Winterspell by Claire Legrand Review!

     

Title : Winterspell
Author : Claire Legrand
Pages : 464
Published : September 30th 2014
Publisher : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Source : Edelweiss

Darkly romantic and entirely enchanting, this reimagining of The Nutcracker from Claire Legrand brims with magic, love, and intrigue. New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer (Cinder) says “this is not your grandmother’s Nutcracker tale.”

After her mother is brutally murdered, seventeen-year-old Clara Stole is determined to find out what happened to her. Her father, a powerful man with little integrity, is a notorious New York City gang lord in the syndicate-turned-empire called Concordia. And he isn’t much help.

But there is something even darker than Concordia’s corruption brewing under the surface of the city, something full of vengeance and magic, like the stories Clara’s godfather used to tell her when she was a little girl. Then her father is abducted and her little sister’s life is threatened, and Clara accidentally frees Nicholas from a statue that has been his prison for years. Nicholas is the rightful prince of Cane, a wintry kingdom that exists beyond the city Clara has known her whole life.

When Nicholas and Clara journey together to Cane to retrieve her father, Clara encounters Anise, the queen of the faeries, who has ousted the royal family in favor of her own totalitarian, anti-human regime. Clara finds that this new world is not as foreign as she feared, but time is running out for her family, and there is only so much magic can do...

My Thoughts : 

Claras dad is Mayor of Concordia but he is being used as a tool by the same people that put him in power. Claras mother is brutally murdered and Clara is thankful that she at least has one person she can turn to, her Godfather. He owns a shop and makes clockwork toys and Clara spends a lot of her time there. He is teaching her how to defend herself because Concordia is such a dangerous place. She loves it there and loves watching him work. In his shop there is a statue of a night that Clara is drawn to. She likes to pretend he is real and she whispers secrets to it and talks to it like she cant anyone else. 

One night her Godfather comes to her raving about how they have found him and are coming and how he is so close to freeing the curse. She has no idea what he is on about until he shows her the statue, except now there is a light coming from inside and what sounds like moaning. Before her very eyes the statue comes to life. Her Godfather explains some things to her and introduces her to Nicholas. From then on her life is completely turned around

The second I saw that cover I added this to my wishlist. Just look how fantastic and beautiful it is!! Then I saw its a reimagining of The Nutcracker and I knew I had to read it. Now the only Nutcracker I've seen is the one with Barbie so I'm not too familiar with the story but I still have a fair idea of whats it about. Anyway, on to what I thought of Winterspell. 

At the start I found it hard to like Clara. She came across as so weak and meek despite being able to fight. Her Godfather taught her how to fight yet when she could of stood up to Dr Victor ,she never did. I wanted to shout and tell her to grow a backbone!! I was so close to giving up on Winterspell simply because Clara was like two different people, the strong one when she was fighting and the weak one all the rest of the time, but I'm so happy I kept going. She is the first character I've read about in a long time that grew so much during the course of the book and I ended up loving her. 

Onto Nicholas, the statue that came to life. I cant say too much about him or why he was a statue because of spoilers but I will say that I loved his story. I also loved how Clara was with him as a statue and then to see her dream man come to life, it was so sweet. When he comes to life she feels like she can trust him because he knows her better than anyone else but can she truly trust him or does he have his own agenda? 

Anise, the fairy queen was one twisted, broken fairy. She was perfect really!! Twisted, brutal and blood thirsty yet she is so lonely and is longing for love. She is half human and half fairy but wholly crazy. What she did to Nicholass' world and what she did and does to people was so evil but in her mind she is trying to make the world right. She was the perfect baddy though because she wasn't black and white, she is a shade of gray. 

I loved the different world and the mythology of that world in Winterspell. The authors world building was phenomenal!!  Claire Legrand can definitely build a world that you will fall in love with even though that world is riddled with evil. I loved the setting of Winterspell and I loved the diverse characters the author put into both worlds. In Concordia we have the very evil Dr Victor who experiments on girls and is just so creepy to the very evil fairies in the other world both different worlds but both similar in a way. Both worlds have people in power that care nothing about the little people and Clara has to try to fight both! 

So ya, overall I loved Winterspell. From the political Concordia to the magical Cane, this book is a must read. It has plenty of action, it has suspense, it has magic, it has clockwork things, it has mad fairies and it has subtle romance so all in all it has everything you want in a great book! The author took the story of the Nutcraker and totally made it her own, she made it dark and deadly and its a story that's not easily forgotten. Its definitely a magical, fantastical reimaging of the Nutcraker!