I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Among the Beasts & Briars by Ashley Poston Published by Balzer + Bray on 10/20/20
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Cerys is safe in the Kingdom of Aloriya. Here there are no droughts, disease, or famine, and peace is everlasting. It has been this way for hundreds of years, since the first king made a bargain with the Lady who ruled the forest that borders the kingdom. But as Aloriya prospered, the woods grew dark, cursed, and forbidden.
Cerys knows this all too well: When she was young, she barely escaped as the woods killed her friends and her mother. Now Cerys carries a small bit of the curse—the magic—in her blood, a reminder of the day she lost everything.
As a new queen is crowned, however, things long hidden in the woods descend on the kingdom itself. Cerys is forced on the run, her only companions a small and irritating fox from the royal garden and the magic in her veins. It’s up to her to find the legendary Lady of the Wilds and beg for a way to save her home.
But the road is darker and more dangerous than she knows, and as secrets from the past are uncovered amid the teeth and roots of the forest, it’s going to take everything she has just to survive.
Short and Sweet Review
Cerys lives in the Kingdom of Aloriya where it’s safe, outside of the kingdom walls is the woods which is dark and cursed. When Cerys’ friend Anwen is about to be crowned queen the woods attack, now Cerys has to venture into the woods with her fox companion and try to end the curse.
Cerys is best friends with Anwen and during Anwen’s coronation the woods attack and leave party goers wood cursed. The curse is actually people scary its almost like these people are zombies but a lot faster. Cerys is the only one who makes it out without getting attacked so she knows it’s up to her to break the curse. Cerys also has a fox companion named Fox who joins her on her journey into the woods.
When Cerys was younger she went into the woods and ended up getting a curse which gives her the ability to make flowers bloom from a touch of her blood. This gift is handy because she’s a gardeners daughter but other than that there isn’t much use for it. I liked Cerys, she was determined to save her friends and family.
Fox is a fox, until he gets some of Cerys’ blood and ends up becoming human. Fox isn’t really brave, if he had a choice he would run away instead of facing danger. Fox had a lot of character development over the course of the book and we also learn something about Fox that shocked me.
We get both Cerys and Fox’s POV and there’s not one that I preferred I enjoyed them both. The journey through the woods was dangerous but Fox and Cerys ended up making it to a magical city in the woods where they ended up getting a bit of help, and they learned more about how the woods became cursed in the first place.
This was a really good book, I couldn’t put it down I just wanted to know what was going to happen next! Cerys and Fox were great characters and I liked seeing them journey into the dark woods where the wood cursed were after them.
