I received a copy of this book to listen to in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

***AUDIO BOOK VERSION***
After the Forest is a Hansle and Grettle retelling set twenty years after they were abandoned in the forest and emprisoned by the witch.
Hansel (Hans) has a gambling problem and has racked up a debt, and Grettle tries her best to keep them afloat and keep hold of their home by making and selling bewitchingly delicious gingerbread. But the villagers are mistrustful of Gretta after what happened to them as children in the woods all those years ago. And Gretta has a secret she's been harbouring all these years which if discoverd could have her killed - she stole the witches grimoire and has been using it to bake her delicious gingerbread recipes to keep a roof over her and Hans heads.
When Gretta is almost killed by a bear at the start of the book and discovers dark magic in the woods, she uncovers magic of her own, which leads her down a path of discovery and danger.
I loved the writing prose in this book and thought the narrator did an amazing job bringing the book to life along with all the different character voices, too. I loved Gretta and was rooting for her from the beginning. This was such a cleverly woven retelling full of darkness, shape-shifters, magic, witches, wolves, bears, and links to Snow White towards the end, too.
As a debut, this was amazing, and I'm excited to see what Kell Woods writes next.

This is the tale of Hansel and Gretal as adults. Hans is a drunk, he hates the world and is in debt. Gretal is an outcast, rumours of her past have labelled her as a witch. All she does is make gingerbread from the witch's book, a book that talks to her.

This book contains different kinds of magic, good and bad, persecution of witches, small town vibes, shapeshifters, woods, German words and self-discovery.

Unfortunately, it wasn't for me. It was very slow and repetitive. I listened to it on audiobook on twice the speed to get through the longer parts. I did like the romance in it and the German. I do wonder if I would have had a different experience if I'd read the book, rather than listened to it.

The narrator for this audiobook was brilliant. Overall, the book was lacking in charisma, it was quite bland plot wise, and convuluted in its approach to storytelling. It isn't memorable, and was like a weak edition of The Winter Night Trilogy

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the early access to this audiobook.

I loved how this book weaved together so many fairytale elements, but I found myself getting annoyed with Great - a lot. Fairly obvious things happened, and it took her a while to catch on.

Overall this was a good book, and the narrator did a good job, but unfortunately I didn't really love this book.

This is a wonderfully told adult fairytale set 20 years after Hansel & Gretel's terrible fate of having been kept on a gingerbread house. So this has a bit of everything in the story, the Grimm's fairytale, a witch trial and several nods to factual witch trials in Europe, cursed people, red apples, imps, bears, wolves and a spell book. I thoroughly enjoyed this and wether it's the narrator or similar style of writing but it reminded me so much of the Winter night trilogy by Katherine Arden. Before I started this I worried that a audiobook of 14 hours would be too long, but it positively flew by.
I can wholeheartedly recommend to fans of The Winter light books or fans of cosy-ish green witch fiction and retellings of classic fairytales

This book was good and I enjoyed the story but I feel like there was too many different fairytales involved for the story feel cohesive.
I enjoyed the writing and most of the characters. I liked the start of the book but I found the plot disjointed and the ending happened too easily.
Overall the book is enjoyable but I doubt I will remember it in a couple of months.

I enjoyed this retelling, and the premise of the retelling, but I struggled with the audiobook narrator. It may just be because I don’t listen to audiobooks often, but I struggled to connect/focus at some points. However, I did enjoy the tale - and the focus on Gretel! I’ll be reading the story in paperback form.

I really enjoyed this book, there was something quite exciting reading about Hansel & Gretel after ‘that’ encounter and it was such a wonderful concept! I felt the tone was quite ‘gritty’ and I really enjoyed how it played out.

I think Woods did a great job fleshing out the characters and the story flowed and escalated well!

I audioed alongside the physical and it was narrated well and at a solid pace throughout, the narrator spoke clearly and with tone which assisted to the tone the book

A captivating Hansel and Gretel retelling, or sequel, set in historical Germany.

This is one I will have to read, I enjoyed listening to it in terms of the story, but the main character's tremulous high-pitched voice, which made her seem really young, despite Greta being in her 20s and having already started the story with past experiences and a profession. The other wobbly accents were really off-putting to me as well, though I did appreciate the narrator differentiating between characters, I just heard the accents more than the story, not sure why there were Irish/Scottish werewolves/characters but anyway, the plot and the baking, and the danger, and the romance, and the witchy Grimm-ness of it all carried it.

