While I definitely enjoyed my experience reading this book, there are some issues with pacing and character development in the middle that left me wanting just a bit more.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. As always, thank you Netgalley.

Snow White's Queen meets A combo of Ana and Elsa in the form of a Snow Queen.
Told in dual narratives, Mena, with a heart of glass, becomes the step-mother of Lynet, made of snow.

Lynet's narrative begins with her around the age of 16, with her loving step-mother and father and the new promise of love with the royal surgeon. Mena's begins with her also roughly 16, on her journey from the South to visit the castle up north.

Prior to this book, I had been debating if I liked or disliked dual narratives and why they work. This one works unlike the last book, because Mena's story in the past doesn't hold the promise of something being achieved or not that we can already see in Lynet's timeline. (i.e. <i>Furyborn</i> being ALL ABOUT if one of the lead's will live through trials... even though we see her alive.) Instead, Mena's story line is about learning who she is and trying to grasp and figure out if she can properly find love, despite what her father has told her.

Lynet, on the other hand, is trying to come to terms with her childhood ending and her father wanting to be Queen.

Overall, it's a quick read. I like the romance - it isn't overpowering and no one is doing stupid stuff for love - and I also really love the mother/daughter dynamics. Overall it's a bit slow moving in the beginning, but definitely picks up towards the middle.

Great re-telling, loved the dark undertones and the frankenstein feels. Very well written! Just found it a bit slower for my taste.

An interesting retelling of Snow White with a feminist twist on it. I always love it when authors do retellings of Disney princesses, but I especially love it when they give depth to the villains, which the author executed exceptionally well with this story. This book was full of beautiful imagery, and intriguing dialogue, but the only thing that I felt lacking was the action. Nothing really seemed to happen in that regards. There was a lot of character-driven plots, which I loved, but since nothing seemed to happen until the last 70 pages or so, I found it getting just a bit dull. The magical aspect of the story helped to keep the story lively, though, so I can't fault it too much. I really did love the book, overall!

My Thoughts:
I really loved the first half of this book! This Snow White retelling was super original and had some really fascinating aspects and twists on the classic Snow White fairytale. That’s my favorite part about retellings — seeing the unique twists that authors come up with and how they fit into this brand new story and still seeing the bones of the fairytale underneath it all.

I really enjoyed the different POVs and dual timeline flashing back to Mina (the stepmother) as a child and then present time with her as the queen and Lynet, her daughter. There was just so much good backstory with Mina. I also really enjoyed her relationship with Lynet and how things unfurled to follow the fairytale.

I actually think I liked the past timeline POVs much better — it just was so interesting to get insight on why people were the way they are now and how things came to be. Present time began to bore me and unfortunately there was a good chunk between 60-80% where the pace dropped drastically and the plot was thin and my interest waned. I wish the plot had been a little bit stronger because there was such a good foundation and I really did love the first half quite a bit. The romance between Nadia and Lynet could’ve been developed more in my opinion but they were definitely cute.

In Short…
This one started off really strong with riveting dual timeline POVs, original twists on a classic fairytale, and such an amazing mother-daughter relationship — plus exciting magic and just this great magical atmosphere. However the second half disappointed me with a dragging pace. This still presents such a great retelling though that I’d have to recommend especially if you are a fan of fairytale retellings!

Posting May 18

Around the time Girls Made of Snow and Glass came out, I saw a lot of mixed reviews. Though it's unfortunate I'm getting to this book so late, there's also something nice about coming in after the hype has died down. Generally, when there are mixed reviews, I sort of expect I'll end up on the lower end of the spectrum, but it's always lovely when I'm wrong about that, as I was in this case. Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a lovely feminist retelling of Snow White all about found family and the strength of women.

The writing captivated me immediately. Bashardoust's prose tastes absolutely delicious on the tongue, and Girls Made of Snow and Glass is one of those books where every sentence feels like a well-crafted treat. Reading the prose alone here was a sheer joy.

In Girls Made of Snow and Glass, Bashardoust uses an interesting and risky (at least in YA) technique: the POV alternates between Lynet  and her step-mother Mina. I deem this risky because, when I (or presumably most people) pick up a YA novel, I'm not there to read about boring adults. (As an adult, this hurts me to admit, but it's true.) This technique does get used on occasion, and generally I find the adult POV boring, even if it's about the adult as a teen, mostly because you already know how that teen's life will turn out so it's just depressing and/or anticlimactic. In this case, though, it really works.

Mina's story begins in her teen years for the first part of the book but then jumps to the present day. It's a rare occasion where I think I liked the part with her as an adult better, but the scenes with Mina as a teen were very necessary. Mina has a complex emotional landscape, and her upbringing is central to the plot. Without that view, the novel would not feel as emotionally full.

Lynet's a reluctant princess. Everyone tells her how much like her late mother she is, especially father. She, however, doesn't want to be dainty and delicate like this woman she never knew; she wants to be strong and adventurous, much more like her beloved step-mother Mina. I love that Lynet doesn't have a rhapsodic view of her late mother, and I love even more that she doesn't hate her step-mother. Just this one twist sets Girls Made of Snow and Glass apart from most narratives. And it's not one of those cases where her step-mother seems horribly unreliable from the outset and you wonder why Lynet is so trusting; they have a real bond.

