Black Forest Burning

The Black Forest Duology #2

by Lorelei Gray

The end of the story.

After narrowly escaping the castle, Sadie, Jenny, and their remaining friends venture into the Black Forest in search of Jenny’s boyfriend, Ryan, and his twin sister, Rain. Only one person who has entered the forest has ever returned: Katrin Eckert, the unnerving German woman who kidnapped their friends. Armed with stolen knives, a statue-turned-wolf, and copies of Grimms’ Fairy Tales, they will have to fight through the forest to save their friends—and themselves.

But one of them is hiding something. Something that threatens to tear the group apart and trap them in the Black Forest forever.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror

371 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 14, 2023

About the author

Lorelei Gray is the author of the Black Forest Duology (Black Forest Bound and Black Forest Burning) and the Forgotten Legends series. She holds a BA in English and has worked for literary magazines, newspapers, and book publishers.

She lives in Seattle, WA.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big thanks to YABC for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

What goes down in the forest, stays in the forest. So long as you manage to escape it.

Black Forest Burning, the sequel to Black Forest Bound, by Lorelei Gray is YA fantasy novel that follows the events of its former title. Following their escape from the castle, Jenny and Sadie (and their many friends) slip into the confines of the Black Forest with the full intention of finding Ryan and Rain. But the only person to have survive the Black Forest, is the very same person who kidnapped them in the first place. Armed with secrets, an armada of fairy tales, and knives, Jenny and Sadie set off to find their friends before its too late.

This book. I sincerely wish I had this book directly after reading Black Forest Bound, because it answers so many questions and would have kept my spinning mind occupied. All whilst promptly tearing my heart out. I absolutely LOVED this book and would easily consider it to be the obvious favorite of the two.

Though I once again, found myself slogging through the numerous characters and names, to the point that somewhere just starting to smash into one giant chimera of a character. Though this time around, I did find that I liked Jenny a bit more. And I am very satisfied with the ending Gray gave us, and I leave it at that to save all the spoilers.

Also, my heart is very much full with the mention of Rumpelstiltskin. For not only with it being my favorite fairy tale, but because I may or may not have a YA Rumpelstiltskin retelling in the works.

And now I will (not so) patiently await Gray's next novel, Secrets and Scorpions.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it better than the first

I dont say this often, but I actually enjoyed this book better than the first one. Once again I enjoyed all the fairy tales used and I like that they weren't all well known ones. I enjoyed seeing Jenny, Aiden, and Rain go through the rooms quickly and getting a glimpse of what some of the other stories might have been.

I felt way more excited and engaged in this book compared to the first one and I liked that the ending wasn't a full on happy ending for everyone. I like that we got to hear where everyone was and what they were doing a year after the incident.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and would definitely suggest this series to people

[Tanya Dreke · Rating 3 out of 5]

complimentary digital copy

Thank you to Goodreads for the digital copy I received through their giveaways. Not usually my genre but I did enjoy it.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a bit more muddled than the first, but still intriguing!