worked for me and I’m looking forward to continuing with her backlist and her future releases.

This was such a fantastic read! It very much was a fairytale, but like the synopsis says, it's subversive, and I loved this story! That Toadling was the rightful daughter of the king and queen, but was stolen and replaced by faeries, and then had to give a blessing on the one that replaced her? Yeah, it was really fantastic to read!

The fact that the blessing didn't go as intended, and she had to watch her replacement live the life that she was supposed to? When all Toadling really wanted to was to go back to the fae that became her family. Yeah. That was rough.

We knew that something went wrong, that Toadling is watching over this tower, which gave it a Sleeping Beauty feel to it. But to find out what happened and why, well, that was such a great story to watch unfold!

And oh, that ending? With how it was resolved, yeah, that fit with everything that happened before it. But what she decides for her future, what choices she was given, yeah, I'm so glad, she deserves it after all that she went though!

I loved reading this book, and I can't wait to read more by T. Kingfisher!

A retelling of Sleeping Beauty in which the hero is Toadling, the human raised in/altered by Faerie, who’s sent to protect the human world from the changeling princess but ends up just putting her to sleep for hundreds of years. When another human finds her, Toadling has to confront her fears that her small powers won’t be enough. It’s a fine retelling with a refusal of the myth of beauty meaning goodness.

“Thornhedge” is a cozy retelling of the classic sleeping beauty story. It spins the same take of a maiden stuck in a perpetual sleep and hidden away by an enchantress however, it subverts our understanding of the story; instead of a beautiful, innocent maiden asleep in the tower it’s beautiful yet wicked changeling. Her beauty and maidenhood combined with her evil nature challenges our idea of the role beauty plays in our perception of good versus evil. Our hero, Toadling, is a human woman. She is ugly and homely, yet it is in her that we find quiet compassion and a gentle strength.

I loved this read. I loved Toadling and I loved seeing the world through her eyes. The ways she described her family was so lovely. In general, I thought the entire novella was so well written and it left me with the nicest, warm feeling in my belly.

Anyone who is a fan of fantasy would enjoy this book, but I especially recommend it to fans of “the Cruel Prince” and the “Green Rider” series.

I received this audiobook as an ARC. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

This was my first book by this author and I’m happy to say it definitely will not be my last. What a magical ride.

I will never get enough of how T. Kingfisher turns stories around. Loved every second of this! Gorgeous writing, awesome narration! Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

I’ve previously read T Kingfisher’s books and I loved them, so this was an automatic must read for me. This book is definitely different from her most recent work, A House with Good Bones(which I am obsessed with. Thornhedge has less humor but more magical world building and mythical qualities.
This was a quick read (116 pages) and full of magic and whimsy which was such a nice palette cleanser for me after the dark thrillers I’ve been reading. I love this original take on classic fairy tales, with a gentle (swoon worthy) knight and a kind toad-shaped heroine, and a princess trapped in a tower. The descriptions of faerie land were beautiful and dreamy, and I listened to the audiobook for this one so it felt like childhood story time🥰 and like most original fairy tales this one takes some dark turns.
The audiobook narrator was not my favorite but I’m very picky with voices, I just thought she sounded a bit too wide eyed and breathy. But she definitely gave the vibe that this was an ancient tale of old magic handed down for centuries.
Toadling is such a lovely and fresh take on a fairytale heroine and I enjoyed her adventure so much 💕
Thank you to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

"Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways."

I love a good fairytale retelling.

This was a GREAT fairytale retelling.

I loved Toadling's origin story. I loved her Greenteeth family, and the explanation of Changelings.

I loved the dreamlike quality of her life in the water, her inner monologue, and that the ending was left wide open.

The main male character, the world's worst night, was a bit milquetoast for me, but I liked his interactions with her - that he listened and trusted Toadling. 

I LOVED that creepy little girl, and would read the heck out of a story with her inner thoughts.

T Kingfisher is quickly becoming a Season's Pass for me.

7.5/10

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, Tor Publishing, and Titan Books for this ARC.

This is a wonderful, cozy little fairy tale, perfect for a fall evening snuggled up with some tea and a blanket. Of course, in T. Kingfisher fashion, this cozy tale also has abuse, death, and other dark topics in it. But that is what I love about it, that we have a story about a child being loved by monsters and a monster who looks like a child, not shying away from any of the gruesomeness that it entails, and we still end up thinking "What a nice little story." by the end of it.

I've always been a fan of fairy tales, "fractured," retold, or original, and Thornhedge manages to completely reinvent a classic while still staying true to the darker origins of fairy stories. 5/5, would recommend.

This was the first book by T. Kingfisher that I've read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the characters were well-written and the plot was an amazing twist on a classic tale--painting sleeping beauty as the villain instead of the "witch" who cursed her.

Absolutely, 100% yes. This is how fairy tales should be retold. Let's move the focus away from the nice, pretty, blond, rich girl in disguise and look, instead, to the motivations surrounding the so-called "bad guys."

T. Kingfisher is a master storyteller. Every book of hers that I pick up has me absolutely riveted from beginning to end. In fact, my 9 year old niece can't stop raving about her book "A Wizards Guide to Defensive Baking." I listened to Thornhedge on audiobook and loved the narrator -- she brought the story to life and I felt every bit of confusion, loss, pain, and hope that the main character, Toadling, had.

This book is perfect for all sorts of ages. I plan to get it for my niece to read after she finishes another of Kingfisher's titles, "Minor Mage."

Thank you to NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook!

I didn't look closely and didn't realize this was a novella until it was almost over. Nothing wrong with that, I was just curious about where else the story might go.

As it was, I really enjoyed this. It had a clever use of flashbacks and strong characters. The knight would have fit right into Squire's Tales by Gerald Morris. High praise since that is one of my favorite series of all time!

Toadling was stolen from her family on the day of her birth by fairies and left in the swampy lands of the fae world. But she grew up happy, safe, and loved. Until one day, she is forced back to the human world to bestow an important blessing upon a newborn. Centuries later, when a knight encroaches upon the lands where a tower is overgrown with walls of thick brambles, Toadling finds herself frantically trying to protect the tower and the occupant inside. No matter the cost.

I quite enjoyed this retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Some of the previous works have gone into the realm of absurd with their antagonists or the humor that was heavily used, which I’m not always in the mood for. This work was much more somber and had a melancholic atmosphere, which I absolutely loved. It was also more nuanced overall, and I enjoyed the exploration of the idea that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

The fantasy worldbuilding was phenomenal. I loved how many interesting details the author included that were plot relevant, created an immersing setting, and just purely fascinating. As the book went on and some actual true history was included into the primary plot, I started looking up details to see where that situated this story in time, but then decided against it. I don’t prefer it when authors include the real world in works of fantasy, and I think this read would have been stronger without that incorporation.

I did find the characters to be decently written. It was instantly easy to sympathize with Toadling and I enjoyed seeing the story from her perspective. I wanted a more compelling reason for the evil in the antagonist – I imagine the author was relying solely on her being a changeling as the driving force, but it seemed that the author used a rather excessive interpretation. Toadling’s backstory was much more fascinating than the timeline involving the knight, but I did still enjoy both portions of the read.

I noticed this is put in the horror genre, which I think is incorrect despite it having some darker elements. If you enjoy fantasy and unique retellings, then this is worth checking out. Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty. I liked the twist. The main character, Toadling was entertaining, but the ending fell flat for me.

Toadling was taken as a baby and replaced by a changeling. Raised in the fairy-world, she is forced to come back to the humans to make sure the changeling does no harm. Everything goes wrong and centuries later, she's still trying to make it right.

Big thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this!