Though I'd love to talk about more of the plot of this book, I also don't want to spoil it, because, though it's largely predictable, as fairy tales are, there are a couple of little twists that work very effectively. Mina's father makes a villain more frightful for his realism. Ultimately, Girls Made of Snow and Glass is slower of pace, but the emotional landscape of the two heroines is so rich and well-arced that the book never felt slow at all.

Obviously, the f/f romance was a delight, but it's also very much not the focus of the novel. Bashardoust handles a couple of the princely moments in very cute, creative ways, and the connection between the girls works. I also love that it's not instalovey like most fairy tales; it's insta-attraction, but they don't rush to the finish line. I would have liked to know more about Nadia; she feels a bit distant to me, which is why this wasn't a favorite ship, and she did seem a bit young for her role. However, I can't complain too much because it was cute, and I want more f/f fairy tales ASAP.

Truly, it's hard to believe that Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a debut novel, because it feels so incredibly polished.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is an interesting reimagining of the classic fairy tale Snow White. When I first read the synopsis for this book I was really excited because it seemed like everything I love in a story-strong women leads, magic, adventure, check, check and check. So I was a little disappointed when I starting reading the book and realized that while on paper this novel had everything going on it for me to love, I just could not get 100% invested with the characters. Don’t get me wrong, I still really enjoyed the story and think it is a very original take on Snow White. I also really appreciated female power undertones to the story, and that the two female characters had a strong loving bond that was ultimately unable to be broken. I also liked that one of the main characters was presented as LGBTQIA without this being the central plot of the story, but instead this was just an aspect of who she was as a person, as I think it is important that all populations see themselves reflected in a variety of ways in literature.

I adored this book! I found it to almost be a twist on the Snow White fairytale, which I love. I enjoyed the fantasy (which I usually steer away from fantasy) of this story. It felt like a grownup version of some of my favorite parts of old fairytale books as a child. I loved all the characters, even the villains. As the story develops you begin to understand the underlying reasons of why the villains act as they do. It’s a behind the veil look, so to speak. I adore this book and the beautifully written prose. I would highly recommend!

4.5 Stars

Even reading this amidst a reading slump I loved this book. It's very reminiscent of Ash by Malinda Lo, another f/f fairytale retelling, which I absolutely love. This one focuses on the relationship between the Snow White character and the Evil Queen/Stepmother. I am always looking for books that deal with the relationship between a parent and their child when they are non-biologically related. That relationship mixed with the Snow White tale was beautiful and haunting in all the right ways. This book is very much character driven so if you don't like slower books this won't be the one for you, but if you do like slower books with a fairytale-esque writing style you'll most likely love this.

This was an interesting novel that, for some reason, I just did not connect with. Perhaps it was the style. Perhaps it was the world. Perhaps it was the characters. I just am not sure.

I love retellings and am particularly fond of feminist retellings, which Girls Made of Snow and Glass certainly was. It was entirely focused on the relationships between women (it's strongest point, in my opinion). But there was just something that kept me from becoming emotionally invested in the characters or the world. So, sadly, it was a bit of a disappointment, even with the strong writing.

This dark Snow White retelling had a promising storyline, but somewhat flopped in execution. It was very slow to start, and some of the writing was clunky - I found myself having to reread a few sentences here and there that were somewhat confusing. However, the shortcomings of the writing was made up by the character complexity and development. I very much enjoyed the alternative version of events portrayed in this particular reimagining.

Fairy tale retelling of Cinderella with a feminist twist. I liked some of the characters but it was not my style of retelling.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a feminist fairy tale that borrows elements of Snow White and the Snow Queen stories to create a genuinely new tale that celebrates women claiming their own strengths and helping each other instead of tearing them apart. The story is told from two points of views into two alternating timelines that ultimately converge at the book's climax.
In the present story line, Lynet has grown up in the shadow of her mother, Emilia, who died during child birth. She is an exact physical replica of her mother and has been sheltered by her over protective father. Lynet is burdened by her father's expectations that she emulate the mother she's never known and become the rightful Queen of the Southern Territories; instead, she idolizes her stepmother, Mina, who's always treated Lynet with tenderness and has no aspirations to be queen at all.
In the past story line, we follow Mina as a girl who is desperate to find love and affection from her domineering and wicked father Gregory, only to be told that she is incapable to love and have anyone love her. She welds her beauty as power and makes her way to the court of the Southern Territories. When the king dies, only one can claim the throne and the other must die.
Through Lynet's and Mina's perspectives, we see how these two women share many similarities though their motives maybe entirely different. Lynet and Mina are three dimensional, flawed characters. Lynet is passive and has accepted her fate of following her father's life plan for her until she stops to asks herself of what she wants. It takes her a long time to identify her strengths and to view the throne as something else besides a ball and a chain. Unlike Lynet, Mina already knows her strengths but she has to learn self-love and acceptance. There were many times Mina that teetered off the cliff of being a villain that we all recognize as the evil queen, but her self awareness and conscious has always saved her. What I found exceptional and refreshing is that both women genuinely care and admire each other.
The pacing of the story is slow burning that matches well with the character development and might deter some readers, but the characters are so worth it. Their epiphanies take time to occur as the characters stumble many times until they reach the satisfying and revolutionary conclusion. Magic is used in the right amounts in the story and their were times that I wished it was explained a bit more clearly. There is some romance subplots for each women, but the main focus of the story is the relationship between Lynet and Mina. Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a character driven fairy tale that refuses to use common tropes and is filled with magic, adventure, and self discovery.

