Gathering Frost is a Romantic Fantasy retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I did not initially catch on that this was a retelling and I appreciate that the author made it so subtle and original. I enjoyed Jade’s inner monologue and found her to be a likable character. At some parts she has no emotions due to the Queen's curse so she can seem very cold, but that is to help the reader understand how terrible it is for the people stuck in the curse, living everyday like that. I found the world building was explained really well but not so elaborate that you couldn’t follow it. The story was interesting and kept me engaged for the entirety of the story. The other characters in the story are likable and generally good, explained but not overdone.

I listened to the audio version of this book and I enjoyed the narration. The narrator did a good job of changing her voice based on what Jade was feeling in that moment and not just having a monotone even when Jade was still “frozen”.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kaitlyn Davis, the author, for providing me with early access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

This book was self-published by Kaitlyn Davis in 2015, so it's been around for a while, and it has a whole series that stems from Gathering Frost as the first book. I'm grateful to receive the audiobook version, but I fear there was something vaguely off about the reading of the audiobook. I'm not picky with narrators, but something about the narrator for this book was quite jarring in itself.

Gathering Frost starts out with an interesting premise - the main character, along with the entire city of New York, has been put under an evil queen's spell when her kingdom takes over one day in an earthquake. There's a lot to explain, but unfortunately most of the worldbuilding is neglected in favour of the romance plotline.

That being said, the main character is given a reasonable character arc, learning about her emotions when her icy heart starts to thaw, and having to make difficult choices about her freedom versus her increasing pull to do what is right. But the timing of her emotions and her iciness is all too convenient, and I think it could have been investigated a lot more. There was so much more potential, but instead it became a cutesy romance book in which the main character unsurprisngly falls in love with the prince and breaks a curse.

It was done differently to Sleeping Beauty, and inverts a lot of the age-old tropes, for which it gets some credit. But on the other hand, it falls into the traps of a lot of tropes of its own.

I didn't love reading this, and it wasn't just because it was YA and it wasn't just because it was romance. It had room to improve, and I hope one day I read something that builds on the great idea that this book had. However, given the way the next book was introduced, I'm not sure that I can make myself read the sequels.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
This book is meant to be a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, however, it didn't really deliver as a retelling. I would have liked it more if it had not been so heavily tied to being a retelling. As a dystopian story, it was interesting due to the mix of the rise of magic and the decline of the "modern" world. It did follow a predictable path for YA and dystopia, but that didn't take away from the story too much. Overall, it is a good beginning to a series and I want to know if the rest of the books can live up to the retelling tag.

Thank you to netgalley for the advanced listening copy of gathering frost. This was modern day and started as a distopian which kind of didn't make sense.

Thank you netgalley for letting me review this book.

This is a dystopian retelling of sleeping beauty. I really enjoyed the plot line of this book.

Will feelings develop between the prince and Jade?

There were parts of this book where I found Jade to be annoying, but in the end I could understand why.

#netgalley
#gatheringfrost

While I was excited to listen to the book, although very well written and read, it didn't hold my interest as well as I had anticipated.

Jade is thrust into a New York that was thrust into looking like a fairytale village after an earthquake struck when she was young. After ten years she is working for the queen's guard and is sent to guard the prince, she can't stand him and he taunts and aggravates her. How is she supposed to protect this person she can't stand?

I may listen again at a later date to give it another try. I enjoyed the writing and descriptions of the fairytale village and creatures.

I was given the opportunity to listen to this title on audiobook by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Story time! So I've been sitting on this audiobook for a while, waiting until closer to June to listen because that's when the pub day is... I decided to go ahead and look at the book on Goodreads to mark it as "want to read".
Imagine my surprise when I see that I have already read the book...in 2021. So I go back to NetGalley, sure enough, pub date June 25, 2019
With that said, I really enjoyed this one! It's a YA dystopian vibe of a Sleeping Beauty retelling. I love this because Sleeping Beauty isn't as common with retellings. The author did an amazing job of putting her spin on this story!

This book was great! It starts out modern but soon becomes fantasy with fighting and a magical queen. The ending is not what I expected which is always a treat to have a surprise ending.

