I was so lucky and grateful to have gotten this book as an ARC from the author and publisher! When I read the description for A Mirror Mended, I was so excited to get my hands on it because it sounded right up my alley! A somewhat cynical girl uses her time to help fairy tail characters find their happy endings? Sign me up!
The humor had me sold and cracking up just in the short description. Unfortunately, I somehow got into my head that I could read this novel (the second installment) without reading the first. So my review may be slightly askew considering I didn't read the first book. However, I have tried my best to only judge the contents of this book and not what I likely missed by not reading the first book.
That being said, I think A Mirror Mended was a cute and quick read with quirky characters and an interesting plot line. The main character, Zinnia, typically helps princesses find their happily ever afters. But in this story, she finds herself helping the villain.
I really loved the idea behind this story, but I have a lot of thoughts. I think the book was just too short for the potential of the complex storyline to be fully realized. I think so much more could have been done with the story and to me it kind of felt crammed into 144 pages. While I did enjoy that it was a super fast read, I felt it left a lot to be desired. It just kind of felt like so much happened over such a short period of time that I found myself a little confused much of the time.
I also felt like the relationship between Zinnia and Eva was really forced and, as the reader, I didn’t really see the relationship build other than she thought she was hot. That’s all well and good, but what started as a schoolgirl crush turned into a full blown “stay in this world with me” romance in the span of what came off as just a few days.
Another kind of random thing that threw me were some of the descriptions. I didn’t really get a great sense of any of the characters’ appearances. And I had my husband cracking up when I asked him what color kidneys are — as the queen was described multiple times as wearing a “kidney-colored dress.” I just found it funny and just odd.
All of those notes aside, I did enjoy reading this! It was cute and sweet and I adored Zinnia’s dry and dark sense of humor. I guess overall my biggest critique was that I wanted more, and for that I gave this book 3.5 stars.
I really would like to go back and read the first book, A Spindle Splintered, to help fill in some of the blanks! If I do, I’ll be sure to write a review and revisit this one after! A Mirror Mended comes out June 14, 2022!
Read the author's summary --> HERE
Buy it on Amazon --> HERE
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