And another interesting fact during my read: I honestly wanted this book a little bit longer.

I still went back and forth between 3 and 4 stars but 3.5 rounded up again to 4. It is so obvious that I didn’t enjoy the first book and I didn’t foresee my request would be accepted but one morning I checked my library and here we go I got this sequel and I firstly admit, WHAT AN ARTISTIC, AMAZING COVER reflects book’s darkness approach to the fairytales.Īnd you know what! I surprisingly enjoyed this one more. I wanted to lose myself in their stories and I wanted more and more.No need to talk about the elephant in the room. So if youre looking for a dark gothic romance, I’m not sure this is the right pick.īut where the book was an absolute win for me, was with all the Hinterlanders – The story of Ilsa/Sophia and Death, The seven sisters/girls?, The trio, the story of the magician’s daughter…. The romance felt absolutely flat for me though, in both books. He doesn’t get enough credit in the first one but all that is nicely redeemed in the second book. I was glad with Ellery Finch’s scenes in the second book though. Maybe its some kind of teenage angst or PTSD, but I was not able to digest the sudden change in affections or feelings. But in the second, its like she is pushing Ella away from her life. In the first book, all she wanted to do was to find her mom Ella and keep her safe. In terms of the characters introduced, while I had really liked Alice in the first book, I was a little frustrated with her -‘where do I belong’ dance, which is called out well by her friend Sophia in one of the scenes. I absolutely loved it when we reached that part of the book. In this story, we have re-visiting characters and we get to know one more story – a really important one. Maybe some of them will be answered, like all the dark fairy tales in the next book – Tales from Hinterland. So although I didn’t get the answers to all of my previous questions, I did get some answers. There were a lot of questions I had from the first book, which I thought the author would answer in the second one. Of Ellery Finch and finally of her escape from The Hazel Wood and eventually the Hinterland. I had fallen in love with the mystery of Alice’s story, and how she fit in Hinterland. I’m talking from new releases books perspective I guess. I’m excluding Sherlock Holmes’ Hound of Baskervilles and many of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories and poems. I had not read something so spooky, so novel and so gothic ever! Maybe there are many books out there with similar themes, but I’m just saying that I hadn’t read any such book, until this one. When I read The Hazel Wood, I was in love with the book. How beautiful is that cover!!! Maybe read it just for the cover.LOL 😀

Melissa albert the night country