Book Blurb
The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor's ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother's murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.
Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.
Her home is destroyed, her father abducted--by beings distinctly nothuman. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they're to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets--and a need she can't define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won't leave Cane unscathed--if she leaves at all.
Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.
Links
Toot's Review by Stacy Sabala
Clara Stole lost her mother a year ago when she was violently murdered. Her father was the head of Concordia, the city’s governing group. They were also extremely corrupted. Clara has always wondered if the group had her mother killed for her accusations of corruption.
Her godfather has been convincing Clara to fight like her mother did. Her father is starting to lose favor with Concordia and Clara knows it is only a matter of time before something happens to him as a result. Her only option is becoming a criminal. She has to take the lessons Godfather taught her to break in and retrieve the information she needs, the truth behind her mother’s death.
She ends up breaking into the head offices of Concordia. In the leader’s office she finds more than she bargains for. Her life changes forever. She is introduced to a new world and the truth about Godfather and her mother.
When her father is kidnapped, Clara is forced to go after him to save all those she loves. The trials she encounters pushes her to her limits and she has no idea who to trust.
This book deals with the world of faery and the author describes the world in great detail. The storyline was very unique. I liked the difference of the story and the half-breed concept. It clearly provided a new spin to an already popular subject.
However Clara was not my favorite female character. She really annoyed me for most of the book. If the story wasn’t an interest to me, I probably wouldn’t have finished it. I got to the point I didn’t really like her. She came across weaker than I liked.
The relationship between Anise and Clara was confusing and almost creepy. I couldn’t figure out what Anise wanted from her. Did she want a friend, a lover, a partner, an enemy she controlled, or a pet? It was so undefined that I was constantly questioning more of the story than I probably needed too. So with that in mind I give this book a 3 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment