A Court of Sugar and Spice

A Nutcracker Retelling (Wicked Darlings, Book 1)

By: Rebecca F. Kenney

Narrated by: Jessica Jeffries

With their inheritance restricted until their marriage, sisters Clara and Louisa, both in their twenties, must live with their godfather Drosselmeyer. One night, an accident brings to life one of the strange wooden dolls in Drosselmeyer's mansion. The Nutcracker doll is a cursed Fae prince, and he pleads for the sisters' help. During the ensuing journey into the Fae realm, Clara encounters the handsome Sugarplum Faerie, and he promises her the chance to enact all her forbidden fantasies. Meanwhile Louisa and the Nutcracker Prince battle and bicker over everything, despite the growing attraction between them. And to make matters worse, the entire Seelie kingdom is under threat of conquest by the Rat King, ruler of the Dread Court. Contains mature themes. Trigger and content warnings are available on the author's website.©2022 Rebecca F. Kenney (P)2023 Tantor

The plot was fighting for its life

First things first, this is not a serious book with big meaning and a thick plot. In fact, there was maybe 10% of plot during the first 1/2 of this story. I almost dnf’d multiple times. It helped to take a break and come back with the new perspective that this wasn’t a great book, but it’s good for holiday fun. When I continued with the mindset that this was just for fun and giggles I started to enjoy it. The last 30% or so actually got really good and had some awesome storyline and action.

This was a really fun reimagining of the nutcracker story. It’s probably 4/5 spicy for descriptive, breathy narration. Yes, the narrator makes the voice influxes and gasps, and moans. If that’s not your thing, you will hate listening to this.

So cute!

This is such a cute and fun holiday read. I laughed out loud multiple times.

Love love love

i absolutely love this book. I absolutely love Fin. ughhh so much. like it's ridiculous

Hard to Love but found some likeable moments

NARRATION
Jessica Jeffries is a wonderful storyteller. It kept me in the story and had me listening tentatively. The only complaint that I have is that she doesn't change her inflection between the sister BUT luckily, she changes her inflection for the princes.

STORY
This story was really good and had a nice plot that kept me interested. But it reminds me of the type of story of someone who is just learning about s*x with a retelling story. The main reason that I kept reading this story is because of Clara and Fin; their lust, love, and understanding of each other was chef's kiss.

Clara
I love this character and I loved how real she was. This character made me feel like this was the authors favorite character as well lol She put so much into her character and into her romance. Clara and Fin have the most amazing relationship when it came to his care for her and her care for him. The pieces that they love of each other plus their primal play was chef's kiss.

Louisa
She was honestly an annoying character, she always had one thing on the mind. She also was so cruel with her sister even when her sister was just fine being in her shadow. Her relationship with Lir was also not the greatest of romances which made their "love" seem impossible but in evitable.

Such a good retelling

Really liked this retelling of the nutcracker. There’s spice and and of course Finn. If you want a fantasy spicy filled Christmas classic read this!