Title: Stealing Snow
Author: Danielle Paige
Release Date: 20 September 2016
Page Amount: 375 pages
GoodReads
Blurb:
From Danielle Paige, the New York Times bestselling author of Dorothy Must Die, comes a re-imagining of "The Snow Queen" fairy tale.
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.
Review:
I really want to like every book I read, but that just doesn't happen. This was one of those books. I also really wanted to like it (or love it) because it says it is a retelling of "The Snow Queen", which is my favorite fairytale.
I think there were cliches of mental illness in here, for sure. I felt like Snow was too immature for me, and it read a bit too young for me, Snow seemed to get control of her powers far too quickly, and she did not seem to question much, either, And of course, there is the love quandrangle. Which was too much for me. I also did not recognize much of "The Snow Queen" in here. There was a little bit, maybe, but not much. And there was some parts that could have been interesting, but just did not get there for me. I did like Gird, though.
One thing that does frustrate me about some of the reviews I saw is that they saw it was not like "Snow White" or that they didn't realize it was based on "The Snow Queen". I may not have liked the book, but the blurb does clearly say it is a retelling of "The Snow Queen", even if I feel it barely is. (I checked the online blurb and it was right on the flap of the hardcover. I don't know about the paperback, or if there was a paperback edition. Maybe some did not say it? I don't know...)
Unfortunately, this was not for me at all.
2 quills