You Cannot Keep A Witch From Her Nature. Sooner Or Later It Will Bite Back.

I recently finished reading After the Forest by Kell Woods. This was OwlCrate's September adult book. This exclusive edition features an exclusive cover designed by @julie.reinhart_ , with a reversible dust jacket by @rena.illustration , a foil hardcover case designed by @littleforestcat_, and end pages by @emajarian. The book is also signed by author Kell Woods on an author page designed by @divineliterary, and features burnt orange sprayed edges. *POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT*

Rating: 3.25/5 stars "Ginger. Honey. Cinnamon. Flour.

Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people starving in the aftermath of a brutal war.

Greta has a secret, though: the witch's grimoire, hidden away and whispering in Greta's ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you've ever tasted. As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat.

But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her mysteriously addictive gingerbread, not to mention the rumors about her childhood misadventures, is a source of gossip and suspicion.

And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta's magic—magic she is still trying to understand—may be the only thing that can save her. If it doesn't kill her first." After the Forest follows the tale of Hansel and Gretel, and what might have happened after escaping the wicked witch who tried to eat them.

Greta is barely keeping her and her brother afloat through her gingerbread sales. After the terrible rumors spread about how she pushed an old woman into an oven, Greta avoids the town as much as possible. She keeps company with her magical recipe book until she stumbles across a kind stranger in the woods. This chance meeting sets off a chain of events that leaves Greta facing an evil plot that has been centuries in the making.

I love it when books continue classic fairytales as opposed to retelling them. After the Woods is very atmosphere, filled with magic and the brutality of nature and winter. I was instantly transported to a fairytale world filled with magic and intrigue.

I wanted to love this book, but everything was predictable. I figured out the plot in the first few chapters, which bored me. I don’t believe this is for lack of trying, but everything was a little too obvious to me. Too many clues and hints were dropped for anything to come as a surprise.

None of the characters are very fleshed out, even Greta. Everything just happens to her, and she is hardly reactive. She is incredibly blind, borderline dumb, and takes everything at face value, never questioning anything. I didn’t mind Greta’s softness, but there is a difference between being quieter and being walked all over.

The men in this book irked me to no end. They are bossy, demanding, and constantly undermining Greta. What’s worse is Greta just lets them. They are constantly telling her what to do, and gaslighting her if she protests. She forgives them almost instantly, even though, in my opinion, they did some unforgivable things.

This wasn’t a bad book, but it needed more depth in the characters and plot.

Check out After the Forest, and find out what really happened to Hansel and Greta after their tale with the witch. Happy Reading :)