A Crown of Snow and Ice (Beyond the Four Kingdoms #3) by Melanie Cellier - February 2023

[Gem , Belle]

Hello fellow Fairy Tale readers,


Welcome to our discussion about A Crown of Snow and Ice: A Retelling of The Snow Queen (Beyond the Four Kingdoms #3) by Melanie Cellier, Gem.
___________________________________________
about spoilers

Please note: If you have not finished reading the book spoilers are permitted in this discussion from the start. If you would like to use the spoiler formatting it can be found on the top right of the comment box in the "(some html is ok)" menu.
___________________________________________


Summary

An unexpected gift from her godmother will give Celine enough fire to take on an entire kingdom of snow and ice. But first she needs to melt one frozen prince.

Rumors have long swirled about the strange kingdom of Eldon. The only thing more frozen than its mountains are the inhabitants themselves. But Princess Celine has never backed away from a challenge, so she eagerly accepts an invitation to visit.

Yet the situation in Eldon is even worse than Celine feared. And if the kingdom is to have any hope of freedom or a future, she’s going to have to call on new skills and new allies—including the crown prince, Oliver. But against an enemy stronger and colder than ice, all her fire may not be enough.

In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, The Snow Queen, one princess is ready to burn down everything in her path to save those she loves and their kingdom with them.

[Adriel]

I was wondering if anyone has read book one and two in the series and if it makes a difference?

[Kyle]

While I haven't read the first two books I had poked around a bit. The author's website says that the books can be enjoyed as standalones, but for maximum enjoyment to be read in order (not a surprising thing to say).

My understanding is that the books all take place in the same world and will follow different princesses' adventures within that world so there may be minor roles or appearances or interconnectedness from the other novels.

The first book is available to borrow for Amazon Prime members (and all are available in Kindle Unlimited). I'm going to give it a go as soon as I finish my current book, likely sometime this evening, and my guess is that I will finish these by sometime this weekend and have a better answer on that if anyone else is curious.

[Lisa]

LOL. It still amazed me how quickly you read, Kyle! I too wondered, but upon checking found that as Kyle said, they are in the same general world, there doesn't seem to be much overlap, as each are the retelling of a different fairy tale. I totally plan on reading them all, but not in order.

[Lisa]

Shanna is picking up my copy of The Snow Queen from the library later on today. As it is a Hans Christian Anderson tale, I could have read it from my anthology, but in order to save the weight on my hands, I chose a version from the library that is only The Snow Queen. It might be interesting to see if this is like The Nutcracker and varies by the version chosen.

[Cheryl]

The novel is only avl. as an audiobook at my libraries. But I have read several other retellings of Andersen's story. If y'all want, I could make annotated list here.

[Lisa]

Cheryl, I could only find the audiobook on Hoopla from my libraries too, but since I had Amazon credit I chose to actually buy this one or my kindle. I think listening to it would be fine, though. I have read many retellings of various fairy tales, but most of them seem to be other than Anderson's for some reason.

[Kyle]

Now having read the first two books, I'm confident saying that it isn't going to make a significant difference if you don't read them first.

A quick spoiler-free sum-up: The first book involves a Princess Tournament, so we meet a lot of the princesses even if we don't learn much about them yet, including Celine who will be our main character in the third book. Though we don't learn much about her other than she has sailed across the sea from a foreign land and she is oldest of the princesses at eighteen.

In the epilogue we learn that two of the even more minor character Princesses Emmeline and Giselle (and Prince Oliver) have all invited Celine back to their increasingly-frozen home kingdom of Eldon. The only notable important thing we learn about Emmeline, Giselle, and Oliver is that they are observably lacking in expressive emotions (they are all rather icy you could say!)

Book two only mentions Celine a couple times, and it's just to say that she has yet to depart for Eldon though will do so soon and recounting an incident in the Princess Tournament, but she is not part of the story at all.

I do not expect either of the main characters from the first two books (or their respective princely love interests) to appear in book three at all except as maybe a throwaway line like there was for Celine in book two.

[Adriel]

That's such a great sum-up! I can't get ahold of them without buying them, but have rented the Snow Queen from the library.

[Kyle]

One thing I just thought of that may be an interesting tidbit linking these books:

In the second book, which is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, we learn that each of the royal families in this land were gifted a magic mirror by their fairy godmothers which have been passed down through their generations. In the Beauty and the Beast retelling, Beast uses his to see the world/people outside his castle.

But I know in the Anderson Snow Queen tale, a magical mirror is shattered into a million pieces and those shards inflict evil/iciness where they end up. And the fourth book is a Snow White retelling, which is another fairy tale featuring a magic mirror (Magic mirrors seem to be somewhat popular items in fairy tales).

Anyway, I just thought that was interesting and may be another way the books end up interconnecting themselves.

[Lisa]

Thank you, Kyle! That is a great summary.

[Gem , Belle]

I could only get my hands on an audiobook, I've completed listening to the first nine chapters.

So far... please use spoiler alerts so we don't ruin the book for the others...

What do you think the gift will be that the fairy godmother gave to Celine? Celine's only information is "fire."

Do you have any guess or idea about what is going on in Eldon?

[Bonnie]

I'm curious as to how "A Crown of Snow and Ice" compares to the original fairy tale. A review of the original is on my list.

[Lisa]

I still have no idea what is causing the apathy in Eldon. (view spoiler)[I have just gotten to the part where they meet the man from the hidden village in the mountains where the mirror was taken long ago. It might provide a means to break the "curse", but since the mirror was stolen very long ago, it doesn't seem that is the cause of the apathy. (hide spoiler)]
Celine's gift from her godmother is evidencing in multiple ways.

[Gem , Belle]

I've finished Parts 1 and 2.

I knew (view spoiler)[there was something more going on in that village than it appeared on the surface. The final sentence is - we serve the Snow Queen. Enter the Snow Queen stage right. /spoiler>

This is getting exciting. (hide spoiler)]

[Lisa]

Exactly, Gem.
I still find it so very interesting that in the original Hans Christian Anderson tale, the Snow Queen is not really the villain, but in most retellings, or even books such as Narnia, which have a Snow Queen, she is definitely the villain.

[Gem , Belle]

I should be finished with this book tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Snow Queen is portrayed.

[Lisa]

I think you will enjoy that part, Gem. It didn't disappoint.

[Gem , Belle]

Lisa wrote: "I think you will enjoy that part, Gem. It didn't disappoint."

Awesome.

[Gem , Belle]

I finished! I enjoyed that book. The narrator got on my nerves on occasion because of the way she read one of the characters... it was whiney. But overall I enjoyed the book and the author's writing style.

Lisa wrote: "I still find it so very interesting that in the original Hans Christian Anderson tale, the Snow Queen is not really the villain, but in most retellings, or even books such as Narnia, which have a Snow Queen, she is definitely the villain."

I admit I've always wondered about that. I'm not what the allure is that makes this character a target for eviling.

[Lisa]

Could be that a lot of people consider snow and ice deadly, so therefore must be evil.

[Kyle]

Nice queens tend to grow/nurture things (and generally not make things covered in snow and ice). Plus, snow/ice/cold isn't very good at being nurturing.

I'm sure a story could be made where a good queen wants to spread snow across the land, but it seems much easier to have an evil queen do something like that.

[Gem , Belle]

Lisa wrote: "Could be that a lot of people consider snow and ice deadly, so therefore must be evil."

I never thought of that.