Stealing Snow

Stealing Snow #1

by Danielle Paige

First kisses sometimes wake slumbering princesses, undo spells, and spark happily ever afters.

Mine broke Bale.

Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent her life locked in Whittaker Psychiatric—but she isn’t crazy. And that’s not the worst of it. Her very first kiss proves anything but innocent…when Bale, her only love, turns violent.

Despite Snow knowing that Bale would never truly hurt her, he is taken away—dashing her last hope for any sort of future in the mental ward she calls home. With nowhere else to turn, Snow finds herself drawn to a strange new orderly who whispers secrets in the night about a mysterious past and a kingdom that’s hers for the taking—if only she can find her way past the iron gates to the Tree that has been haunting her dreams.

Beyond the Tree lies Algid, a land far away from the real world, frozen by a ruthless king. And there too await the River Witch, a village boy named Kai, the charming thief Jagger, and a prophecy that Snow will save them all.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings, Romance, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Magic

375 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2016

About the author

Danielle lives in NY. Before turning to YA, she worked in television & was nominated for several Daytime Emmy's. Dorothy Must Die is her first novel.

Reviews

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 1 out of 5]

So basically I was supposed to fulfill some kind of major destiny in a month. And I had no idea this place even existed until now.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ REALLY? REALLY?!

I love retellings. I even loved Dorothy Must Die, despite the scandal surrounding the publishing of that book. It had spirit. It was fun. The setting of the book was recognizable, but there was creativity in the way the book built the mythology around the original. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for this book. This was simply a dull, plodding book.

To be fair, I entered the book with a misconception. I expected Snow White. This book was more of a retelling of The Snow Queen with elements of Snow White - she calls her medications the "dwarves." One of the only bright things about the book was that throughout the book, I was imagining one of my favorite k-pop idols - also named Kai - as the love interest.



Can you blame me? HNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG

The book had many faults. Unfortunately, life is short, and I shall limit myself to listing three. Never mind. Four.

1. The casual and one-dimensional interpretation of mental illness. Snow is crazy. She bites people. That's it, she bites people. The people in the asylum are generic crazy people acting out. There is no depth to them, there is no true portrayal of any type of mental illness besides acting generally insane and taking lots and lots of pills and dealing with orderlies.

2. THE LOVE TRIANGLE. Holy fuck, why?! Snow is IN WURVE with this one boy, Bale, in the mental institution. She gets pulled into this other world and all of a sudden she's kissing this HAWT, MYSTERIOUS STRANGER NAMED KAI. To be fair, I would have kissed the aforementioned Kai if he looked like that gif above. Again, HNNNNNNNNNNNNG.

3. ZEE CHOSEN ONE. AGAIN, WHY?! OF ALL THINGS. Haven't we had enough of these stupid chicks with prophesied powers that all of a sudden emerge for no fucking reason other than they were the product of a special sperm and a special egg?

There was a prophecy spoken on your birth to the three most powerful witches in the land. Remember, you are the daughter of magic on both sides of your lineage. You have magic within you. Powerful magic, probably the strongest that Algid has ever seen.

4. What world building? I honestly am not sure where I was in the book, what the point is, and why I should care? There was no world building, there was random slapdash elements of a generic, and I do not use that word lightly, fantasy world. Magical stuff and magical people without an iota of explanation or personality for me to give a fuck.

This book was such a 180 from the author's previous one that it's nearly incomprehensible.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in exchange for an honest review on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, Danielle Paige, and the publisher, Bloomsbury Children's, for this opportunity.

The premise for this novel instantly gripped me: a fairy tale retelling based on the life of a girl who escaped from a psychiatric hospital. I was sold!

I am so glad that this has lived up to the already insane amounts of hype it has garnered! This is quite a complex tale, delivered brilliantly with a good amount of world-building (my main gripe with YA fantasy), believable character construction and plot, sub-plot and action to keep my intrigued until the very end.

The fairy tale aspects of the story were beautifully and brilliantly interwoven into something spectacular and completely new. This didn't feel like a rehashing of a well-known synopsis but the revival of something beloved into something unique and contemporary. This amalgamation combined to make something truly astounding! Paige has perfectly captured the feeling of captivated joy and wonder from the likes of C.S Lewis' Narnia series and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I can't wait for the adventures this series will take us on!

[Dana Kenedy (Dana and the Books) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 This review can also be found at Dana and the Books

Stealing Snow was one of my most anticipated reads for 2016. A retelling of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen sounded so exciting and exactly what I needed, but I can't help but feel a bit let down.

Danielle Paige's technical writing style is wonderful. She's whimsical, magical, not overly wordy - everything I love in an author - but the story itself fell flat for me.

I think the main problem for me was that I couldn't figure what this story wanted to be. Was it a romance? Was it a fantasy? Was it a heist story? Was it a coming of age story? Was it an overthrow-the-throne story? Instead of focusing on one or two of those, we got a tiny bit of everything which made it feel underdeveloped and thin.

The first few chapters, which took place at the mental asylum, I found pretty decent. However, they could have been outstanding if a bit more time was spent developing Snow. She seemed too 'sane' to be constantly kept in an institution with her only illness being that she sometimes bites people. We also meet Bale, her boyfriend, at this institution who snapped her wrist after their first kiss. Despite the abuse, Snow vows to save him when he gets dragged into the magical realm of Algid.

Onto the boys.

There were WAY too many boys. I'm all for romance in books, but I couldn't see how the three boys moved the plot forward to feature so strongly. First Snow loves Bale, then she loves Jagger, then she loves Kai (all within the first 90 pages), then she loves Bale again, and then she loves Jagger. The love-rhombus was far too prominent in the story and took too much time and focus away from the actual plot.

Kai seemed unnecessary to the story progression. Cutting him out may have put the focus back on Snow and her journey and make it less cluttered overall.

Snow is supposed to be bringing down the King and working on her powers, yet she fawns and gushes over boys throughout the story.

