l1brarygirl's review against another edition
3.0
This book has got a lot in it! It is based on the story of the Snow Queen, a fairy whose heart was made of ice - making her unable to love. She goes around stealing men and kissing them numb. They forget their families and lives.
Pearce's story gives us Kai (the guy to run away with the Snow Queen) and his love, Ginny. Kai lives with his grandmother, Dalia, who had a run-in with the Snow Queen as a girl when her friend Michael disappeared. She warns Kai about mythical creatures and doesn't trust even Ginny. When she dies, a mysterious girl named Mora (aka the SNOW QUEEN) shows up and convinces Kai to leave with her. Before this though, Kai is changed into a heartless guy who says hateful things to Ginny.
Of course Ginny doesn't believe him and decides to take off after him (stealing dead Grandma Dalia's car) armed with Grandma's "recipe" book which includes spells and descriptions of the gruesome creatures she warned them about.
She runs into the Fenris (aka wolves) and is saved by Lucas, who can track and find anyone. He brings Ginny home to his wife, Ella, who was Miss Tennessee and is very rich. She cracked me up! Loved her character.
Her adventures also lead her to a bad of Travellers (think gypsies) where we meet their Queen, Brigit and her daughter, the Princess of Kentucky, Flannery. Flannery is awesome and fierce.
She is so blunt and I love it! And insightful too:
We have the tie-ins to the previous books:
We still have the Fenris that are in all three previous books - Sisters Red, Sweetly, and Fathomless.
And we also have some aspect of the mermaids we learned about in Fathomless.
I enjoyed the story very much and I loved the adventure. There is a bit of a lull in the middle, but it is setting the scene for the friendship that blossoms between Ginny and Flannery.
Recommend for all lovers of fairy-tale retellings and those that have read the previous books in this series.
Got to include my favorite quote, spoken by the lovely Ella:
It really describes the real reason for Ginny's quest and shows how she begins to realize who she is.
This review is also published on myblog.
"A woman all in white with hair so blond it almost matched the snow...the girl, as she wasn't much older than Dalia - glanced back toward the door, her eyes the same blue-gray as the snow-filled sky. Her lips curved ever so slightly into a gentle, elegant smile." - Cold Spell, 7
Pearce's story gives us Kai (the guy to run away with the Snow Queen) and his love, Ginny. Kai lives with his grandmother, Dalia, who had a run-in with the Snow Queen as a girl when her friend Michael disappeared. She warns Kai about mythical creatures and doesn't trust even Ginny. When she dies, a mysterious girl named Mora (aka the SNOW QUEEN) shows up and convinces Kai to leave with her. Before this though, Kai is changed into a heartless guy who says hateful things to Ginny.
Of course Ginny doesn't believe him and decides to take off after him (stealing dead Grandma Dalia's car) armed with Grandma's "recipe" book which includes spells and descriptions of the gruesome creatures she warned them about.
She runs into the Fenris (aka wolves) and is saved by Lucas, who can track and find anyone. He brings Ginny home to his wife, Ella, who was Miss Tennessee and is very rich. She cracked me up! Loved her character.
Her adventures also lead her to a bad of Travellers (think gypsies) where we meet their Queen, Brigit and her daughter, the Princess of Kentucky, Flannery. Flannery is awesome and fierce.
"Don't worry, I won't let them kill you...If you need to be killed, I promise I'll off you myself." - Cold Spell, 175
She is so blunt and I love it! And insightful too:
"What kind of leader would I be, though, if I got married just to hold on to the crown tighter? Nah. If I'm not queen enough on my own, then...maybe I'm just not queen enough." - Cold Spell, 193
We have the tie-ins to the previous books:
We still have the Fenris that are in all three previous books - Sisters Red, Sweetly, and Fathomless.
"I get it. The Fenris stole you; they stole your life. But that doesn't mean you can do the same thing to others." - Cold Spell, 294
And we also have some aspect of the mermaids we learned about in Fathomless.
