Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent the majority of her life within the walls of the Whittaker Institute, a high security mental hospital in upstate New York. Deep down, she knows she's not crazy and doesn't belong there. When she meets a mysterious, handsome new orderly and dreams about a strange twisted tree she realizes she must escape and figure out who she really is.
Using her trusting friend Bale as a distraction, Snow breaks free and races into the nearby woods. Suddenly, everything isn't what it seems, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur, and she finds herself in icy Algid--her true home--with witches, thieves, and a strangely alluring boy named Kai, none of whom she's sure she can trust. As secret after secret is revealed, Snow discovers that she is on the run from a royal lineage she's destined to inherit, a father more powerful and ruthless than she could have imagined, and choices of the heart that could change the fate of everything...including Snow's return to the world she once knew.
This breathtaking first volume begins the story of how Snow becomes a villain, a queen, and ultimately a hero.
I received this ARC while attending BEA earlier this year, I was in no way compensated for this review.
Danielle Paige, author of the incredible
Dorothy Must Die series brings us a new fairy tale completely retold! And I’m of course talking about
The Snow Queen! Outside of Frozen, not many people probably
remember this tale from Hans Christian Andersen. The Snow Queen was
actually the villain of the story, if you didn’t already know. As it is,
I can only remember
reading a short version, so I’m going to have to read the full version
soon! Thankfully, I have that in my ever growing TBR pile! But anyway,
Stealing Snow is what you might call a modern day origin story to
The Snow Queen! Yeah, it’s that twisted! For we kind of already
know this is our origin story for the Snow Queen herself, but I wasn’t
at all expecting the modern twist! But I do want to say, that the
“modernity” isn’t
really all the present for the story. But I’ll get to that in a moment!
Snow
has spent most of her life growing up in Whittaker Psychiatry. When she
was a little girl, she tried to go through a mirror, like in Alice in
Wonderland and ended up getting
herself and her friend all cut up. Now she’s in a hospital where
everything is decided for her. But somehow, she’s managed to find love
with Bale, another disturbed teen. Though they were both young when they
were admitted and we friends ever since. When they
share their first kiss, Bale kind of snaps and hurts Snow, but she
doesn’t take offense really. If any, she thinks she did something wrong.
Then one night she sees Bale vanish as a pair of arms drags him through
the mirror and from that moment on, the adventure
truly begins!
It’s
not long before Snow ventures through a magical tree to come into the
magical world known as Algid. She’s determined to find Bale and go back
home. For this world is ruled
by a powerful and evil king who has ice wielding abilities.
The fact that Snow has these powers too, is not all that surprising, since it’s said that she’s his daughter.
Soon
begins an exciting tale with an assortment of characters that were all
very enticing! Snow goes from meeting a River Witch who can help her
harness her powers to a group
of Robbers who want Snow’s help in stealing pieces of a broken mirror
that just might be the key to defeating the king. The pacing was pretty
fast which is normally a good thing, but the times when I had to put the
book down for other things involving life
and when I would return once again to the pages, I found it hard to get
caught back up because there was always so much happening! So many of
the characters had their own agenda, which is to be expected. But other
than a few bouts of disorientation, I found
the story to be incredible!
Though
I had only read a condensed version of the original tale, I felt like I
could see the threads of it shining through some of the finer moments
of the story! I’m really
anxious to get around to reading the full version now! But from the
little bits that I can recall from the shortened version, I feel like I
was seeing it through this retelling! Not to mention the fact that Snow
was venturing into a different world to rescue
her friend! I love when retellings hold so much of the original within
the story! And the way those details are woven into the new story is
always so amazing! It’s like finding Easter eggs!
Romance
plays a small role into the story as well! Note the small! While Snow
loves her friend Bale, there seems like there could be two more
contenders for her heart! This
definitely makes for a love complication, but it’s hard to see where
things might go since she still loves Bale! The coming installments of
this series will definitely be making things interesting in that area!
The
ending was pretty epic! Just when Danielle finishes throwing us one
curve ball, she winds up for a few more! Danielle really keeps readers
on their toes with this one!
I can’t wait to see where this series will go until its epic end!
Because you know it’s going to be an epic ending!
Stealing Snow
will positively steal your breath away with all its many twists and
turns! It’s one fantastical kind of read that must be had by all fans of
fairy tales and retellings!
Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars
Yes, the ending was awesome! I also loved this book, and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel! Amazing review, thank you for sharing ^_^
ReplyDeleteBrittany @ Brittany's Book Rambles
Um.... so I thought this was a Snow White retelling. Whoops! I have to admit, I'm intrigued now even though I wasn't really interested in this before. I heard it had an awful love triangle but maybe not? I may have to check out this audiobook! Great review :D
ReplyDeleteTracy @ Cornerfolds