"I was going to be his robber girl."

This was the quote that made me lower my rating down to 2.5.

Instead of spending pages on the romance, we should have been given insights into how Snow developed and mastered her powers. She seemed to have got the hang of how to manipulate snow and ice so quickly that I was sure I had accidentally skipped over a chunk of pages. One page she was struggling, then next she was able to perfectly control the snow.

The phrase "for a beat" or "after a beat" was used too many times throughout the book. Enough for me to notice the repetition.

Now, that was a lot of negatives so I come bringing a basket of positives!

I probably will carry on with the next book as I am curious what will happen to Snow. I'm a sucker for Throne Battle stories and this certainly fits the bill.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a fan of Danielle Paige's writing style. I do believe I'll give her Dorothy Must Die series a chance because I have heard fantastic things about that series. I have a feeling that series shines a bit brighter than this one.

And I leave you with my favourite quote from the story:

"Help me," I said, clinging to her.

"You will help yourself," she replied.

I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.  (Book Depository / Amazon US / Amazon Canada / Amazon UK)

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thrilling and enchanting retelling of The Snow Queen fairytale. It is more gritty in style and it has Snow Yardley, 17 years old, residing in upstate New York at the Whittaker mental asylum, accustomed to taking the 7 dwarfs, her meds, the pills for every emotion. Her mother is responsible for her being there at a young age since Snow walked into a mirror and was left with permanent scarring. Snow has a spiky and edgy personality, loves drawing, barely talks, and is consumed by rage. All she knows of the outside world is gained through watching The End of Almost, a soap opera which later informs her decisionmaking. She has been separated from the love of her life, Bale, who broke her wrist after her first experience of a kiss. Bale is taken through a mirror, and Snow escapes to find him.

She is guided to The Tree that forms the boundary to the magical and icy kingdom of Algid, ruled apparently by her real, and evil father, King Lazar, who wants to kill her. Much like Narnia, he has made it winter forever, and the only person who can overthrow him and break the spell, according to an ancient prophesy, is Snow. Snow has zero interest in rescuing the residents of Algid, just in finding Bale and returning to New York. Only life does not always turn out as you plan. She encounters a River Witch, Kai and Gerde and is persuaded that she needs to train to harness and utilise her incredible powers of snow. She eventually turns up at The Claret, the residence of the Robber Girls and a myriad of wondrous potions. Upon trying to attain one of three hidden pieces of mirror that belong to Lazar, Snow engages with the Robber Girls in a mighty battle against Lazar and his forces.

Snow is faced with family secrets and mind numbing betrayals that emerge from out of the blue. Talk about the mother of all dysfunctional families! Being a hormonal teenager shut off from the world, it is barely surprising that she is attracted to 3 charismatic boys, and it is not as if she has the skills to handle her feelings. I loved the juxtaposition of the insanity of the mental asylum with the madness of Algid. There are numerous allusions to other fairytales - Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, Goldilocks etc.. This is a highly enjoyable fantasy read that I highly recommend. Thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

First kisses sometimes wake slumbering princesses, undo spells, and spark happily ever afters. Mine broke Bale.

The thing is I actually really enjoyed Dorothy Must Die. It's such a fun re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz where the world is so exciting to explore. I was ecstatic to hear Danielle Paige was writing a The Snow Queen retelling. I ended up feeling pretty disappointed about a third of the way through when I realized this wasn’t going to be Paige’s next hit series. It’s an awesome premise: girl locked up her whole life in a psychiatric hospital only to escape and discover her entire life is a lie. Snow isn’t crazy, she’s really a princess from another land being kept from her destiny.

If things had played out differently, the snow would have been a perfect punctuation to a perfect moment. Instead it made it that much worse.

Certainly sounds intriguing. Unfortunately, the execution took a turn for the worse. The world-building is lacking to the point where it is almost non-existent. I don’t understand Algid basically at all. The background to how Snow ends up in the mental hospital doesn’t make sense..let alone why she would be kept there that long. And the escape felt completely thrown together. Need I even bring up the poor portrayal of mental illness and how offensive this is. There is a huge lack of development and depth. Oh..and to top it all off. There is a love square. Yup, you read that right. Three potential love interests. Not sure what kind of corner we’re backing ourselves into with this one. Snow is into each of them instantly..yay “insta-love.” And any possible chemistry is immediately zapped away. I’m not sure I care to find out who she ends up with.

Just because we all lived in glass houses of insanity didn’t mean that we could not be cruel.

Snow has a limited understanding of the outside world being kept locked up her whole life. She knows enough fairy-tales to make small references to such as Snow White, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, etc. And having watched daytime soap “The End of Almost” with her orderly Vern every day in the hospital, the show helps to influence her choices later as well.

Even with a few surprise twists (okay..only one really surprised me), the story never amounts to anything more than a hodgepodge of a book. In a way I can’t tell if it wants to be a fantasy retelling or something totally different. This isn’t at all what I expected.

[mith · Rating 1 out of 5]

oh man. i was so, so, so excited for this book.
i have never read the original fairy tale of the snow queen so i don't know how it is supposed to go. if this book was supposed to help me by staying true to the tale, it failed miserably.
i can't bring myself to write a review for this so i'll list a few of the reasons why this didn't work out for me.
- there is not one, not two, but three love interests throughout the book.
- the writing is extremely poor.
- as in, it's vague as fuck.
- absolutely no word nor world building
- everything is extremely flat.
- everything, from dialogue to scene descriptions, is awkward and clumsy and halfhearted at best
- dear god it was so boring
- absolutely nothing made sense
- main character needs to get it together
- she was so DUMB
- made SUCH irrational choices throughout
- no personality
- completely unbelievable about how her powers were suddenly accessible
- no development
- what kinda fucking love shape is this????
on the bright side: this isn't anything at all like frozen!! yay!!! silver linings, man. i like to think i'm full of them.
----
Ah, a retelling of the Snow Queen.
Sadly all that ever comes to mind is fucking Frozen so hopefully this will be awesome.

