Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
4 stars book from me. Loved the plot and the storytelling in Nettle and relatable, likable characters,. Loved every single second reading it.

This was an enjoyable and entertaining read but it didn't wow me . It played safely on familiar tropes and I wish the author did something a bit more daring with them. It was good overall.

I really enjoyed reading Nettle where we follow the young main character by the same name along her adventures into an unknown faerie realm.

Written from Nettle's POV, we are introduced to a variety of intriguing characters, magical places and of course a bucketful of mysteries to solve as she navigates the faerie lands. As a character, Nettle is quite naive ("I glanced about, and wondered far later than I should have whether this was a good idea.") but possesses an often underestimated (by both the reader and her fellows) resilience and ability to persist which makes her an intriguing protagonist as we want to see how she fares.

What I loved about this book were the nature of the quest for Nettle as the main structure as we follow her journey and the many fantastical elements borrowing from faerie lore as well as other myths and stories, such as shifting pathways, being led astray by magic, faerie bargains and their consequences, the separate but intertwined worlds of humans and faeries, the nod to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream with the quarrelling faerie king and queen etc. I really enjoyed her scenes with different characters such as Ellion, Connor or the market vendor Gammi.

At times, I felt the tone was oscillating quickly from very light and fairytale-like, much of it in the first half, to sudden very dark elements and heavier themes. Similarly, the voices of characters and narrator shifted between seemingly age-old story-telling register to almost present-day turn of phrases which sometimes took me out of the story.
I would have wished for more time and depth, more exploration of some of the very intriguing characters we meet along the way, such as Ellion the shadow faerie, the faerie king, and both the Forest realm faeries.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read and will certainly enthrall teens and young adult readers to explore faerie stories further.
Thanks to Head of Zeus & Zephyr for providing this ARC via NetGalley.

This had a lot of elements that I love in fantasy - a fairy-tale setting, a goblin market, beautiful and sometimes disturbing imagery. The relationships were quite realistic and the dialogue wasn't overdone or cringey.

It was darker than I expected at times, but I didn't mind it and it added to the creepy yet somehow homely atmosphere.

The only thing keeping it from being an all time favourite is the writing itself - it's not bad by any means, but it didn't grip me. I didn't feel the urge to pick it up and it took me just under a week to finish. Also, the pacing felt a bit off to me - some things developed slowly and others quite quickly (such as the ending). I suppose this fits with the fairy-tale style, but it took me out of the flow.

Overall, it's a pretty good fairy-tale and one that I'd recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC

Nettle is such a good book. This story is everything I thought it would be. So so so good. I gave it 4 stars because the plot was super well written, the storyline was immaculate. I recommend.

Wow wow wow!!

I always knew I was going to love Nettle; it’s written by Bex Hogan and she is absolutely one of my autobuy authors. However, I didn’t expect to get out of my reading slump and devour a book so readily!

Nettle is beautifully written and I adored the world building and the characters. It was a really interesting take on the faery realm and I loved how Bex really made it her own. I was also pleasantly surprised not to have my heart destroyed for a change!!

I would highly recommend Nettle as a wonderful introduction to fantasy and faery tales - it was the perfect length to keep the reader engaged whilst still being full of detail.

God I just loved this. It’s steeped in far magic, secrets, deception, friendship, identity and kindness. Nettle herself is an incredible main character, and I love all the characters she meets along the way. A lot of this made my heart sing with joy. Bex writes stories that grip you from the get-go and have you hooked throughout. I’d LOVE more from Nettle.

NETTLE is a gorgeous faery tale, drawing from a wide range of stories.

The book has all the seductive charm and dangerous of faeries. They are capricious and beautiful and cruel here, treating humans as playthings and hating the sight of them. The faeries are both more than and less than human all at once.

The atmosphere of the book mirrors this, bringing the world of faery to life and threaded danger through all the beautiful parts. It has the lilt of a tale told generation to generation, spoken around fires and over flickering candles.

NETTLE a very addictive tale, hard to put down (and it's quite a short tale so you can put aside the time to devour it in one should you want.) It's gripping not in the way of a high action thrillers, breathless and heart racing terror, but in the way of mist drawing you deeper into the woods than you thought you were. You want Nettle to outsmart these tricky tests and get free. You want her to get justice for other trapped humans.

The tasks at the heart of the book echo the task in The Wild Swans, though with a new twist as to the importance of the nettles. Luckily, Nettle is also allowed to talk so she can make friends more easily. The feud between the king and queen of faery feels very reminiscent of that in Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream. There are also hints of other faery stories in the Grizler and Beattie and many more characters and tales told within the pages, letting the book sit neatly alongside this old tradition of telling tales about the beautiful and dangerous lurking just beyond touch.