Urban fantasy at its best. Anouk is intensely loyal to the witch who made her into a beastie, but the others who have been similarly transformed, have markedly different feelings about their situation. She has never been allowed outside the house in Paris, that is until the witch is murdered and those who she changed have only three days to find another witch before reverting to whatever animal they were. Luc, the oldest of them has vanished, leaving the others to flee in hopes of finding a someone to renew their 'human' forms. Instead, they find treachery, threats, an odd alliance with goblins,
and some very scary battles. All of this is written to give readers a fast-paced tale that continues in a second book. Plenty here for those with active imaginations to savor. ( )

I won an arc of Grim Lovelies in a Good Reads give away. The setting (Paris) and the concept interested me and I am glad to say I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the character of Anouk, although at times she could be rash. I loved the descriptions of Paris, the countryside, the gardens, etc. ( )

Picked this up at the library because it sounded intriguing. I sometimes avoid YA cos I am well past that age range but there are some really fascinating YA books out there. This is one of them. I loved the concept of the beasties and the world building was well-done. I really felt for the beasties. ( )

On the surface, Megan Shepherd is an author whose books I should love. Unfortunately, Grim Lovelies is another one she wrote that did not click with me. For one thing, I found the voice too young for my taste. The entire story reads more like middle grade versus young adult. Plus, the plot is a bit of a muddle and not well-explained until it is much too late. I found the entire experience rather boring but thankfully an easy and quick read. This is one series I will not be continuing. ( )

This review is posted on both my personal account and the account for Crossroads Public Library.

Actual Rating: 3.25

We'll start with the good first to maybe sweeten the bitter that's about to follow. I thought the world building was interesting - I love a magic system with rules, and the kickback on witches when they cast the more 'curse' type spells was a nice touch. The idea of this secret magical society that rules and shapes the non-magical citizens of earth was interesting. There were some gruesome and brutal parts that felt like they were a part of a fairy tale - the real ones, not the Disney ones. There were a lot of aspects of books that were great, and maybe just needed a little fleshing out.

The bad: I was not even remotely interested in Anouk or Beau. And they're who we deal with the most. I just told one of my coworkers I wanted to read the sequel but only to find out what happens to everyone else. And I just had a lot of questions about the way Anouk handled some of the situations and her reactions that I probably shouldn't ask because they're spoiler-y. (And maybe it's because she's only been human for a year, but that seems like more of an excuse than any sort of actual character development.) One of my favorite characters died. One of my other favorite characters is probably dead. Usually, that won't affect my rating but...when you kill off the only two characters that I find interesting, it's kind of hard to let it go.

All in all: it wasn't my least favorite thing that I've read.

-Kelli ( )