[Ryan]

Is it bad that I want to read this because so many people dislike it? Eh. Probably.

[rachel, x · Rating 1 out of 5]

So basically I was supposed to fulfill some kind of major destiny in one month. And had no idea this place even existed until now.

Oh, I don’t even know where to even start with this review! To be blunt, Stealing Snow was awful. When you see a book getting only one-star reviews and DNFs before it has even formally been released, alarm bells should ring. For some reason, I just shrugged off all those negative reviews and plunged into Paige’s new story… how stupid of me. I’m so disappointed right now that I want to bawl. I loved her Dorothy Must Dieterrible.

For starters, it’s portrayal of mental illness was insensitive. Obviously, that is going to be a major gripe for me. I know that giving a fair and accurate portrayal of mental illnesses is difficult if you don’t have personal experience with the topic but if you don’t feel comfortable or confident in your ability to give the topic justice, don’t include it. It’s that simple! In this story, Snow - our protagonist - has been hospitalised since she was six years old. Why? Because she tried to walk through a mirror and was obviously severely injured/cut up as a result. I have no idea why this author thinks someone would be forced to live in a psychiatric hospital for 10+ years for one thing they did as a little kid. It made no sense why she’d still be in the hospital. I’m also not sure how I feel about the fact that her fellow in-patients were referred to - by both herself and the doctors/nurses - as nicknames to do with their mental illnesses: the kleptomaniac was called Magpie, and the girl who believed she could fly was called Wings etc. The fact that none of these secondary characters had any sort of personality also irritated me to no end.

On top of that, I felt that the patients’ treatment plans were poorly handled/represented. Not only did Snow never attends a therapy session - whether that be group or solo - which seems unlikely, she dismisses pharmaceutical treatment as a nuisance. Now, I understand that in her circumstance she didn’t actually need the medication - because she was magical not mentally ill - but I did not like that there was not a single in-patient in the story with a positive experience with their medication. I know that a lot of people experience negative side-effects but surely - surely - the doctors/nurses were doing their job correctly for at least one patient. I just didn’t appreciate the fact that it was so negative towards the whole topic. With that being said, what probably annoyed me the most was the fact that the author had the opportunity to write a story about a fantastical ice princess with a mental illness - hello, diverse representation - but wrote Snow instead. *disappointed sigh*

To make it worse, there is literally a freaking love-square. At the beginning of the story, we see that Snow is in love with a fellow patient named Bale - and it’s true, true love - but he is magically kidnapped through a mirror (don’t ask, I’m still confused too) and she is forced to escape into this magical world to rescue him. As soon as she gets into this new world, she is kissing the hot, mysterious, broody stranger named Kai. When that goes sour, she is thrown into the arms of the cute, funny thief named Jagger. Loyalty? Snow wouldn’t know what the world meant! I have no idea why authors continue to write these sorts of romantic situations. No one likes cheating or love triangles/squares. For the love of God, please stop. Please.

The writing was also as bland as boiled rice. It made me yawn it was so dull and simple. I have no idea how this author managed to write Dorothy Must Die with the level of creativity and world-building if this is also truly penned by her. The lack of descriptions really worsened the (lack of) world-building and pulled the story down as a whole. What I think was most irritable about the writing was ridiculously basic and plain. It felt dumbed down. At one point, the author even described crying like we wouldn’t know what it was:

The tears began to fall one after another…. The sensation was new. Like all the sadness inside me was trying to get out.

The plot itself may have been enough to entertain distract me but I had no idea what the hell was happening for the majority of the story. I still have no idea why Snow thought her dreams were real in the first place. Did she not think she was deluded or imagining things? Even if she didn’t, why was there never a moment she freaked out? If I was thrown into a magical world with river witches and ice magic or people started stealing my loved ones away through mirrors, I would have a crisis! But that aside, once we were in Algid, I lost track of the plot completely. It was so jumpy and poorly written that I had no ideas how two events would be connected. I had to reread pages over and over again to try and figure out what was happening. One moment Snow would be learning to control her powers - which she just amazingly, with a snap of her fingers, mastered - and the next, she was involved in heists and shit. I just… this story made no sense. I hated how little I understood what was happening.

The setting or world could have been really interesting, especially when we know the amazing Oz that Paige created in her other series but there was literally no world-building in this story. At all. I cannot stress enough that we were given no information about the world or situation to an adequate degree. We were thrown info-dumps of certain points of history but we don’t understand the current world and it was so bloody frustrating. The magic system and technology of the world were also glossed over.

Overall?

If you couldn’t tell, I was not a fan of Stealing Snow. I thought it was very poorly-written and I’m just crushed that Paige has made such a blunder with her newest series. I would honestly go as far to say that this is one of the worst books I have ever read. The plotline made no sense. There was no characterization or world-building. Its portrayal of mental illness was not to my standards. The setting was a bust. The writing was incredibly bland. I don’t think I have a single good thing to say about this one...

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

***Review posted on The Eater of Books! blog***

Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige
Book One of the Stealing Snow series
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Publication Date: September 20, 2016
Rating: 2 stars
Source: ARC sent by the publisher

Summary (from Goodreads):

Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent the majority of her life within the walls of the Whittaker Institute, a high security mental hospital in upstate New York. Deep down, she knows she's not crazy and doesn't belong there. When she meets a mysterious, handsome new orderly and dreams about a strange twisted tree she realizes she must escape and figure out who she really is.

Using her trusting friend Bale as a distraction, Snow breaks free and races into the nearby woods. Suddenly, everything isn't what it seems, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur, and she finds herself in icy Algid--her true home--with witches, thieves, and a strangely alluring boy named Kai, none of whom she's sure she can trust. 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 the fate of everything...including Snow's return to the world she once knew.

This breathtaking first volume begins the story of how Snow becomes a villain, a queen, and ultimately a hero.

