Thank you to NetGalley for a copy for review.

I am out of the habit of reading short fiction. The Lover makes me think I should rethink that. This is a delicious short story. It is a short 28 pages (on my phone - YMMV). We get world-building a history, lush prose, and a bit of a twist. Everything I want from a short story.

Highly recommended.

Such a strong short story! I was invested, immersed, and intrigued throughout these 43 pages, and the last lines were so unexpected and gratifying. This reminded me of the beginning of Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, but with better pacing.

How I wish it was a full novel! What’s more difficult than writing short stories that make an impact? Great story! Loved the atmosphere of the scenes :)

A few months ago, I read Moreno-Garcia’s latest novel, Silver Nitrate. Now, you know, around Our Thoughts Precisely, this is a favorite author. So when I saw The Lover come up for review, I decided to give it a go too.

The Lover is a loose retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, the second one I’ve read by the time I’m writing this (the other is for this month’s Short Stories). This story adopted key parts of the tale, but it was also doing its own thing with them. In general, it had the feel of a fairy tale, but a darker one. The substance of the story had betrayal and morally complex—if not gray—characters who don’t always do the right thing.

As I’ve said before, Moreno-Garcia is very good with creating characters. So even in a story as short as The Lover, they seemed to pop off the page with how detailed they were. Judith’s voice was particularly distinct. She was the narrator, so getting her inner thoughts revealed early on her growing discontent with the monotonous nature of her every day and the unfair treatment toward her by her sister. Bad decisions were inevitably made. Judith was especially prone to seeing and hearing what she wanted, particularly when one of the men—who was mentioned in the synopsis—is involved.

But the story was an interesting one, and I wanted to see how the scenario would end. And, oh boy, it does! The ending is probably one of the most satisfying parts of The Lover, and it’s one of the areas where the harsh nature of the story shone through the most. And I loved it!

My only detraction is that I wish the story had had even a little more room to breathe. But that’s just a personal aside, since I wouldn’t have minded sticking around for a longer story about these characters.

Otherwise, The Lover is another good story from Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Amazon Original Stories) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a lush gothic fantasy novella filled with beautiful prose and atmospheric descriptions.

I absolutely adored this small novella. Ever since I read Mexican Gothic, I’ve wanted to continue reading this author’s work but didn’t know where to start. Well, this was the perfect jump point.

The way Moreno-Garcia writes is so beautiful. She can create palpable atmospheric scenes no matter the setting. This book was no exception, I felt like I was in the woods in that abandoned hut listening to the wolf howl.

For being such a short book, this really hit everything that was needed to make it a full story. I didn’t feel like anything was missing and I think it is the perfect amount of pages to get Judith and her story through to the reader without being too much or too little.

The ending was simply amazing. I could not predict the ending, which is really important for me, and event thought things moved fast at the end I think it worked out perfectly and nothing felt rushed. The ending really is what solidified my 5 star rating and made Judith a character I will come back to time and time again.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book to review.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a master wordsmith and this short story showcases that beautifully. ‘The Lover’ is a Grimm Brothers-esque tale of secrets, betrayal, and the monsters that lurk in the shadows, as well as those that may be closer to us than we think. I wish it would have been longer, only because the setting was so lush and the characters reeled me in quickly, but this is perfect if you need something short and sweet.

“I have no silks or gold, but I’d promise to eat your enemy’s heart and tear their lungs out with my claws in exchange for your kiss, dear Judith, which is more than a prince could say.”

The monsters always do it better, my friends.

I thought I’d read my last Silvia Moreno-Garcia book but here we are and I’m so glad I found this little short story!

I love a Brothers Grimm-esque fairytale. Dark, questionable morals, handsome monsters hehe

Perfect little quick atmospheric read! I wish I’d found this during spooky season so I’ll definitely be re-reading next year ;)

3.5 ⭐️

I really should’ve read the summary because it had a small hint of it in there ;—————-;

Beautifully written but the bulk of it is just cheating. The FMC sleeps with her sister’s husband the majority of the book and it was a no no no no to me.

Maybe if it was just in passing, it would be fine… but just so much of the novel was her desire for her sister’s husband and the multiple different scenarios she slept with him and how much she wanted to please him and how much she couldn’t wait for them to run away in the spring and abandon her sister and the twin toddlers.

I honestly would’ve DNF’d if it was any longer but I love this line:
“I have no silks or gold, but I’d promise to eat your enemy’s heart and tear their lungs out with my claws in exchange for your kiss, dear Judith, which is more than a prince could say.”

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this short story to review.
Alice is the “pretty” sister and Judith just can’t compete. When a handsome stranger comes from the woods, Judith believes this hunter could be her future husband. However, her sister, a widow, decides that she is no longer mourning her husband and may want to start anew… with Nathaniel.
This is a wonderfully written short story and though it was not a novel, I still connected with the characters. It definitely gave a Grimms Fairytale vibe so if you’re into that kind of stuff I would definitely give this a try.

What a wicked little fairtale.</strong>

This story immediately reminded me of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. If you like that sort of vibe, you'll mostly enjoy this.

