Burnt Sugar is the first in the Never Afters Series by Kirstyn McDermott, and published by Brain Jar Press (QLD, Australia).

I’ve been a long-term fan of Kirstyn’s dark revisioned fairytales. Burnt Sugar is up there with the best. Told from the point of view of a very much older Gretel, both she and her brother Hansel carry scars from their early childhood abandonment, near death at the hands of the witch and subsequent escape. But everything isn’t as it seems. There are secrets still unanswered and a book of magic that promises old nightmares and deadly temptations. The prose is lovely and evocative, and the story grabbed me from beginning to unpredictable end.

I will definitely invest in the rest of the series.

Feature Image: Gingerbread house by Theo Crazzolara