What I Liked:

Meh. Maybe this book was over-hyped for me, but it definitely did not deliver the epic fantasy retelling story that I was expecting. It fell flat for me, in more ways than one. It's weird because I personally haven't seen too much hype surrounding this book, but I have seen fellow reviewers talking about it, and I know it was a big title at BEA. But, meh! Maybe not for me.

Snow has been stuck in a mental hospital for years. Her dreams are nightmares and her scars up and down her arms are something to behold. But she doesn't think she's crazy. She hates popping pills to make her tired or dull or calm. One day, after a small episode of a sort, a new orderly appears, and tells Snow that she needs to leave and find the Tree. Bewildered, Snow gets a perfect opportunity to escape. Entering into a new world, with the help of the fake orderly (Jagger), Snow finds out that she is a princess, and the subject of an important prophecy that calls for her taking the throne of Algid, or aiding her evil father's power.

I didn't dislike or particular like Snow. At the mental hospital, she accepts pills and follows orders, despite the niggling feeling that she doesn't belong there. Outside of the mental hospital, she does not let herself get pushed around, and she questions everything. I didn't really connect with her, but I think I like her as a protagonist.

Part of Snow's motivation to find the Tree, after she escapes from the hospital, is to get her friend Bale back, who was taken into the Tree. Snow has no idea where to begin looking for Bale, But to find him, she must learn how to use her magical abilities. Think of these abilities as those of Elsa, from Frozen. This IS a retelling of The Snow Queen!

Snow is taken in by the River Witch, who explains Snow's heritage to her, and begins training her. Snow lives with Gerde, a protege of the Witch, and Kai, Gerde's brother. Gerde is happiness incarnate, always cheerful and upbeat. Kai doesn't seem to like Snow at all, and is very curt with her. Kai ends up being a love interest... one of several.

While I didn't particularly enjoy this story (see more below), it wasn't too boring and I had no trouble reading it, start to finish. I didn't really like it but I also didn't absolutely hate it. It will probably appeal to others, especially since it's a fairy tale retelling (those are very popular these days!).

What I Did Not Like:

Honestly, the writing was not great at all. I don't know how to describe some of the terrible writing phenomena that I read. It felt like scenes were occurring way too quickly. Like, we go from the asylum to the Tree to Algid waaaay too quickly. And then all of a sudden, Snow is training. And then she's kissing a boy and has feelings for him like two days after she meets him (that's Kai). And then she's taken away to another castle, which seemed so random. I guess it felt like there were a lot of random scenes jumbled together, and they didn't fit well.

I also feel like most of these characters have no common sense, Snow included. It's like she was doing EVERYTHING in her power to expose herself for the King to find her. She goes into a market, has her fortune told, and surprise, it lines up with the prophecy perfectly. But she exposed herself there. And then she's constantly trying to wield her power and she's terrible at that, and has the subtlety of an elephants (I love elephants though!). She doesn't think things through. She makes ridiculous deals with a Robber Queen, and then JOINS the Robbers... this occurred way too quickly (just like the rest of jumbled plot), and it made no sense to me. No common sense whatsoever!

Did I talk about the romance? Well, there are not one, not two, but THREE love interests, and all three of them are in the running and totally present in this book. Bale, the boy who was stolen and who Snow is trying to rescue. Jagger, the fake orderly who is really a Robber (yup, under the Robber Queen), but is loyal to Snow and falls for her. And then Kai, the surly boy who falls for her too. The ending of this book leaves all three boys with a fair shot so... no.

This love... shape is aggravating (I hate anything with more than one love interest) but I honestly just didn't care about the romance, so it didn't bother me as much as it normally would (like I really just do not care). I felt detached from this story, and from Snow, so I just don't care.

Well, that's part of it too. The sense of detachment I had from this story... meh. I probably won't continue with the series.

Would I Recommend It:

I honestly can't recommend this book. Yes, it's fantasy, it's a fairly tale retelling, it's like Frozen but somewhat darker. But we have a protagonist with little common sense. a weird romance structure happening, and terrible writing style. While this book should have appealed to me, on paper, very little of it actually did.

Rating:

2.5 stars -> rounded down to 2 stars. I'm wondering if that's too harsh... but then I need to keep asking myself, did I actually like this book? Not really. In fact, I probably will forget all about it by next week. So, 2 stars it is. Sorry (not sorry)!

[lauren ♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read a less formal review for this feat. even more Parks & Recs GIFs @ my blog Wonderless Reviews

** I received of a free copy of this book via Bloomsbury and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review **


^This GIF could just be the entire review, but I'll try to elaborate more.

This book was straight up not for me. There was a LOVE SQUARE, an annoying main character and absolutely no word building. I can't even remember anything about this book except how much I didn't like it. There were tiny bits of potential throughout it, but nothing that stuck. It was just drowned out by all the awfulness such as medication shaming, poor handling of mental illnesses and cringeworthy lines like:

A life without kissing is no life at all.

.



I hate saying someone shouldn't read a book because we all see things differently, but there is no way I can recommend this. If you want to read it definitely pick up a copy from your library.

I'm not even sure how I managed to finish this book, but when I did this was my reaction:

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) and NetGalley.)

“Within you lies a great gift. You can control winter and have dominance over frost, over ice and snow”

This was an okay fantasy story, but at times it was just too much like Disney’s frozen.

Snow was a girl who didn’t seem to push for things too hard, and didn’t seem to mind being shut up in a mental health facility for several years. Why she was in there was a bit of a mystery though, sure, she tried to walk through a mirror once and scared herself and her friend for life, (not sure how she managed that, maybe she had a hammer?) but did that really make her mentally ill? Did she really need to be locked up like that? In fact the worst thing she had done in years was to bite an orderly, hardly grounds for incarceration.

“I considered kicking him or biting him. But since he had just saved me from the river, I wanted to resolve this with words, not teeth.”

