Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Displacement, murder and attempted murder
Score: Six points out of ten.

This was my first fantasy book of 2023, and at first I enjoyed this but now that I look back this doesn't seem like an entertaining read to me or one I would pick up again in the future now ever since I've read other books since I just had so many issues I see retroactively, where do I even begin... It starts off with the main character Alice arriving on Earth with some other characters after her homeland called Hinterland was destroyed and that's where the first problems start to appear, it's just that this author just can't make me relate to the characters she made and I felt really disoriented since I didn't know what Hinterland exactly was and I needed to read the first book in the series. Anyways Alice tries to acclimatise to her new life on Earth when suddenly someone tried to kill her on the train but she survives in an action packed scene. Towards the middle of the book nothing much happens with the characters but I held on to see where this was going and in the end there was a big battle between the characters and the antagonist who only just decided to show up and do some magic things and that was the end of the series. Wow. ( )

Thank you to Libro.fm, Macmillan Audio and Flat Iron Books for letting me listen and review this audiobook.
This sequel to Hazel Wood was a bit of a let down for me. I didn't really get into this one as much as I thought and hoped I would.
Alice is still trying to figure things out now that she's no longer a character in a fairy tale and decide what to do with her life and Finch is still trying to figure out his adventure in the Hinterland and then the fairy tale characters trying to move on with their lives in New York start having problems and dying and they have to go find out what's happening.
Basically what I got out of this after that is that Finch and Alice decide what they want out of life and have to find their way back to each other and move on with their lives. This might be a spoiler, I'm not sure so I'll hide it in case, but this book seemed a bit unnecessary to me.
If you liked the Hazel Wood a lot, you'll probably like this and also if you're invested in the Finch/Alice relationship, you'll probably want to read or rather listen to it since the audio helps bring what there is of the story to life more. ( )

A great followup to THE HAZEL WOOD. Loved to see the life of an ex-Story continue, and struggle with the world, post-Hinterland. Loved how Ellery and Alice's stories came back together. DYING to actually read Alice-Three-Times's fairytale!!!! ( )

I DNF'd this book after a couple of attempts. I really enjoyed the first, but I didn't find the plot as compelling as the first book. It was a little complex in ways that I found difficult to follow. I would recommend it to fans of fairytale retellings in general, and I wouldn't dissuade anyone who was interested based on the success of the first in the series, but it wasn't as strong an offering overall. ( )

Another amazing story from Melissa Albert! Truly a magical story that sucked me right in. Beautiful storytelling at its best! ( )