I've seen some lovely versions of this book, and was really glad to have a chance to listen to the story first, it was a really interesting take on Hansel and Gretel, slow to start, but the stakes and character revelations build to a really satisfying conclusion and it was refreshing to read a vivid, tightly written standalone novel.

One to buy, and one I will be reading again next year as the leaves start to fall, the nights draw in, and the wolves begin their howling!

This was a beautifully narrated fairytale. The Scottish accents were a little off but the plot itself so deftly weaving the story we all know into a fresh tale of magic, mystery and gentle romance. I enjoyed the fact that descriptions were so sensual , not just taste but all five are used to great purpose. A perfect read for the autumn and winter with something spiced and warming at your hand with the lights turned low. Glorious.

An excellent fairytale retelling with mystery, magic and delicious baking! Greta is the heart of this story (in more ways than one!), but there is a full cast of delightfully intriguing, funny, charming and diabolical characters along the way. A perfect book for the autumn.

Captivating and breezy. I enjoyed the narration, which was clear and easy to understand. Lots of good fairytale fun in this one!

I received this as an audiobook ARC from NetGalley. At the end of this review I will discuss my thoughts on the audiobook format.

Overall I enjoyed this story. I haven't read too many retellings (would you call this a retelling?) but I think this one did the Hansel and Gretal story justice. This combines fantasy with hsitorical fiction to tell a story of 1600s Germany as it faces wars, witch trials and persecution from their leaders.

This story is set 15 years after the events of the original fairy tale and is told from the perspective of Greta. Her and her brother Hans are strugging to get by, their parents all dead and Hans is in a lot of debt. However, Greta is just about keeping the family going thanks to a magical grimoire she stole from the witches house. However, dark magic is starting to return to her home town, wolves and bears are starting to come back to the area and the villagers are starting to become suspicious of any strange happenings.

When the story began, I didn’t really know what to expect, and felt like the pacing at the start of the book was very slow, whereas the end was so fast paced I couldn’t stop listening. I enjoyed Greta’s perspective, but wished Hans played a bit more of a part in the story. I also really liked the relationship in the story, I felt it was very well done and felt realistic. Likewise, I found the magical side of the story very interesting and well explained, and wish that part of the story started coming out sooner.

On the audiobook side, it took me a little while to get used to the voice actor, but I think she did it well. She did a good job of doing the different characters voices, to the point where I could easily distinguish who was talking without being told their name. I think this is quite rare in audiobook voice actors for me anyway.

Overall, I enoyed this story and also recommend the audiobook. I would happily read a second book or a short story set after the events of this one!

After the Forest is a beautiful fairy-tale style retelling of Hansel and Gretel set after the time once they've escaped from the Witches' house and into their adulthood. I found this to be so unique and a refreshing take on a classic story. I highly recommend to fantasy lovers and anybody who likes retellings.

This book weaved together so many fairytale elements and it worked so well. I loved how this retold the original story in a new way and gave it depth. It perfectly balanced dark themes with whimsical imagery. I wasn't super invested in the romance but didn't dislike it either. I really loved Greta as a character though. I felt like her struggles made sense and that she kept to her morals throughout despite everything that happened to her.
I would definitely recommand this book! It was a perfect autumnal read.

After the Forest is an interesting and fresh take on the Hansel and Greta fairytale!

Set after Hansel and Greta have escaped the gingerbread house, the story follows the characters through adulthood. The characters are interesting and well thought out, dealing with the original story's emotional trauma and navigating their way through life. The story itself is interesting and flows nicely and takes the reader beyond the original fairytale whilst still keeping true to it.

I listened to the audiobook of this story. The narrator was good and easy to listen to. The story was well-paced and easy to understand when different characters were talking. Overall very good.

I received an Arc copy of this book in return for an honest review from Netgalley.

A nice story, well read. A lot happens but the narrator is so gentle it’s not stressful even when the situation is!

I enjoyed it. An excellent follow on from the fairy story.

My thanks to Netgalley and Bolinda Audio for the copy of the audiobook

I enjoyed the audio version of After the Forest, although the pacing in the second half was much stronger than the first, Greta did seem a little naive at times too but that didn't detract from my overall appreciation of the book.

I love a retelling, I love getting to explore a new take on an existing story, and I love it when an author goes far beyond what the original story was. This is definitely the case for After the Forest which takes place fifteen years after Hans and Greta have escaped from the witch in the forest and explores how they have dealt with the trauma of their past whilst also creating some new hurdles for them to face.

