#NetGalley #TheNightCountry #HazelWood #YAFantasy #FlatIronBooks #review #darkfantasy #fairytales #favoritereads
Hi friends and Happy Sunday!! It’s been a snowy weekend here in Rochester, NY!! The perfect winter weather for staying, snuggling up and reading a good book. So many of you have heard me talk about The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert. It was one of my absolute favorite reads in 2018 and I’ve continuously recommended it to everyone I know who loves a good fantasy read with a dark twist. Well, I got super lucky and got approved for an advanced ebook copy of the sequel, The Night Country by Melissa Albert!!! Thank you #NetGalley and #FlatIronBooks for the chance to read The Night Country prior to it’s release date. It is out in stores and available to purchase now, and I highly recommend you scurry to get a copy, or both books if you haven’t read The Hazel Wood yet either!! Also, the covers are absolutely BEAUTIFUL so they make great books to display on your shelves.
Description –
The instant New York Times bestseller! The Night Country is the highly anticipated sequel to Melissa Albert’s beloved, bestselling debut The Hazel Wood.
In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors of The Hazel Wood. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang.
With Finch’s help, Alice escaped the Hinterland and her reclusive grandmother’s dark legacy. Now she and the rest of the dregs of the fairy tale world have washed up in New York City, where Alice is trying to make a new, unmagical life. But something is stalking the Hinterland’s survivors—and she suspects their deaths may have a darker purpose. Meanwhile, in the winking out world of the Hinterland, Finch seeks his own adventure, and—if he can find it—a way back home…
Review –
I cannot tell you how excited I was to get back to Alice three times, Ellory Finch and the Hinterland Ex-Stories. I am a big sucker for dark fairy tales and twisted characters and this series is chock full of it. The start of The Night Country felt so smooth and like it picked right up from where we left off in Hazel Wood. Sometimes it takes a while for a reader to get into the sequel and figure out the chain of events, but this one was seamless.
We get to meet more of the Ex-Stories who followed Alice out of the Hinterland when she left and broke out of her story. I loved that they all lived together, and had meetings kind of like AA meetings. It was interesting to see how Alice interacted with them, and her struggle to decide if she was going to keep her life with them or forsake it all and run away with her mom Ella. The absence of Finch in Alice’s life was written so beautifully, and I loved how the chapters started to intertwine and we really got a great look at Finch’s character now that he’s found his own story.
The ending left me with a million questions, but in a good way!! It’s torture having to wait for the next book. I’m a sucker for torture though and love this feeling. The ending really picked up and was so action packed that I flew through the last 80 or so pages. I don’t think I even blinked! There wasn’t really any dull parts in the book, as any lulls were well written and enough to keep you moving along so as not to lose interest. My only grievance is that I didn’t love it more than Hazel Wood, but this isn’t a bad thing! I did rate The Night Country 4 out of 5 stars (Hazel Wood was a 5 star book for me), and definitely recommend all lovers of Hazel Wood to not skip this book!!
Thanks for tuning in for my review! I’ve got quite a bit on my agenda Today, but most importantly I do need to get some reading done. So I’m going to sign off for now, but stay tuned for my next blog tour posts and reviews!
Happy Reading! 🙂
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