I was drawn to this book because I love fairy tales retold, and I heard there was a f/f romance. Snow White is a princess made of snow while the "evil stepmother" is a Queen made from glass. It was an interesting way to explain her heartlessness and my favorite part was that the two were fighting against their love for each other rather than hate for no reason. However, as the book went on I felt the conflicts were mere contrivances designed to hit certain story beats. The motivations seemed lacking and the King character was mean and uncaring for no real reason. I liked the plot a lot but it didn't seem to fit with the characters as written. The f/f romance was sweet but almost felt like an afterthought. Solid effort but nothing noteworthy here.

I received an ARC copy of Girls Made of Snow and Glass in exchange for an honest review. Thanks goes to NetGalley.Release date: September 5, 2017

Girls Made of Snow and Glass first caught my eye when the cover was revealed, and then I found out it was a Snow White retelling and I needed to have it. I have a soft spot for retellings and this one didn’t disappoint. It had all the feels of Snow White but written in a fresh new way. I seen reviews compare this book to Disney’s Frozen and I did see small similarities, I love that movie so all good things from this book.

This book is told from dual point of views, Lynet the Snow White character and Mina The Evil Queen Character. Mina’s POV start when she was a child living in the south and I found myself wanting more of her chapter’s. I loved reading her chapters. Lynet’s POV starts in the present and stays in that time line.

The romance in this book is marketed as F/F Romance. The romance between Lynet and Nadia is such a slow burn, nothing happened between them until the end. But there romance is so sweet, so if your looking for a swoon worthy lesbian story then this isn’t that story. Lynet and Mina’s relationship was my absolute favorite part of the story.

This book does have feministic undertones, that girls can be powerful they don’t have to be fragile to be a princess/queen. That girls are much more than there beauty.It tells young girls to be themselves even when other push you to be something else, to stand up for yourself and be whatever they want to be. I love how Mina and lyne both work towards what they want. How Snow White falls for a girl instead of Prince Charming.

I also loved the wintery scenery and atmosphere. The world building truly made you feel as if you were surrounded by winter winds and snow. This is where some of the Frozen feels come into play.

Overall this was a beautiful retelling of Snow White. The story has a wonderful dark fantasy fairytale feel to it and the characters are amazing. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for books by Bashardoust in the future.

I went into this book with little to no actual plot knowledge. I knew it was a retelling of Snow White, I knew it was being marketed as having "feminist" elements, and I had an inkling that the Snow White character would be queer. These things are all accurate to the story, but they in no way to justice to the plot, characters, and heart of this book.

Lynet and Mina are remarkable characters. Princess Lynet has been forced every day to grow up an exact copy of the mother who died before they ever met; Mina has been an outsider her entire life, first in the village where she grew up, and then in Whitespring where she meets a King and hatches a plan to at least be respected, even if she could never be loved. Their relationship together is the driving force of every element of the story. The depth with which the mother/daughter relationship of the Snow White and the Evil Queen is dealt with is compelling and occasionally heart-wrenching.

On both a story level and a meta level, Lynet and Mina are characters whose ability to define themselves on their own terms has been taken away. On a story level, their fathers both manipulate and control their daughters to become who they are expected to be. But on a meta level, Lynet and Mina have become archetypes without any control: they are the Princess and the Evil Stepmother. But neither of them is willing to accept any of these definitions that have been put on them any longer. The story is deeply about agency and about self-definition, about relationships and the power to control your own connections to others in your life. Is is about, especially, the viability of female relationships and about how, even with the men in their lives trying to control how they relate to one another, the connection between these women has the power to go beyond that control.

I could honestly gush all day about how excellent and complex the mother/daughter relationships in this book are, but I'll try to talk about other stuff now. Suffice it to say, I sobbed through the final paragraph of this book because it just brought everything I've already explained to a conclusion incredibly well.

