Okay, here's the deal. When did people become "that" instead of "who?" I hear this on the radio on the TV ( and shouldn't news reporters know better )? and unless my memory is wrong, have even read it in places. Why? How hard is it to remember that people require a "who"? And here's another--myself instead of me. My boss did this all this time and it drove me crazy. Are we so afraid to be in the spotlight that we have to say, "So-and-so and myself did such-and-so?"
Disney Hyperion
October 14, 014
Hardback 336 pages
YA Sci-Fi/Fairytale Retelling
Personal Copy
To Buy Links- Amazon/ Kindle/ Audible/ BN/ Book Depository/ Indiebound
Goodreads -Princess Snow is missing.
Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back-but that's assuming she wants to return at all.
Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.
When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane's arrival was far from accidental, and she's pulled into the heart of a war she's risked everything to avoid.
In her enthralling debut, R.C. Lewis weaves the tale of a princess on the run from painful secrets . . . and a poisonous queen. With the galaxy's future-and her own-in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.
Confession
First, I am not completely giving up on blogging. I've just got a lot of new things going on and this has always been a hobby so it's the first thing to take a back seat. I do miss you all. Secondly, I have not read The Lunar Chronicles. I have them, of course, but I haven't read them. I think most of my bookshelves are lined with books I haven't read yet. But after a particularly hard day I hit the bookstore and found this one that I couldn't pass up. Have you read it?
Review
I didn't know this was a fairytale retelling or even science fiction until I was hooked. But that didn't take too long. This book immediately sweeps you away from this world into the world of Thanda and the tough living Essie makes of fighting and repairing robots for the miners. It was cold and dreary while I was reading this book so I could immediately feel the world of Thanda. No hope is the best way to describe it. It's the last stop to nowhere. Though I figured out who Essie was pretty quickly I had no idea how she had gotten where she was and why (except for the original story line).
Then Dane crashes into her world, literally, and everything changes. Dane seems innocent enough and likable. But Essie is cautious of anyone, especially strangers. She's always waited for the day when someone came looking for her. But Dane appears to be on the up and up. He just wants to free his people and beat the cruel rulers of Windsong, which happens to be Essie's home planet. He tries to enlist her help, but she wants nothing to do with it. Hoping her secret is safe, she helps to patch his shuttle and hopes to send him on his way. That's what she wants. Dane has another agenda.
The romance in the novel is what we all hope for, but seldom get. Essie is suspicious of Dane. Dane treats her as a hostage. But they slowly become friends and then into more. But it is slow. I wouldn't even call it a burn. There is a huge obstacle standing between their intimacy, one I never guessed at and had to think about before I came to terms with it being in the story. I couldn't decide why it felt like it was just thrown in there at the last minute. But then I went back to examine Essie's behavior and realized there were clues to this all along. In fact, I couldn't understand the hatred she had for this person, why she didn't trust him when it seemed he may have been a victim as well. But then this thing that happened, it explained her feelings and in the end made sense to me. I'm just surprised I didn't see the signs before the ending.
There are a lot of twists and turns in the novel. A lot of, "it's a small world after all," moments. And interesting world building. Dane and the inhabitants of his planet have an unusual ability, Essie has it as well though it doesn't come as easy for her. I like how it was introduced slowly, then explained and put into action. And the "stitching" has nothing to do with a needle and thread. I loved how R.C. Lewis used that word to describe what Essie did, bridging the original story of Snow White to this updated, unique spin on the story.
Though the ending was satisfying, it felt just a tad bit rushed. Some of the drama could have been drawn out. And I was left with a few questions. But I was so glad it was not a series. It was the perfect read overall. I highly recommend it for lovers of YA fiction with a bent towards Science Fiction, Paranormal Abilities and Fairytale Retellings. There is a romance in it as well for those of us that need a love story to make us happy! There is violence and some suggestion of attempted rape.
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