"Madeline. Her old name, her human name. In the ocean, she'd been Ry; as a human, she'd been Madeline, and now she was ..." - Cold Spell, 143
I enjoyed the story very much and I loved the adventure. There is a bit of a lull in the middle, but it is setting the scene for the friendship that blossoms between Ginny and Flannery.
Recommend for all lovers of fairy-tale retellings and those that have read the previous books in this series.
Got to include my favorite quote, spoken by the lovely Ella:
"People who don't do anything annoy me. People who don't do anything yet excite me, because they can potentially do everything." - Cold Spell, 108
It really describes the real reason for Ginny's quest and shows how she begins to realize who she is.
This review is also published on myblog.
isileebee's review
1.0
Awful. Some of the laziest writing I've read in a while. A lot of things in this whole series go unanswered... How could Mora make her own Wolf-People? What significance was the broken mirror other than to vaguely tie it into the original fairy tale?
DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE IRISH TRAVELLERS.
Irish Traveller: "You don't understand our culture, you think we're all theives and vagabonds!"
Literally the previous chapter:
Irish travellers break into a car, steal the contents, abduct a girl, hold her captive and get into a fist fight with each other...
Good representation doesn't come from portraying stereotypes as endearing.
There was also the usual Jackson Pearce trademark "Not Like Other Girls" crap in here too. Same old make-up shaming and "let's go book shopping not clothes shopping! That's for stupid, vapid girls!"
I'm glad I'm done with these books that have been sitting on my shelves for almost 10 years. I know all of this social commentary is irrelevant these days but these types of books were very prevalent not too long ago, and they will have influenced how young women view each other. Putting each other in boxes with labels and vilifying each other because some like make up, some like video games instead of focussing on ACTUALLY bad shit going on in the world.
DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE IRISH TRAVELLERS.
Irish Traveller: "You don't understand our culture, you think we're all theives and vagabonds!"
Literally the previous chapter:
Irish travellers break into a car, steal the contents, abduct a girl, hold her captive and get into a fist fight with each other...
Good representation doesn't come from portraying stereotypes as endearing.
There was also the usual Jackson Pearce trademark "Not Like Other Girls" crap in here too. Same old make-up shaming and "let's go book shopping not clothes shopping! That's for stupid, vapid girls!"
I'm glad I'm done with these books that have been sitting on my shelves for almost 10 years. I know all of this social commentary is irrelevant these days but these types of books were very prevalent not too long ago, and they will have influenced how young women view each other. Putting each other in boxes with labels and vilifying each other because some like make up, some like video games instead of focussing on ACTUALLY bad shit going on in the world.
inkylibrarian's review
3.0
Be warned, this review contains more spoilers than most of my reviews. Read at your own risk.
Pearce’s Cold Spell is a re-telling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Snow Queen. The basic plotline remains the same. A boy and a girl are good friends. The boy is bewitched and stolen away by the Snow Queen. The girl sets off and endures numerous trials to rescue the boy. Boy and girl live happily ever after. Cold Spell adds a few additional elements, including werewolves, but sticks to the original plotline overall. Ginny and Kai are a fairly run of the mill teenage couple to begin with, madly in love with one another and assuming that the future will be a bright and beautiful thing as long as they have each other. Enter Mora aka the Snow Queen and suddenly Kai is bewitched and away and no one but Ginny finds this terribly odd. So off she sets on her rescue mission.
Ginny begins the story not too far off the mark from what we see with many teenage girl stereotypes. She’s madly in love with Kai and much of her identity is wrapped up in her relationship with him. Kai is an extremely talented violinist and their plans revolve strictly around his future as a violinist. Ginny doesn’t have much real personality and she repeatedly mentions that she has no real talents or skills, nothing that makes her special. As someone who has taught high school girls before, I find this to be a disturbing concept. There is a multitude of stories out there, in books, tv, and film, that perpetrate this idea that girls and women are dependent on their significant other for their identity. Pearce though does seem to play this up intentionally to help highlight Ginny’s growth throughout the novel.
