I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

After the mysterious death of their best friend, Ella, Yuki, and Rory are the talk of their elite school, Grimrose Académie. The police ruled Ariane's death as a suicide, but the trio are determined to find out what really happened.

When Nani Eszes arrives as their newest roommate, it sets into motion a series of events that no one could have predicted. As the girls retrace their friend's final days, they discover a dark secret about Grimrose—Ariane wasn't the first dead girl.

They soon learn that all the past murders are connected to ancient fairytale curses…and that their own fates are tied to the stories, dooming the girls to brutal and gruesome endings unless they can break the cycle for good.

Short and Sweet Review

Yuki, Ella, and Rory are still reeling after the mysterious death of their best friend Ariane, and they’re just trying to make sense of it all. Ariane’s death was ruled a suicide but her friends know she wouldn’t even attempt to swim in the lake so they know something is up. Nani is a new student at the academy and she ends up rooming with Yuki and Rory. Nani’s appearance ends up setting in to motion the investigation into Ariane’s final days. The girls end up finding a book Ariane was looking at that has fairy tales and Ariane was connecting the fairy tales to students and how they would die. Following this lead the girls find out that Ariane wasn’t the only death at the academy.

This book was interesting and I loved the premise. Each of the girls is very different, Yuki is the protector and Ella is the caretaker, while Rory is rough around the edges and has a lot of emotions. Nani is one who I’m still trying to figure out, she came to Grimrose to learn more about her dad and she finds another mystery instead. Each girl gets their own POV and I didn’t have a specific one that I liked but I feel like I couldn’t really get to know them as well as I would have if the book was longer and just one POV. I did like that the fairy tale stories were connected to how someone would die, and these aren’t Disney fairy tales these were like the Grimm Brothers versions. The mystery was good and I loved the setting of the academy and the darkness of it all just set the mood. This first book is pretty short and I feel like there were a lot of things left to be answered. I’m interested to see what’s going to happen in the next book, and I’m hoping for more development and more of a connection to these characters.