Interestingly there were two stories in this book, at the start of each chapter was a snippet about two sisters and as the book progresses it shows them at different stages of their lives. I almost forgot about these characters until the start of the next chapter came around, but knew that there would be a reason for this inclusion. Eventually, I discovered that the two strands of the story overlap and it added some brilliant context and an idea of character motivation.

This book has a definite fairy tale quality to it and it borrows from a few other well-known stories, it is cleverly plotted and well-written, and whilst I did find that it started out quite slow I think that really built the atmosphere of the story so that when the plot picked up I was completely immersed. I loved that it incorporated a few fantastical elements that I wouldn’t have expected as well, it surprised me on a few occasions and I enjoyed being kept on my toes toward the end of the book as it headed toward its climax.

I loved the characters in this, especially Greta who is the main protagonist of the story. She is somewhat of an outcast after what happened in the woods and is mostly just trying to get by, she is at the same time a little naive and very resilient and everyone underestimates her. I really enjoyed her romance with Matthias and how she becomes bolder after she has met him but the stand-out connection is between Greta and the book, you’ll have to read it to know what I mean.

The narration was amazing, Esther Wane did a fantastic job, I am in awe of how she managed to portray the atmosphere of the book so well. I’m not sure the accents of some of the characters entirely matched where they would have been from, however, I appreciated that I could tell the difference in characters speaking and that there was a difference because they were from a different locale.

After The Forest is a brilliant reimagining of a classic fairy tale with some surprises along the way, it’s a wonderful debut book and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

☆☆☆½
(Rounded up to 4 stars due to the rating system).

Ginger. Honey. Cinnamon. Flour. A drop of blood to bind its power.

After the Forest follows Greta (of Hansel and Gretel) years after being abandoned in the woods. Now all grown up (and fatherless) we follow Greta on another tale of magic, witchery and gingerbread.

I am going to try and keep this as simple and short as possible so lets go!

Why I requested:
I thought the book sounded interesting, I have also been wanting to give audiobooks a try and since Netgalley offers them as an option, I thought why not? I also had the book on my radar.

The good:
I really liked the little bit of music at the beginning and end, it gave the book a magical feel to it which was great.
How each chapter started with the two sisters (although I was confused at first because there was nothing to note what was being said was separate from Greta's PoV so I was like wow her chapters are starting weird until I realised).
I thought that Lisabetta was a good character and it would've been interesting to see more of her. With that said I did tear up at the ending of her part of the book, despite not seeing a lot of her previously.

The bad:
I found myself greatly confused at the beginning by all the characters, I was mixing them up and forgetting them, though as the story went on it became less of an issue.
A lot of stuff was very very obvious, like I get as the reader we know stuff the main character doesn't but I don't get how Greta didn't figure out some of the 'plot twists'. It was annoying as there was nothing to be truly shocked by as you could guess the twists a mile before you read them.
I felt the set-up for the book was poor, we were constantly between new drama and stuff happening whether it was to Greta or one of the many other characters in the cast. Like we never got too deep into one thing before another thing was happening.
I didn't like the epilogue, I found myself confused, was the storyteller Greta or Mira? Or was Greta the narrator of it?
I disliked how Greta realised Tatter magic* was bad yet continued to use it and go to the book despite at one point saying that the cost wasn't worth it. And we hardly saw her use her GreenWitch abilities despite her training, like I felt a disconnect between Greta and her Magic.
*I apologise if I misspelt it, I didn't have a physical copy so I couldn't say how it's properly spelt.
The fact that there was no proper or true explanation for the Grimoire, like we saw a small part of the Grimoire's story but that was it, like where was the rest of the story and / or explanation?
It felt like the book took the long way round to get to where it did, like I felt that we could've seen more of the action earlier on (and that the book could've been shorter than it was) because a lot of nothing happened in the beginning of the book.
I was left feeling unsatisfied regarding many things, but mainly the characters at the end, alas the book is over so there's not much I can do about that.
I wasn't that invested in the romance, at first I didn't even realise there was romance in the book so I was like 'ooh nice' when there was but unfortunately the relationship wasn't for me, though there were a few cute scenes. That said I was invested in the relationship between Rob and Mira and wouldn't have minded seeing more of them (or even getting a novella of them).
The narrator:
I liked the narrator, straight off the bat I enjoyed their voice and continued to enjoy their narrations throughout the book, whether I listened at regular speed or 1.75 speed.

Overall:
After the Forest was an enjoyable read though I had a few issues. Should the author write another book I will probably pick it up!

Thank you to Netgalley and Bolinda Audio for the AudioARC.