Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: September 20th, 2016
384 Pages
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent the majority of her life within the walls of the Whittaker Institute, a high security mental hospital in upstate New York. Deep down, she knows she’s not crazy and doesn’t belong there. When she meets a mysterious, handsome new orderly and dreams about a strange twisted tree she realizes she must escape and figure out who she really is.
Using her trusting friend Bale as a distraction, Snow breaks free and races into the nearby woods. Suddenly, everything isn’t what it seems, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur, and she finds herself in icy Algid–her true home– with witches, thieves, and a strangely alluring boy named Kai, none of whom she’s sure she can trust. As secret after secret is revealed, Snow discovers that she is on the run from a royal lineage she’s destined to inherit, a father more powerful and ruthless than she ever could have imagined, and choices of the heart that could change everything…including Snow’s return to the world she once knew.
I’m a big fan of Danielle Paige’s Dorothy Must Die series, so when I heard she was coming out with a new series based on the Snow Queen I was so excited, especially after seeing the beautiful cover. Sadly, after spending the last week forcing myself through Stealing Snow, the question on my mind is what the holy heck happened?! There are just so many things that are wrong with this book, starting with it being an extremely messy mash-up of Frozen, and the Snow Queen, with some elements of Snow White thrown in. The tv series Once Upon a Time did something similar a couple of years ago, to far greater effect.
Here though, it just seems as though things are thrown together in a frenetic fashion and there’s no real cohesion. Another issue I had was with Snow herself.
Locked up for years for years over a childhood incident, which I actually thought was an over-reaction by her mother, I expected to feel more sympathy towards her. It’s obvious she’s not insane, although she does have anger management issues, and when in a rage she tends to bite people. Even going from human mental patient, to magical snow princess, there’s very little personal growth. She just a very bland character who I found impossible to connect with. There was also my first ever “love square”. Yep. You read that correctly. Snow has not one, not two, but THREE love interests! Oh dear God no! Given the way I feel about love triangles, this left me completely, er, cold.
Sorry about that pun. I couldn’t resist! To add insult to injury, there was absolutely no chemistry between the four, and as a result the romance came off as unbelievable and contrived. And lastly, my final disappointment/annoyance concerns the secondary characters and the world-building, both of which came across as boring, one-dimensional, and uninspiring.
There was one character, Gerde, who actually did have an interesting backstory, but there just wasn’t enough of it. The only reason why I’m giving this 1 1/2 stars is because there were some really neat elements like Snow’s badass powers:
And the intriguing variety of snow creatures and monsters.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t nearly enough to save the story for me.
As always, I remind you this is simply my opinion. However, Stealing Snow seems to be garnering a majority of poor reviews, so if you’re a fan of fairytale retellings, please look this up on Goodreads or another book review site before shelling out any money for it. Otherwise, in this case I’d advise you to:
The Shameful Narcissist said:
The Frozen puns and gifs are absolutely brilliant. I picked up the Snow Queen motif from the blurb the moment I saw the name Kai. I actually though The Invisible Library was going to do something with that (and very well might have later on. I didn’t finish it) when I saw that name. What a shame it was just a messy mishmash.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks so much! Kai and Gerde are definitely derivative of the original fairytale. I actually liked Gerde (Gerda in the original) that I found myself wishing on more than one occasion that the story focused on her!
While Kai in The Invisible Library shares his name with Kai from the Snow Queen, after finishing The Masked City, I’m thinking that’s where the similarity ends.
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thesarahdoughty said:
Yikes. I found myself laughing at the gifs, but I can definitely see how this would be frustrating for you.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Grrr.😡
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thesarahdoughty said:
I’m sorry you found that you spent so much time on it and didn’t feel fulfilled at the end.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Sarah. I really can’t complain too much. Overall I’ve been having really good luck with books lately.🙋🏻
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thesarahdoughty said:
That’s awesome! 😊
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
☺️☺️
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yourdaughtersbookshelf said:
Sounds like a frustrating read (although I appreciate that you struggled through and put so much work into the review – love the gifs! 😀 ) I think I’ll skip this one for now.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Stefanie! At least I can take consolation in that I’m not in the minority. Misery does love company.
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yourdaughtersbookshelf said:
Funny how it makes you feel better about doing a negative review when someone agrees with you, isn’t it? 🙂
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
It does at that!
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Megan @ bookslayerReads said:
Hate to hear it wasn’t good. I’ve been looking forward to its release. Ah, well. I may still give it a go. Nice review!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Megan. If I could suggest one thing (hopefully without sounding pushy) is maybe you could borrow it from the library. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it, but if not, at least you won’t be out any money.🙋🏻
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Jen said:
Yay for joining the crazy world of reading a book with a four-square 😂! When I ran across one earlier this year I was scratching my head and had a deer in the headlights look ha! Definitely not my cup of tea 😔. I saw a lot of meh reviews for book #3 in Dorothy Must Die this year and now this book too, eeks. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll definitely be skipping this one.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Blech!😕 Do you ever wonder if some authors actually listen to their readers? I mean, I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times a love triangle didn’t annoy the heck out of me, and now there’s writers using love squares? Ugh! Well, I suppose it’s better than the dinosaur erotica. Oh God. I’m just about ready to turn in. Why did THAT have to pop into my head?!😮
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Jen said:
ROFL!!! Oh my gosh, I completely forgot about that and the monster erotica! What lovely topics before we venture into dream land😂. But I wish there was a four-square warning on books, but thankfully there are reviews like yours that help us out, thank you! 🎉
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Jen! There should be a huge warning sticker on books with four-squares!😕
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Jen said:
Totally agree *nods head*!
