3 "interesting variations with ho hum prose" stars !!

Thank you to Netgalley, Amazon Original Stories and the author for an ecopy. This was released today Nov 1, 2023. I am providing an honest review.

So I needed a small break from the four long books I am currently reading and behold this short story appeared this morning on Netgalley. I was excited to have Mexican Gothic on my shortlist and thought that this might be a delicious little appetizer for that experience.

This is a dark romantic adult fairy tale complete with a horny young maiden, mean sister, a handsome charmer and a werewolf. I enjoyed what the author did here and it was somewhat original and quite interesting. The prose is rather ho hum, a bit repetitive but acceptably unremarkable. Overall enjoyed this and was a good enough diversion.

I have now lowered my expectations for Mexican Gothic.

I decided to pick up The Lover because I fell in love with Moreno-Garcia’s storytelling in Mexican Gothic (and because of this GORGEOUS cover!). I’ve also been wanting to read more modern short stories lately. This one is a Brothers Grimm-esque story with fairytale elements, creating a spooky atmosphere. Judith, the ‘average,’ younger sister, comes to resent Alice, the ‘pretty,’ sister, for stealing the man Judith was certain would become her husband. Ultimately, justice is served through more sinister forces.

I can get behind the characters and the storyline, but it almost felt like too much story in such a compact format. This is a fun, quick read for autumnal vibes, but I’ll stick to Moreno-Garcia’s longer-form works in the future.

This was just the right amount of wonder and creepy! I love short stories and since this was my first book by this author I am so happy that I read it. I definitely will read more by this author.

It's my first story of this author but clearly not the last. This is a great short story about dreams, desires, the beast in men and the man in beasts. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's a real quick read for fall season.

A dark and sensual fairy tale, reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm. Silvia Moreno-Garcia always writes such bewitching, atmospheric prose, and The Lover is no exception.

Judith knows that her lover will arrive from beyond the forest, and when the handsome Nathaniel shows up in her village, she's sure that they're meant to be together. But what if her lover is meant to be someone else after all?

This is a short tale and I finished it in under half an hour. I often struggle with short stories and their lack of depth, but I was completely satisfied with how this one unfolded. Moreno-Garcia is a master of descriptive writing, and you almost feel as if you're there in the chilly forest with Judith, or in the cozy abandoned hut with the fire blazing.

Most of the characters are multifaceted (except perhaps Alice, who is simply unpleasant), which is pretty impressive for such a short story. I especially loved the dark and mysterious stranger and the sense of foreboding that he brought into the tale.

And that ending? Perfection. Moral ambiguity abounds in The Lover, and the ending certainly reflects that. It's not exactly the happy fairy tale ending of Disney films, but it is an extremely satisfying one nonetheless.

My only complaint is that I would have loved for this one to be a little longer. I want to know how things turned out for Judith after the events of this story. Did she get to live happily ever after? And is the mysterious stranger really all he claimed to be?

Final rating: 4.25 stars, rounded down. If you like dark but enchanting fairy tales, you'll likely enjoy this one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for providing me with a copy of this story to review.

The Lover is a paranormal historical novella about a young woman named Judith. Judith's sister, Alice, is "the pretty one", but that doesn't stop Judith from wishing for love.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is such a talented storyteller. I have been wanting to read her work for a long time. I am so glad I could dip my tips in with this one. With only 43 pages, The Lover is proof that a story does not need to be 500 pages to be compelling. I was captivated from start to finish. It was a great story to kick off my November autumnal reading season.

I definitely recommend this one. It's available through Amazon and the eBook and audiobook are free with an Amazon Prime membership.

Thank you Netgalley, Amazon Original Stories, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for the eARC.

The Lover is out today!

What Judith wants, her sister Alice has: the interest of a handsome young hunter, ready to step in with big promises and an eye for beauty—and an eye for money.

What Judith has, nobody wants: the interest of a scruffy stranger from the woods, one who speaks in riddles and secrets.

I haven't read any of Moreno-Garcia's full-length works, but I probably should, because this twisted little fairytale is working hard in its 40-odd pages. From the first page, you're reminded of the difference in pacing between a short story and a novel—"She'd always known", says the first page, and "when she awoke", and "A few months later". It's much harder to pack that many time jumps into the first three paragraphs of a novel.

Nobody is altogether sympathetic here—not Alice, who treats her sister as a servant; not Judith, who lets desire blind her; not the man who is a fuckboy nor the man who promises and delivers darkness. But also: I'd read a novel about Judith, Judith and her yearning for a world beyond her poor, provincial town. This is no Beauty and the Beast story, mind, but a woman refusing to comply with convention, and lonely enough to look past whatever morals might have been instilled in her...it makes for an interesting story.

This feels very appropriate for a dark autumn night—into the woods, into the woods, to Grandmother's house we go...

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

What a nice and quick read to wrap up October!

✅ Gothic
✅ Longing
✅ Atmospheric

I would have liked to seen this more flushed out, and to know what unfolds in the end.
Overall, I really enjoyed the writing style of this short story, albeit different from other works I have read from the author.

Judith was prophesied to have her lover come from the woods... and when a handsome huntsman comes... he marries her sister yet she can't keep her eyes off him... and then there is the wolf that lurks the woods and a new stranger in town who draws Judith in... who is her lover? Judith yearns for love, she knows her sister Alice is the pretty one, but she hopes to find her love soon. When a handsome and gentlemanly hunter comes into the village and starts staying in Alice's inn, Judith hopes he is the huntsman from her prophecy and begins to fall for him... yet he marries her sister. When another stranger comes out of the woods he looks like a vagrant, but he offers Judith mysterious and enticingly strange feelings.... Judith, against her own reason and decency, welcomes both men into her life in different ways... yet only one of them is her love. With the winter storm coming and a wolf howling and hunting around the village, people are becoming ravenous... and these hungers need to be satisfied... This was such a unique short story. I was so entranced while reading it and curious about where it would go and that ending, oh gosh, did I love that ending. It's the perfect short fairytale story with a touch of gothic and darkness.

*Thank you Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review*

This story was so interesting. It is very different from what this author typically rights. But it was done so well, and I really hope she writes more along this line of storytelling.

We follow Judith and her extremely spoiled sister Alice as they navigate life running a inn after the death of Alice's husband. Judith is tasked with most of the responsibilities of the house, including watching over Alice's two small children, while Alice works towards a remarry. Judith want her great live more than anything and she thinks she found it in a handsome hunter that wanders into town. But things do not unfold as Judith expects. Judith ends up begrudgingly befriending a suspicious vagrant in town who might have more secrets than he lets on. And it might have dire consequences for them all.