Stealing Snow Review

** Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in return for an honest review.

3 stars!!! I found this to be an average retelling of the "Snow Queen". The story starts off with Snow being in a mental institution. Here, we find that she is in love with a boy named Bale. However, when she kisses him, he becomes violent and is taken away from her. She then meets a strange boy dressed as an orderly who tells her that she actually belongs in another world called "Algid". The story then progresses into how she escapes from the asylum and makes her way to this magical place where she finds out that she is the "lost princess". The worldbuilding was practically non existent in this story. A couple of sentences are given but it is up to the reader to fill in the blanks as to how Algid really looks like. I would have preferred more immersive writing considering this is a fairytale story. The author had a lot of room to be descriptive if she wanted to. I also wish there was a map of the Kingdom so we could see where places where situated in terms of each other. The magic system was intriguing but could have been developed more. The story has more of an adventure vibe to it than that of a fantasy. I didn't mind this exactly but since the POV was in first person, I felt that the writer compromised on emotion. The MC Snow comes across as very naive. For a girl who goes to a strange land, she hardly questions anything. She just lets everyone walk over her. I found that excessively annoying. Snow is also extremely selfish. She is constantly told of her purpose but instead is just focused on her own stupid agenda. She comes across as very cold and unrelatable. I also didn't like the whole love geometry thing going on. It really dumbed down the chemistry between the characters. And honestly I can't say I am shipping anyone because all her "love interests" are so bland. And guess what she is attracted to all three in a couple of minutes after meeting them. So realistic...Please!!! With regards to the other characters, a fair amount of them are introduced but none are very memorable. So I can't say much. The only thing I did like was the plot pace. It moves fairly quickly and I did like that the story moved places. I liked that there was a fair bit of action and there are some pretty good revelations along the way especially towards the end of the novel. We do get instances of deception and betrayal. I especially liked the beginning of the story when Snow was at the asylum. It would have been nice to see more from that angle instead of her escaping to another Kingdom. But it did remind me of like a twisted version of "Alice in Wonderland" which is something I really enjoyed. Overall, the book was an okay one time read. Hopefully, the second one will be way better than this one. I look forward to seeing how the author straightens out the kinks within the story.

#youngadult #DaniellePaige #retellings #fairytale #magic #romance