Reading this novel years after the original Snow Queen fairy tale became famous through Disney's Frozen has made this retelling extra special. Jackson Pearce is still the queen of taking fairytales and tipping them on their head in such a brilliant and unique way. I love Ginny and Kai so much! Ginny is one of the most strong willed and passionate characters I have read in a long time! Highly recommend!

Cold Spell was such a sweet, great retelling. I enjoyed the story and the character development. Ginny had by far the most growth. She went from a sweet girl who was planning her entire future around her boyfriend, to someone who knows in her soul she can stand on her own two feet. I loved seeing the character development for Ginny because at the beginning it did feel kind of irritating how co dependent she was. But it was all part of the plan!

I had to look up the original story of the Snow Queen, and I did like the contemporary spin that Jackson Pearce gives it. I thought the red roses were going to be a bigger part of it, but I do think the way that Ginny "breaks the spell" on Kai is even more heart warming than in the original story.

The side characters also make the story that much more enjoyable, specially Flannery. Flannery is the Princess of the Traveler's, trying extra hard to win her people's respect and support. When Ginny crosses paths with the Traveler's Flannery is there to fight for her (but not in a heroic way). Eventually they become friends. Flannery's character is tough and complicated, as the thing that could help her with her people is the one thin she will never do.

Kai is a sweet boy who we don't get to see a lot of, but what we do see paints him in a cookie cutter perfect light... right up to he meets Mora and starts to change. We get to see more of Kai through Ginny's memories, and almost ALL of those are good memories. No fights, just two childhood friends who are destined to be right up to the point where the evil Snow Queen comes along and steals Kai away.

The Snow Queen, Mora--I really enjoyed that we are given her POV. It made her into a three dimensional character. She is absolutely doing the worst, but she does have her reasons, even if they are terrible. Just because you were hurt doesn't mean you get to hurt others; which she clearly doesn't get, but nevertheless she has a strength that is enviable.

Overall, this retelling was well worth the read and made me interested in maybe going back and reading the rest of the stories. Cold Spell may be the 4th in the "series" but it is essentially a stand alone and can be read without reading the rest. I did! I was hoping that there was a sequel, but since there isn't I can just read the rest of the books that came before ^^

Cold Spell by Jackson Pearce is I believe the final book of her Fairytale Retellings, however, I could be wrong. Anyways, I found myself looking forward to Cold Spell. The biggest reasons being I expected a quick read and it has been getting cold here. So my expectation was that I could sink into something that would give me cold season feelings and get really into a new fairy tale retelling. Turns out, I was wrong.

Basically this book is a retelling of The Snow Queen, but it is not nearly as breathtaking as say, Breadcrumbs. Instead we get what is a promising opening, set in the 1950s with a young lady and her boyfriend who is stolen by the Snow Queen. Then we launch up to the future and that woman, Dalia is old and a grandmother. Dalia has a grandson, Kai, who is amazing with music. Living in the same apartment building in Atlanta is Ginny. Dalia for some reason I don’t understand doesn’t seem to like Ginny and is trying to keep her away from Kai. Anyways, a storm rolls in, so does the Snow Queen and Kai runs away with the Snow Queen.

Ginny’s love for Kai is strong though. So, she goes after Kai. Along the way she meets a tracker named Lucas and an heiress named Ella, and she also meets a large group of “Travelers.” And lessons are learned. Adventures are had as we go from Atlanta all the way to Michigan.

On the whole, I was kind of bored while reading. This book took me so long to get through. Normally a book this short with font as big as the library copy I read takes me like two days if not less to read. This one took about a week. I just had such a hard time getting into Cold Spell. Plus there’s certain things in it that I do not think would fly in 2019 (the travelers bear a strong resemblance to the Romani, there’s some mean jokes about fatness etc). Maybe if I could go back in time and read this at a different stage of life I might have liked it more. But yeah, I think that you all might just struggle with this one unless you are a Snow Queen super fan.