Book Review: Wings of Gold & Snow (Apprentice's Wings - Book 1)
Wings of Gold & Snow (Apprentice’s Wings – Book 1) by S. A. McClure
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Summary: Nadine is under a curse. If she leaves her home for more than 3 days, she will die. She has also recently broken up with her lover, the crown prince, because she’ll never be able to be his queen with being tied to her home where she lives with her cruel step-mother and step-sister. But one day, she falls into a well and suddenly finds herself in a strange land where a talking owl named Archibald leads her to the home of Lady Milanda, a sorceress who rules over the land, and has the power to release Nadine from her curse. But Lady Milanda is cruel and full of darkness, and eager to have Nadine within her clutches. But why would she want a powerless girl?
Comments: The largest issue with this is that it ends on a to be continued note (not exactly a cliffhanger, but just plenty of open plot threads) and there’s no book two in sight (even after two years of being published and nearing three). Nadine’s character is a bit hard to latch on to. I read it, following along accepting the idea of her being basic fairy tale heroine with a heart of gold and always caring for those around her. And I like that type. So it threw me for a bit of a loop when we get back to her sister, and in narration she explains that she doesn’t have patience for the weak person that her sister is. Her sister is a gentle soul, so it’s jarring to hear Nadine talk so sharply to her. It also makes my opinion of her turn against her. I loved the beginning with her wistfully watching the prince, and it really made me wonder how they met, how they actually got a romance started with them being such different social standing, but none of that is actually explained here. I did love that we actually get to see the prince a bit, and he’s completely unlike what I was picturing from her descriptions (convinced that she’s ordinary and beneath him, which begged the question of why he was romancing her previously if he thought that way), but he’s still an interesting character. Archibald… He’s one of the unfinished plot threads. He’s a flirt with others, and even a lover of others, so even though she might be convinced he looks at her differently, I want to hear it from him, or it feels like an open thread. When her mother was revealed as a shifter (I’m not saying what kind since that would be spoiler), but it’s one of the indie common cliched ones which I had to roll my eyes at. For all the demand around her character, I expected it to be something special. The plot itself is interesting. I mean, each time I think it matches up with another story, I think I know where it’s going to, then it suddenly changes. As in, the opening made it sound like it was going to be yet another retelling of Cinderella, then she goes through the well and meets a character who she has to do something for and he promises her a favor (one of the open plot threads) (sounding a lot like the old woman who meets the soldier at the beginning of The Twelve Dancing Princesses or the old man who Jack trades his cow to for magic beans), and then the story turns into having to do tests to get to Lady Milanda’s house (the trials sounding a lot like the challenges in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – getting past the many headed-dog and having to get through the vines). I was bored with the scenes where Milanda was doing her magic training since they were dreamlike and abstract. It makes it hard to get a concrete image in my head when things go dreamlike and vague. There were some random scrolls introduced in one scene that turned into yet another open plot thread. And it seemed rather anti-climactic when her curse gets broken far too simply. In all, I thought it was a fun adventure with interesting characters (other than the main heroine), and I was interested in continuing it, especially with the storyline feeling unfinished with so many open plot threads, but without any further books to follow this one up with this set of characters, it seems I won’t be going any further.
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Summary: Nadine is under a curse. If she leaves her home for more than 3 days, she will die. She has also recently broken up with her lover, the crown prince, because she’ll never be able to be his queen with being tied to her home where she lives with her cruel step-mother and step-sister. But one day, she falls into a well and suddenly finds herself in a strange land where a talking owl named Archibald leads her to the home of Lady Milanda, a sorceress who rules over the land, and has the power to release Nadine from her curse. But Lady Milanda is cruel and full of darkness, and eager to have Nadine within her clutches. But why would she want a powerless girl?
Comments: The largest issue with this is that it ends on a to be continued note (not exactly a cliffhanger, but just plenty of open plot threads) and there’s no book two in sight (even after two years of being published and nearing three). Nadine’s character is a bit hard to latch on to. I read it, following along accepting the idea of her being basic fairy tale heroine with a heart of gold and always caring for those around her. And I like that type. So it threw me for a bit of a loop when we get back to her sister, and in narration she explains that she doesn’t have patience for the weak person that her sister is. Her sister is a gentle soul, so it’s jarring to hear Nadine talk so sharply to her. It also makes my opinion of her turn against her. I loved the beginning with her wistfully watching the prince, and it really made me wonder how they met, how they actually got a romance started with them being such different social standing, but none of that is actually explained here. I did love that we actually get to see the prince a bit, and he’s completely unlike what I was picturing from her descriptions (convinced that she’s ordinary and beneath him, which begged the question of why he was romancing her previously if he thought that way), but he’s still an interesting character. Archibald… He’s one of the unfinished plot threads. He’s a flirt with others, and even a lover of others, so even though she might be convinced he looks at her differently, I want to hear it from him, or it feels like an open thread. When her mother was revealed as a shifter (I’m not saying what kind since that would be spoiler), but it’s one of the indie common cliched ones which I had to roll my eyes at. For all the demand around her character, I expected it to be something special. The plot itself is interesting. I mean, each time I think it matches up with another story, I think I know where it’s going to, then it suddenly changes. As in, the opening made it sound like it was going to be yet another retelling of Cinderella, then she goes through the well and meets a character who she has to do something for and he promises her a favor (one of the open plot threads) (sounding a lot like the old woman who meets the soldier at the beginning of The Twelve Dancing Princesses or the old man who Jack trades his cow to for magic beans), and then the story turns into having to do tests to get to Lady Milanda’s house (the trials sounding a lot like the challenges in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – getting past the many headed-dog and having to get through the vines). I was bored with the scenes where Milanda was doing her magic training since they were dreamlike and abstract. It makes it hard to get a concrete image in my head when things go dreamlike and vague. There were some random scrolls introduced in one scene that turned into yet another open plot thread. And it seemed rather anti-climactic when her curse gets broken far too simply. In all, I thought it was a fun adventure with interesting characters (other than the main heroine), and I was interested in continuing it, especially with the storyline feeling unfinished with so many open plot threads, but without any further books to follow this one up with this set of characters, it seems I won’t be going any further.
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