A Court of Sugar and Spice

A Nutcracker Retelling (Wicked Darlings, Book 1)

By: Rebecca F. Kenney

Narrated by: Jessica Jeffries

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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.

So cute!

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

One of My New Favorites!

I'm so glad they have this on audio now! I started reading Rebecca Kenny's books with her "For The Love of a Villian" series (which aren't on audible yet) and every book I've picked up from her after I've loved! You don't see alot of Nutcracker retellings, and I love how it was updated for a more mature audience. My only complaint was that the narrator sounded almost identical in both POV so it was hard to tell at times which sister was speaking. I can't wait to listen to the rest of the series!

🌶️🌶️🌶️

When I say that I loved this book five out five the spice was there and the plot was there the author did her thing I laughed so much listening to this audio. Both FMC and MMC were great you learn about them and how two sisters thought them love and you even cheered for the villain the uncle in the end when he came in and saved his niece i hopes he gets a book one day. The main reason why I decided to listen to this audio was because I was on TikTok and saw all the drama surrounding this book and decided that I’m going to listen to and not let anyone tell me what it was about and I’m glad I did.

Engaging story

I had a great time with this steamy re-tale. The prince attitude towards one of the main characters was awful (don’t want to spoil the plot), making him my least favorite…. Sugar Plum Faerie, on the other hand, is my new book boyfriend
The narration was great but it would be much better if they were multiple narrators.

I Tried To Love It

I finished this book simply because I had already gone too far to quit and because I had nothing else to listen to at the moment. The basis of the story was great but it was clouded by the constant spicy scenes.. I love spice but it almost seemed that the spicy scenes took over and left no room for a good story. It had potential to be wonderful but the story felt rushed and there was not enough development to really fall in love with the story itself. If you want constant spice this is for you but if you need more and want a good story then this may not be for you.

Sugar and SPICE

This book made me smile and blush. It’s quick paced which I like. The ending wraps up quickly. I’m glad it was a stand alone and it concluded. The spicy scenes were written well. I need to look up fan art because I want to see how icky that rat king looked lol I adore both sisters. And I wouldn’t mind having a sugar plum

finished in a day!

I truly enjoyed this book. There was a story/plot in addition to spicy scenes. A few times I did feel things that were said were unnecessary- like trying to throw in sexual tones/remarks where there didn't need to be.

Amazing

I love this book, it has that quality that sucks you into the world and you don’t want it to end. The only downside of the audio is both POV are female, done by the same narrator, so it’s very hard to tell the difference if you don’t catch the chapter switch. Overall a 5/5 book for me, the world feels like if Narnia and Wonderland had a baby, and filled it with beautifully dangerous fae. It’s fantastical, dark, and spicy. What more can you want?

The Nutcracker, but make it fae…

I devoured this tasty treat. The way RFK deconstructs a fairy tale to make it something else entirely… 🤌✨ I appreciate her creativity, and the characters in this series are some of Kenney’s best.

Two Words: Sugarplum Faerie
😎🤏😳🕶️🤏😮‍💨

┍━━━━━━━ ❝ ━━━━━━━┑
“Nowadays, people call me Sugarplum because I have the same delightful quality as these fruits.”

“You—you mean your personality?”

“No.” His lashes lower, hooding his eyes. “I’m not talking about my personality.
┕━━━━━━━ ❞ ━━━━━━━┙


I love the touch-him-and-die vibes. These girls are no damsels. That scene with the whip!!


PLOT: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
CHARACTERS: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️/5
SPICE: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5


🎙️ The audiobook is AMAZING! Jessica Jeffries elevated the reading experience! 👏
🎧 Recommended Listening Speed: 1.7+


𝓐 𝓽𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓮…
┍━━━━━━━ ❝ ━━━━━━━┑
“Trust me, I won’t use your sister unless she wants to be used. In which case I will use her most enthusiastically.”

I think I shall have to keep you here, with me.”
“Keep me? For how long?”
“Maybe forever.”

I think my heart is wet for him.
┕━━━━━━━ ❞ ━━━━━━━┙


My RFK Book Ranking:
┍━━━━━━━☟━━━━━━━┑
1. The Sea Witch
2. A Court of Sugar and Spice
3. A Court of Hearts and Hunger
4. A City of Emeralds and Envy
5. A Hunt so Wild and Cruel
6. Jailer to the Death God
7. Healer to the Ash King
8. The Maleficent Faerie