From the publisher:

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, secreted 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.

Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of this audiobook.

I absolutely loved that the story follows Greta (Gretel) a decade more after the events of Hansel and Gretel. Hans is a drunkard gambler and Greta stole the witch's grimoire and is now supporting them baking mildly enchanted gingerbread. The story effortless melds together several fairy tales (which I can't talk about because they are spoilers in themselves) into a cohesive and endearing story. It has just enough mystery to keep you intrigued and also a lot of heart. The first half of the book is almost entirely world building, so it does get a bit dry and boring, but the last half flies by. There were several times where you wanted to strangle Hans for being an absolute jerk and shake Greta for being so naive and blind to everything going on.

My few complaints with the audiobook--

• There is a separate story going on in the beginning of each chapter. It would've been great if the narrator changed their voice or even had a second narrator voice those parts just to keep it from blending into the main story.

• The narrator speaks very slowly. I normally listen to audiobooks at 1.25x and I had to speed this one up to 2x and there were still times where it moved slow.

All in all I really enjoyed the story. The epilogue was a bit confusing, but I'm hoping it left the door open for continued tales in this world.

3.75 / 5 stars
The book does contain a very brief and vague love scene and some violence, gore, threats of violence / sexual violence against women… and Hans who is the scum of the Earth.

After the Forest by Kell Woods releases on October 3, 2023.

Review: After the Forest by Kell Woods (ARC)