The other best part of this book, in my opinion, is the subplot of Lynet having a crush on another girl. Lynet spends a lot of the book confused about her feelings towards Nadia, the new surgeon in the castle. This is absolutely a subplot, not central to the story, but I thought it was handled remarkably well and I loved the twists they went through together throughout the book. I also thought that the power imbalance between them was handled in a way that helped make their relationship much stronger as the story went on. Beyond that, though they aren't named or in more than one scene, there is a very small scene with a wlw couple where they are clearly in a relationship in a public place and there is no mentioned homophobia or feeling that they are anything less than accepted by the community at large.

My only real problem with this book came with the pacing. There is a lot about this book that feels slow and peaceful, which I enjoyed a ton. So weirdly, my complaint isn't that this book needed to be faster but that it could have taken a bit more time with certain plot lines. I think there should have been more periods of time that were allowed to go slowly, especially later on in the story. I know that the plot has to constantly keep moving, but I think if those moments had been stretched out some of the reveals would have had more impact. Other than that, I thought this book was incredibly atmospheric and magical in a much more understated way.

This book was magical, complex, romantic, and fascinating. It was driven by female characters taking control of their stories and destinies and I absolutely loved it. Seriously, this book is not to be missed.

I love retellings so I am always excited to read anything new in this genre and I really enjoyed this one. There are two main characters, Mina, the Queen and Stepmother and Lynet, who is the Snow White characters and step-daughter and the story is told from their alternating POV, which I really enjoyed. Both of the main characters are unique and likeable. One of the most interesting parts about this book is that the characters do not hate each other and the theme of women helping other women is a great one. I did find the first part of the book to a bit slower, but that was mainly because it is introducing the reader to the background of both of the main characters. The rest of the book moves along at a fairly steady pace, although I didn't find that there was any huge problem that needed to be solved. In my experience with YA fantasy, there is usually some conflict or threat and there wasn't really in this book. I did really enjoy the author's writing and world-building and I do believe this is the first Snow White retelling that I have read. It was definitely an interesting retelling of this classic story and I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

Thank you to the publisher, Flatiron Book, for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had hoped, more than anything, that I would love Girls Made of Snow and Glass. I was promised a feminist f/f fairy tale retelling, but all I got was a slow, dull book where the LGBT+ themes took a backseat to…whatever the hell was happening.

I really really wanted to like this book. But I had to DNF it, which I always hate doing.

I thought the concept was awesome: a girl made of snow, and a woman with a glass heart. It was what initially pulled me to hit the ‘request’ button. But the alternating POVs with the time hopping (where Lynet’s POV was in the present, while Mina’s chapters were her backstory and leading up to her becoming the Queen) made it just a headache and a half.

It was part of the reason why it felt so agonizingly slow; by the time I finished a chapter and was properly attuned to that character, we changed timelines and everything was different. I had to remember what was going on in that timeline, who knew what and such and it was too much of a hassle. The intertwining of the past and present just flat out didn’t work.

As a result, I wasn’t connected to either character and had no desire to keep reading. I had to DNF it at a third of the way through the story, which is a shame, but I’ve learned a lot through book blogging: if I have to force my way through a book, then that book isn’t going to be enjoyable for me.

I’m afraid this will be a short review. I thought this book would get better as I read, but I found the more I read, the more I couldn’t stand it. The characters felt vapid and dull, the world-building flat, and the plot itself dull. I didn’t mind one of the main characters, Lynet, and I liked her fascination with the court surgeon, Nadia. It’s a nice f/f romance (I would assume it’s a romance since Lynet seems more than drawn to Nadia) but even when I stopped at 47%, there wasn’t a lot of development in that area. What could have been a promising, budding relationship was shoved onto the back burner.

I’m not sure if some point of the novel was to show the men in both Lynet and Mina’s lives as horrible, but I definitely thought so. Sure, Lynet’s father, King Nicholas, is protective of his daughter, but he soon becomes overbearing, and later, his odd wishes for Mina and Lynet’s relationship is hard to understand. Quite frankly, it seems downright cruel. The same goes for Mina’s father, Gregory. I mean, we immediately see him as a vicious man with plans to use his daughter to his own gain. I don’t disregard or unlike Mina’s dislike of him.