If you hadn't told me this was a retelling, I wouldn't have even noticed. In fact, I had completely forgotten about the synopsis of this book by the time I really got invested in reading it, so I didn't even remember that it was supposed to be a retelling, and I don't even think that it should rely on that categorization. Girls Made of Snow and Glass stands solidly on its own, strong and emotional and compelling. 

Both Mina and Lynet's stories weave together fluidly, and at the beginning of the book, Lynet is only just beginning to live at fifteen-going-on-sixteen while Mina's perspective is set in the past when she was only sixteen herself. This creates a dual narrative that is interesting and makes it easy to compare the two girls, and it makes it easy to notice how Lynet's icy surroundings mirror the blank emptiness of Mina's heart. 

This is also a book where the protagonist and antagonist are not easily identifiable. In many ways, Mina is the villain of this story, as, in Lynet's present, she is the "Evil Queen". However the reader sees how her past has shaped her, and from the beginning, you know the truth behind her cold demeanor, and this makes it hard to peg her as a true villain. Later on in the book, in Lynet's present, you see what acts of kindness and love that Mina has carried out without receiving credit and that further shows that she isn't the standard cruel stepmother that she's based on.

What I love about Girls Made of Snow and Glass as well is that both Lynet and Mina grow over the course of the narrative in amazing ways, which is a stark contrast to the source material, and even most retellings, where only the Snow White character that Lynet is based on grows as the story progresses. You also see a change in the characters around them- including, of course, my two favorites, Nadia and Felix.

The only complaint I had about this book was that, looking back on it now and knowing that it is a retelling, I felt that towards the end of the book, it was really forced on Mina to become more cruel to fit the "Evil Queen/Stepmother" role. With pressure looming on her, and her overbearing worry that Lynet will take everything from her that she's worked so hard on, I can understand her inner struggle, but I think that some of her dialogue was written harsher than what I felt fit? Most of my frustration came from thinking that I understood her character only for her to go back on it and do something objectively terrible, only to then lament about it right after. I think that if there was no pressure for her character to ultimately fit an already fixed character role there wouldn't have been this back and forth because then her character could be "heartless" without having to have her mean-ness ramped up so she could come across as evil.

But that fact doesn't change how much I loved this book. It explores the dynamic between a woman who grew up too fast and who feels outside pressure to ignore this young child despite her instincts telling her to be a mother and a girl who is forced into a role and told that she can't get too close to the only woman she looks up to. It's amazing and I highly recommend it.

I really tried to get into this one but i just couldn’t. It was so slow through out the entire book, it forever for me to even finish it. I’m sad i couldn’t enjoy this one since I love retellings so much. Oh well, better luck next time for me.

Gah, this was so EFFING GOOD. It took me a damn long time to finish, but I loooved it. It lost me in moments, but the bleeding heart of the story, two women who learned that they were more than their origins, that they could shape their own futures, was my favorite part of this. There was such a beautiful, deep love between Mina and Lynet, and one that was threaded throughout the course of the book, and woven into every interaction between them. And I adored the blossoming romance between Lynet and Nadia, a girl with her own ambition but who decided what she wanted could be more than she thought. Such a fantastic, original, and truly feminist take on Snow White. I loved this story of girl power, friendship, and breaking free of those who would try to mold you into a person you don't want to be. It was a slow-burn kind of tale, but one that is worth it for that ending. JUST. GAH. I LOVED.

Rating: 4.5 stars

I loved this so much! When I first saw that it was a Snow White retelling I was so excited. Also, the comparison to Frozen definitely helped in swaying me to read it! It was an interesting read, albeit a bit slow at times, but the worldbuilding and plot were amazing and I couldn't get enough. Great read if you love retellings!

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this book. It was just a bit too slow for me and I couldn't get into it. On a positive note, I liked the author's writing style and it appeared to be well-written.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass took me a week to read, which is partly because I have a harder time reading books on my kindle, and partly because I found the story a little slow. I really liked the idea and the world of this story, retellings are some of my favorite types of stories.  

Lynet was an interesting character because I could really see her growth over the entire novel. I really liked how much she loved Mina, and her relationship with her father was interesting as well. This Snow White story doesn't pit them women against each other because of vanity or just blind power hunger like in the original story.  In GMSG Lynet and Mina are pitted against each other because of the men in their lives that use them. Even Lynet's father, who isn't evil but  is simply selfish and assumes he knows what his daughter wants without asking her.   

The main thing that I didn't like about GMSG is that it's pretty slow. It took me a week to read a book that would normally take me three days at most.  It took awhile to get to the main heart of the story.  Because of this I ended up giving the book 3.5 stars.