I'm a sucker for fairytales, especially of the Grimm kind (less Disney, more graphic lore). Add in swoon-worthy romance and insta-lust with insta-love potential... I'm all in!

Inked in Ashes by Shannon Mayer delivers on the fairytale adventure, kick@$$ fairytale heroine with a mysterious past, a gallant prince, an animal sidekick, plenty of fun and sometimes quirky supporting characters including a human sidekick the reader doesn't know if they should love, hate, laugh, or smack them depending on what page they're currently reading.

It's all sorts of fun and shenanigans from the first page til the last where the heroine is thrown directly into a new fairytale adventure (book 2, Inked in Onyx).

Inked in Ashes gives off Cinderella vibes with plenty of plot bunnies for The Wizard of Oz and even Peter Pan. There's our poor heroine fighting to put food on the table for herself and her bestie, Molly, and most of the poor Hollow citizens (think a slice of The Hunger Games with various districts and the Hollow being the dirt-poor, lost, and uncared for citizens fighting for scraps). Her "wicked" stepmother left the sweet life behind to marry below her social standing so she may take out her angst on her poor stepdaughter while feeling sorry for herself. Her stepbrothers are about as helpful as the original fairytale stepsisters. There's even a pair of glass slippers... Except when the king's guard finds the wearer of these slippers, there's no lavish wedding to the prince waiting. Instead it'll be the hangman's noose.

The way the author takes from our childhood fairytales and twists the characters and plots into a seriously twisted story of evil, magic, and rebellious hijinks is breathtaking! The reader is left to wonder if the real charming prince may entice our heroine into a grand love story, or is she holding out for something darker, sexier, and as of yet unknown.

Answers await in the remaining books in the Inkbound series and I can't wait to read them!

FIVE STARS