Kin by Lili St. Crow

Kin by Lili St. Crow  308 pages

Full moon. Glowing eyes. Red lips. And such sharp, sharp teeth...

In the kin world, girls Ruby de Varre's age are expected to play nice, get betrothed, and start a family - especially if they're rootkin, and the fate of the clan is riding on them. But after a childhood of running wild in the woods, it's hard to turn completely around and be demure. Even if your Gran is expecting it.

Then Conrad, handsome and charming, from a clan across the Waste, comes to New Haven to seal alliance between their two families. The sparks fly immediately. Conrad is smart, dominant, and downright gorgeous. Yet as Ruby gets to know him more, she starts to realize something's...off.

Then, the murders start. A killer stalks the city streets, and just when Ruby starts to suspect the unimaginable, she becomes the next target. Now Ruby's about to find out that Conrad's secrets go deeper than she ever could have guessed - and it's up to Ruby to save her Gran, her clan, and maybe even herself....

Wayfarer: A Tale of Beauty and Madness by Lili St. Crow

Wayfarer by Lili St. Crow - 348 pages
A Tale of Beauty and Madness - 2

Ellie's life is horrible since her father died.  Her mother makes her wrong non-stop at home charming shoes to be sold in her business.  The littlest thing will set her stepmother off leading to severe beatings.  Things only get worse when her stepmother's sister comes to live with them, a local boy returns home from boarding school, and her friends try to save her.  But not one can save Ellie . . . except maybe Auntie, the nice old lady who lives near school and teaches Ellie about charming.
This is the second fairy tale retelling by Lili St. Crow after Nameless, her retelling of Sleeping Beauty.  This book retells Cinderella.  I also got a few hints of Hansel and Gretel in the mix.  Overall I enjoyed this book.  The one thing that bothered me was the "wimpyness" of the main character Ellie.  I know it was realistic in the portrayal of abused children being too afraid to get help, but it got very annoying after a while.

Wayfarer by Lili St. Crow

Wayfarer by Lili St. Crow  348 pages

Ellie Sinder is a Charmer—the most powerful of her age that St. Juno's Academy has ever seen. But Ellie's stepmother, Laurissa, wields manipulation and abuse to force Ellie to work her spells ever more intensely, for Laurissa's profit.
Then a train from over the Wastelands arrives in New Haven, bearing on it golden boy Avery Fletcher, newly returned from prep school, wearing a sweater Ellie'd love to bury her face in and a smile as bright as his blond hair. Avery's arrival sets Laurissa off on a dark and dangerous scheme—and this time the soul up for grabs is Ellie's.