Fog & Mist

Fog & Mist has a powerful beginning, the prologue draws you in and lets you know the story is about to be a good one.

Immediately, we are shown into a world with a long history and many magical secrets. Upon meeting our main character, Winterberry, I instantly knew she was going to be a fighter, one who had gone through a lot already and still the story promised she would have to go through more. Watching her journey of slavery was difficult, my heart went out to her. She had never seen such horrible things, she never deserved to go through them. However, it had given her a reason to fight. She wants to become Queen so she can change the lives of these slaves, something she might never had realized was a problem until she went through it herself. This first book in the series mostly is about her journey through slavery, but there is more to the story. We also get the perspective of the Queen, we get to see her wants and desires, her reasoning behind why she hates Winterberry and wants her dead. Usually I find the villain’s perspective to be so cliche that the book would be better without it, but that isn’t the case in this story. The different perspective was necessary to tell the story properly, it gave us a behind-the-scenes look at what is really going on. We also have a third perspective, Prince Rus, the prince destined to save the princess. He falls into the role by accident, his mission was to save his sister, in the process of doing so he comes to meet Winterberry.

A loose retelling of Snow White, this book has all the major elements you would expect from a retelling, but it is clearly its own story. It doesn’t depend on the plot of the original story to carry it, no, it can stand by itself. The new elements might take it in a different direction in the next book of the series. I look forward to reading that book because there is still so much that I think needs to happen. This first book was about the journey of Winterberry and forced her to decide if she wanted to fight for her rightful place on the throne and to save her people.

I enjoyed getting to know these characters and their stories. Each character was written well and fleshed out. The writing gave great detail and made me feel like I was there, living with these characters, seeing the world around them. Fog & Mist is emotionally gripping, I don’t think I will be able to let go of these characters any time soon.

While it is a fairytale retelling, it comes across as a dark fantasy at times. There is torture, violence, sexual slavery. It has a darker tone to it, one that wrangles your heart and makes you want to change the way things are for these characters.

If this is just the beginning of the series, then I have a lot to look forward to. I have to know how the story ends. I need to know what happens to the characters.

I received an ARC of this book for free, and I am voluntarily leaving this review.

Good story, very loosely based on Snow White, but for me it was a bit up and down. There were exciting and compelling parts, such as Winterberry’s attempt to break out of the dungeon and Rus’ first part of his journey through the forest of Canens. I won’t list the other parts as they would be spoilers, but there are some really good ones.
But then there were parts when I lost interest a bit, because they seem a bit too drawn out or seemed irrelevant, for instance when Winterberry is transported with the other slaves to the magistrate’s house, it didn’t need that length of the story to understand it was long, arduous and harrowing. Other parts felt disjointed and I didn’t really understand the significance of the scene as I was reading it, but was hoping this would reveal itself further along in the book and I was intrigued enough to persevere with the story.

The world building was very good and while the characters were well thought out, I couldn’t become invested in any of the three lead characters. To really enjoy a novel I have to identify and/or empathise with the protagonist or if there are multiple ones with at least one of them. Unfortunately, I found Winterberry was a bit too meek, immature and indecisive and I couldn’t connect with Blanche at all. Rus was possibly the most likeable of the three, but his single mindedness and disregard for people he had no use for was off putting to say the least. The character I liked the most was Rus’ advisor Cito Fati, but while quite important to the story, he is not a lead character.
I am still interested in how their stories continue, but may not continue with the series, because there are so many other books to be read and possibly some that I would want to read more..

I received this book as complimentary copy from the author and am leaving this review of my own volition.

I love any story about Snow White as it was the first fairy tale on saw on the silver screen and my first film at a theater. This retelling gives the entire story of Snow White while straying away from the Disney version and intertwining the darker elements truer to the nature of the time in the history of Snow White. This book is like the Grimm Fairy Tales version on steroids. A very good book.

A Snow White re-imagining with elements of The Snow Queen and even a bit of Red Riding Hood. It channels the endless, cold, dreary days of mid-winter, when the first snow’s novelty has worn off, and the days seem endless until spring will come again. This land is cursed into a permanent winter and the coldness has seeped deeply into the denizen’s hearts.

This was a slower paced story with a princess who seemed dragged along in her story rather than pushing the narrative. This is not to say that she was cowed, but rather that she seemed lacking in options and constantly at the mercy of others. She is one to sacrifice herself in the hopes of saving others and pays for it. A foreign prince seeking his sister. He is a man with compassion and mercy traveling through a land that is too harsh to allow for any. A misguided Queen who believes she is doing all to save her country only to be reviled by her people. And a prophesy that draws them all inexorably together.

Revolving around slavery, the story does get very dark at times but shies away from the worst and most gruesome bits with a fade to black and a mention of the aftermath or leaving things implied. Almost makes some of it even more callous. The pace picked up at the end when everything started coming together at the end to the point where I was concerned it would have a rushed ending but it didn’t. Have to read book 2 now with all that was left unresolved but I prefer that to the rushed overly-neat convenient ending.

Book 1 in The Canens Chronicle, this book does resolve a major conflict, but leaves an even bigger one open, so not really a cliff hanger, but many many questions left unanswered and problems left unsolved for later installments.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The idea is good, and it seemed like it had potential, so I pushed through the first third even though I really just wanted to put it down and read something else. My main issues from the beginning:

Winterberry is a stupid name. No one else has a name similar. It’s hard to take her seriously, and she is very immature for her age. I was surprised every time I remembers she is 21 because she acts about 13.

First person present tense usually throws me off, and it did here too. It is especially off because there are multiple points of view, and sometimes these things are happening at the same time, so you can’t always be reading as things happen, because 2 chapters would logistically be happening at the same time.

The little hint at the seven dwarves was completely unnecessary, and making them large men instead of small is silly. It took me completely out of the story.

That being said, the book did get better as time went on, but I wasn’t really a fan. Things happened just to move the plot the way the author wanted and not in ways that the characters would have done had they had free will.

I won’t be continuing the series.