A Crown of Snow and Ice by Melanie Cellier (Book Review)

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.

SOURCE 

Let’s talk about the retelling part of the book first, first of all, no, this is not based on Frozen, to be fair, I’d say Frozen itself was a retelling/ reimagining of the original fairytale. Honestly, Snow Queen is a fairytale I’m somewhat indifferent about, despite being a very popular fairytale, I did not even remember the setting, I had to search for it, which itself shows that it did not have the same effect on me as say, Sleeping Beauty. Cellier did a good job retelling it, she weaved a story with some of the important elements of the tale like the robber girl and of course the final confrontation with the snow queen.

I was really invested in the story and it invoked strong emotions, there were moments when I had butterflies in my stomach, and then there was also a moment when I had to stop reading for a moment because a character did something stupid, but here is the thing, in a story, there are two things that make or break it, first the characters, whom I loved and cared about, I’ll come to how nicely they were done later, but they were carrying the book more than the plot for me, which is the second thing that matters, it was not exactly boring just the pacing isn’t the best the starting and the end were alright but the middle dragged, and the plot really relied on the godmother’s help, like really relied on it, and funnily enough from Celine’s story I expected the exact opposite, I just felt it could have been better, this is the reason there was a wrestle between 3.5 stars and 4 stars in my head, but I eventually settled on 3.75 stars.

Coming to the characters,

We first meet Celine in The Princess Game, then in The Princess Search, and again in A Dance of Silver and Shadow, and while I don’t remember clearly, she was most probably mentioned in A Tale of Beauty and the Beast too.

So, you get it right, she is a very well-known character, she is confident, impulsive, an adventure-seeker, and also a young heroine, who has already seen one coup, one rebellion, and a deadly tourney in her some 18-19 years, and then her ‘gift’ comes along, as she finally gets her own adventure, The Celine the readers know, is very resourceful, in fact, she was part of a spy network, so imagine our shock and hers, when she is reduced to just a beautiful princess without her ‘gift’, for example, the old Celine wasn’t someone who would stand shocked in face of danger. She struggles to find herself as she was earlier before her ‘gift’, but the ‘gift’ changed her in many ways, so she ends up questioning her own resourcefulness, which in turn pushes her to make more impulsive decisions, more because she is already a do first think later person. Then finally she regains her confidence and belief in herself and accepts herself with her ‘gift’, it’s a wonderful arc that makes her very human and relatable.

I further liked how well the ‘gift’ fits her personality, the godmothers sure know what they are doing.

Prince Oliver, like all the crown princes in these, books takes his responsibilities seriously. I really liked him, I mean he managed to shock Celine out of all people, I don’t have a lot to say about him, to be honest, their interaction in the Snow Queen’s castle broke my heart and stitched it right back up. (Olivia Rodrigo please don’t sue me)

Their romance was so sweet, and there was quite a bit of tension at the start.

Absolutely loved Giselle and Cassandra, and I am so happy they have their own books.

There were themes of love, how twisted people can become due to sorrow, and self-acceptance, I particularly liked the second one, even though we hardly get a lot of book time for the main villain exactly like in the original fairytale, but her past really adds depth to her character, it makes her more unhinged, she was creepy, and self-acceptance as I said above while discussing Celine made for a great character arc.

Age: Tweens and up (some kissing and violence)

Melanie posts extras on her website and there is one for this one too, The Wedding. If you have read all the books and want to meet many of Celine’s siblings and her friends again, I highly recommend reading it.

This was a good read, could have been better, sweet romance, and amazing characters, you might like this more if you enjoy traveling and trekking reads, 3.75 stars.

The next one, Snow’s story, is a Snow White retelling, and I am excited to read Cellier’s twists on that one.

Bye!

Yours, 

A Fellow Bookworm