I didn’t care much for the writing. I was not enthralled while reading the first few chapters, and the desire to continue reading this book decreased each day. Soon, it became a chore, and at that point, I realized I couldn’t care less about the fates of these two women. But I won’t deny that their wish to break away from the path both their fathers (and Mina’s husband) had for them is admirable. Both desire to make their own way in the world they’re in, and we see them ever so slowly possibly going in that direction.

Unfortunately, this simply didn’t capture my attention, and I was both disappointed and saddened at the result.

<em>This review first appeared on http://fictionistmag.com/</em>

<em>Girls Made of Snow and Glass</em> is the Snow White I never knew I wanted. 

It follows the stepmother, Mina, and the princess, Lynet, in alternating points of view. Both are in third person, so it's not so jarring when the shifts occur, but there was also an element of time changing -- some of Mina's story was told in the past, but then it starts catching up with Lynet's chapters until both characters' POVs are firmly in the 'present.' This gets a little confusing if you think too much about it, but if you just read along and let the writing do its job, it flows well. 

The story itself starts out a bit slowly, placing our princess in a frozen castle in the north of her unnamed kingdom and painting her as a bored, spoiled child -- albeit a bored, spoiled child who dislikes her lot in life and liked climbing tall buildings. 

The story that unfolds goes a little differently than the one Disney told. I won't give anything away, as always, but the magical (and non-magical) touches added to this story make it infinitely more riveting. Plus, small (but not immediately plot-related) spoiler: There's an LGBT main character who falls in love. They don't hate themselves for it, they don't question it, and no one makes any disparaging comments about it; they just love someone of the same gender as they are. A+ from me in that respect -- that romance was adorable. A slow burn, too, for those who don't like romance getting in the way of plot.

Overall, the main characters were well-rounded (except Mina's evil father, Gregory, which honestly kind of bothered me), the story is enchanting, and the two Bashardoust pulled off the multiple POVs well. 

One of my only issues with the book was that, though it's only 384 pages, it felt like 600. At times, the characters seemed to go on and on and on about what they were thinking, even at times when it was heavily implied already. But even so, the plot and writing were well executed and I did want to keep reading. Especially near the end of the book, when I basically couldn't put the book down at all. 

An easy four out of five from me, with a definite recommendation for anyone who enjoys fantasy or fairytale retellings.

I enjoyed this story so much. It was such a refreshing take on a story we have all heard before. The author had such an amazing way of writing that I really felt that I was there inside the story. For most of the story the pacing worked really well for me. There were slow moments and then it would really pick up and then it would be back to slow moments which helped to really build up the suspense. I did find the beginning to be a bit rushed though which is why I took of half a star.

The author did such an amazing job with really developing the characters throughout the whole story and giving them such well thought out motivations for the actions. I love how strong both main characters, Lynet and Mina, were. They both came from such different places in life but their lives and stories are so entwined in such a beautiful way. This book did such an amazing job of showing the complexities of relationships, not only with others, but with ourselves.

I also thought that the romances were really well done. There was no insta love, instead everything really built up organically and nothing was over the top. In fact, all the relationships were so realistic and believable. For it being a Snow White, retelling everything felt fresh and new, which I wasn’t expecting at all.

Another plus to the story was the format the author chose for the story. The whole story was told from both Mina and Lynet’s perspectives. The majority of Mina’s part was in the past and told us the story of how Mina came to be where she was. There were a few times when Lynet and Mina’s parts concided and I thought those times really showcased what a brilliant writer Melissa Bashardout is.

As you can tell, I really loved this story. I loved it so much I preordered my own copy. I was going to get the hardcover but when I imagine myself rereading this I picture a nice floppy paperback so that’s the one I ordered. There is no date for that copy, but I will keep you updated on it when I find out. Also, I hope it is actually a floppy paperback, but now that I’ve said that it probably isn’t haha.

I absolutely adored this book. Undoubtedly, it’s one of my all-time favorite fairytale retellings. This book has heart that is as sturdy as glass yet innocent as snow. It is magical, emotional, and a true blessing to those who read it.