As Ginny embarks on her rescue mission she encounters a number of helpers along the way. Lucas and Ella, a werewolf tracker and his gorgeous but also kind and humble wife, help teach Ginny the importance of asking for help when needed and offer her a glimpse at what a family can be. Flannery, a strong willed heir to her mother’s throne, offers an interesting contrast to Ginny with her flamboyant personality and abundance of confidence. But like Ginny she is also trying to figure out who she is and where she fits in the world. All these people end up helping Ginny with her quest to save Kai and ultimately end up being the difference between her success and failure. This creation of community is an important one and one of the better parts of the novel because it highlights some of the growth Ginny is experiencing even as much of the narrative relives her past with Kai and how their relationship developed.
Throughout the course of the quest Ginny really does come into herself and she’s very aware of this. She specifically mentions at one point that she realizes that she can stand on her own and that she can exist without Kai. She would be sad to lose him but she begins to realize that the loss of Kai is not, in fact, the loss of her. I will admit, at this point, I did kind of hope that Ginny would rescue Kai and then ditch his ass to go be on her own. Which, while less romantic, I think is a storyline that we need to see more of in all types of literature. By the end of the novel and it’s epilogue, Ginny is a much more defined individual who has found a place in the world for herself that doesn’t revolve solely around Kai which I think is a positive ending. So in the overall, it’s a pretty good re-telling of The Snow Queen and an enjoyable read. Worth checking out if you enjoy fairytales and quest type stories.
Pearce’s Cold Spell is a re-telling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Snow Queen. The basic plotline remains the same. A boy and a girl are good friends. The boy is bewitched and stolen away by the Snow Queen. The girl sets off and endures numerous trials to rescue the boy. Boy and girl live happily ever after. Cold Spell adds a few additional elements, including werewolves, but sticks to the original plotline overall. Ginny and Kai are a fairly run of the mill teenage couple to begin with, madly in love with one another and assuming that the future will be a bright and beautiful thing as long as they have each other. Enter Mora aka the Snow Queen and suddenly Kai is bewitched and away and no one but Ginny finds this terribly odd. So off she sets on her rescue mission.
Ginny begins the story not too far off the mark from what we see with many teenage girl stereotypes. She’s madly in love with Kai and much of her identity is wrapped up in her relationship with him. Kai is an extremely talented violinist and their plans revolve strictly around his future as a violinist. Ginny doesn’t have much real personality and she repeatedly mentions that she has no real talents or skills, nothing that makes her special. As someone who has taught high school girls before, I find this to be a disturbing concept. There is a multitude of stories out there, in books, tv, and film, that perpetrate this idea that girls and women are dependent on their significant other for their identity. Pearce though does seem to play this up intentionally to help highlight Ginny’s growth throughout the novel.
As Ginny embarks on her rescue mission she encounters a number of helpers along the way. Lucas and Ella, a werewolf tracker and his gorgeous but also kind and humble wife, help teach Ginny the importance of asking for help when needed and offer her a glimpse at what a family can be. Flannery, a strong willed heir to her mother’s throne, offers an interesting contrast to Ginny with her flamboyant personality and abundance of confidence. But like Ginny she is also trying to figure out who she is and where she fits in the world. All these people end up helping Ginny with her quest to save Kai and ultimately end up being the difference between her success and failure. This creation of community is an important one and one of the better parts of the novel because it highlights some of the growth Ginny is experiencing even as much of the narrative relives her past with Kai and how their relationship developed.
Throughout the course of the quest Ginny really does come into herself and she’s very aware of this. She specifically mentions at one point that she realizes that she can stand on her own and that she can exist without Kai. She would be sad to lose him but she begins to realize that the loss of Kai is not, in fact, the loss of her. I will admit, at this point, I did kind of hope that Ginny would rescue Kai and then ditch his ass to go be on her own. Which, while less romantic, I think is a storyline that we need to see more of in all types of literature. By the end of the novel and it’s epilogue, Ginny is a much more defined individual who has found a place in the world for herself that doesn’t revolve solely around Kai which I think is a positive ending. So in the overall, it’s a pretty good re-telling of The Snow Queen and an enjoyable read. Worth checking out if you enjoy fairytales and quest type stories.
starlesscircus's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.25
nicolet2018's review
3.0
I was excited to read this as I adore Sisters Red.
