This reader's personal opinion, ©2012, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

A good read. Ms. Lackey always writes well. Not what you would expect from the book cover description/excerpt. More a re-imagining of Beauty and The Beast than Red Riding Hood (and definitely not a werewolf or paranormal tale).

The Red Hooded Cape makes exactly one appearance and the werewolf three very minimal/short appearances.

A good read; but, not for me. Well written; characters and plot catch you up.

World-building once you get that werewolves exist not so much (pretty much just modern day urban and rural stuff although author did good job with the werewolf aspect).

But, not for me. Too much pack/gang type of crap.

Too casual an attitude to murder and lots of bodies buried or need to be; heroine goes from abused victim to homicidal maniac too easily with a romance of hate-him-but-can't-help-sleeping-with-him type and next book in series really sounds like I don't want to read (even free from library and even though later books in series sound good).

This reader's personal opinion, ©2012, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

★★½☆☆ = Liked parts; parts only okay—would read more by author.

A quick, engrossing read I am not real sure how to rate or review.  As is the first book of a series, sometimes that's a hard one to review because parts might just be for series setup versus a standalone story.

I downloaded the sample first and stopped after just a few pages to buy the full version. Hooked immediately, mostly the imagery and action and relating to here's-nearly-literally-the-blinddate-from-hell.

PROS:

This reader's personal opinion, ©2012, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

Riveting storytelling start to finish. Enthralled all the way. Worthy successor to Graceling. This is very much Bitterblue's tale and not dependent on reappearance (as delighted as I was to have them back) of favorite characters like Po and Katsa.

This reader's personal opinion, ©2012, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

 A favorite quote:

"Fuck it. Let's blow some shit up." - Shaun Mason

I think I am intensely jealous of readers coming new to the trilogy and able to read without being tortured waiting for the next installment. Then again, an intense series so maybe a strategic pause between volumes not the worst idea.

A downright amazing conclusion to an engrossing trilogy I never thought I would read because it had zombies in it.