The relationship between Lynet and Mina was the most remarkable part of this novel for me. Their bond was truly beautiful and I adored their story progression. The pain each character felt in their separation was gut wrenching and I found myself crying at several points.

Lynet’s personal relationship with Nadia was so pure and beautiful I wish all YA novels could have the same feel. Nadia herself was a breath of fresh air in YA Lit. POC, lesbian, and a career woman. She is definitely an inspiration to me, just like she will be for many young WOC.

The world of this novel was also remarkable. Bashardoust created a great world with new magic I’ve never read about before. It was amazing. I loved the magic in this novel. It was unique and it made the book stand out.

I rate this book 5/5 stars. I can’t wait for my finished copy and I can’t wait for my preorder gift!

*Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for allowing me to read and review this book before release*

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This book follows the story of Lynet and Mina, two girls who are completely different and yet connected in a special way. It is a loose retelling of Snow White and the Huntsman, with Lynet being Snow White and Mina being the ‘evil queen’. I put evil queen in quotation marks because Mina has a strong character development throughout the story that changed my opinion of her greatly: but more on that later! I want to note that the cover is also absolutely gorgeous and I love the simplicity of it.

The story itself was rich, gripping and told in a very fairytale-like fashion. I felt like I was reading a new fairytale as I read this book and I found myself entranced by the language. It had a light feel to it and even when there was peril, I always felt a sense of hope. Lynet and Mina were two truly beautiful characters. The story is told from both points of view, some from the present and some from the past. This narrator style gave me the opportunity to see the development of each character from her own point of view, as well as delve deeper into the lives of each girl. Mina was my favorite character in this book. I felt like I was able to see why she became so bitter because of the background elements of her life as well as how her personality affected the character. My emotional connection was mainly to Mina and it was quite strong, which is hard for a book to do, for me. The magical elements in this book were so unique and I think that it is one of the things that sets the book apart from other Snow White retellings that I have read. There is life, there is death, and there is a certain air of impossibility around the magical storyline and it was something that certainly interested me from the start. The book started off right away with the plot and that is one of the things I appreciated about it: some books drag on in the beginning, but this one jumped right in and made me want to keep reading. I felt the magic through the pages and like I was in Whitespring, watching these events happen for myself because of the descriptive narrative.

There is not much I didn’t like about this book, as evidenced by my rating. I feel like the character arcs—mostly for Mina—were so well-done that I was mostly focusing on her and Lynet rather than the other characters. I did love the inclusion of Nadia, who was the court surgeon and ended up adding an LGBT element to the story. That is something I wish I had been included more during the book. I am such a proponent of LGBT themes and characters in order to foster representation and I found myself wanting more! Also, this book was marketed as feminist and I completely agree with that statement. I felt empowered for both Lynet and Mina, through their actions and their interactions with each other. Mina, especially, exhibited this when she was dealing with conflict and I admire her for that. All in all, this book was an absolute joy to read and I felt extremely satisfied after finishing this story.

I would recommend this book to those who are fans of fairytale retellings, but aren’t afraid for some extra twists to be thrown in. This is not your typical fairytale retelling and it becomes its own version of a fairytale through its narrative, characters, and wonderfully powerful morals.

*Review will be posted to Frayed Books: scheduled 8/22/2017*

I guess several people had mixed reviews on this one, but I ended up loving it. I loved the simplicity, the characters, and even though it's by no means a flashy story, it really grabbed me from the first page and I was drawn until the very end, which was very satisfying to me. But I guess that's the beauty of books, one person's trash is another person's treasure, and I'm grateful for that!

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is kind of a mashup of Frozen and Snow White. We have the typical cast, which are the two alternating protagonists. Mina, who is the "evil" stepmother, and Lynet who is the beautiful daughter of the king, who is the spitting image of her mother who died in childbirth. There are some surprise side characters, notably, Mina's terrible father, and Nadia, who I won't talk too much about but was a welcome surprise!

