synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Anouk envies the human world, where people known as Pretties lavish themselves in fast cars, high fashion, and have the freedom to fall in love. But Anouk can never have those things, because she is not really human. Enchanted from animal to human girl and forbidden to venture beyond her familiar Parisian prison, Anouk is a Beastie: destined for a life surrounded by dust bunnies and cinders serving Mada Vittora, the evil witch who spelled her into existence. That is, until one day she finds her mistress murdered in a pool of blood—and Anouk is accused of the crime.
Now, the world she always dreamed of is rife with danger. Pursued through Paris by the underground magical society known as the Haute, Anouk and her fellow Beasties only have three days to find the real killer before the spell keeping them human fades away. If they fail, they will lose the only lives they’ve ever known…but if they succeed, they could be more powerful than anyone ever bargained for.
From New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd, Grim Lovelies is an epic and glittering YA fantasy. Prepare to be spellbound by the world of Grim Lovelies, where secrets have been long buried, friends can become enemies, and everything—especially humanity—comes at a price.
first sentence
From the Front-Turret Window of Mada Vittora’s Paris townhouse, Anouk couldn’t see the fountain at the far end of Rue des Amants.
my opinion
Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! This does not affect my opinion in any way.
If you know me well, you know that I am not a big fan of fantasy anymore. I loved it a lot when I was younger but as older as I got I found it more difficult to see myself in the characters. That’s why I was very excited about Grim Lovelies because I thought I will finally find my way back into the Fantasy game again. I was very intrigued by the synopsis and was very excited to see how the fairytale aspect of the book was handled with since I looove fairy tales and really liked the Marissa Meyer books.
The book started out nice and right at the beginning, I was reminded of a mixture of Cinderella and Rapunzel which I really liked and which kept me reading. But as far as I got into the story there were more and more situations where the author didn’t finish their thought process. This left is behind confused and took more and more the joy from reading Grim Lovelies.
The characters were definitely part of why I finished the book. I liked how you could see the development they went through from the beginning of the book to the end and I wanted to find out how it all works out in the end. I also really enjoyed how Megan Shepherd made a countdown from the beginning on and that the chapters weren’t too long. Sometimes with a fantasy book, chapters are waaayyy too long for my taste but here it was the perfect amount and definitely made it easier for me to read till the end.
summary
All in all, though, I have to say that there were too many parts which I didn’t like and which weren’t right developed, in my opinion. It reminded me a lot of Cassandra Clare books though and I can imagine that people, who enjoyed reading her books, will enjoy Grim Lovelies as well!
my rating: 3/5 ★
Find all details about Grim Lovelies on Goodreads and Amazon.
Picture Cover: Amazon
I agree, this one was interesting..or at least the premise was. It was pretty bland for me though. It took a long time for things to pick up, and even then it was just..meh.
Great review!!
Author
Glad, you liked my review 🙂 Have a good day!!