A Mirror Mended

The second fantasy novella in the Fractured Fables series.

Zinnia Gray grew up as the Dying Girl: she was born with an illness that will kill her on her 21st birthday. But on her birthday, she was yanked into a fairy tale, the Sleeping Beauty. Five years later, Zinnia is still alive and she has saved forty-nine Sleeping Beauties from their fates. However, she's getting tired of seeing others' Happy Ever Afters, when she can't get her own. When she stays too long in one universe, her illness tries to kill her again. Also, her best friend, Charm, is now happily married and Zinnia can't face her, either. So, she jumps from one universe to the other.

But this time, when she looks into a mirror, ready to jump again, the face that looks back isn't her own. That beautiful evil woman pulls Zinnia into her story. For the evil woman is Snow White's Evil Queen and she will do anything to prevent her fate. The Evil Queen imprisons Zinnia and then asks for help. Zinnia is intrigued, against her better judgment.

This was a great continuation of the first novella, "A Spindle Splintered". However, Harrow doesn't give much background information so you should read the first novella first. This story has many of the elements I loved in the first novella: the humor, the snarky dialog, and the twisted fairy tales. This time we get Snow White and I really enjoyed the different spins on it.

However, I didn't see why Zinnia and Charm fell out. That felt forced.

Otherwise, I enjoyed this story almost as much as the first one.