The whole book is a slow burn. Don't expect a rollercoaster ride, you won't get one, and at some points it almost seemed like it dragged. But what always rooted me to the page was both Mina and Lynet who were wonderful three dimensional characters making the best of a bad situation; their lives driven by patriarchial figures who maybe thought they were making the best decisions for their daughters, but ultimately restricting them into being not who they really were. This story was really about Mina and Lynet's relationship, love, and women breaking free of expectations. And I loved it. Maybe I was drawn more to it than others because I'm a mother, and there's just something about that relationship that had me turning the pages and tearing up seeing their exquisitely difficult but rewarding interactions. There were also a few surprises sprinkled here and there, which I appreciated, but if you didn't totally buy into the characters and story and themes, this book is not for you.

Overall, a magical and deep retelling of Snow White and Frozen that had me riveted to the page with its wonderful three dimensional characters.

Mina is the daughter of a magician who is only interested in expanding his own powers and influence, by whatever means necessary. Her father has no affection for her, but rather sees her as a posession, a pawn in his schemes. She lives in the warm South, but is lonely and shunned by everyone because of her father.

Lynet is from the cold North, where it is always winter, and is the pampered and spoiled daughter of the King. All the people adore her, her father most of all. However, he has placed unfair expectations on her, expecting her to grow up and not only take her dead mother's place as Queen, but to be exactly like her in every way, without giving any thought to what Lynet might want.

Two young motherless girls who seem to have nothing in common, but share the same sinister secret of their existence, find their lives intersecting. At first, their relationship is innocent, even touching, but soon becomes dangerous due to the actions and influences of others and events beyond their control. Are they destined to be ever at odds as long as they are both alive?

This story is described by many as a "feminist" retelling of Snow White. I'm not sure I'd agree with that, but I suppose that depends on your definition of feminist literture. It is conspicously devoid of the seven dwarfs or any hansome prince coming to anyone's rescue, and it does feature strong female characters who are fighting to determine their own destiny, rather be controlled by their fathers. Plus it has the same-sex attraction and romance that seems to be requisite in today's feminist literature. But there is no over-arching theme of fighting for all women's rights, they were strictly concerned with themselves and their own realities.

I would simply describe it as a unique and very interesting re-telling of Snow White, featuring strong female characters that were much more complex and multi-faceted than the original tale, with it's good versus evil simplicity, and handsome prince rescuing the damsel in distress. I was first intrigued by the caring, mother-daughter relationship Mina, representing the "Evil Queen", and Lynet, representing Snow White, had, and the genuine affection they each had for one another. Then enters Nadia, the young female surgeon who replaces the handsome prince and the dwarves from the original story, but also serves as a device to introduce conflict, and things begin to change.

The story moves along at a fairly decent pace, changing back and forth in both point of view and timeline in a carefully woven tapestry, and the characters are very well-developed over time. I almost quit reading, because I really didn't want to see the touching relationship between Mina and Lynet be destroyed as events along with Mina's ambitions seemed to be forcing her to become the Evil Queen. But I pushed on and, hopefully without giving too much away, I found that I was very pleased with the ending, and I think most readers will be, too.

While I had a little trouble buying some of the magic (a glass heart? really? how does that work?), once I got past that as the story drew me in, I found I really enjoyed it, and honestly can't think of anything I really didn't like about it. I would recommend this to fans of fantasy or magical realism with strong female characters, particularly those looking for something with themes of learning to be independent and standing up against others' expectations in order to be true to yourself and determine your own future.

Recommended for ages 13 and up.

I got this book through NetGalley to review. This book started a bit slow but picked up a lot around page 80 or so. I ended up being really drawn into the story. This is a retelling of Snow White that was done in a very smart and compelling way.

There are a lot of strong female characters in here but I loved how real they seemed. The majority of characters really aren’t good or evil they are just struggling to make it through their lives doing what they think is right.

The writing is beautifully done and makes it easy to imagine the surroundings and characters; it’s a very beautiful story. I also loved some of the twists to the story and how the ending was done; it had such a hopeful feel to it.

