Book Review- Cold Spell

 Cold Spell by Jackson Pearce
♦publisher:  Little Brown
♦hardcover, 323 pages

♦Release date: November 05, 2013
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: from publisher for honest review

♦rating:♥♥♥♥

For Ginny and Kai, their love was one made from fairytales. Not knowing life without each other, their childhood friendship grew into an inseparable love.

 However, that all changed the day the snow came in. A snow, sharp and icy, piercing the sky and taking with it more than the warm autumn sun. With Kai’s grandmother unexpectedly dying the moment the snow came in, it left him suddenly alone and uncertain. Until an unexpected stranger showed up to save him, pale and beautiful like the snow, pulling him away from the love of Ginny.  

Quickly, Kai begins to forget Ginny.  When he misses the chance to meet Ginny on their secret rooftop garden, Ginny goes alone to find solace in the beauty of the snowcapped roses.

Yet, when Ginny appeared on the rooftop, standing there waiting for her was the scene of the beautiful woman, pale as the snow, covered in white fur pressing her lips to Kai’s.  In a flash, Ginny’s world turns upside down, as the winter beauty steals Kai’s heart.

In the blink of an eye, Kai disappears with the phantom lady. Lost and nowhere to turn, all Ginny can think of is Kai’s grandmother’s last words, “Don’t go with the girl.” Realizing that even though her hatred was always directed at Ginny, maybe this one time the grandmother didn’t mean her. With the only relic of her childhood with Kai, Ginny grabs the grandmother’s old and treasured cook book not filled with heirloom recipes, but odd ramblings, pictures and charms. Realizing that all of the crazy mutterings and legends Ginny grew up hearing from Kai’s grandmother, maybe weren’t the ramblings of and old woman but truth in disguise. Giving Ginny just enough reassurance to venture off on a quest of a lifetime- to go and reclaim her love from the Snow Queen. Embarking on a journey for unquestionable love, wondering if she will find him in time, or will the magical pull of the Snow Queen turn Kai into something that can’t be changed back?

While many lessons were taught along the way, help comes from the unlikeliness of places. When Ginny ends up on an adventure all her own, she soon learns that she can in fact defend and stand on her own two feet. All without the support of Kai. Leading her to gypsy camps and werewolf hunters, Ginny learns the world she once thought she knew, was only a disguise. It is a world a lot crueler and colder, surrounded by monsters and thieves. Yet, through it all, with the kindest of spirits and faithfulness of strangers, Ginny finally lands the family she never thought she would have.

While encapsulating the beauty of a snow glistened legend, Jackson Pearce, once again breaths a breathless frost upon this reimagined tale. Giving life and humanity to an evil queen, finalizing her series of Fairytale Retellings, with a dose of humanity, splendor and unpredictably.