Aug 27, 2023
I was charmed to find a book named Stealing Snow next to Carry On today at the used bookstore
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I was charmed to find a book named Stealing Snow next to Carry On today at the used bookstore
Do you ship...
Snow & Bale (Stealing Snow)
Yes, I ship them
I'm neutral about them
No, I don't ship them
In a fucked up way because it compels me
Not before but now I'm intrigued
Platonically
They're divorced
I don't know them
JOMP BPC - August 12th - Retelling
Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige was such a wonderful retelling of The Snow Queen and I'm still mad that it didn't do well enough for her publishers to put out the sequel
(via Review: Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige)
When I heard the news of Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige, I was super excited. Dorothy Must Dieis one of my favourite series, so I had high hopes for Stealing Snow. The concept is unique and the main character is enjoyable, but there were a few things, the excessive amount of love interests, for example, that bothered me. I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I ended up a bit disappointed.
🔮sorcery
• january book recommendations
This one is for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses. You know, stories where young girls are either swept away into another magical world or are already in a magical world where they fall into a complicated, longing, totally hit you in the feels and make you cry because you wish you had a boyfriend/girlfriend like their love interest, etc, etc. If you've devoured the entire ACOTAR series and want more books similar to it, just keep reading. We hope we can help you find your next addition to your TBR list:
1. "Dorothy Must Die" by Danielle Paige
A re-telling of The Wizard of Oz with a modern twist, Dorothy Must Die is definitely one of my personal favourites. It's about a teenage girl, Amy Gumm, who is strong and defiant, despite being bullied at school and neglected by her substance-using mother. On a particularly bad stormy night, when she is once again left alone in her trailer, a tornado picks it up and transfers her to Oz. But it is not like the movies, at all; Oz is in turmoil, and it’s all because of the infamous Dorothy Gale, who is sucking all the magic and life out of it. The only way to stop her is to kill her companions; she must remove the tin woodman’s heart, steal the scarecrow’s brain, take the lion’s courage, and then - Dorothy must die.
2. “Stealing Snow” by Danielle Paige
Another marvelous read by Danielle Paige where she dives back into the world of magical lands and dangerous, villainous rulers. This time, it’s about a girl called Snow, who has been locked up in an asylum most of her life for trying to walk through a mirror as a child. Despite her bleak life, Snow falls in love with Bale, a troubled boy with a catastrophic love for flames. One night, Bale is kidnapped, pulled through a portal into a world she’d been dreaming of, and the only way to save him is to escape from Whittaker and journey into a magical world that has been waiting for the day she would return. There she meets many allies and even manages to catch two intriguing boy’s eyes. She must learn to control and harness her magical powers into deadly weapons to fulfill the prophecy and defeat her father, the king. But in a world of treacherous magic, who can Snow really trust?
3. “Red Queen” by Victoria Aveyard
This is more in league with the likes of the Hunger Games in certain ways, but it’s based in a fantasy world and had so many similarities to ACOTAR that I couldn’t not add it to the list. Plus I really love it.
This is a story about Mare Barrow, a girl who has red blood in a world dominated by those who have silver blood. The silvers are royalty, with their powerful abilities they outrank the reds. But Mare is something different, something rare and unheard of: she discovers she is a red with powers. She can summon lightening. To ensure nobody gets wind of this, she is disguised as a long lost Silver princess by the royals and is taught the ways of being a princess. Conflicted by her emotions for two prince brothers, one fiery and passionate, the other calm and collected, Mare struggles to navigate her new life and must be wary of who she can trust; there are deceivers everywhere.
4. “Heartless” by Marissa Meyer
The first book on this list I haven’t actually read yet, but it is definitely on my TBR list, and here’s why it should be on your’s too:
“Heartless” tells the story of the girl Catherine was long before she was known as the cruel, - ironically - heartless Queen of Hearts. She was the most coveted, admired girl in Wonderland, and one certain unmarried king even had his eyes set on her. But Catherine wants nothing to do with becoming queen; she aspires to open a bakery and sell delicious treats. Her mother, however, doesn’t support her dreams and instead forces her into going to a ball where she is supposed to receive a marriage proposal from the king.
Instead, Catherine meets the handsome and mysterious Jest who she feels a strong attraction for. Cautious of offending the king, she enters into a secret relationship with Jest, and is determined to choose her own fate. But it seems there are others who may have different plans for her...
5. “Cinder” by Marissa Meyer
Set in the futuristic city of New Beijing, Cinder - a young cyborg and talented mechanic - is a second class citizen with a past wrapped in mysteries, and a cruel, wicked stepmother who blames her for her stepsister’s illness. Unforeseen circumstances lead her fate to become intertwined with the dashing Prince Kai’s, and she finds herself standing smack dab in the middle of an intergalactic battle and a forbidden blooming love. Uncovering secrets from her past may just be the only way to save the world’s future.
6. “The Cruel Prince” by Holly Black
This is a book I've wanted to get my hands on for a really long time now because it just sounds so intriguing and right up my alley. When their parents were murdered and they were stolen away by the faeries, Jude and her two sisters were brought to live in the High Court of the Fae. Years later when she is seventeen, Jude longs for to belong amongst the fae, but many of them despise humans and want nothing to do with them - especially the wickedest of them all, the youngest son of the King, Prince Carden.
