Ashes to Ashes

The Immortal Grimm Brothers' Guide to Sociopathic Princesses, Book 2

By: M. J. Padgett

Narrated by: Aletha Duncan

Sierra Monroe and her sister, Cecily, never did have it easy. Bounced from one abusive foster home to another, the sisters could only rely on one thing - each other. Sierra’s only focus in her short life has been to take care of Cecily. Even that becomes difficult when a group of odd strangers appears in the corner booth of the crummy diner where Sierra works herself half to death. The strangers seem to pop up everywhere, including the middle of the forest where the sisters hunted.

Frustrated by the beast inside, Sierra wants nothing more than to rid herself of the pesky wolf, but alas, her prayers go unanswered. In fact, it seems her problems are compounded by the man who insists she and Cecily are descended from royalty and the nieces of the wicked Cinderella.

Despite her troubled life, Sierra knows when she’s met a crazy person and does her best to do what she’s always done - protect Cecily. She soon learns that might be more difficult a task with new players in the game. In an attempt to rid herself of the band of lunatics, once and for all, Sierra agrees to hear them out. However, she never anticipated their story might match her own dreams. Nor did she expect a fun, new power - burning things to ash with her touch.

As more of her past is uncovered, Sierra discovers there’s no going back to the life she knew. Before she can process what she barely believes to be true, Sierra finds herself right in the middle of a centuries-old war against evil. With danger lurking around every corner, she must make a choice - accept her role and end the reign of a treacherous queen or turn her back on them and never remember who she was.

Lives are on the line as Sierra is tasked with a huge responsibility, but as usual, she finds a way to make it work...because, being the hero of her own story is all she’s ever know.

The sequel to Snow Kissed will take you deeper into the darkness and add many twists to the already haunting tale of the Black Forest.

©2018 M. J. Padgett (P)2019 M. J. Padgett

So Much Fun & So Unique

Parents- PG-PG13 - this is acceptable for preteens and up
Language- None
Violence- PG13- normal to genre, nothing overly graphic, abuse mentioned but not in depth
Sexual Content- PG - normal cozy romance with kissing and snuggles, no bedroom scenes to warn of

I think technically these could be read on their own but I would also say they are much better and less confusing together and in order. So far book one lead to the this one very smoothly without ending on a huge cliffhanger (which I really appreciate), and book two ends with the same sort of lead into book three. I really am enjoying this very uniquely flipped fairy tale retelling that is really barely recognizable to the original stories other then some of the names. The author is fantastic at world building and bring characters into the stories that are relatable. I definitely had my favorite characters and then the villains are wonderfully twisted. In book two there's an added mystery thread in that ties the series together and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all unravels. Bottom line, if you like the fairy tale retellings and clean reads then this series is a perfect fit.

The narrator did a great job (4🌟) with the voices and was fun to listen to, I preferred listening at 1.2x speed.
**(Chapter 3/prologue & chapter 9- has some sound errors that weren't edited out, found in the digital chapters not book chapters)

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I really enjoy this series

Both the story and narrator were amazing, and although the story was a little darker than the first in the series, I very much enjoyed it. I look forward to listening to more in the series.
There were a few places where editing failed to delete the “mistake” sections, so it was a little jarring when that happened, but I enjoyed this listen.

fabulous, slightly disturbing unexpected fractured

You know that moment when you realize everything you have been working hard towards your whole life just fell apart? Yep, that is what happened to Sierra. What started as a bad day full of odd coincidences turned into full life altering events that took her and her sister in a direction they never even dreamed possible!

This is not just another Cinderella story. There are some great nods to elements of the traditional fairy tale, but like the first in this series, this is about as far from a traditional retelling as you can get and so far fractured as to be nearly unrecognizable. Conspiracies, heists, old curses and new friends all come together to create a new story that re-frames everything you thought you knew about Cinderella.

Sierra and Cecily's story is separate, new setting etc from book 1 BUT the old gang is back. Lots of familiar faces and an excursion to the Black Forest where we learn more about what ties them all together and get a bit more of how things are going for the characters from book 1 some of whom have a lot to adjust to! Highly recommend reading this series in order. It was a bit more of a difficult read for me, went darker than book 1 but stayed very authentic. Aletha Duncan did an excellent job narrating, her voice is clear and easy to listen to.

Creative Re-Telling Of A Fairy Tale

I enjoyed book 2 as much as book 1 of this series. The author has taken characters from old fairy tales and changed them so radically that they are not recognizable other than their names, and then she has written a fascinating tale that was unique and riveting. I am looking forward to the next book in this series. Aletha Duncan's narration was fine, and she was easy to understand; however, in the prologue there were a couple of times where she said "mistake" and then restarted the sentence. I was given a free copy of the audiobook, and I have voluntarily posted this review.

Enchanting!

So, you think you know your fairy tales and the characters that populate them, but what you did not know is that the stories we hear are not necessarily true. The Grimm Brothers wrote a book of fairytales, but they sometimes fibbed with the facts. Take Cinderella, for example. Everyone knows that the poor girl was mistreated and hassled by her step-mother and both step-sisters, and that the prince was her soulmate and they lived happily ever after. Not quite! She had revenge on her mind, after years of mistreatment, but she didn't take it easy as they were killed and the birds pecked their eyes out! Nobody said a fairytale couldn't be graphic! This story is so clever and brilliantly written in how it resembles the original but everything is turned on its head. This is the sequel to Snow Kissed, the version of Snow White where the wicked witch is actually Glinda the Good Witch and Snow is a psychopath. Ashes to Ashes is Cinderella's story and when she gets angry, she is a murdering pyromaniac. It's a little darker than Snow White, but all turns out well. The wolf-shifter siblings are the main characters of the series and even though the books can be standalones, the characters cross over and it makes for a much better reading experience if you read them in order.
The narration is very well done by Aletha Duncan. Her dynamic voice, excellent modulation and cadence brought each of the characters to life. (There were a few places with errors that weren't edited or corrected that pulled me a bit out of the story.) I can honestly say that I highly recommend this hilarious and sweet fractured fairytale!