The storyline in this was about Snow crossing over into another world in search of her friend/boyfriend Bale, who had been kidnapped, and this is where things took a bit of a frozen turn. First we found out that the entire kingdom had been frozen by the King, and then we had Snow being able to control snow and ice, not to mention that the King was also able to bring things to life using his magic!

“I waved a hand down into the dark, and a staircase of ice formed a spiral down to a bottom I could not see.”

We then had Snow desperately trying to find and rescue Bale, whilst doing a pretty poor job of trying to avoid notice and avoid the King, and we also got 3 (yes, 3) love interests – Bale, Kai and Jagger.

“It had taken me years to work up the courage to kiss the boy I loved. The boy I wasn’t even sure I liked had closed his lips on mine within a week.”

The ending to this was okay, but while we did get a couple of twists that I didn’t see coming, we also got some events that seemed a little predictable.



6.5 out of 10

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actual rating: 1.5 stars (only because 1 sounds too mean)

I never thought I'd dislike a book more than The Bronze Horseman, but I was wrong.

Full review on my blog: https://thechroniclesofdanielle.wordp...

[Emily Mead · Rating 1 out of 5]

I haven't rated a book one star since Allegiant.

Awkward.

[Kelly (Diva Booknerd) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot bring myself to finish this. It's dreadful.

[Meli · Rating 1 out of 5]

Inhalt
„Die drei mächtigsten Hexen des Landes erhielten zu deiner Geburt eine Prophezeiung, Snow. Vergiss nicht, dass beide Elternteile dir Magie vererbt haben. Diese Magie lebt in dir, eine starke Magie, wahrscheinlich sogar die stärkste, die es in Algid jemals gegeben hat.“

Algid, ein Reich aus Eis und Schnee, ist Snows wahres Zuhause. Hier soll sie ihre eigentliche Bestimmung annehmen und das Land aus den frostigen Ketten König Lazars befreien. Snow, jahrelang in der Menschenwelt festgehalten, fällt es schwer, ihren Auftrag und ihre magischen Fähigkeiten zu akzeptieren. Durch Jagger und Kai, die sich beide um sie bemühen, erfährt sie die Geheimnisse von Algid und seinen Bewohnern. Doch Snows Herz gehört eigentlich schon Bale – dem sie ihre Flucht verdankt und den sie jetzt verzweifelt sucht …[Quelle: Thienemann]

Protagonisten
Snow ist nach ihrem jahrelangen Aufenthalt in der Whittaker-Psychiatrie etwas verrückt und das ist eigentlich fast das einzige, was ich über ihren Charakter sagen kann. Als ihr geliebter Bale dort plötzlich verschwindet, möchte sie ihn unbedingt finden. Sie ist gerade zu besessen von ihm und denkt an nichts anderes als an seine Rettung - obowhl nicht mal wirklich klar ist, was genau passiert ist. Für Bale würde sie alles tun und als sie von ihrer Prophezeiung hört und davon, dass sie Algid retten soll, ist ihr das relativ egal. Nur Bales Rettung ist wichtig! Aber sie zieht es in Betracht, für ihre Mission anderen einen Gefallen zu tun und wenn nötig auch etwas für Algid zu tun. Zwar kann ich verstehen, dass ihr an Algid nicht viel liegt, schließlich stammt sie nicht von dort, aber sie sieht doch die ganzen Leute, die leiden müssen. Und selbst als sie helfen will, hat Bales Rettung Priorität. Das hat mich schrecklich genervt, dass Bale so wichtig ist, weil er für das große Ganze, für Algid, für die Prophezeiung eigentlich so unwichtig ist und weil er trotzdem alles ist, worum es in Snows Kopf geht.

Andere Charaktere
Ich weiß gar nicht, zu welchem Charakter ich etwas sagen soll. Es gab einfach so viele, und die meisten hatten eher kurze Auftritte, weil sich die Schauplätze und damit auch die anwesenden Charaktere ständig geändert haben. Das fand ich sehr schade, denn die Bindung zu den Charakteren spielt für den Leser eine große Rolle. Wenn man einen Charakter ins Herz schließt, dann liest man gespannt weiter um zu sehen, wie es diesem Charakter ergehen wird. Man freut sich, wenn dieser Charakter auftaucht und auch seine Handlungen sind interessant. Wenn man da nicht mitfühlt und die Charaktere nicht verstehen kann, dann ist es schwieriger, das Buch zu mögen und so war das auch hier. Ich mochte eigentlich keinen Charakter besonders, denn immer, wenn man begann, eine Person besser kennenzulernen und sie vielleicht zu mögen, sah man sie erstmal nicht mehr und dann war es irgendwie vorbei.

Handlung und Schreibstil
Also, wie erwähnt mochte ich keinen Charakter besonders. Weder Snow noch irgendeinen anderen Charakter, denn sie blieben alle sehr flach und hatten nicht wirklich Tiefe.
In diesem Buch wurde mir viel zu wenig Zeit auf die Entwicklung von Dingen gelegt: Charaktere, Talente und Kräfte sowie Beziehungen zwischen den Charakteren. Durch die mangelnde Bindung konnte ich auch die Spannung nicht richtig fühlen - oder auch gar nicht. Wenn dramatische Wendungen kamen, die diese Charaktere beinhalteten, dann konnten diese mich kaum überraschen, weil bis dahin einfach zu wenig war, um die Überraschung richtig wirken zu lassen.

Dann waren mir auch manche Szenen zu kurz gefasst. Ständig befand man sich in einer neuen Lage und traf neue Charaktere, man stürzte von einem Abenteuer ins nächste und alles ging sehr schnell. Dann wiederum gab es die magischen Kämpfe, die im Vergleich zum Rest sehr lang wirkten, obwohl sie eigentlich nicht langweilig waren.

