Bryony and Roses is T. Kingfisher's take on Beauty and the Beast and is a twist on it that seems to work better for most folks than the usual Stockholm Syndrome treatment of it. In this version, Bryony and her sisters are attempting to make a life for themselves in their little cottage after their merchant father lost everything. While lost in a storm, Bryony is trapped into caring for the garden at a strange and possibly haunted manor house.

This is probably my least favorite of T. Kingfisher's fairytale retellings and while I certainly don't dislike it, it was just fine for me. As Bryony is a gardener, it's very much focused on those skills and plants, which just isn't a topic that interests me very much. It still has the usual Kingfisher humor and relatable characters and I did appreciate that Bryony is not a perfect character and makes mistakes.

Beyond just not being a plant person, the pacing is also a little shakier in this one than other stories. Or maybe I just noticed more because I wasn't invested in the plant details. Either way, it felt almost cozy and slow paced for the vast majority of the story and then everything happens all at once at the end in a way that felt very rushed to me.

Overall, if you enjoy Kingfisher's humor and characters, I think you'll still enjoy this one. You'll probably like it more if you are more into gardening than I am but it's fun regardless. I just wouldn't put it as one of my favorites from her.