What did you think?

[Betty]

Hi all!

I was so excited to pick this book up again - the last time I read it was several years ago, back when I was in high school, but it's just as good now as it was back then.

I'm such a sucker for fairytale retellings, and this book (back when I first picked it up) hit me so hard that East of the Sun and West of the Moon quickly became my favourite fairytale, and I voraciously read every retelling and version of it that I could get my hands on. This one remains my favourite.

This story is so magical and it draws me in immediately, every single time. As someone who generally only likes having one narrator, this book surprises me, because I thoroughly enjoy reading from the perspective of all the characters from chapter to chapter - Pattou has done a great job giving each character their own unique voice and story to tell, and I don't find the switching jarring or forced. I think she's done a great job telling the story from several different perspectives, giving us a well-rounded adventure.

I loved this book and I hope you guys did too!

[Kinsey]

This was my first time reading an East of the Sun and West of the Moon retelling and I absolutely loved it! Rose was an amazing heroine and I loved how the entire story hinged on her every decision, as opposed to similar fairy tales where the female character is only confronted with a few difficult choices. I thought that the story was going to stay with the whole “living in a castle with a beast” trope ala Beauty and the Beast, so when she ended up going across an entire continent and (view spoiler)[ infiltrating and then destroying the Ice Castle (hide spoiler)] I was pleasantly surprised!

I’m also surprised at how much I felt for Rose’s family for their guilt over the events in the early part of the novel and for how quickly I fell in love with the White Bear, even in his animal form. The multiple narrators took some getting used to (and I still feel like some parts of the book were just a little too chopped up by it), but I liked the way it allowed a view into events that were happening in several different places simultaneously. Overall, it was a great book and I got SUPER EXCITED when I saw that Pattou plans on writing a sequel!