Letztendlich fand ich es einfach nicht spannend. Die Handlungen waren nicht nachvollziehbar, die Prophezeiung konnte mich nicht überzeugen und die Schauplätze haben sich so oft gewechselt, dass ich da auch keinen roten Faden sehen konnte. Es wirkte etwas buntzusammengewürfelt, als ob man möglichst viele Ideen hatte unterbringen wollen.

Fazit
"Snow - Die Prophezeiung von Feuer und Eis" konnte mir leider nicht besonders gefallen, weil die meisten Handlungen viel zu gehetzt wirkten und ich nicht einen einzigen der Charaktere wirklich gut leiden konnte. Auf Entwicklung wurde leider zu wenig Wert gelegt.

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stealing Snow is a YA, fairy tale adaption of The Snow Queen.

I had no idea what to expect from this book and I still don't... I think I'll need the sequel to better understand how I feel about this book... But at this time, I don't know if a sequel is going to be made?!

Stealing Snow is based on The Snow Queen but has lots of elements of Snow White. Honestly, my local book store pegged it as Snow White to me, so I was a little shocked. I picked this book up because I loved Dorothy Must Die (plus it was on sale at my local book store and I'm a sucker for sales... go figure).

This book didn't blow me away as much as Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (this author) did. It really felt like this book needed the sequel to keep moving the story going because it was left at such an odd place. I wanted more at the end... It wasn't just a cliffhanger, it just felt like the editor had cut out a large chunk. I felt a little bit cheated.

That being said, it was a good book! I'm not as fluent in The Snow Queen (even though I have read it, it's just been a while and there aren't many adaptions out there that I've read) so I didn't connect as well with this story as I wanted. I did re-read the fairy tale before I picked the book up, but it didn't help me much.

I see so much potential in this series - the potential love triangles, the heroic action scenes that could come, the fairy tales that could be woven in - but it didn't hit all of the marks in just this book. It really needs it sequel. Seriously. Danielle better write it. Don't make this book a one off, it won't do the book justice.

What I didn't like about this book:
1. Snow's mental illness felt... weird. It felt forced and out of place. Sure, she has a mental illness (potentially) but she bites people and takes pills. It wasn't flushed out enough for me to believe it or respect it.
2. She's special. Every girl in every YA seems to be the chosen one, but the trope didn't feel right here (at least, not with the twist ending...).
3. There was way too much going on. I felt like my brain was being attacked because there was so many different plot points and half of which didn't get resolved. I like having my books able to stand on their own as well as be in the series - like most movies series.

Things I did like:
1. Kai and Bale. I don't know why, but I kind of enjoyed it and I want more. I want to know more about that part of the story, but I've always been a sucker for love triangles in my YAs so that one is on me.
2. Danielle has the most elegant writing style. She's truly an artist and is SO GOOD with her words. I can't express enough how much I love reading her books because she knows how to write and connect with the reader.
3. The potential is extraordinary. With so many plot points introduced, this book is set up to be a series. I'd like to see what Danielle does with this story.

Overall, this book wasn't as bad as the reviews led me to believe. I do want to keep reading this series because Danielle is wicked cool with her words (pun intended) but I don't know what to expect.

Two out of five stars.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did thoroughly enjoy this book, it just didn’t fully live up to my expectations. I was hoping and then left wanting for more. It just lacked that extra spark to make it a five star read for me.

I think a big part of why it lacked spark for me is that I didn’t relate to any of the characters. They didn’t make me FEEL anything and I found myself not really caring what happened to any of them.

Another factor that affected my enjoyment of this story is that I was so blown away by Paige’s Wizard of Oz retelling and I was expecting the same level of excellence for this book which sadly wasn’t the case. It lacked the fire and OOMPH that her other work has.

I didn’t hate it though, there were some enjoyable parts. But overall I just found it average and I doubt I’ll continue on with the series when the next books are released.

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the Dorothy Must Die series from Danielle and I was so excited for Stealing Snow. I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would (after reading a couple of reviews, I was expecting a massive crap show) but I think a lot of things could have been improved.
I really loved the concept and the plot. The writing style was okay. I liked the characters for the most part.
I think the execution of the plot could have been better. It got a little muddled at times and some things just didn't make sense. Like how Snow got to the asylum. That was just stupid and made no sense what so ever.
The characters, especially Snow, did start to get annoying after a bit. Snow has this bad habit of being really disloyal and falling in love with every boy she met. Which annoyed (pisssed me off) me to no end.

Overall, this book was okay. I didn't love it but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read. It was definitely mediocre to me as a critical reader but if you're not critical when you read and this book sounds like something you would like, I'd say go for it.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stealing Snow was okay. It wasn't great but it wasn't as awful as other reviews led me to believe. It kept me interested and entertained so there.

Now to the things everyone including me hated or found annoying.
1) The fucking love square. I mean REALLY!!
2) The instalove with 3 boys. It didn't bother me as much as it did other people. Snow has been locked up in a mental hospital her whole life. I think I'd be boy crazy too (I haven't been locked up my whole life and I'm man crazy so there)
3) Very little world building. Its book 1 so I'll let that slide.
4) Hodgepodge plot. Its YA I'm use to that.
5) The most egregious of them all the desire to sing Let It Go. I almost 1 starred it based off that alone.

I'll still probably read book 2 because I'm kinda invested in what happens next.

Popsugar 2017 Reading Challenge: Title That's the Characters name.

[Lisa]

DNF at page 119. Not much is compelling about this story. It's following a very predictable pattern and I'm just not interested.

[Maddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally posted on Heart Full Of BooksFrom the very beginning, I was confused about what Stealing Snow was trying to retell. Her name, Snow, made me think of Snow White. But, the whole mirror thing and wintry landscape had me thinking Snow Queen. Either way, I was disappointed. Let's talk about why...Read more...

1. Marissa Meyer did it first.

One of my main issues with the book was how familiar it felt. And then I remembered, oh wait, I've read it before in Winter at the end of last year. Meyer's Snow White is a mentally ill girl who doesn't really know the extent of her powers but has huge influence over her subjects. Paige's follows the same pattern. At the beginning she's imprisoned in an asylum (is that the politically correct term for those institutions?) and then drawn into a world where she's so important, the fate of the world depends on her defeating Levana, or in this case, her evil regal father.

