Winterspell Review

Winterspell by Claire Legrand
Released: September 30, 2014
Series: n/a
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 464
Stars: 4/5

Hey guys! I recently read Winterspell by Claire Legrand, which is a retelling of the Nutcracker. To anyone who doesn't know the original story, it was a novella written by E.T.A. Hoffmann entitled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which later became the famous ballet, The Nutcracker. 

This is actually the first fairytale retelling I have ever read, and I actually quite liked it. There were a few parts that had me confused or questioning certain character actions, but I thought overall the story was wonderful. I easily fell into the world that the author had created and I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next. I also loved the steampunk aspect, I thought it was well done and a very interesting take on the story.

The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince... But what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums. 

New York City, 1899, Clara Stole, the mayor's ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother's murder, she has secretly trained in self-defence with the mysterious Drosselmeyer. 

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes. 

Her home is destroyed, and her father is abducted - by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they're to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets - and a need she can't define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won't leave Cane unscathed - if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear. 

This story is dark and twisty, and full of hatred stemmed from a war between the humans and the faeries. The humans hate the faeries because they do not understand their magic, while the faeries hate the humans for cutting them open and experimenting on them, and understandably so. Anise, the evil queen in the story is born of both human and faery lineage, and ruling Cane through fear and her magic.

Clara lives in a 19th century New York City where her mother has been brutally murdered, her father is the drunk mayor and the head of Concordia (the mafia), and her Godfather Drosselmeyer tells her odd stories and teaches her how to defend herself in his shop.

Nicholas was the prince of Cane when Anise murdered his family and overtook the kingdom, placing a curse on Nicholas. He resides, trapped in a statue in Godfathers shop.

When Anise's magic finds the statue, Clara ends up awakening him and setting him free from his curse. After Clara's father is kidnapped and taken to Cane, Clara and Nicholas set off after him to find him and hopefully attempt to reclaim the throne for Nicholas.

There are many twists and turns, action, love and war. Overall I really liked this book and would read it again in the future.