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This was PHENOMENAL, an absolutely brilliant story! We highly recommend it to all fans of fantasy, incredible character development and sweet slow-burn romance!
~ Darce❤
PS: I’m sure it’s obvious, but anyway ‘A’ is darling Ashley, and ‘D’ is me (Darce)!
~~~
A: Star Rating: —> 4.5 Stars rounded up?
[ BUDDY READ with my OTP BR bestie, DARCE! ]
Okay friends, TO THE REVIEW WE GOOOO!
OKAY; What WAS that ending?!? HOW COULD POSTON DO THIS TO US?! PLEASE tell me we’ll get moreeee?! Literally there is SO MUCH WORLD here to explore ! So many characters to elaborate on! So many opportunities for stories!
Anyway, regardless of all that… I loved this lush, vivid, whimsical, yet dark, fairytale SOVERYMUCH.
My goodness… SO much here to love! I loved the slow burn romance, & the creepy ancients & horrifying bone-eaters, & the dark whimsy…
and MAN did I love F O X !
Among The Beasts & Briars was such a beautiful, not to mention superbly creepy, fairytale quest type of novel. The very first thing that stuck out for me in(side, otherwise I’d be obsessing over the gorgeous cover) this book was 100% the MAP! I freakin’ love maps in books. A map at the beginning of the book, to me, has always given me this feeling like, “man, this is gonna be GOOD,” and this feeling was 100% present here. I mean, a map is a marker of sorts, meant to inform you that you are about to embark on an absolutely incredible, unforgettable, & one of a kind adventure (among other things but let’s stay focused here 😂).
I’ve always felt strongly about this through my experiences and so I am always saying that a map in a book is pretty much a guarantee that you are about to read something great. As I am sure you can guess by now…
I was right;
again.
💁🏼♀️😉🙂
The world Poston created was utterly mind blowing, and so, so, so timeless, as was the prose. Speaking of which— I loved how READABLE this was; it was straight to the point, yet still full of absolutely amazingly beautiful prose.
I loved the female lead, Cerys/ Daisy, immediately. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I think she was just inherently likable! She would stop at nothing to save her village, and try to break the wood’s curse, no matter what came her way. How honorable is that?! Even when she was filled with anxiety & fear, she moved forward; Majorly strong heroine alert! She also posses some awesome AF magic that I will not say more about, because I don’t want to spoil anything!
Fox was an amazing character, my absolute favorite! That is all that I will say ABOUT him, though, because again, I do NOT want to spoil ANY part of this brilliant, magical, & totally original, fairytale of a novel, BUT I reserve the right to say his name as many times as I want to :-P.
Gahhhh! Um did I say that I love…
…FOX?
Foxfoxfoxxxx!
🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
Also, I loved Vala endlessly ! A Guide & protector of Ceyrs/ Daisy & Fox through the cursed wood & beyond, she is kind, just, a touch regal, & a WARRIOR! She is so much more than that, too… I just love her so much.
🖤🤍🤍🤍🖤
All in all, I was fascinated from beginning to end, enthralled with this world, it’s characters, and the tale being unfolded, & its briars untangled, as the words seeped from page into to my thoughts. This truly is an excellent story! It may leave you with a major sense of mystery & the ending may piss you off a little (😂), but I suppose maybe fairytale endings are just like that? Either way, that only knocked off half a star for me.
Despite the ending, I HAVE HOPE THERE WILL BE MORE STORIES IN THE WORKS THAT TAKE PLACE IN THIS WORLD! Bahhhhh. The ACTUAL ending (or possibly beginning of a new tale…?) made it seem like this could MAYBE happen…
Thoughts on this?
Anyway…
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND! To any and all ages of readers! 🤍
PS… I switched between the physical book & the audiobook when I was busy, and just saying, the Audiobook was PHENOMENAL!!! If you are a reader via audiobooks, or just enjoy them from time to time… give this a try! TOTALLY WORTH IT! The narrators are truly excellent, especially the male voice actor! I just wanted to put that out there, so that all of you audiobook lovers & dabblers can give it a try if you’d like!
~~~
D: Buddy read with my OTP buddy reading babe, Ashley!
4 CAPTIVATING STARS!
Ahhh this was amazing! I loved literally every aspect of this story, from the characters to the world-building to the romance. Ashley Poston’s writing was superb and I can’t wait to read more by her, if her other books are anything like this one then I’m in for a treat!
Our story begins on coronation day for the new queen of this little town. The queen – who also happens to be the best friend of the protagonist – is set to inherit a very fancy magic crown…. one that was supposedly gifted to the royal family by the Lady of the Wilds as protection from the evil forest that circles the town. However, not all goes according to plan at this coronation. When Cerys (the heroine) is forced to run for her life with only the crown, her magic and her little fox friend (who I love with all my heart), this story takes an intriguing turn as Cerys ventures deeper into the forbidden forest and closer to the mysterious village at the centre….
Among the Beasts and Briars was reasonably predictable, and I guessed the identity of the fox from practically the first page, but I think it was meant to be like that, so I didn’t mind! I loved the magic, the dark-woods setting and the lyrical atmosphere of the book, and I LOVED the characters. The character development that both Cerys and Fox faced was STUNNING, and both our MC’s were just so realistic! I couldn’t help but fall in love with funny, cowardly Fox – I absolutely adored the fact that he wasn’t naturally big and brave and brawny like 90% of the heroes in books these days, instead his instinct was flight but he learned to fight that instinct for those he loved! I also loved the way Cerys learnt life skills and slowly built herself up to be the strong, smart young woman that she is at the end of the book.
Oh, and the romance! It was pretty slow but a good kind of slow-burn, and I really loved how sweet the relationship was. It was brilliantly done and fit perfectly into the story! So cute.
Also, word of advice, CONTINUE READING PAST THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS! The author slipped a couple of little snippets about some of the side characters in at the end of the book, and I’m going to make a guess here and say there will be some future spinoffs about those characters! I might even give them a try, despite my hate for spinoffs 😉.
All in all, this was really, really good!! I loved the writing style and the characters, not to mention the unique storyline and magic. Thank you to my babe Ash for reading this with me! We’re finally getting back into our proper buddy read pattern💕.
~~~
There you have it! If you haven’t added this to your TBR list, then what are you doing?! Enjoy ;))
Darce and Ash 💜🤍
Read in the Clouds 