Review of Stitching Snow

I always love getting books before they release. It's even better if the book is by an acquaintance. Thanks to Net Galley for providing access to more great fantasy and science fiction reads. Stitching Snow will be available in October.

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.

Goodreads
Preorder on Amazon

My thoughts:

Honestly, this was one of the best books I've read in young adult for a long time.

So many things stood out about Stitching Snow for me that it's hard to put my finger on just why I liked it so much. The whole plot line isn't apparent from the first chapter, but it's allowed to build and develop so naturally. The characters acted like real people and not heroines in the making. It wasn't a case of instant love or instant hate between the two mains, and the romance grew after we got to like the characters. There’s was just the right amount of science fiction elements without getting too technical.

It was far enough away from the whole Snow White story to keep from feeling like an echo. In fact, I had to dig for similarities at some points. I really liked that the dwarfs were robots. The evil queen was suitable evil. There was one part with the king that I really could have done without—but we can’t have everything.

Essie has the bad-ass main character role down. She tough, independent, and sometimes … wrong. She doesn’t win every fight. She stubborn and frail and fragile in a way, but stills gives as good as she gets. And I like her because she smart, and not snarky or whiny as has become the trend so much in YA. 

I would have liked to see the other characters built up a little more and gotten more of an inside look at what went on from the bad guy perspective. First person point of view does limit you to only what the main character knows. A drawback that you can’t do much about.

A highly recommended read. Four stars from me!