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reviewed Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow (Fractured Fables, #2)

Alix E. Harrow: Mirror Mended (2022, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 3 stars

A Mirror Mended is the next installment in USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow's …

A Mirror Mended

3 stars

This is a sequel to A Spindle Splintered, about Zinnia Grey, multiverse fairytale hopper; she's been going through the multiverse saving other Sleeping Beauties, but gets sucked into a Snow White tale this time; she's forcibly enlisted to help the villainous queen and gets a lesson in learning that not everything is about her own tale.

Overall, I thought this was just ok. Something about the writing didn't work for me; part of it is that it was just a touch too silly for my tastes; I really enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which had some bits of similar tone (such as silly academic title parodies), but this went a little far in a number of ways (see yikes quote, as a jarring but funny example). I also feel like Zinnia backslid on character and relationship growth from the first book and went back to running away from her problems.

I usually don't care for a villains-to-lovers style romance, but this villain gets some good backstory and character development, and honestly her character is the strongest part of the story. It's a nice touch that her overarching goal is really just to scratch out some agency in a world that is unwilling to give that to her.