Overall this was a beautiful and complex retelling of Snow White. The story has a wonderful dark fantasy fairytale feel to it and the characters are amazing. Even though the story started out slow I ended up being really impressed by the end. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for books by Bashardoust in the future.

First, you have to know that this book literally is being marketed as, and I quote, "a fantasy feminist fairy tale", and if you think that wasn't enough to sell me on it, you are DEAD WRONG.

✘ PLOT
In the wintery wonderland Whitespring, Princess Lynet is nearing her sixteenth birthday, and her father expects her to come into her own as Queen. Unfortunately, Lynet has never wanted to be a Queen - she just wants to climb trees and towers and learn more about the mysterious new surgeon, a girl named Nadia who makes her cheek flush every time she smiles.

Meanwhile, Lynet's stepmother, Mina, has only ever wanted to be Queen; with a heart made of glass and an upbringing that told her she was unworthy of love, she has decided that power is the next best thing. What will she do when the King decides to crown Lynet Queen earlier than expected, and takes that power away from Mina, leaving her with nothing?

✘ WRITING
I always try to go into debut novels with optimism, and this book was no different. Unfortunately, the biggest drawback for me of this entire book was the writing itself. It felt a bit young, as though it would be more suited for MG writing than YA. Many incidents that should have been earth-shaking, if not entirely traumatic, were simply breezed past by the characters within a few short sentences, leaving the entire plot to feel very rushed. I didn't think passage of time went very realistically in the story.

That said, the writing is very whimsical and paints a beautiful setting. I loved the descriptions of Whitesping as well as the Southern lands, and I thought the characters were sculpted magnificently. I will absolutely be first in line for Melissa's next book, because I think she shows uncanny amounts of potential!

Also, the chapters switch perspectives between Lynet and Mina, and for the bulk of the book, those perspective changes also include changes in time, with most of Mina's chapters being set several years in the past. Those transitions were flawless, and I never struggled to keep the perspectives separate, as they felt like distinctly different narratives.

✘ LYNET
Lynet is really the primary "main character" in this story, and she is a fun narrator. She has grown up constantly being compared to her late mother, the former Queen, but all she wants is to be recognized as her own person. She would rather spend her days climbing trees than learning how to become the next Queen, and she wants nothing to do with politics until she learns that she can help people instead of only ruling them. Her blossoming relationship with Nadia is sweet, but very slow-moving and unacknowledged for the bulk of the story.

✘ MINA
Despite being cast as the "evil stepmother" of this fairytale, Mina was probably my favorite character, if only because my heart ached so much for her. She was raised with no mother and a loveless father who constantly told her she was not only unworthy of receiving love, but also incapable of giving it. She carries a heavy burden of self-loathing and shame, but is a profoundly kindhearted character at times. She makes some awful choices, but I felt like she redeemed herself thoroughly by the end of it all.

✘ NADIA
I really expected Nadia to be a huge aspect of the story, being Lynet's love interest, but I was stunned to see how little "screen time" she actually got. We learned very little about her and her character underwent minimal development, so I couldn't even formulate a solid opinion on her.

✘ FINAL VERDICT
I love fairytale retellings for their whimsy and magic, and this book didn't let me down in those avenues. I was especially fond of the way the magic worked, such as how Mina's glass heart gave her a way to manipulate glass into becoming other things and people.

Ultimately, I'm a sucker for stories where the "villain" is really just a misunderstood, wounded soul, and Girls supplied that in no small measure. Almost every character in the story has undergone genuine traumas that explain the ways they behave, for better or worse.

All in all, while it wasn't everything I hoped it would be, it mostly fit what I wanted, so I'm happy to give this book 4 stars. It was a fun read that I didn't really want to put down, and I'm eager to see what else Melissa Bashardoust comes up with!

