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roshreviews's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
An interesting anthology with many outstanding stories. The book is the first of four planned anthologies based on the seasons, with summer, spring, and autumn to follow. The idea is to put on paper the inherent essence of each season. This book is based on winter, so all the stories are set against a cold, snowy background. As the editor’s note declares, for winter, the intention is to capture "its darkest, deepest depths."
The tagline on the cover suggests that it is also a “folk and fairy tale anthology”. Thus all the tales have this fantastical setting that involves magic and mystique, spookiness and surrealism, romance and regret. The collection contains 17 stories from a variety of writing styles. Some are scary, some are funny, some are emotional, some are simply bizarre. The collection goes to show how fairy tales and folk tales are much beyond what people assume them to be. They aren’t always light and frothy. If you read the original Grimm’s fairy tales, you will know how dark and atmospheric they can get. This collection is more on those lines.
Most of the stories in this collection were wonderful. They gave me exactly what I look for in short stories – an impactful experience without compromising on the plot structure or character development. The few that I didn’t enjoy were more because they weren’t my type of stories rather than because of writing fallacies. What’s important is that none of the stories felt similar to each other or repetitive in their themes. It was like reading a multitude of books bound together in a single volume. There are a couple of retellings included in the line-up, and surprisingly to me, I enjoyed the retellings even better than I did the original stories.
My favourites from this collection are:
The Biting Cold - Josie Jaffrey - The second person made it a bit difficult to get into at the beginning but soon the story caught me by its frosty tentacles. Amazing imagination! - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
The Match Girl - Rebecca F. Kenney - Retelling of the original fairy tale by the same name, darker and yet lighter. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bharat Krishnan - Takes the urban legend of ‘Nale Ba’ from Bangalore and transfers it to a Christmas setting in the USA. I kind of expected the ending but I still enjoyed it. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
A Pea Ever After - Adie Hart – ‘Princess and the Pea’ retelling, and what a fabulous job of turning that clichéd story into a sweet yet intriguing one. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Snowdrop - H.L. MacFarlane - Retelling of some folk tale I had read but I couldn't figure out which one. Kind of like Thumbelina, but with a twist. The story was superb but the end was a tad too hackneyed. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Best Girl This Side of Winter - Laila Amado - Lovely story but seems very inspired from the night watchers of Game of Thrones. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Snow Trolls - S. Markem - A story that keeps you laughing from start to end. No thanks to the fun, conversational style is written in. Perfect! - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Lord of the Forest - Katherine Shaw - Though it's easy to set where things were going, it's still wonderfully written. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
Overall, this was a highly satisfying experience, and I look forward to reading the other three books of this season-based anthology series. Definitely recommended to short story lovers and fantasy lovers.
3.75 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the seventeen stories.
My thanks to Macfarlane Lantern Publishing and BookSirens for the DRC of “Once Upon a Winter”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
The tagline on the cover suggests that it is also a “folk and fairy tale anthology”. Thus all the tales have this fantastical setting that involves magic and mystique, spookiness and surrealism, romance and regret. The collection contains 17 stories from a variety of writing styles. Some are scary, some are funny, some are emotional, some are simply bizarre. The collection goes to show how fairy tales and folk tales are much beyond what people assume them to be. They aren’t always light and frothy. If you read the original Grimm’s fairy tales, you will know how dark and atmospheric they can get. This collection is more on those lines.
Most of the stories in this collection were wonderful. They gave me exactly what I look for in short stories – an impactful experience without compromising on the plot structure or character development. The few that I didn’t enjoy were more because they weren’t my type of stories rather than because of writing fallacies. What’s important is that none of the stories felt similar to each other or repetitive in their themes. It was like reading a multitude of books bound together in a single volume. There are a couple of retellings included in the line-up, and surprisingly to me, I enjoyed the retellings even better than I did the original stories.
My favourites from this collection are:
The Biting Cold - Josie Jaffrey - The second person made it a bit difficult to get into at the beginning but soon the story caught me by its frosty tentacles. Amazing imagination! - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
The Match Girl - Rebecca F. Kenney - Retelling of the original fairy tale by the same name, darker and yet lighter. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bharat Krishnan - Takes the urban legend of ‘Nale Ba’ from Bangalore and transfers it to a Christmas setting in the USA. I kind of expected the ending but I still enjoyed it. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
A Pea Ever After - Adie Hart – ‘Princess and the Pea’ retelling, and what a fabulous job of turning that clichéd story into a sweet yet intriguing one. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Snowdrop - H.L. MacFarlane - Retelling of some folk tale I had read but I couldn't figure out which one. Kind of like Thumbelina, but with a twist. The story was superb but the end was a tad too hackneyed. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Best Girl This Side of Winter - Laila Amado - Lovely story but seems very inspired from the night watchers of Game of Thrones. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Snow Trolls - S. Markem - A story that keeps you laughing from start to end. No thanks to the fun, conversational style is written in. Perfect! - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Lord of the Forest - Katherine Shaw - Though it's easy to set where things were going, it's still wonderfully written. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
Overall, this was a highly satisfying experience, and I look forward to reading the other three books of this season-based anthology series. Definitely recommended to short story lovers and fantasy lovers.
3.75 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the seventeen stories.
My thanks to Macfarlane Lantern Publishing and BookSirens for the DRC of “Once Upon a Winter”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
chuckslibrary's review
4.0
Fairy tales and folk lore re-tellings, sign me up. This was the perfect read for this season. All 17 stories in this collection as based in or around winter/Christmas. We meet Bogarts, Fae, Pixies and more. I enjoyed reading from authors I have never had a chance to before and will actively seek out now. As with all anthologies there may be a story or two that doesn't suit you. I found that this collection was well edited and has a great mix of stories to meet all tastes. I'm Looking forward to the future anthologies based on the other seasons. Highly recommend.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
joareads's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
A wonderful wintery book filled with 17 short stories.