Also, one of the love interests is called Kai. That just can't be done in a fairy tale retelling, unless you want me to think of my sweet Prince who's captured Cinder's heart. It's like if I was writing a book about vampires and decided to call my brooding protagonist Edward.

No.

2. The prophecy doesn't even rhyme.

I'm so used to the Rick Riordan prophecies where they're like little doomed poems. It felt wrong to read one that was just a list of statements. There's power behind a rhyme, friends. Use it.

Also, I felt like Susan calling out the beavers in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A prophecy has to rhyme, otherwise major cool points are lost.

3. The fact I had to use the sentence 'one of the love interests'.

If you're going to put more than one love interest in a book, ugh, but fine. Love triangles have become a sad fact of life that we just need to get over. But as soon as you add a third love interest, making a love square, I'm out.

It makes me think that the main character doesn't understand what love is. One minute she's saying that Bale, the guy she's crossing worlds to save, is someone she can't live without and the next minute she's kissing a handsome stranger in the heat of the moment. And then she falling for some guy that's creeped his way into her dreams without her consent using magic. To be honest, none of these boys seem like great matches and she changes her mind faster than you can change channels on a TV.

4. Dorothy Must Die recycled?

Having recently read Danielle Paige's other retelling series, I was surprised with how similar the two stories are. Both Amy Gumm and Snow are trained by witches in their magic. They both flit from group to group within the world, where new characters exist purely to move the plot forward. And both have an unconvincing romance.

If I've truly sampled her writing style, and not enjoyed either thing, does this make Stealing Snow my last chance?

Well, if the book continues, and I think it will, I'd still be interested in reading the sequel. Why? Because....

5. More (ridiculous) plot twists than an episode of Pretty Little Liars.

In the last ten percent, so much was revealed that defied the obvious set-ups for fairy tale families. And although, like PLL, I was rolling my eyes at some of the choices, I was still impressed by the dynamic enough to want to know how Snow copes in the next book.

[Aoife · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Snow has lived in a mental asylum ever since she was a young girl and attempted to walk through a mirror. When one day, Snow’s boyfriend Bale gets pulled through to another world by a mysterious stranger, Snow follows and finds out she’s a princess…with the power to control snow. And it’s up to her to not only save Bale, but the rest of her land from a crazy king.

It took me a while to get into this story and unfortunately this isn’t one I ever really felt myself invested in either. I had no connection with Snow and as a character, I didn’t particularly like her. She was very hard to warm to and I thought she seemed fickle, judgemental and oftentimes a bit cruel as well.Sometimes characters are so unlikable you end up liking them anyways but this wasn’t the case for Snow. She also had a major problem with thinking that everyone wanted to kiss her and deciding on what guy she actually liked.

There are a lot of fairytale elements in this book from the Snow White theme, to Alice Through the Looking-Glass and The Snow Queen. But even though I normally like all those kind of elements in books and how they take from the classic stories we know and love, this one ended up making me feel like I was reading a story I already knew about even though, realistically, I could tell myself this was a brand new story with some good twists and turns.

This book unfortunately just wasn’t one for me I think and it made me feel a bit slumpy sometimes and a drag to read. I do think it could be perfect for people who love fairytale-retellings, I think I just didn’t click with it personally as overall the writing was good and the story detailed.

[Jaime (Two Chicks on Books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved The Snow Queen for a long time! Yes way before Frozen. So I was excited to read this retelling from Danielle. I was not disappointed! I loved every page and Snow was awesome! Also I love Kai! I can't wait for book 2! I think I loved this more than her Oz books!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be to be honest. The last third was pretty good because it hardly focused on the love-square. Like obviously there was bits of it but it had more action and less gibberish about boys.

This book is getting ripped to shreds but I didn't think it was THAT bad and I'm pretty critical most of the time when it comes to books. I think I liked this more than other people because:
1) I don't know the Snow Queen original fairytale (I'm only familiar with Elsa from Frozen but this wasn't like Frozen.
2) I haven't read the Dorothy Must Die series so I have nothing to compare this to in that sense. That must be an awesome retelling and I need to read it!

Did this book feel like a mashup of other books? YES. But I liked it overall. To me, it didn't feel like a retelling of a fairytale. I feel like Danielle Paige should have just scrapped the retelling idea and gone for something more original.

Obviously I had problems with this book though:
1) The Love-Square. Honestly, at times it was laughable how ridiculous it was. Snow was infatuated with one boy but then she like forgot about him temporarily and became infatuated with another one and then ANOTHER ONE. Why do authors do this? Love-triangles are bad enough! I think if you fall hard for 3 boys you need to step away from the boys and sit down and have a chat with yourself.
2) The repercussions of said love-square. This could have been an awesome adventure but instead all Snow focused on was boys. I read about nothing else but boys! Tell me about the land you've gone to, tell me more about the female characters, elaborate to me how you're feeling to be in a completely different world! ANYTHING BUT THE BOYS. For the record though, my favourite boy was Jagger.
3) Insane asylum part. Snow was a crazy person in the asylum but not in the new world. Her character did a complete 180. She went from biting people, hardly ever talking to people to well, princess Snow. I think I would freak out more in the magical world but anyway!
4) The predictability. I could see things coming from miles and miles away. Boring!
5) The characters. None were too great apart from maybe Jagger.

The writing was okay. The pace was okay. I will be reading the next one and I just hope that it focuses more on action and character development rather than love.

*I received an arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"[To] every girl who wanted to be a princess but became a queen..."

[lolo' · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.


I loved the beginning at the mental hospital.

And loved the ending whoop dee doo!


But 85% of this book bore me too tears.

One thing I will say is that I liked every character except our main character.

And the twists at the end were like slaps in the face!

