Cold Spell by Jackson Pearce

When I picked up Cold Spell by Jackson Pearce, I originally thought it was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but as I read more of the story it is a retelling of the Snow Queen's fairy tale.

Ginny has been friends with Kai since childhood; they even had plans to live in New York for a little while together.  Kai was a genius on the violin and Ginny was still learning her way in life.  When Kai's grandmother died suddenly, their plans and lives changed.  A mysterious girl shows us and puts Kai under and spell.  He leaves town with Mora and Ginny begins her journey find and win him back.  Along the way she learned the things that Kai's grandmother spoke about were real, even comes in contact with a few werewolves.  She does everything in her power to overcome her odds and rescue the man she loves.  Will she be able to defeat Mora and win Kai back?

This story was a little different from the other books in that it wasn't about what the wolves did with the women, but what happened when one of the women escapes the clutches of the wolves.  It really played on the Snow's Queen's themes of acceptance and belonging, not just with Mora, but also Ginny and Flannery.  It ties in with Fathomless in that Mora's ocean girl name was Ry, someone we briefly met in the previous novel.  The story was a little slow going at points, and I don't think this was one of Pearce's better novels, but it also isn't the worst.  It is still an thoroughly entertaining book.

The characters are interestingly strong.  Ginny is a woman who will not allow anyone to come in her way of accomplishing her goal, nor will she allow the man she loves to disappear without sound reason.  There were times when she came off as borderline obsessive, but if an evil woman steals your boyfriend what would you do?    Flannery is a character that I wanted more from, she seemed like she could have been a strong, powerful character as well.  Mora is the villain readers feel compelled to sympathize with.  She was conscious about what happened and wondered why she never felt as if she belonged or why she struggled to hold onto a love she lost. 

I am beginning to be able to see this series turned into a movie series as epic as Twilight or Harry Potter.  Pearce has an ongoing story that entralls readers and draws them in and causes them to crave more.  I personally cannot wait to pick up the next book in the series and see where Pearce takes this amazing story.  I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars for a rating.  I am excited to see what Pearce will come up with next and which fairy tale will be next in this roller coaster ride.

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Fathomless is the third book in Pearce's Fairytale Retelling series, and probably my favorite thus far.  In this novel we meet Celia and Lo.  Celia is one part of a set of triplets with unique qualities, they have special powers.  Celia's power is that she can see someone's past, something she doesn't find as exciting as her sisters' powers of seeing the present and future.  Lo is a mermaid, or ocean girl, trying to remember who see previously was and why she wants to become human.  The two cross paths when together they rescue a boy who had fallen into the ocean.  When Celia touches Lo, she sees a past full of screaming.  Lo continues to come to see Celia after learning her true name and the two work together to discover more about Lo's mysterious past.  But soon the two girls are competing for the affection of the boy they saved: Jude.  According to the ocean girls, Lo could get her life as a human back if she can get a human to love her and then she must kill him and steal his soul.  Lo quickly discovers the things she hears about her future are not what they appear to be, and that there is someone who has more sinister plans for the girls of the ocean.

Fathomless seemed to have a little more action and build up to it as Celia tries to help Lo, and hold a relationship with Jude, and become someone separate from her sisters.  Much like Sweetly, Fathomless plays on elements from the previous two novels.  Things we learn about in Sweetly play a major role in this novel, and there is a hint at a connection to Sisters Red.  The continuation of the story in this manner is very interesting and keeps me intrigued at where Pearce is going to take the series, will they all somehow come to a close together in a final book?  I love his descriptions of the ocean girls as having skin tinted blue or green showing they are something different from humans.

This one isn't as slow to develop as the previous two were.  It takes us through the eyes of Celia and Lo which makes for double the action until their story lines become one. It is definitely not the sweet little mermaid tale we remember for Disney as Lo kills a young boy within the first few moments of the story, and then another ocean girls tries to kill Jude.  The character I think developed the most was Lo as she develops back into Naidia and fits for her humanity.  The end is completely surprising and not what I was expecting.  Pearce has developed a way of connecting with her readers and keeps them wanting more from her work.  I know I do!

I give Fathomless a 4.5 out of 5 stars.  The pace of the story is still a little slow going but it doesn't take away from the overall feeling of the story.  It still progresses nicely and keeps the readers wanting more, I look forward to picking up Cold Spell next.

Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

Sweetly by Jackson Pearce is the second book in her Fairytale Retelling series.  This book takes a look at the classic fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel.  As young children Ansel and Gretchen mysteriously lose their sister, Gretchen's twin sister.  Their step-mother basically kicks them out when they turn 18, and the siblings take a trip across the country hoping to find a place where they fit in.  To their dismay, their car breaks down in a small little town, and in order to earn money to fix the car they take odd jobs at a chocolate maker.  One night, Gretchen decides to face her fears of the witch and comes face to face with the thing of her nightmare, only it is not a witch, but a werewolf.  Samuel helps her learn the things she needs to fight these monsters.  All the while she begins to learn that Sophia has been keeping secrets from her and Ansel.  What they discover could change the course of all four of their futures and cause them to face something they never imagined existed.

Sweetly was a good second novel to the series, it played on elements from Sister's Red with things like the wolves picking girls who wear red.  The plot build-up was well done with Gretchen finding different things showing that Sophia was hiding something.  Elements of Hansel and Gretel still remain such as the lore of the chocolate shop and the townspeople being weary of her, as well as the siblings' fear of a witch.  The twist of the witch actually being wolves was well presented and somewhat unpredictable.  I honestly wasn't aware that the two novels would be related, which makes me wonder if the rest of the series will be related as well.  I hope so.

Throughout the book readers don't know what Sophia's secret is and can only speculate.  When it is actually revealed readers are almost caught off guard.  The build-up to this reveal can be a little slow, but at the same time Pearce needed to develop a kinship with the characters and develop their personalities so that it would be a jarring ending.  Through this build-up we see Gretchen growing into her own strength, Ansel being torn between sister and the woman he loves, Sophia being torn apart by her love for the siblings and her secrets.  Pearce does a fantastic job engrossing his readers into a story that will keep them captivated.

I was weary about reading this book, but found it to be a great novel.  I would give it a rating of 4 out of 5 because it does take a while to get to the climax of the story, but when it does the rest of the story flies by.  I am anticipating reading Fathonless next, wonder what Pearce has in store for us now.