“A wish was made and born was a princess with not only Lips
as red as blood, skin as white as snow, and hair as black as ebony, but with
bravery and brains too”
A Dream of Ebony and White by Melanie Cellier is a retelling of
the timeless fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, a fantasy fiction. 4th
book of Beyond the Four Kingdoms series, which is the sequel series to The Four
Kingdoms series, I always say that for the best experience read the entire
thing in order. I will reiterate that suggestion but this
particular book I think is the most deserving of being labeled
‘can-be-read-as-standalone’ out of the first four books of this series at
least. Why? well for one, The protagonist was not first introduced in The Four
Kingdoms books, and the events of the other
books are not as closely connected to this one, and the connections that are there
are explained, so long thing short, for this one whether you have read the
entire series or not does not affect the reading experience.
PLOT
Snow
has always lived under the shadow of her cruel stepmother, with only her
beloved father and her childhood friend–the huntsman, Alexander–to make life
bearable. When her father dies, she should be crowned queen, but instead, she
finds herself fleeing for her life. With no allies, no skills, and no food, her
future could be over before it has truly begun.
But
there’s more at stake than just one life. If Snow can’t claim her throne, her
kingdom faces destruction. Snow has to make a choice: focus on her own salvation
or put everything on the line–even those she loves the most. And if she’s
going to succeed, Snow must fight the hardest battle of all, against her own
doubt and weakness, and gain new skills and strength she never imagined
possessing.
Alexander
is ready to help her. But if she lets him, the consequences might be more than
she can bear–because her heart is in as much jeopardy as the kingdom.
In
this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Snow must find her inner strength
in time to fight for her throne before it’s too late.
The plot was good, it was engaging and fast, and it didn’t
drag at all, I don’t remember any point where I felt bored, or wanted to skim
even. This is a retelling of the original Grimm Brothers fairytale, it has all
the important elements, hell it even has Snow White’s sweet and kind
personality for the protagonist. It had the poisoned items, like the apple and
the…If I tell you what would be the fun in it 😜.
But, as always Melanie made the tale her own, with unexpected twists, It was a
good take on Snow White, it even had court politics, I mean here Snow White is
not just hiding from her stepmother, she has to choose between a safe life or
stepping up to her role as crown princess, and we all know what the choice will
be, don’t we?
Coming to the characters,
Blanche (it’s such a pretty name) or
Snow for people close to her, has an amazing arc, she goes from a timid afraid
princess with basically no practical skills, to a regal queen, who knows who
she is and where she stands, is confident and resourceful, but she manages to
retain her kindness and compassion throughout. I love good characters with
believable arcs and she is one of them. Think about it, it makes complete sense
for a princess who has led a very sheltered and rather
isolated life and is just 16, to have trouble in the forest and be afraid, and
then she learns all the skills, but it isn’t overdone.
Something I liked was that she wasn’t naive, I would have
found it hard to believe that someone who has been through childhood with an evil
stepmother, and is a royal would have been naive or gullible, these things tend
to have a way of taking away naivety from people, plus that is not a desirable
quality in a future queen.
She made a(some) stupid decision(s), it was a moment of
vulnerability, that pretty much set the climax into motion, Honestly, I’m not
sure how I feel about it, I mean, I know people do out-of-character things when
they are emotional, it just felt a bit too out of character.
Alexander her love interest, was a bit confusing regarding his feelings, but that was intended as this was from Snow’s POV and she was confused too, other than that he was swoon-worthy, so loyal, and this was childhood best friends to lovers trope, in the flashback scenes too he was so cute, and the fact that most of the people around them weren’t surprised about the romantic developments makes it so much more adorable.
The ‘Dwarves’ were so cute 😍, and reading about Snow’s dynamics with them and their dynamic with each other was so much fun, the twist on the dwarves was such a nice one, and again I don’t want to spoil it, so I’m not going to go deeper.
The evil queen had a plausible backstory and thankfully didn’t want to kill Snow because she was prettier, but let me tell you the ending was so satisfying.
I loved how it went into the late king’s role in all this. Honestly, isn’t it a bit odd, that in fairytales men who had amazing first wives, meaning they were good judges of character, then go and marry women with questionable morals, who then make their daughters’ lives harder, somehow they are never called out for making such choices that lead to these hardships for their child as if they didn’t go and actually marry the ‘evil’ person, these men are even victimized, “Oh! he has such a bad wife, the poor guy” even though they actually made the choice and if we look at the even bigger picture and talk about the kings here, they need to be even more careful because this person is going to have power over the kingdom but is she capable of handling the responsibility?
This book in some ways was similar to The Princess Fugitive, from The Four Kingdoms series, the protagonists are so different, but still, their journeys of growth and success are similar, and even the love interests have a lot of similarities.
I think some themes here were, that parents aren’t perfect they are flawed too, and of course love, compassion, and loyalty.
A 13 and up age rating, for some violence and kissing.
Overall, it was a good book, the characters were good, the plot was engaging, and it had bestfriends to lovers, I’d give it 4.5 stars and it is re-readable.
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