By day, Sondrine Renfrew works at Cimmerian’s Curio Emporium, her aunt’s apothecary and antique shop in London, 1875. By night, she weaves fire, water, and air into both inanimate objects and living creatures. When a hooded stranger offers Sondrine a snow globe in trade for medicinal herbs, she accepts, enchanted by the castle, forest, and sea encapsulated under the glass. Her enchantment fades, however, when her deceitful aunt betroths her to one of London’s wealthiest men—a complete stranger. Determined to escape the marriage, Sondrine trades her corset for trousers and decides to run away. With one foot out the door, she falls down a veritable rabbit hole into Winterhaven, the haunting world inside the snow globe. Sondrine soon discovers her arrival in Winterhaven is no accident. There, she meets Shán, a man who broods more than the darkened sky above. Turns out Shán is not to be trusted. Not only is he the man who sold Sondrine the snow globe, he is a bounty hunter employed by the king. The beginnings of a sovereign war have been set in motion and an Immortal queen, one who uses fire as a weapon, is set on destroying Winterhaven. Because of her Elemental gifts, only Sondrine has the means to stop the queen. If Sondrine refuses the king’s request, he will behead her. If she rises to the challenge of killing the Immortal queen, her death is just as imminent. After all, an Immortal queen cannot be killed. Or can she?
REVIEW: Surprise, surprise! This fussy little book blogger picks up a fantasy novel and—gasp!—LOVES it! Nelson has masterfully taken a
somewhat overtired "people get transported into a snow globe" theme and built a story that is really, really good. Snow Globe is immediately immersive, and as a reader I was quickly swept away to magical Iscaeld, which felt real enough to taste. The characters of Sondrine and Shan are well developed and the dialogue is engrossing and authentic. There is also a host of solid supporting characters that lend delightfully to the books wonderful body, and I'm having a hard time thinking of another that I'd rather have my teenage daughter read. This is a well written, thoroughly entertaining little fantasy novel.
I would like to thank both the author and Story Cartel for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
FIVE STARS
Amazon Link:
The Snow Globe
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