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Free-spirited Grace and serious Kai are the best of friends. They grew up together listening to magical tales spun by Kai's grandmother and sharing in each other's secrets. But when they turn sixteen and Kai declares his love for Grace, everything changes. Grace yearns for freedom and slowly begins to push Kai — and their friendship — away.
Dejected Kai dreams of a dazzling Snow Queen, who entices him to leave home and wander to faraway lands. When Grace discovers Kai is gone, she learns how much she has lost and sets out on a mystical journey to find Kai...and discover herself.
Grace and Kai always have been best friends. When both their grandmothers die—leaving them orphaned at sixteen—it makes sense for them to get married and take care of each other. At least, it makes sense to Kai; Grace craves adventure, not stability. The night after Grace breaks his heart, Kai is visited by a figure out of his grandmother's fairy tales, the frozen Winter Child. Fated to spend eternity healing others' hearts while hers remains broken, she is drawn to Kai's pain and lures him away. Too late, Grace realizes what she has lost and embarks on a journey to the Winter Child's snowy kingdom. With three hearts now broken, can only two of them be healed? This retelling of "The Snow Queen" differs most notably from the original in that the Winter Child character is sympathetic, not evil, and the ending—while still "fairy tale"—is far from what the reader would expect. While this makes the story friendlier to modern audiences, the conclusion does lose some of its impact. The book would serve best in the classroom as a literary comparison to the original. Part of the "Once upon a Time" series. Reviewer: Cara Chancellor
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Stefano Possati
reviewed Winter's Child (Once upon a Time Series) on October 17, 2009
Winter's Child (Once upon a Time Series)
My almost completed review just disappeared with an uncontrolled flick of my finger and I am too frustrated to start afresh. So, I am just going to sprout some random points that explain why I do not recommend the book and why I won't try to read anything else by the author in the future:
- The book is really short (that is reason why I finished reading the book after all), even for a fairytale retelling. Unfortunately that does not mean that the arc of suspense is higher angled. No. This story has no real climax and almost no plotline to speak of. Can somebody tell me why the North Wind sent the Winter Child to Grace and Kai? Who was the one with the ice splinter? Both? Grace? And when is it removed? Were Kai and Grace Deidre's last stop - or what?
- The book is fairytale-like in the original sense: a lot of moral finger-waggling in front of the reader's face and even more perpetual output of sayings and wise surmises about life and happiness and wishes and curses and whatnot - you know, the stuff that usually belongs on a hand-stiched kitchen towel.
- The book is one slim volume of a larger series. And in my opinion it shows. It had an unpleasant off-the-rack bytaste. I felt like the author had the assignment to complete one fairytale retelling each fortnight.
- The book has no real romance. Everyone gets his or her happily-ever-after - completely out of the blue. There weren't even the stars of a fairy's magic wand to be admired. "Poof - I am your prince. Poof - tell her you love her, but be quick about it. Kneel, all of you who want to be married. A five minute slot has just been opened for you."
- The book is poorly researched. I do know that this is a fairytale retelling and no real-world place is actually mentioned by name, but I hate half-hearted pseudo-researchers. If you are not sure, dear author, place your plot into a fantasy world and use plain English, okay? Grace and Kai have Scandinavian surnames, which fits the Danish origin. But "Grace", Grace is no Scandinavian name. If you did not like Gertrud, Mrs. Dokey, you could have searched for a softer sounding Danish name. I assure you, there are plenty. Grace speaks of her grandmother as her "oma". Oma is a German word. In Danish and Norwegian it should be "bedstemor", in Swedish it's "mormor". Well. And one last thing that came back up sour was that Kai's father worked in the coal mines and dies there. There is almost nothing to mine in Danmark apart from some clay, some minerals and a bit of oil in the North Sea. It would have been possible to shift the story to Germany, but then some other adaptions would have been necessary. The random mix annoyed me a lot.
- ...
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