This is a short story to be read in one sitting and the moral is twisted. The writing is decent but I felt it was a little stiff and a few things in the story were off for me, which is why I took off a star.

Follow a young maiden as she tries to understand her destiny and how she fits into her own world. She's supposed to find her lover according to an omen of sorts but what she finds is more than she expected.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

It might be because I didn't like "Mexican Gothic" when I had first tried to read it, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this short story from Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

This is a loose retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and man is it good. It reminded me a lot of Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves" which is one of, if not my favorite Red Riding Hood retelling. Moreno-Garcia's retelling is sensual, seductive, and fun. At 40 pages, I found myself wanting more about Judith and her wolfy stranger. As someone who has had issues with Moreno-Garcia's writing style, again, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this short story. It's just so wonderfully crafted and perfectly crafted to leave the reader wanting more.

And that ending? Yes. Thank you.

I love anything Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes and this short story was no exception. This short (40 pages) dark, gothic short story loosely based on Little Red Riding Hood kept me captivated all the way through. Great character development for a short story! This fairytale has a wicked twist at the end, which I loved. I wanted more of this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon for the chance to read Silvia Moreno-Garcia's newest short story, The Lover.
What a great, haunting little story this is!
Judith, enticed by the things she can't have, meets a man from the forest who can give her what she wants for a small favor. What develops is an atmospheric story of betrayal and longing.
I loved reading this little story with a dark twist on the very last page.
I need to read more of this author!

Loved this short novella! The lyrical, descriptive way the author describes the characters had me completely invested and turning pages all night. It was deliciously wicked, creepy and compelling. Will definitely be looking to read more from this author.

3★
“She lay awake most of the night, and at one point she had a curious sensation that something soft brushed by her side in the dark, though it was only the blanket, which had fallen to the floor.”

Sisters Alice and Judith, like most village girls, want to know where they will find love when they grow up.

When I was a girl, we used to twist the stem of an apple and with each twist we said a letter, going through the alphabet. Whichever letter was the one said when the stem broke or was pulled out was the initial of our future boyfriend/lover/husband’s first name.

Next, we poked at the side of the apple with the top of the stem, saying letters the same way, and the letter that broke the skin was the initial of the last name. Mind you, we moderated our twists and pokes to try to land on the letters we wanted. For Alice and Judith, it’s different.

“It was a game she played with the other village girls—quaint superstitions passed from one generation to the next. The spell required a maiden to take off her shift and place it under her pillow during the night of the full moon. The girl would dream of a man’s face, and in the morning, she would find an object by her doorstep that would offer a clue about her future husband’s identity.”

Judith didn’t remember the face in her dream, but the twig she found on the doorstep meant that surely he would come from the forest, the place that she loved. As the publisher’s blurb says, a handsome hunter, Nathaniel, does come from the forest, but he falls for the prettier sister, and Judith becomes pretty much a servant in their household.

She often wanders in the woods, collecting mushrooms and taking some time to herself. As the season is changing, Nathaniel speaks to her.

“ ‘It’ll be a bad winter,’ Nathaniel told her, coming down to stand next to her.

‘How do you know’ she asked.

‘I can tell. The skies warn us’” he said.

But she’d lost her taste for omens, so she shrugged, indifferent to his prediction.

‘Yes, it’ll be a bitter winter. You should stop with your mushroom gathering. The wolves, they’ll be eager for a morsel, and it’s growing too cold now, anyway,’ he said.

Then, for a moment, a prickle of something spread across her body, the faint stirring of dread. She shook her head dismissively.

‘Wolves never wander this close to us,’ she said. ‘I’ve lived here longer than you have.’”

I enjoyed the writing, which has a kind of old-fashioned feel about it, as if this really is a fairy tale from long ago. I hope you can tell that from the quotes I chose. I found it predictable instead of surprising, but I can see many other readers were entertained.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for a copy of #TheLover for review.

The general mood of this one reminded me of Mexican Gothic, though the use of fairytale and fantasy tropes and a general dark atmosphere evoked by these choices. Would recommend this one for folks looking for darker fairytales.

The Lover is a fairy tale about a women who believes the tales that the face of her lover will come to her in a dream but of course things do not go as planned thanks to her sister and a vagrant stranger who keeps appearing. The writing in this book felt like an old time fairy tale and of course had a Grimm ending. This deserves 5 stars because it contained everything a short story should have and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the book in exchange of my honest review.

My second Amazon Original story via NetGalley and I’m enjoying finding new authors. I’m not a big fantasy reader but I can commit to less than 50 pages. In that short time Silvia Moreno-Garcia creates a dark adult fairy tale. A woman knows that her lover will come from the forest to her village. But everything doesn’t go the way she thinks. The writing is excellent, creating a moody atmosphere, while giving enough details to bring the characters to life.

A short dark fairy tale about a woman who's lover will come from the forest, and two men who come from the forest to her village. I wish it had been a little bit longer, but it is a wonderful, moody story that can be read in a single sitting.

I typically don't enjoy short stories, but I absolutely loved this! It had such a dark, cold, almost folkloric quality, and it crept up on me. This is my first Silvia Moreno-Garcia work, and it made me so excited to dive into her backlist!