I have a fight to pick about these new covers. Why is that the publishers feel obligated to put real models on the covers? Do they really think it appeals more to people? Well I guess the answer is yes and nothing in particular against this cover, but I don't imagine the Winter Child like the girl on the cover. Okay enough about that.

As always with this series I get hooked very easily and the pacing in the beginning is always point on. This one had the difference that Grace, main character, chas More...

3.5 stars

Winter's Child is a book I've had on my shelf for a very long long time, but it was worth the wait.
This was a perfectly lovely fairy tale and even though it wasn't something I feel in love with, I'm still happy to have finally read it. The ending was a little to convenient...not with Kai...but with Grace and Constantin which is what kinda ruined the illusion for me. But other then that bit, I still found this to be a very entertaining and enchanting read perfect for the holiday season. More...

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 h More...

I feel this book had a lot of potential, but it didn't really expand into what I thought. Perhaps because it is so short. Cameron Dokey's books, at least the ones I've read, I've noticed have near identical protaganists, which is frustrating, as I feel I'm reading the same person over again.
There are a lot of really wonderful elements in the original fairy tale that I feel she overlooked or skipped entirely. However, I really liked the twist on the Snow Queen herself, but some things were vague More...

I've always really loved the Once Upon a Time series. I love Fairy Tales, and I love seeing what authors can think up in retellings. That beig said, the newer books in the series have been a disappointment to me. Maybe it's because I never realized what terrible romance plots they have. I think it's more likely that the quality of the books have simply gone down.

"The Snow Queen" has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, so when I saw that Once Upon a Time had a retelling of it, I was very More...

I am a huge fan of fairy-tale retellings, and I am especially fond of this series, which retells so many different stories in so many unique and classic ways, making the tales feel new and fresh - and making a whole lot more sense than the original stories! One of my all-time favorite fairy-tales is "The Snow Queen," and while I do not believe it ever needs to be rewritten, I thoroughly enjoyed this particular version. It gave new insight into the Snow Queen herself, which was wonderful to see f More...

Eh. That's what I think when I think of this book. HOW DISAPPOINTING!!!! The back of the book makes you think that it's going to be a story with heart and challenges, but reading it was almost like dragging my feet through mud, just to be disappointed at the end. I'm still fuming over it. >:(
It starts off quickly, by the third chapter, and then nothing seems to happen until about over half-way. Even then it doesn't make much sense and it's almost dream-like. The end makes me want to stomp aro More...

Reason for Reading: I've wanted to read this series for ages and have just never got around to it. Finally, I brought this book out from my backlog and read my first book in the series!

I just absolutely adored this book! When I went to get my picture for my blog post I noticed that it didn't have a very high overall rating and looked at the ratings chart to see that the opinions were all over the place on this one, from horrible to terrific. Now I don't read other reviews before I've written my More...

The "Once Upon a Time" series is a guilty pleasure for me, and I adore Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. So when this retelling of "The Snow Queen" came out, I skipped the backlog of the rest of the books in the series I haven't yet read and dove head first into this one.

Aside from a few surface details, like the main characters living next door to each other, there isn't much in common with Andersen's original. And usually I'm all right with that, it's only a retelling after all. I'm all f More...

This story is a retelling of a Grimm fairytale called "The Snow Queen." It is the first of Cameron Dokey's Once Upon a Time series and definitely won't be the last. This was an incredibly satisfying fairy tale.

It contains magic spells, lifelong (centuries long) quests, a princess, true love, and self discovery.

If I had a pre-teen or teen girl, I would definitely recommend this book to her. To any adults who enjoy a good fairytale, I recommend it as well.

There are three main characters, two gir More...

More accurately, Kai says he wishes to marry Grace not that he declares his love to her. Neither declares their love--though Kai accuses Grace of not loving him enough. I always eagerly look forward to each new 'Once Upon a Time' story from Simon and Schuster; aside from the well known tales there have been lesser known fairy tales and legends that have gotten spotlighted. When I heard about this one, by Dokey who I have admired for a while, I knew it had to be about the Snow Queen. I suggest he More...

The story. . .the path. . .the magic. . .
Enter a fairytale, where hearts are intwined and destinies are intermingled.

Kai is a watchmaker. He has been friends with Grace for his entire life, and when her grandmother dies and she is left without family he takes the next step. . .he proposes to her. . .

Grace is a seamstress, orderly and neat, but in her heart is a traveler, an adventerous spirit longing to burst forth from her ordinary, quiet existance into the unknown. Kai's proposal comes as sur More...

3 and 1/2 stars

I have liked other books from this "Once upon a time" collection, especially this author. She has a few others that I liked better than this book, but I still think she did a good job in telling a fairy tale story. I loved fairy tales when I was little, the more unknown the better, and I have a rare volume of French and Italian fairy tales that most people have not heard of. So, I have read the Snow Queen and this story is loosely based on it, so if you are expecting it to be clos More...

A long time ago, when fairy tales still had a way of being true, the world was a different kind of place: A wish could be a dangerous thing when uttered with a curse. The North Wind could touch a child and change them forever. True love, and true friendship, really could fix everything on the path to happily ever after in Winter's Child (2009) by Cameron Dokey.

In this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale "The Snow Queen," the titular character begins as a child with a destin More...

While WINTER'S CHILD is an easy, entertaining read, it does suffer from some short-comings. I realize that this book is not only about the Winter Child, but about how many different stories come together to make up one complete story, but there were one or two that were unnecessary to the plot as a whole. At around the three-fourths point, I was taken aback by the story going into a completely different direction than where I had hoped. This is where my main problem lays. Had some of the extra s More...