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Carrie said:
Another one that I requested and was denied so now I don’t feel so bad on missing out on it.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I do think you caught a luck break here Carrie!
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Carrie said:
That’s actually good since I was on a 2-3 star streak anyway.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
😕
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vinnieh said:
As bad as this book sounds, at least it gave everyone a witty review from you.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Vinnie! If I have to give a book a bad review, at least I can try to make it entertaining.😊
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vinnieh said:
You make it very entertaining, gotta have some fun talking about it.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
😊😊😊😊
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dreamingofcats said:
This review made me cackle! Absolutely brilliant. That gif of Elizabeth Mitchell as the Snow Queen *swoons*
I’m so sad I have this ARC on my TBR as well, lol. I’m hoping it might be another case where our interests vastly differ, but…love squares. Oy vey.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Yay! I hope you do enjoy it. I can’t wait to hear what you think.😊
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tamaralowery said:
But tell us how you REALLY feel….. ouch.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I’m sorry Tamara. I really do hate giving bad reviews.😔
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tamaralowery said:
Better an honest review than a saccharine sweet one. Molly-coddling authors does NOT do them any favors. Yes, we love to hear how much someone likes our books; but we NEED to hear when someone doesn’t… provided they give a believable reason why. That’s how we learn what does and doesn’t work to reach our audience.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Tamara. I still feel guilty though. Well, except for a few like 50 Shades of Gray, and My Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend!😠
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Lelia T said:
Thank you for saving me from this—I appreciate your sacrifice 😉
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I live to serve!😏
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Lekeisha The Booknerd said:
Okay, this is the second unfavorable review I’ve read in 3 days of this book. I guess if I decide to try it out, I’ll grab it from the library. Sorry this one didn’t work out. Love the gifs!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I definitely recommend the library route. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts if you do read it Lekeisha.🙋🏻
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The Telltale Mind said:
My wife also likes her books. I guess a pass on this one then.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Maybe borrow it from the library?😕
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incendiumlibri said:
Such a well thought out and written post! Loving the gifs 🙂 I’m so glad you agreed with me on this one – this book really turned out to be a huge disappointment . Let’s hope our next reads turn out a tad better!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thank you so much! I don’t think I’ll be bothering with the sequel.😑
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Rebecca Dawn said:
Awe I love the OUAT GIF! I actually liked the Frozen storyline in OUAT! I was hoping Elsa would be back so Regina, Emma and Elsa would be a power trio again. Totally off topic🙌
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I loved that storyline too. We need Elsa and Anna to come back!
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Rebecca Dawn said:
That would be really sweet! There were some storyline I didn’t like I really loved Brave but not Merida in OUAT😞 but they need to bring back Elsa! And Lily! Oh snap!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Completely agree!
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Artsygrl777 said:
Hi! I absolutely love this blog! You make book reviews fun and interesting. Because I read a book a week I was thinking of starting to write some. I was just about to go on Goodreads to check out the professional form of a book review when I saw your blog, I didn’t have to! I’m sorry you didn’t like the book I was very intrigued by the title as well as the cover but there are too many good books out there to waste your time on a bad one. Thanks for the advice and I can’t wait to see more of your posts. Your hilarious LOL!!! xoxoxo
-Artsygrl777 (check out my blog when you can!)
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thank you so much Taylor! You made my day. Actually my week! As you’ve probably surmised I LOVE books and I try to make my reviews as interesting as possible even when I don’t care for one. I’m heading over to check out your blog right now.
Hugs!💁🏻
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ambroseandelsie said:
I just finished this book and there were a lot of things I liked about it, including the fact that the King really did love his Queen. I thought that was a nice surprise.
But my main eyeroll issue was Snow’s ability to fall in love with any cute, young guy who said hi to her. Thing is, if a love triangle is done right, I don’t mind it too much. But this just felt ridiculous. Yes, Snow’s been locked up in an insane asylum with no outside experiences, but I was like massive eyeroll at Snow. Her main driving force was to rescue Bale, but she was like “Ohhh, hot guy. Oh! Another hot guy! Mine and mine and mine.” I was like really, girl? Just how much does Bale really mean to you?
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I read this awhile ago, but I still remember how much this annoyed me. Ah well. We can’t all enjoy the same books.
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ambroseandelsie said:
One of the worst moments was towards the end. Snow and Jagger had been playing the who Ii Want To Kiss You eye game for soo many pages. Then, when she sees Kai, she all like “Ohhhh, Kai! I still got some hearts and flowers for you.”
Also, I fully expected her to realize that her feelings for Bale had changed when she finally saw him again.
Also, I think that was a missed opportunity when the Robbers were unmasked at the ball. Jagger told her not to look at him when that happened. sigh She wasn’t even there when it happened. Such missed drama. True, the author probably wants to save the whole reveal for a later book. Still. 😦
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
😡
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