As most probably know, this is a retelling of "The Snow Queen". We have the pair Kai and Ginny. Childhood friends turned couple and Mora the one who comes between. I admit I pictured Mora as Elsa from Frozen. It must have been a challenge to reimagine the characters and the setting.
Mora was not who I thought she was. No spoilers though.
Honestly I felt that how Lucas and Ella took Ginny in was unrealistic. I certainly like the twist in who Mora was. Ginny annoyed me at first because everything was about Kai but she grew in the course of the book. Found herself and strength. I like the determination she had. The Travellers were a nice addition and how they are like gypsies. The characters were not one dimensional. Most importantly, I liked that I got to know why Mora did what she did and that she is a insecure little girl on the inside.
I think that the fact that Ginny and Kai learned to live apart in the end was great. Often for these stories, the couple want to be glued to each other and obsess about each other.
I liked this. Definitely for fans of Sisters Red and Fathomless.
As most probably know, this is a retelling of "The Snow Queen". We have the pair Kai and Ginny. Childhood friends turned couple and Mora the one who comes between. I admit I pictured Mora as Elsa from Frozen. It must have been a challenge to reimagine the characters and the setting.
Mora was not who I thought she was. No spoilers though.
Spoiler
There are links from this book to Sisters Red and Fathomless. Lucas is Silas's brother and he is married to weathly, kind Ella.Honestly I felt that how Lucas and Ella took Ginny in was unrealistic. I certainly like the twist in who Mora was. Ginny annoyed me at first because everything was about Kai but she grew in the course of the book. Found herself and strength. I like the determination she had. The Travellers were a nice addition and how they are like gypsies. The characters were not one dimensional. Most importantly, I liked that I got to know why Mora did what she did and that she is a insecure little girl on the inside.
I think that the fact that Ginny and Kai learned to live apart in the end was great. Often for these stories, the couple want to be glued to each other and obsess about each other.
I liked this. Definitely for fans of Sisters Red and Fathomless.
scarie_'s review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
teaandbooklover's review
4.0
Wonderful storytelling of an old tale.
This was a pretty different but fun read for me. In the very beginning I was interested and kept reading long into the night. The characters and situations kept me guessing until the end just what would happen.
This was a pretty different but fun read for me. In the very beginning I was interested and kept reading long into the night. The characters and situations kept me guessing until the end just what would happen.
jaymeshaw's review
3.0
Okay, I liked this one a LOT better than Fathomless... It just seemed more exciting. Also, it fulfilled some of the unanswered questions I had from Fathomless, even though they are supposed to be stand alone novels.
savannac's review
4.0
I began reading this book with no previous opinion on the author or having read any previous books by Pearce. This book is simply great. Pearce knows exactly what he is doing. There is no jumping around apart from the casual memory. Pearce includes a prologue which is extremely helpful throughout the first 100 pages or so. Once well into the story, you will begin to fear for the characters and things will start to click in your brain. I was very hesitant to complete this story because I feel like there was no true end, like the book could have kept going on for several hundred pages more.
I understand this book is part of a 'series' but I have not read the first three and going into this story without previous knowledge was fine, I recommend reading Cold Spell even if you have not read anything else by Jackson Pearce.
I understand this book is part of a 'series' but I have not read the first three and going into this story without previous knowledge was fine, I recommend reading Cold Spell even if you have not read anything else by Jackson Pearce.
foreveryoungadult's review
Graded By: Mandy C.
Cover Story: In-Flight Entertainment
BFF Charm: Heck Yes
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Talky Talk: Fairy Tale Thriller
Bonus Factor: Mysterious Loner Lady
Anti-Bonus Factor: Cold Weather
Relationship Status: Just Getting Warmed Up
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: In-Flight Entertainment
BFF Charm: Heck Yes
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Talky Talk: Fairy Tale Thriller
Bonus Factor: Mysterious Loner Lady
Anti-Bonus Factor: Cold Weather
Relationship Status: Just Getting Warmed Up
Read the full book report here.