Title: Gathering Frost
Author: Kaitlyn Davis
Publisher/Year: CreateSpace 2/4/15
Length: 306 Pages
Series: Once Upon a Curse #1
Overview
Will the prince’s kiss be enough to revive her frozen heart? Don’t miss GATHERING FROST, a dystopian romance from bestselling author Kaitlyn Davis that reimagines the classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.
“I wish I could say I was the hero of the story. A resister. A rebel. Someone who lived to bring an end to the queen who stole my childhood–my mother, my life, my very world. But I’m not. I’m not the good guy. I’m the one who puts the good guys in their graves.”
Jade was only a little girl when the earthquake struck. Before her eyes, half of New York City disappeared, replaced by a village that seemed torn out of a storybook. Horses and carriages. Cobblestone streets. A towering castle. And, above all, a queen with the magical ability to strip emotions away.
Ten years later and Jade has forgotten what it is to feel, to care…even to love. Working as a member of the queen’s guard, she spends most of her time on the city wall staring at the crumbling skyscrapers of old New York. But everything changes when the queen’s runaway son, Prince Asher, returns. Under his relentless taunts, her blood begins to boil. Under his piercing gaze, her heart begins to flutter. And the more her icy soul begins to thaw, the more Jade comes to question everything she’s ever known–and, more importantly, whose side she’s really on.
My Thoughts
I’m a pretty big fan of fairy tale adaptations – so think the Cinder books with a dystopian twist and that’s what we get here. It all starts in New York City on the day of a huge earthquake and it’s not just that the plates move and crevices emerged, but a castle from another realm appears and things go from normal to interesting really quick. Jade – who is just a small child when this happens is wood by a princess who then ices her heart over and then our story really begins.
What we learn in this story is that the castle that has emerged is Kardenia – which is a magical land under the rule of a Queen who has powers to take away emotions of anyone she chooses to get them to do her bidding. Those who are under her spell really have no chance of anything else but the life that she wants for them. Jade has always been a bit tougher though – and well, we see that her strength is what gets her into trouble and then into a place where she’s given a role to bring someone back.
That someone is Asher, the queen’s son who ran away years before, and the story from there is one that takes us across both doing what’s right for yourself to opening yourself up to doing what may be right for someone else.
As part of Jade’s job – she’s been asked to be captured by the rebels – the side that Asher is on, and in doing that, she has the chance to see what life is outside Kardenia. Asher brings her books to read and games to pass her time because he’s developed a sweet spot for her, and well, it’s in these stories that we see the element of fairytale come through even more. It’s the story of Sleeping Beauty that rings closest to Jade and as we see this story progress – we see many parallels.
So what we get here from our author is a sweet story of the fantasy bits and young adult coming of age. There’s sweet romance going on, but will it last or will it be more Romeo / Juliet style. i think that you need to really invest in this story to find out. I like the role that Jade takes and only hope that her ending is a happy one. The nice thing here is that we’re given a big twist at the end, and a journey that we thought was complete is just beginning and it’s getting so much more complicated.
On that note – happy sunday all and i’ll be back soon!