Thank you so much to Flatiron Books for the ARC! All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Girls made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust is the re-envisioning of the classic Snow White tale. Told from two perspectives, Lynet (the Snow White character) and Mina, her stepmother (the Evil Queen character). Lynet is the spitting image of her mother who died when she was born and everyone treats her with kid gloves as if she was so fragile, she would break. Mina came into her life when she was a young child when her father, Gregory, a magician and alchemist, came to live at the castle at Whitespring from the south. Lynet’s father, King Nicholas, marries Mina and she and Lynet become close as a mother and daughter. Until a terrible secret is revealed to Lynet and everything she believes to be true is all a lie. Who can she trust now? When a promise is broken to Mina and a tragedy occurs, Lynet and Mina are pitted against each other. Will they become bitter enemies? Or will they join forces when a greater enemy reveals itself?
Girls made of Snow and Glass is an excellent story with a new twist on Snow White. Lynet and Mina are both strong character who aren’t the typical female characters. They are both a bit of damsel in distress and strong females who don’t need a man to rescue them. It was filled with action and surprises at every turn. I could not put it down. There were a couple questions that came up that I feel the story doesn’t answer. However, the book is a great story and young adult and adult readers will enjoy this new Snow White story. I recommend Girls made of Snow and Glass.

Girls made of Snow and Glass
will be available September 5, 2017
in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is an old story: a brittle, aging stepmother grows increasingly jealous of her husband’s kind, beautiful daughter, the kingdom’s beloved successor to the throne. Mina is the daughter of a magician, a stunning woman with a heart of glass whose sole ambition is to be a queen. Lynet is the perfect replica of her dead mother, a fact her grieving father and his devoted court members won’t let her forget. Both desire what seems unattainable. Mina wants to love and be loved, though her heart is forever silent in its cage. Lynet takes endless risks—climbing trees and hanging from towers—in an attempt to prove she’s not the delicate beauty her mother was. Inevitably, their struggle to overcome their limitations sets them in opposition.

In her debut novel, Melissa Bashardoust sets out to breathe life into the Snow White story and she succeeds remarkably well. I’ve always loved fairy tales and her feminist retelling had me at the proverbial Once Upon a Time. Whitespring, with its unchanging snow-globe world and its garden of shadows, drew me in immediately. The Southern part of the kingdom—a land of color and warmth, laughter and endless bloom—is just as vivid, much like the two protagonists in this tale. I loved Mina and Lynet’s attempts to find their identities, as well as the peripheral LGBT element, and the imagery throughout the novel was fantastic. Told from alternating viewpoints, the novel reinvents the evil stepmother/good daughter trope and creates a fantasy that resonates in “real” life. How many of us try to escape the power other people’s beliefs hold over us? As difficult as it is to defy society, challenging the expectations of those we love can seem impossible. That’s where this novel falls a bit short for me, especially at the end. It feels, in a sense, like a work of glass created by a magician: gorgeous but also fragile, like Mina’s heart. Which, I suppose, is what makes all fairy tales so beautiful. Girls Made of Snow and Glass isn’t meant to recast this world’s grim reality but rather to offer us a glimmer of magic—and, ultimately, hope.

Much thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

At sixteen Mina was being raised by her magician father after her mother had passed away and as much as Mina saw herself as normal she was anything but. Mina’s father had replaced her heart with one made of glass to keep her alive so when she moves to Whitespring Castle she forms a plan to learn to love even without a real heart so that she can win the heart of the king and become the queen of the castle herself.

Years later fifteen year old Lynet is being raised by her father the king and her stepmother, Mina. All Lynet ever hears though is how much she resembles her mother that died giving birth to her so much so that Lynet wishes to get out of her shadow. One day though Lynet finds she has something in common with her stepmother Mina when she learns that Mina’s father the magician actually created her out of snow at the wishes of the king after her mother’s death.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust is a young adult fantasy retelling of the Snow White fairytale. I’m always a fan of retellings if the story brings something new and different to the table and doesn’t seem like the author simply reworded the original. With this book the story certainly changed quite a bit and took on a whole new life of it’s own but still had those twinges of the original to bring back the nostalgia. If comparing this to anything I’d say it reminded me a bit of Cinder by Marissa Meyer in that regard that the story felt fresh and full of new ideas while reading.