Here are my ratings for each:
- The Biting Cold by Josie Jaffrey 3
- The Match Girl by Rebecca F. Kenney 3
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bharat Krishnan 1
- A Pea Ever After by Adie Hart 5
- The Snowdrop by H. L. MacFarlane 5
- Silverfoot's Edge by Ella Holmes 5
- The Storm Hags by Caroline Logan 3
- The Boggart of Boggart Hole Clough by Jake Curran-Pipe 3
- Around the Hawthorne Tree by Jenna Smithwick 3
- The Best Girl this Side of Winter by Laila Amado 2
- The Snow Trolls by S. Markem 1
- Lord of the Forest by Katherine Shaw 4
- Queen of the Snows by Joyce Reynolds-Ward 1
- Long Meg and the Sorcerer's Stones by M. J. Weatherall 2
- The Frost of Mercy by A. J. Van Belle 2
- Wintercast by R. A. Gerritse 3
- You Can't See Me by Kate Longstone 4
My favourites were A Pea Ever After, The Snowdrop and Silverfoot's Edge. I really liked the variety of stories in this collection, but there were quite a few I really didn't enjoy or felt ambivalent to or indifferent.
A great book to read around Christmas or for the wintery season, cosied up indoors.
Here are my ratings for each:
- The Biting Cold by Josie Jaffrey 3
- The Match Girl by Rebecca F. Kenney 3
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bharat Krishnan 1
- A Pea Ever After by Adie Hart 5
- The Snowdrop by H. L. MacFarlane 5
- Silverfoot's Edge by Ella Holmes 5
- The Storm Hags by Caroline Logan 3
- The Boggart of Boggart Hole Clough by Jake Curran-Pipe 3
- Around the Hawthorne Tree by Jenna Smithwick 3
- The Best Girl this Side of Winter by Laila Amado 2
- The Snow Trolls by S. Markem 1
- Lord of the Forest by Katherine Shaw 4
- Queen of the Snows by Joyce Reynolds-Ward 1
- Long Meg and the Sorcerer's Stones by M. J. Weatherall 2
- The Frost of Mercy by A. J. Van Belle 2
- Wintercast by R. A. Gerritse 3
- You Can't See Me by Kate Longstone 4
My favourites were A Pea Ever After, The Snowdrop and Silverfoot's Edge. I really liked the variety of stories in this collection, but there were quite a few I really didn't enjoy or felt ambivalent to or indifferent.
A great book to read around Christmas or for the wintery season, cosied up indoors.
thesleepyreader79's review
3.0
A solid 3.5 stars.
I do not normally read fairy tale books let alone an anthology of them but I was drawn to the description of this book. A winter themed, seasonal anthology in which 17 authors have written folk and fairy tale stories. Including all original stories and some traditional ones with twists to them.
These are the kinds of stories that make you want to sit by a fire, under a warm blanket and drink hot cocoa. I am interested to see the other seasons stories that they have planned. After each story is a little information about the author. I thought that was somewhat interesting, if you are curious about the contributors.
With 17 different titles and authors, I'm sure you will find at least one story that peaks your interest. I will put a star by my favorites:
-The Biting Cold by Josie Jaffrey *
-The Match Girl by Rebecca F. Kenney *
-Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bharat Krishnan
-A Pea Ever After by Adie Hart
-The Snowdrop by H.L. Macfarlane *
-Silverfoots Edge by Ella Holmes *
-The Storm Hags by Caroline Logan *
-The Boggart of Boggart Hole Clough by Jake Curran-Pipe *
-Around the Hawthorne Tree by Jenna Smithwick
-The Best Girl This Side of Winter by Laila Armado *
-The Snow Trolls by S. Markem
-Lord of the Forest by Katherine Shaw *
-Queen of the Snows by Joyce Reynolds-Ward *
-Long Meg and the Sorcerers Stones by M.J. Weatherall
-The Frost of Mercy by A.J. Van Belle
-Wintercast by R. A. Gerritse
-You Cant See Me by Kate Longstone
I received this book free from Booksirens for an honest review.
I do not normally read fairy tale books let alone an anthology of them but I was drawn to the description of this book. A winter themed, seasonal anthology in which 17 authors have written folk and fairy tale stories. Including all original stories and some traditional ones with twists to them.
These are the kinds of stories that make you want to sit by a fire, under a warm blanket and drink hot cocoa. I am interested to see the other seasons stories that they have planned. After each story is a little information about the author. I thought that was somewhat interesting, if you are curious about the contributors.
With 17 different titles and authors, I'm sure you will find at least one story that peaks your interest. I will put a star by my favorites:
-The Biting Cold by Josie Jaffrey *
-The Match Girl by Rebecca F. Kenney *
-Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bharat Krishnan
-A Pea Ever After by Adie Hart
-The Snowdrop by H.L. Macfarlane *
-Silverfoots Edge by Ella Holmes *
-The Storm Hags by Caroline Logan *
-The Boggart of Boggart Hole Clough by Jake Curran-Pipe *
-Around the Hawthorne Tree by Jenna Smithwick
-The Best Girl This Side of Winter by Laila Armado *
-The Snow Trolls by S. Markem
-Lord of the Forest by Katherine Shaw *
-Queen of the Snows by Joyce Reynolds-Ward *
-Long Meg and the Sorcerers Stones by M.J. Weatherall
-The Frost of Mercy by A.J. Van Belle
-Wintercast by R. A. Gerritse
-You Cant See Me by Kate Longstone
I received this book free from Booksirens for an honest review.
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