Title: Stitching Snow
Author: R.C. Lewis
Publisher: Hyperion (Disney)
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Release Date: October 14, 2014
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. With the galaxy’s future—and her own—in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.
My Review
I'm sitting in the break room at work, staring at the ARC of Stitching Snow that I just read, sighing happy little sighs at it. There is real magic in the reading of fairy tales, and one mixed with science fiction magically eradicates all traces of "The Grumps". (It does in my case, anyway.)
Stitching Snow is a sci-fi reimagining of Snow White, with the dwarves as drones, though only two as major secondary characters, and the princess is a tech whiz hiding out on a mining planet. The book does have some rough edges, but that did not take away from much of my enjoyment.
I know comparison are going to be made of Stitching Snow and Marissa Meyer's Cinder. I was worried about this being a knockoff when I started reading it, but tech-savvy princesses are really the only thing that these books have in common. Trust me when I tell you that there is room enough for both girls on the playground. Where Cinder followed the Cinderella fairy tale fairly closely, Stitching Snow went darker and only kept a few parallels with its original. There were also more twists. I think the Brothers Grimm would be very proud of what Lewis did with the book.
Essie is the main character of Stitching Snow. She lived on the mining planet, Thanda, on the edge of civilization for eight years, and that pretty much turned her into a bad ass. I mean, what do you do when you're not mining or making drones? Why, cage fight, of course! So when Dane (aka Prince Charming Bounty Hunter Extraordinaire) crash lands in her backyard, she is totally not what he was expecting to find there.
For the sake of honesty, I have to admit that there were parts of Stitching Snow that were rough. These parts were either rushed through without sufficient enough back story (the king) or dragged out for too long. (I glossed those parts over in my mind, but believe me when I say they were there.) I still loved the book despite the issues.
If you liked Cinder or enjoy fairy tale retellings with a twist, you'll love Stitching Snow. I don't know if this is a standalone, but I would love to read more books set in this world, and I'm anxiously awaiting to see what else Lewis writes!
Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Fishpond
To satisfy FTC guidelines, I am disclosing that I received an advance copy of the book briefly for reviewing purposes through Around the World ARC Tours in exchange for an honest review. The book was likely provided to the tour by the publisher or author, which has in no way affected the outcome of my review. All opinions expressed are rambling, honest, and completely my own.
Ooh, I'm really glad to hear that you liked this one! I've been really excited to read it too, but, like you, I was a little concerned it would be too close to Marissa Meyer's books -- which I love, but there's no need for multiples of very similar stories. So I'm glad you pointed out that they're different enough to keep this one interesting!
ReplyDeleteNo need for you to worry - it stands very much apart from The Lunar Chronicles! Let me know what you think once you read it. :-)
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