Holding Hans is the story of musical prodigy Hans Meyer, and Rune Christopher, a gardener. The story is told in third person from Hans and Rune’s povs.

3.5 Stars



Before I start the story review, I’ll comment on the cover. It’s pretty. The cover model could be Hans even though the clothes he’s wearing aren’t anything like what he wears in the book. Hans is nerdy in the story so this fits the nerd-look. The background gives the spooky feeling to Madame’s house.

Holding Hans is the retelling of ‘Hansel and Gretel’. I’m always amazed at how well this author is at refashioning fairytales. This story is a darker subject matter than her usual ones, which she does warn about, so be sure to take that into account. The topic is always there although not too graphically written, but it was enough to bother me, I could only read about a chapter at a time before setting the book aside to do something else. I’ll put the topic here behind a spoiler if anyone wants to know what it is child sex trafficking/selling children.

This story isn’t so much a romance, as a mystery. There is romance between Hans and Rune, but it isn’t the main topic. There is some sex, mostly in the truck, and the main sex scene at the end is a fade to black. It occurs after the mysteries are solved and after Rune and Hans have fallen in love.

The blurb does a good job of telling what the plot is about so I’ll only rehash it a bit. Hans and Greta, who are twins, are forced to move out of their home when their father marries a woman that raises Hans’ suspicions. The father and step-mother then run off to Europe for their honeymoon. The twins with nowhere to stay, find a mansion far in the woods and are invited to stay by ‘Madame’. Right off the bat Hans is creeped out by her, but Greta, who aspires to become a chemist, is shown Madame’s laboratory and Greta is all for staying. They receive good lodgings and great food. But Madame invites strange people over for dinners. There are other young lodgers at Madame’s mansion and there are hints that other lodgers lived there, but are strangely gone.

I liked the three main characters, Hans, Rune and Greta. Greta is a genius like Hans, but in chemistry. Greta is confident, outspoken and strong willed. She seemed a bit oblivious about everything that happened at Madame’s house until the very end. Hans is extremely shy and insecure, believing he doesn’t have much value. His genius is in music and his value is tutoring music, but once that is taken away, he’s left vulnerable. In steps Rune, and right away it’s very obvious, he’s not just a gardener. He’s undercover for a different investigation, but when he meets Hans he’s pulled into the nefarious events at Madame’s house. Now he’s splitting his time between two suspicious activities. Rune is confident and quickly develops a desire to protect Hans. I also liked seeing Mrs. Delphi in the story again.

As always, this story has a HEA for Hans and Rune, but there’s an issue I had with it. The first is when Hans entered the room he was to stay at while at Madame’s mansion. There was a teddy bear in the room, and Hans later found a t-shirt that fit a teenager. The author never wrote about these two characters being found. The idea of stolen children not found in this book is disturbing for me. On this I can say the story does not have a HEA ending because of this. This plot probably isn’t dark for a lot of people, but it is for me so I didn’t get as much enjoyment because of this topic.

Two other things I wish had been done better, where Rune was in Ever After for one specific investigation, that one was never really delved into. A few bits and pieces were tossed into the plot, but it didn’t do anything except to switch topics from Hans and Greta’s situation. It felt like filler and just made the story longer. Lastly, I wish the ‘8 months later’ epilogue was longer. After the tension of the book, the conclusion could have been drawn out with more happiness. As it was, it seemed rushed. The ending wasn’t satisfying because it was too abrupt.

Overall, I liked the characters. The author did a good job of the retelling of Hansel and Gretel, but I felt it was too long because of the filler of the one investigation that really didn’t do anything for the story, the unresolved situation of the missing children was too dark for me, and the epilogue was rushed. I want to give Holding Hands 3.5 Stars, but since I can’t, I’ll give it 3 Stars.



I received an ARC of this book for an honest and unbiased opinion. ( )