I enjoyed the story telling in this novel. The idea that a natural disaster of sorts can occur and part the barriers between a magical realm and our current day lives was a fun twist on a fantasy/dystopian/fairytale retelling mash-up. The story played heavily on the enemies to lovers trope; which i don't hate - but it felt a little too insta-love for me. The magic system could have been fleshed out a bit; I wanted to know more about how the magic worked and the attempted rebellions. The end of the book was a little predictable, but I did like the way the story was tying up nicely, until the cliffhanger at the end. There was no real setup to the continuation into a book 2, and it was a smack to the face that we just kinda got walloped with a "oh here's a big turn of events, end of book." I'll tune in for book 2, but I was a little salty at the cliffhanger!

Interesting book and an unexpected ending but I really enjoyed it!

I particularly liked the narrator of the audiobook and will be looking to listen to some of her other readings!

I received an arc audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Immediately upon starting this audiobook, I was thrown off by the quality of the sound. The narrator sounds like she is reading in a tunnel and not a recording studio. At times, you could hear the echo of previous words said. It was very distracting, and I had to take a break from this book. I looked into renting the library e-book, but it would take forever to get it, so I finally returned to the audiobook but did not enjoy it at all. The quality is not anything like other audiobooks I have listed to.

The story is a different retelling of Sleeping Beauty without following the same storyline. It was also interesting that it is a male character that is put to sleep versus the standard damsel in distress. I love the fact the author mentioned some of my favorite books!

Overall, I give this book three stars due to the quality of the audiobook and not really enjoying it. Had I read the story myself, I probably would have loved it more.

This audiobook had me in absolute chokehold. I spent listened through this whole entire book in one day it was gripping it was absolutely amazing that was romance, betrayal love and best of all it was enemies to lovers to enemies in and I think this is a great first book in the series, and I will definitely be reading more of the series in future, I think this is a great book to start off with and it gets us used to the main character and the main male lead. I would highly recommend and I will definitely reading loads more. I think the setting is really well done. There wasn’t any loose ends with a must be tied up, and I think a lot of the ending was very wrapped up well.

This book was light and easy to read. It’s nothing too special. You can definitely mindlessly read it and still understand the plot.

Gathering Frost is a nice cross between dystopian and magic fantasy. Jade, the main character, finds herself suddenly pulled into a world of magic when two worlds collide. She goes undercover on the secret mission from the queen, but that is when her world starts to change. She realizes there’s much more to their world than meets the eye.
Gathering Frost is YA fantasy would be a good read for any middle school to junior high reader. With minimal romance and a fascinating storyline, it would keep a younger reader interested.
As an adult reader, the story seemed a little shallow. I feel this story could have had much more depth, but it was still a very fun to read. It reminds me of the Shatter Me series, but on a much smaller scale.

This retelling of Sleeping Beauty tells us of Jada, who ran to the evil queen when an earthquake hit modern day New York and magic changed the world forever. Jade becomes part of the dystopian magical world where technology is not available. It's residents are cursed so they do not have feelings. The Queen's primary goal is to 'rescue' her son who has left the kingdom and is living with those who are not part of the magical world.

The Queen recruits Jade to search for her son and in doing so, Jade throws off the curse herself. She locates the prince and Jade discovers her feelings are definitely not frozen. The two of them return to evil queen's realm and the stage is set for a second book.

Though not engrossing, the book was a good, quick read and it's sure to captivate some teen readers.

Cute story, I liked it overall but it felt like it lacked something to make me love it. I would recommend it to someone if they thought it sounded interesting.

The narrator did a great job with this audiobook. But the story itself fell a little flat for me.

I love a fairytale retelling and I adored that our heroine is a trained fighter with a lot of strength, but overall I had a hard time getting into this story. There was a lot I loved about it but the romance felt forced to me and I wanted the action to move a bit quicker.

I liked the premise of this book, and I love a Sleeping Beauty retelling point of view.
But I think the narrator of this book did not do it justice. It felt kind of off.

Thank you Kaitlyn Davis and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very good read.

I was not the happiest with the ending as it was very abrupt and i thought this was a stand alone novel. Otherwise the audio held my attention and was an interesting fairy tale retelling.

It was perfect for the age group that is its goal.

An earthquake rocked New York and destroyed it, and the Queen had taken it over. But she hasn’t just taken over the deserted land, she has also taken over Jade’s life. Jade lost everything in the earthquake including her mother. Now the Queen has turned her into the only girl in her guard, and only able to feel fear. But when Jade escapes with the rebels, she starts to feel more… and she becomes determined to change everything.