A folklore-inspired mishmash built on the association between the oft-acknowledged etymological link between 'grammar' and 'glamour'. I've seen this done so often before that I was worried El-Mohtar would be heavy-handed, but she has a deft touch with a theme, her exploration has some lovely touches. The idea of magic being measured in 'grams' was cute; and the use of 'conjugation' to refer to spellcasting, because to conjugate means to change -- verbs, people, the possibilities of the past/present/future of the world -- was inspired.  The folktales that were woven together into this story were all familiar to me, but they are less commonly used than the ones that make me groan and roll my eyes at yet another damn fairy-tale retelling; and I've always loved the one about the woman whose body is turned into a harp (which I've only ever seen done before by Juliet Marillier in Wolfskin). Also, my own mother used to sing to me I Gave My Love a Cherry, which is very rarely mentioned elsewhere, so I was thrilled to see it here. It has slightly different words from my mother's version, but the interpretation weaves back into the idea of conjugation beautifully. Overalll, this was an elegant book that also spoke to my own childhood associations with folktales, and my own aesthetic values about fantasy narrative, and so worked particularly well for me.