I was lost for the first 50 pages of the book. This doesn't sound like Snow White at all! I thought. Now that was embarrassing since it clearly says on the cover "The Snow Queen", but in my defense they sound similar; Snow White and Snow Queen.

Well anyways the book. The story I loved. Since I have never heard of the Snow Queen story it was all new for me. I liked Graces journey and she is a strong protagonist. It’s pretty classic Dokey writing. She writes a lot about the heart, names, appearanc More...

I love this story. It is really like two stories in one. First you meet the winter's child, who is a retelling of the snow queen. Then you meet Kai and Grace. The story Grace's oma tells them about the winter's child does not have an end, and when Kai says maybe her ending is in another story he could not be more correct. The story involves Kai and Grace friends forever,who after the death of Kai's mom and Grace's oma are left alone. It would only make sense that they should marry and be togethe More...

Grace and Kai have grown up together, and are the best of friends. When Kai's mother and Grace's grandmother both die, Kai and Grace are left alone. So Kai does what he thinks is the logical next step: He proposed to Grace. But Grace, who only ever wants to travel and see the unknown, rejects him. The next day, she wakes up to realize that Kai has left with the Winter Child--a princess who roams the world searching for hearts to mend. And so Grace goes off to find her lost love.

I'll admit, I don More...

Winter’s Child is the retelling of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. Grace and Kai grew up as best friends. Kai has loved Grace for quite some time. When he finally lets Grace know of his love for her she begins to push him away. Winter’s child shows up and Kai leaves with her. This is when Grace realizes she truly loves Kai and misses him. She sets out after him, to find him. The story is told in different parts from each character’s perspective. I felt sorry for the Winter Child. She had to fol More...

The first book I read in this series was a re-telling of Mulan. While I thought that book was passable, I had expected more from it. This was the second book I read in the series, and maybe my expectations were lowered, but I really enjoyed this one.

I thought it had more of a fairy tale feel to it, and I thought the characters were fleshed out very well. The best part for me was that the Snow Queen (Winter Child for most of this book) was not a villain. It was a different take on a very well kno More...

This is a fun retelling of Snow White, different. I liked that the character in the story is named Deirdre, which is my grandaughter's name as well. I like that the story was an adventure showing that life is a journey and that we learn along the way. ** stop here for spoilers *** I was surprised by the plot; and that is good. I love it when I can't predict the ending. The young princess must make ammends for her mother's wickedness and vanity, hum. What do we learn from that? Interesting! Then More...

I didn't...like it. Well, I finished it and I thought it was okay, so I gave it two stars. It was like most of Cameron Dokey's books, predictable and trying to go against the usual fairytale thing, but I was sort of disappointed that there were no evil characters. I mean, come on, that's what makes the stories interesting. This was super predictable, usually something I don't mind, but something that in Winter's Child was tedious. I didn't like it, I didn't care much about any of the characters. More...

It’s very dangerous to utter a wish and curse at the same time.

Well, let me get the obvious out of the way first… I’ve never read or heard of the Winter Child fable before reading this story, so that in and of itself probably accounts for me going into the book with zero expectations.

Overall, I enjoyed it. There were some good lessons infused in the story and the characters kept my interest the entire time. I do agree with my fellow readers that the ending felt too convenient, but I wasn’t real More...

Another Cameron Dokey fairy tale retelling. Just like her other books very strong begininng and slow magical development of the story (often I think she is better than even Robin McKinley) but then there's often the rushed, rather short & quick resolution and ending. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it (and any of Dokey's books for that matter) to anyone looking for a quick fun read especially if you enjoy fairy tales. But true to form the ending of Winter's Child actually made me la More...

This is a new version of "The Snow Queen"--refreshing because the snow queen isn't evil, and lots of other changes are fun and new twists on a classic fairy tale. I loved that Grace made a friend/protector of the falcon, and I didn't see coming what happened with her in the end...it was rather shocking. Good story, though it wrapped up a little too quickly, like most of these books. I did wish there was more to it than just Grace journeying to find the castle and Kai (mostly I wondered the whole More...

"The Snow Queen", written by Hans Christian Andersen, who also wrote "The Little Mermaid", is about two children, a boy and a girl, who try to thwart the plans of an ominous snow queen. It's actually seven stories in one, and this book includes some of them.

Grace is a village girl who lives with her grandmother. Her father, a soldier, was killed far away from home, and her mother became so grieved she commited suicide. She and Kai, a boy about her age, have been best friends for as long as they More...

Winter's Child begins with the story of the Snow Queen. I'd never heard of it before, but loved the story from the beginning! I could tell the book was going to be good.

Kai and Grace have been childhood companions for ages. Grace's grandmother told them the story of the Snow Queen when they were young. Grace didn't believe the Snow Child was real, but Kai did.

Eventually, Kai's mother and Grace's grandma die, leaving them all alone. Kai asks Grace to marry him, but she declines, saying that she More...

Twas really good. One of my favorites in the Once Upon a Time series that I've read so far.

Smart and Interesting Heroines: CHECK
Grace: I'll admit, I didn't really like her until the end, but she added to the story in some interesting ways. It became her journey to recognizing and overcoming her fear and other flaws and to realize all the things that she had to be grateful for. I was also especially fascinated at reading about her from Kai's perspective.
Deirdre (Hope): I really enjoyed her journe More...