**An ARC of this book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

(First Netgalley ARC approval!! And in only 2 days of being a member! Granted this is only a little over a week from publication, but still. Excuse me while I revel in awe and wonder.)

As far as I can recall, for all my love of fairytale retellings, I'd never before read a re-telling of The Brave Tailor. I don't think there's that many out there, to be honest, but in any case, I was excited to read Valiant. I wasn't hooked immediately, and it did take me until probably near page 50, or whenever Saville took Will in, to be really invested in Saville and her story. Of course, not long after, the giants show up, not to mention a certain fine-coated young man appears once again, and things get really interesting. (That whole scene though, all I could imagine was Mickey Mouse wringing water from cheese. Anyone else remember the Disney version of The Brave Tailor?) From then on out, it was really a lot of fun. The characters are vivid and written so believably. The relationships, all of them, are on point. The friendships and the romance are wonderfully written and had me internally cheering for quite a few of them.

My one complaint would be that I thought maybe the villain could have been a little more fleshed out, but it's a pretty minor quibble.

I'm hoping McGuire is planning on writing more books - maybe more fairytale retellings?