Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
November 5, 2013
323 pages
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Kai and Ginny grew up together–best friends since they could toddle around their building’s rooftop rose garden. Now they’re seventeen, and their relationship has developed into something sweeter, complete with stolen kisses and plans to someday run away together.
But one night, Kai disappears with a mysterious stranger named Mora–a beautiful girl with a dark past and a heart of ice. Refusing to be cast aside, Ginny goes after them and is thrust into a world she never imagined, one filled with monsters and thieves and the idea that love is not enough.
If Ginny and Kai survive the journey, will she still be the girl he loved–and moreover, will she still be the girl who loved him?
Cold Spell, the fourth in Jackson Pearce's Fairytale Retellings series, is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen story, with which I was not previously acquainted. Being more aware of the tales being retold in the previous Fairytale Retellings novels gave me at least some idea as to the progression of the story. (Even if I was more familiar with one's Disney version than the real story.)
I really liked not starting the novel knowing how - even generally - the story would progress.
Kai and Ginny have been close for years, since they met as children. Their ending up together romantically, their happily ever after, is a foregone conclusion to the both of them. Kai has the talent and Ginny has Kai.
Until Mora, the beautiful stranger who appeared out of nowhere, offering help when it was most needed, threatens to end it all.
When Ginny refuses to give up on Kai, she discovers a whole new world. One she had heard of, but always assumed was fiction.
Kai and Ginny were interesting in the beginning of the novel. They had plans to run away together, to escape to a better life. Only, they were pretty one sided plans: Kai would have a life and a plan, Ginny would have him and maybe not much else. Ginny didn't seem to have her own goals, her own drive, or an idea of who she really was.
If anything could change that it would be potentially losing Kai and all that she encountered whilst trying to save him.
Her transformation - from a character that almost annoyed me to who she was at the end - was fantastic. It was gradual and fit with the events of the story. Even better, there was some second guessing from Ginny: Did she really want to push herself?
All of the Fairytale Retellings overlap with each other in some way, known characters appearing in the new story. I was not, at first, sure how that would happen in Cold Spell but when I found out, I loved it. It's a great choice of blending the story we already know (from Sisters Red, Sweetly, and Fathomless) with the new tale.
The characters, especially those six or so most central to the plot, are easily my favorite part of the story. I really enjoyed the way that they blended both their past and the series' past together to create the foundation for some amazing characters. Two, in particular, I really hope end up in some other story, Fairytale Retellngs or no, in the future.
Cold Spell was a fun way to discover the Snow Queen fairy tale and Ginny was a great character to follow through it.
Rating: 8/10
thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy to review
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