DB

Actual rating 4.5. really enjoyed this!

I don't read that many short story anthologies but I usually enjoy them when I do. This was such a stellar read! Normally I find myself rating them 4 or so but this time I couldn't rate it anything other than 5! I enjoyed almost every story. I loved the casual representation featured in them and see! It's easy! To include them!

I'll write specific thoughts for each of the stories and then add a ⚔️ by my favourites – I like doing that for short stories.

One Cream, Five Sugars by Harper Kinsley – This was a cute one! The cute meetings and there's a service dog. This one I could've definitely had more of (like with a lot of these short stories).

A Witch's Tale by Rascal Hartley – I'm always up for a good mentor story. I liked how the main character in this adapted – going from “Oh I can't do x” to “I can do x, just in y way”. And that's something you can either be taught by someone else or learn by yourself.

Use Your Words by Zira McFarlane – This one was cute (I'll say that about a lot of them haha). I liked the inclusion of sign language and how the two main characters worked well together.

⚔️ The Changeling of Brushby by Natalie Kelda. I loved the inclusion of autism and “oh everyone thinks I'm weird but the Fae... Like me”. I liked getting to know Tilde and just wanted the best for her – luckily she got exactly that.

To Make Her Eat by M. Stevenson – listen, I'm just out here eating up all the weird Fae stories (look, romantasy Fae is fun and all but normal weird Fae stories... Even better)

⚔️ Hope, Be It Never So Faint by Ashley N. Y. Sheesley – I'd first heard about this anthology from Ashley so I couldn't wait to get to it! I LOVED the idea of Marian in a wheelchair!

A Night for Mischief by Elior Hayley – This one was a fun ride with deception and twists. One thing shown multiple times in this anthology was aids – in this specific story it was hearing aids but they're called sound-catchers. And that shows that you can have hearing and other aids in fantasy!

Lessons in Botany by Casper E. Falls – I always love this story that it's based upon and seeing it like this is a cool change.

⚔️ Stroke of Midnight, Shoes of Glass by Adie Hart – I'm always up for a Cinderella retelling. I like how she bonded with the prince (as always) and had fun – that's what I enjoy the most about the retellings, seeing her have fun.

In Another World, I Twist The Knife by Rory G. – This was quite confusing to follow but I managed to eventually and I ended up enjoying it.

The Knife That Makes The Cut by Lynne Sargent – This was also confusing but interesting in the end. But what I like – because I'm sure about this – even if I don't really understand the story, there'll be others that really do.

Angharad Ferch Truniaw by Tam Ayers – While this wasn't one of my favourites I still really enjoyed it and the journey it took me on of family and the determination showed by the main character.

The Girl and the Gum-Riddle by Ella T. Holmes – This was so weird and I loved every moment i was reading it. I liked how it just ended and “hey, the girl might be okay but she'll also go through a lot of flares” like same.

City of the Sun by Kara Siert – This was sad at times but I liked the turn it took because it was focused on community and being with loved ones – through the hard times.

I'm so sad there's only 3 volumes

There's something about enemies-to-lovers books that just keep me coming back to the trope. What I like even more is when the characters have history – where they're friends before and then something happens to turn them into enemies. But as they're (begrudgingly) spending time with each other years later... that hatred slowly turns into something else. Listen, it's just good every time. And that was certainly true here. Cassia and Zeru had that in spades. Their species, not to mention their families were at odds and total enemies. Of course, you know what happened – we all know what happens in an enemies-to-lovers book. What changes is the journey – how they went from wanting to kill each other to kiss.

The characters were well-written and developed well alongside the plot – I thought Blake did that well. Both, however, were quite slow-paced. I don't have an issue with slow-paced books in the slightest but it felt like the book wanted to be paced faster and the developments were slowing it down. Now and then the book seemed to be at a faster pace and then it would just slow down like the author remembered she wanted it to be slow. Though with slow-paced books there's more time to slowly develop everything – which happened here. We slowly got to know the characters, their motivations, their personalities, and their stories all develop.

We also got a slow romance, which was nice, even though I wanted it to speed up at times. Cassia and Zeru complement each other and it'll be interesting to see where they go from here – what they do and how they face the dangers together. Of course, and how they grow more in love with each other – because they are quite cute together. I liked how their relationship tied in so well with the plot – I like when that happens and when the author does it well. Still I would've liked the pacing of the romance to have been faster, but like I said earlier – it didn't deter me from liking it.

The plot was largely about secrets and the histories of the two species – which wasn't handled like it could've been. I think what added to it was the constant feeling of the book being a debut novel. Then I found out the author has a whole other series aka very much not a debut book. But the feeling that it was still stayed. Of course I'm not saying that debut novels are bad in any way – just that this book seemed like it was Blake's debut. I have no idea what the other two books will be about (as it's a trilogy) as I thought the book did well as a standalone) but we'll see when those books come out. Maybe about the other sisters?