The Better to See You

by Kate SeRine

[Berls]

I didn't hesitate for even a minute when I saw the chance to read and review The Better To See You for this blog tour. After reading and LOVING Red last month, I was excited. Not only was I not disappointed, I was pleasantly surprised. I would say I like it MORE but Red was already five stars so... yeah. But it's a five star read for sure.

Note: Spoilers ahead for Red if you haven't read it yet. While this COULD be read out of order/standalone I really don't recommend it, you'll miss too much of the way the story builds upon itself.

Where to start? I guess I'll go with the characters. We met them both in Red. We've got Seth Wolf - the big bad wolf that Tess "Red" Little had loved once upon a time. I was so excited to get more of his story, as where things ended for him in Red, I was sad for him and felt Red's anguish for him. Learning his full story was so exciting and also seeing him finding a slice of happiness was rewarding.

Then there's Lavender, also known as Cinderella's Fairy Godmother. If you have images of a sweet old grandmotherly type singing "bibbidi bobbidi boo" - banish that image immediately. Not only is Lavender the fairy responsible for casting the Tales into the Here and Now (aka, our Ordinary world) but she's basically the most bad-ass, powerful fairy around. Well, she was before she colossal effed up (see the aforementioned casting into the Here and Now). Now she's a fairy without her wings and some misbehaving, erratic magic. When we met her in Red she was a drunk, drowning her sorrows and mistakes in a bottle, unhappily living with Cindy and her prince.

I have to admit, I wasn't super excited about Lavender initially. I was sad that I wasn't going to continue to get the story for Red's POV (don't worry, we do still get a continuation of her & Nate's story!) and didn't know that I would really love her the same. But within the first chapter I was disabused of that notion. Y'all she's so loveable! And if you like a character that grows - here you go! A lot of her growth has happened already but you're getting to see it in the rearview which is also pretty great. And she's really quite a badass.

Also the romance! Like I said, get rid of that "bibbidi bobbidi boo" fairy godmother notion or some of these scenes between Lavendar will be a bit disturbing. For me, that image was gone and instead they had me blushing. *fans self* they are an electric couple. Unlike Red and Nate who spent so much of their book fighting their attraction, these two are on fire pretty quick.

Last - but certainly not least - the plot/mystery. I found myself wishing I was buddy reading this (as I do frequently) because I was DYING to talk to someone about my guesses. Kate SeRine did an amazing job keeping me guessing. I had so many culprits at one point - sure I guessed the right one, but when you have THAT MANY people your considering, you'd be a really bad guesser to still be wrong. So many really good misdirections mixed in with the absolute correct info, I was on my toes the entire time.

Really looking forward to the next book!