Sweetly

Sweetly
Jackson Pearce
310 pages
Publisher: Little Brown
Source: library
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

After being kicked out of their step-mother's home, Ansel and Gretchen end up on the road to anywhere and end up in the very small town of Live Oak, where they end up living with the local outcast-chocolatier in exchange for chores.  Despite the new chapter in their lives, Gretchen is still haunted by the loss of her twin sister all those years ago, when she was stolen by something in the woods.  But even having moved thousands of miles away, the mystery of what's in the woods stealing young girls is growing and Gretchen must act soon in order to save some lives.

Once again Jackson Pearce does a wonderful job taking a classic fairy tale and turning into a modern story with a quick, tense plot.  After reading Sisters Red earlier this week I was excited to see how she would spin the classic tale of Hansel and Gretel and to see her take on witches.  Sadly for me, the book didn't contain much in the way of witches after the first few chapters.

Still, it was a great story that contained a lot of the details of the classic tale, particularly a house that looks like it's made of candy.  Oh the candy!  There were so many delicious sounding treats in the book, I probably gained five pounds just reading it.  Chocolate covered Oreos and potato chips come to mind...

Sorry, got distracted by the yummy.  Anyway, Sweetly was a great retelling, just like its predecessor and I recommend.  I took a course in college about fairy tales, so retellings always interest me and I'll be on the lookout if Jackson Pearce comes out with another one.

PS: Can we comment on how this cover is just as gorgeous as the one for Sisters Red?  Whoever at Little Brown is picking these covers is doing a stellar job!