To earn a place at Court, Jude must overcome the most dangerous task of defying Prince Carden, which leads her life to become entangled with palace intrigues and deceptions. But when a war threatens to break out among the Courts of Faerie, Jude is forced to put her own life at risk in the hopes of saving her sisters, and all faeries.
7. "Everless" by Sara Holland
This is one of my honest to God favourite fantasy novels. It's so fresh and unique and a nice change from the usual fantasy stories. In a world where time is used as currency by extracting blood and binding it to iron, and then it is consumed to add to one's lifespan, Jules Ember discovers her father is dying and must journey back to the very place she and her father had fled so many years ago: Everless. Her father needs more time, and despite having been driven out of there many moons ago after witnessing a fateful accident, she knows she must return for his sake. But returning to Everless can only bring danger to Jules, especially when she finds her heart caught between two people she thought she'd never see again.
8. "Ash Princess" by Laura Sebastian
Just six years old when her country was invaded and her mother, the Fire Queen, was killed right in front of her, Theodosia’s family, name and land were all taken by the Kaiser. For a decade she has been held captive in her own palace, having to endure much ridicule and abuse from the Kaiser and his court. So, when rhe Kaiser finally forces her to do the most heinous, unthinkable thing, she decides enough is enough. The Ash Princess has seen the fall of her people and her land - no more. She will fight back with everything she has.
9. “To Kill a Kingdom” by Alexandra Christo
A modern re-take of The Little Mermaid with a darker twist, Princess Lira is the most lethal siren of the sea; she holds the hearts of seventeen princes in her hands. But when a sudden turn of fate forces her to kill one of her own kind, her own mother - the Sea Queen - punishes her daughter by turning her into the one thing they hate most - a human. She is given until the Winter Solstice to retrieve Prince Elian’s heart and deliver it to the Sea Queen, or remain human forever.
Prince Elian finds his calling in hunting and killing sirens like Lira; unknown to him, when he rescues a woman from drowning in the ocean, she is much more dangerous than he could have ever thought. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all sirens for good, but can he really trust her?
10. “Alice In Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll
This is the first story on this list that doesn’t have any romance in it, but is instead a fresh, unique story of adventure, courage, friendship, and a little pinch of madness. It tells us about a young girl called Alice, who follows a white rabbit wearing a waist-coat and carrying a pocket watch down a rabbit hole. She finds she’s fallen into a magical, if not a bit bizarre, land called Wonderland, where a cruel Queen of Hearts rules over. Join Alice on an adventure of a lifetime, meeting strange people and animals such as The Mad Hatter, The Chesire Cat, and the Blue Caterpillar. It will only make you curiouser and curiouser...
Stealing Snow - Danielle Paige
I love me a good fairy tale retelling, so I went in with high expectations. There were a couple of things I liked. Main character Snow has an anger issue, which I found a pleasant change from the easy stereotype of an ice-wielding princess with a heart colder than her snow. I liked that she was so volatile, it made her a much more real character, which is important in a fantasy-based setting.
I also like the Robbers, a collection of rebel women who steal people’s faces (and everything else they can get their hands on, including magic). I adored the idea of magic-wielding, glamorous robber girls who will ruthlessly rob you blind but defend each other to their last breath. That’s the kind of female friendship I want to see more of in my readings.
On to the things I didn’t like, and unfortunately there are more of them than the things I did. First of all, like most books in which the protagonist starts off in a mental hospital, it takes too damn long for Snow to make her escape. Like I get it, everyone thinks she’s crazy, she thinks she’s crazy, she’s not happy there, etc. Move on, please. I think I would have actually preferred if the book started with Snow’s escape from the hospital and then experienced flashbacks.
Second, and I will preface this by saying I might have a slight prejudice against romances, but I still didn’t appreciate that not only does Snow have a massive crush on Bale, her friend who was also committed to the insane asylum for burning down his parents’ house, but she also runs around Algid (the ice kingdom and her homeland) getting involved with pretty much every cute guy she comes across. So there’s a girl with three love interests, and they sort of fade in and out depending on who she happens to be with at the time. Kai kisses her out of nowhere, and then she runs off and starts messing around with Jagger, feeling guilty the whole time because she really wants to be with Bale, and I just gotta say, that’s too many guys to be juggling around while she’s trying to save her kingdom. No wonder it took her so long to figure out how to use her magic.
I mocked a book a little while ago for making up words, and I’m going to do it here. If you as an author have to make up words to get your point across, you’re doing something wrong. I’ll give Daniel Jose Older a pass because he was trying to be funny, but this did not strike me as a comedy, so making up a word does not come across as good writing. For example:
“Blood was already Rorschaching around Margot, staining the snow redder than red. There was so much blood. Too much” (343).
Lastly, I thought Stealing Snow was trying to do too many things. There are a lot of random twists, including a non-magical twin sister for Snow, and by the end I didn’t even care anymore. I wasn’t even surprised when the Enforcer turned out to be Bale and I wasn’t moved when he died in front of Snow. I’d had enough. All I wanted was for it to be over.
There’s an as-yet-untitled sequel set to come out in 2020 that I will not be reading, so I guess I’ll never find out why Bale happened to be on the mental ward in the first place, especially since he was only like, six when Snow met him. I guess I won’t find out a lot of things because I can’t bring myself to care enough about what happens after Snow is soundly defeated.
booksforthoughts October BPC Day 6: Broken