But some I guessed like The Enforcer thingy.

And the Jagger thing.

And I pretty much despised how the main character likes all the guys. And is completely selfish. And just repeats the same mistakes over and over again.

But to me Jagger was the shinning star of this book!

And I like that he never lied about who he is.

And KAI MY SWEET CINNAMON ROLL.

But seriously i'm trying to just find good things to say.

This book put me in a worse slump. It was sooooo slow. It just blows.

Like worse than Passenger.

Will I still read book 2? Maaaaybeeee. Depends on my curiosity. And is there a book a two??

Whatever I tried to stay positive about the book!

[the burning dreamer.]

Now: ....or not.

~

Before: I feel like this blurb's given away waaay much more than necessary, but here's to hoping I'm proven wrong!

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still indecisive about this one but I wrote a little review on it.

You can find it on my blog here.

[Mhairi · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 50%

I don't usually write reviews for books I don't finish but I was given this one by The YA Circle for a review.

It started out well in the asylum but as soon as Snow arrived in Algid I had no idea what was going on. The writing was not great, very vague on characters and setting. Quite often I had to go back and reread pages so I could figure out how things went from Point A to Point B.

Character development was awful. I didn't buy anyone in the book and Snow learning her magic just consisted of being shoved off a mountain once and fighting Gerde once and POW NOW SHE CAN USE THE MAGIC WELL! ???

Gerde was probably the best character in the book because she actually had a really interesting back story.

I tried so hard with this book but I just couldn't finish it. :(

[Nara · Rating 1 out of 5]

So it appears that Stealing Snow has been pitched as a gritty, "adult" version of Frozen, and unfortunately I can't really agree with that at all. It's more like Frozen minus the awesome songs minus a proper storyline minus any sort of world building minus the interesting characters plus shitty writing plus stupid names like "Snow" (which I would forgive if it was a retelling of Snow White, but it's a retelling of The Snow Queen, so no dice).

As I'm sure you've seen mentioned in numerous other reviews, the first irritating thing about Stealing Snow is the reason that Snow has been admitted to a mental hospital. No spoilers, it's revealed in the first few pages: it's because when she was younger she tried to pull her friend "through a mirror". And then the justification for why she was kept in hospital was because she apparently "loses control" and randomly bites people when she's angry. What the actual fuck. What a disappointing opportunity to do something cool with mental health exposure. Also something I found stupid was the fact that the friend's parents apparently tried to sue Snow/Snow's family for damages. What the heck, it's a kid who made an honest (albeit weird) mistake.

As you might know if you've read my reviews before, I'm quite big on world building in novels with fantasy settings (including portal fantasies, as this one is). One of the major factors that will influence whether I like a book or not is the world building. Often I'll like a book even if the plot or character development isn't that great if the world building is super well done. On the other hand, if the plot/character development is amazing, the world building doesn't have to be that great. In other words, I'm not that hard to please, you just need to get one of either plot or world building or character development right. WELL. As you might have guessed, Stealing Snow failed on literally all fronts.

The story is so cliched and ridiculous. There are a number of "twists" that are included but they're all either so predictable or so completely left field that they're not necessarily predictable but are still not good twists. I must admit, I heavily skimmed the book from about 50% onwards so I'm not even sure that I can technically say that I finished it. From the moment Snow enters Algid, the plot goes downhill and the world building is pretty much non-existent. I had no idea about what sort of setting we'd been dumped into apart from the fact there seemed to be some token hot guys and random people sitting in positions of power.

Speaking of, the romance was absolutely shit. There were three love interests, but it may as well have been three static photos for all the development they got. We had the love interest from the mental hospital who once purposely broke Snow's wrist (yeah, totally see the attraction there). We had the tsundere love interest from Algid who I know pretty much nothing about. And we had some other random guy also from Algid who was the one who brought Snow into that world in the first place. I could be getting these characters mixed up because as mentioned before, all three were bland as fuck. Yay, I just love it when the romance has exactly zero chemistry. She jumps between the love interests while in the back of her mind thinking "oh wait, I actually love that other guy". Yeah, yeah, whatever.

My god, this review is getting too long.
So let me stop here.
One word summary of entire review/book: NOPE.

Ratings
Overall: 1/10
Plot: 1/5
Romance: 0/5
Writing: 1/5
World Building: 0/5
Characters: 1/5
Cover: 2/5

[The Candid Cover (Olivia & Lori) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full Review on The Candid Cover

When I heard the news of a new series by Danielle Paige, I was super excited. Dorothy Must Die is 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.

I really enjoyed the concept of Stealing Snow. This book is about a girl who has been locked in a mental hospital her entire life, but is able to escape to a new land. She learns many things about herself while she is there, such as the fact that she is a snow princess, and meets some interesting characters, like other witches. I haven’t read a retelling of The Snow Queen before, and I liked how this story doesn’t use the same old fairy tales. If you are a fan of Frozen and Alice in Wonderland, you might enjoy Stealing Snow, since it has similar elements to both stories.

Snow is a likeable main character. While she does make some questionable decisions, I admired her ability to stick up for herself. She is able to stay pretty sane while she is in the asylum and knows deep down that she shouldn’t be there. I liked Snow’s spunky personality and curiosity. I just wish that she was able to stay more focused on what is important.

Although I enjoyed Stealing Snow, there were a few aspects that annoyed me. My main issue with the book is the amount of love interests. There are three boys that Snow likes, which I found to be pretty frustrating. She goes to the land of Algid to save her crush, but finds two more on the way. I also found the plot to be a bit confusing, since there was so much going on at times. At other moments in the book, the pacing was so slow that I ended up getting bored. The book was still pretty enjoyable, it just didn’t live up to the hype.

Stealing Snow is a retelling of The Snow Queen with a main character who is brave and determined. I really wanted to love this book, but it ended up confusing and boring. While it isn’t one one my favourites, I would still recommend this book to fantasy fans.