Winterspell

BOOK REVIEW

Title: Winterspell

Author: Claire Legrand

Date Published: September 30, 2014

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Page Count: 464

Rating: ★★★★

SYNOPSIS:

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 not human. 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

MY THOUGHTS:

Let me start off by saying I believe this is one of those books that either you love or you hate there's no inbetween, and I have to say I really enjoyed the overall story.  This book is centered around a girl named Clara that lives in New York with her Father the Mayor, her sister, and her Godfather. After her mothers death Clara's father shuts down and resources to alcohol to grieve, which leads Clara to sneak off and start to secretly train with her godfather. In this training sessions  Clara encounters a statue of a man whom she starts to confide her secrets with,  but as if the death of her mother is not enough , an old and very powerful Dr. Victor (which I believe the author made him a little too much of a perv) wants to ask for her hand in marriage.

But on Christmas Eve her godfather comes in like a madman and on a very important political party nonetheless to save her life. While her godfather is mumbling like a madman the most magical thing happens her statue comes to life, Who happens to be a prince that was put under a spell by Queen a Anise a powerful faery that has taken over his kingdom. During all this chaos faerys that Anise has sent to find the prince take Clara's father into this magical world instead. Clara and the Prince Nicholas have no choice but to go after them to safe her father, but when Nicholas arrives to his kingdom he is surprised to see that nothing is as he left it.

I gave this book 4 stars out of 5 because even though I really enjoyed the book there was some things I was not happy with.  To start of it took me a while to get into the book I found the beginning to be very boring and slow and I almost gave up on it (but I'm glad I didn't).  Another thing that bothered me from the first few chapters was the pervy Dr. Victor that was after Clara. Also the ending was not satisfying for me. I do believe as of right now this book is a standalone, and the ending left me with a lot of questions about Clara and Nicholas. I think this book hooked me when I got to chapter 8, thats when all the action and magical things began, after that chapter I couldn't put it down (I think I read it in one sitting). The author had so many twists, as soon as I believed I had everything figured out the author did a complete 360 on me and had me believing a whole new thing. I loved that I couldn't predict what was coming next. Also I loved Nicholas! I love his character development and how sweet he was toward Clara. Overall I do wish this book was a series because I could not get enough of Nicholas (yes, I know I'm obsessed with a fictional character). In another note I do believe this book is not for everyone, like I said in the beginning either you love it or you hate it there's no inbetween in  my opinion. 

-SandraTheBookWorm