rating:4 stars

leigh's writing never fails to enchant me. the depth in these stories are beautiful, its really a great bind up, but maybe it was that i started to lose interest that i found the last couple stories to be worse than the first few.

individual stories:
ayama and the thorn wood // 4 stars
—plot twist? great. romance? uh... it's a no from me
the too clever fox // 4.5 stars
—nikolai lantsov. nikolai. that's it. that's all i need to say.
the witch of duva // 4. 5 stars
—thank god this didn't end up like the actual story of hansel and gretal because god i was so worried
little knife // 3.5 stars
—the message is cute and all but the plot was boring as hell
the soldier prince // 3 stars
—the message was not clear in this one. at all. my braincells couldn't figure it out until i read the author's note oops
when water sang fire // 4 stars
—the longest story yet but i still didn't love it, guess it goes to show that quality over quantity