Stealing Snow #1
YA Fantasy Retelling
Bloomsbury Childrens
September 28, 2016
E ARC
304
NetGalley
Although this book was received for review it doesn't effect my star rating or views of it in any way
Read from September 09 to October 17, 2016
Snow, Queen MArgot, Jagger, Bale, Gede, Kai, The River Witch,
Whittaker Institute, Secure Mental Hospital Upstate New York; Algid
Seventeen-year-old Snow lives within the walls of the Whittaker Institute, a high security mental hospital in upstate New York. Deep down, she knows she doesn't belong there, but she has no memory of life outside, except for the strangest dreams. And then a mysterious, handsome man, an orderly in the hospital, opens a door - and Snow knows that she has to leave .She finds herself in icy Algid, her true home, with witches, thieves, and a strangely alluring boy named Kai. 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 everything. Heroine or villain, queen or broken girl, frozen heart or true love, Snow must choose her fate .A wonderfully icy fantastical romance, with a strong heroine choosing her own destiny, Danielle Paige's irresistibly page-turning Snow Queen is like Maleficent and Frozen all grown up.
This is the first book of Danielle’s that I have read all the way through although currently, I am about a third of the way through Dorothy must Die which I am enjoying. I enjoyed this book from cover to cover and loved Snow she was a great Protagonist.
The book told the story of Seventeen-year-old Snow, who suddenly finds herself in another world called Algid where is not only a Princess in the world’s royal family but also controls snow after spending all her life in the high-security asylum called Whitaker in Upstate New York.
This is a retelling of the Snow Queen Story which Frozen I based on as well but as I have never read the story so I have nothing to compare it against but I intend to read it now though.
All the characters were written in a way that they were multi-faceted enough to be believable and easy to connect with whether I liked or disliked them. While being developed enough that you were able to get to know them while there still being enough room for them develop further in future books as this is the first book in a new series. It was interesting how Snow believed she was in love with Bale her friend from Whitaker but was she really or was it just the effects of the cocktail of drugs she was on. This was evident when she met Jagger and Kai the two boys she meets and falls for once she’s in Algiid. Bale was an interesting character because although he was portrayed as a drugged up arsonist you can already see that there is going to be more to him from what you see of him once he’s in Algid and I can’t wait to see how he develops in the other books. Jagger and Kai are really interesting characters who are some of the characters that have got the most room for development in the other books in the series. I feel that Jagger is the one to look out for most of all out of both of them not least because he’s one of the robbers. It’ll be interesting to see how Jagger and Snows Romance develops or whether her romance with Kai develops any further.
Kai and Gerdes relationship was really interesting as they considered each other as Brother and Sister but there was very clearly a far deeper relationship between them and it was revealed in the book.
I really disliked Snows parents as people because of the fact that they’d allowed her spend most of her life in an asylum believing she was insane when in fact she wasn’t, then once they were all reunited in Algid were obviously using her for their own purposes due to the prophecy.
The way Danielle wrote about the two worlds “the assylum” and “Algid” was really well done as it drew you in while opening your eyes to what life is like in both worlds. You were drawn into the story through this because of the descriptions given also when it came to life in the asylum the fact that I opened your eyes to what life is like in one especially a high secure one. I loved the fact that the portal between this world and Algid was an old tree with strange symbols carved into it as well as the fact there was such a variety of terrains in Algid.
This was a solid start to what I am sure will be a great series and I cannot wait for the next book. I will read it again but I will do so in audio book format because I am sure it will be a far more immersive sexperience that in book format. This is a book that I would both recommend to anyone or buy for any one I know who enjoys YA Fantasy with a retelling/romance element to it.
Disclaimer: I would like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this book for review purposes but I want to make it clear that this in no way has any effect of my feelings about the book