A Sweet, Bitter Poison

The Women's War #0.5

by Jenna Glass

This is the story of the fateful marriage of Brynna Rah-Malrye and King Aaltyn of Aaltah, without which none of the events in The Women’s War could have taken place.

The story stands alone and can be read either before or after reading The Women’s War. However, you will understand the significance of the events—and the consequences they will have much later on—if you’ve read The Women’s War first.

This story is free, and not available for purchase anywhere.

https://www.jennaglass.com/sweet-bitt...

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction

59 pages, ebook

First published April 24, 2020

About the author

Jenna Glass wrote her first book—an “autobiography”—when she was in the fifth grade. She began writing in earnest while in college and proceeded to collect a dizzying array of rejections for her first seventeen novels. Nevertheless, she persisted, and her eighteenth novel became her first commercial sale. Within a few years, Glass became a full-time writer and has never looked back. She has published more than twenty novels under various names. The Women’s War marks her first foray into epic fantasy.

Reviews

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Sweet, Bitter Poison is the novella within the Women's War series. In this, we get a glimpse of what really happened to a certain marriage before the first book. It was really cute to see Brynna and Aaltyn falling in love.

At first, he didn't really care that she wasn't producing a male heir. He just kept saying it wasn't their time yet and that it will eventually happen. I'm sure he was just having fun with the whole process of creating a baby.

Besides the romance, we do get some drama and talks of potential war lurking around. Then there's the vision of a divorce so that a new marriage could quiet the talks and threats of war. Of course, Aaltyn wants nothing to do with it because he actually loves his wife. Then the unthinkable happens and his hands were forced.

In the end, this was definitely eye opening and I kind of wished I read this before I dove into the first book. It also got me even more excited to jump into the sequel.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved that I finally found out why Brynna was sent to the Abby in the first place. A beautiful prequel and well worth a full novel in my opinion.

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of me really admires Brynna, for living her life and knowing what she did from the visions. In the end she made a tough decision, one that changed the course of her life and put her in a terrible place, yet she accepted it with grace. Not sure that I would have done the same in her situation.

[Lizzy B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent backstory for Brynna! I disagreed with some character choices, but otherwise it was well-written and packed so much into just a few pages. I love this author's writing of good men in a world where there are so few

[Sherry Partington · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first ever novella to review. I really wish that I had read this 1st as it does add a bit of clarity to The Women's War.
I hope at some time in the future, Jenna Glass gives us a fuller story on Brynna so as to really fill in that timeline gap. I really want to know MORE!!!

[Tracie Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is technically an online prequel from Brynna’s point of view. It’s more of a Brynna backstory. I loved Brynna from the beginning. This story made me love her even more.

[Aimée · Rating 4 out of 5]

stunning preface!

[Martine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bittersweet indeed.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great backstory to the Women's War series.

[RH · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic prequel to the Women's War series. It's really nice to get a little history to the stories, and to a couple of the main characters.

[Rohan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great companion. You can read it before or after the series it doesn't matter. It shows us the road to the inciting incident.