The story is told by switching the point of view back and forth between Mina, the stepmother, and Lynet in Snow White’s roll. Mina’s chapters begin with flashing back to her teenage years and tell the story of how she was brought up, how she met the king and how she eventually becomes Lynet’s stepmother leaving the two woman doomed to rivals. Lynet’s story picks up the present and eventually the entire story entwines bringing the reader to the lives and relationship of the two woman. If a fan of retellings with some new and original ideas I’d recommend checking this one out as it was certainly different.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I don't even know how to write a proper review for this.

This was everything I ever wanted. The writing is gorgeous, the characters fantastic, and everything was perfect.

I wasn't sure I would love it since I'm not a big Snow White fan and this is a retelling, but it's perfect.

Lynet and Mina have my heart forever. I loved being in Lynet's story in the present, and her stepmother's, Mina's, in the past and was beyond thrilled when the story converged to continue switching POV in the present for both characters. This is officially one of my favorite retellings ever. I want more women saving themselves and more novels about all the different types of love--familial, romantic, friendship--and how those loves, or lack thereof, can shape and mold us.

The narrative of the power of men on women's lives--fathers, specifically, on daughters--is blistering and heartbreaking. Mina's has a heinous relationship with her father while Lynet loves her father, but lives under the shadow of her dead mother. Both struggle with breaking away from their father's views of them and must discover if they can find a way to each other.

Wow, was this a delightful ride. The first half is slow but it’s slow for a reason. It really gives a great foundation to the story. It connects you to our heroines and helps the second half of the book really pack a punch.

I really loved the dual points of view for this book and they flowed nicely into each other. They never pulled you into a boring or unnecessary chapter.

The magic in this book was so interesting. I loved the idea of a girl with a heart of glass and another made of snow. I always love when magic in books can surprise me, sometimes I feel like I’ve seen it all.

This was all about two girls finding their place in the world. Finding out who they really are in the face of expectations of who others think they should be. Expectations, even if you’re not royal, can feel smothering. I connected with both of them on their confusion of who they really are and who they think they should be. This was definitely a sort of girl power novel. The focus was on the girls and their struggles, which was so refreshing. And can we talk about the girl romance? It was so cute and refreshing, just two girls falling in love. I loved the inclusions of an LGBT romance in this book, I mean if a girl can have a heart of glass why can’t queer characters to exist?

I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a refreshing fantasy book.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is Melissa Barshardoust’s first novel and her assured confidence and brilliant reimagining of the classic Snow White fairy tale has me already anticipating her next.

Lynet is approaching her sixteenth birthday when the story begins. She is overwhelmed by her father’s expectation that she will step into her mother’s shoes as Queen someday. Her uncanny resemblance to her mother seems to obligate her to sublimate her own wishes and ambitions to honor her dead mother’s legacy. Certainly her father is unable to see her as an individual separate from her mother. The only person who seems to see her as an individual separate from her mother is her stepmother, Mina and the new surgeon Nadia whom she is falling in love with. This all falls apart when Nadia reveals the terrible secret of her creation.

Mina came to court at sixteen, unloved and isolated by people’s fear of her magician father, she was determined for once to be on the inside looking out instead of the outside, looking in. To do that she set her cap for the King, determined to wed him and with his power, finally be accepted and loved. She succeeds at the former and fails at the latter, in large part due to her father’s interference and the King’s infatuation with his grief. However, she does become close to her stepdaughter Lynet, despite the King’s disapproval. Like Lynet, she carries a terrible secret.

Lynet is destined to be Queen, but that would displace Mina whose self-worth and identity is defined by her position. Lynet of the Snow and Mina of the Glass are set at odds by fate and fear and their struggle sets the stage for the familiar story of Snow White. There is even a Huntsman, though he is a far more important and complex character in this story. In many stories, women are set at odds with each other, demanding the destruction of one for the survival of the other. Lynet and Mina know that is what is expected of them. The question is whether they can change their fate.



I loved Girls Made of Snow and Glass. Even the magic of the story is innovative, this frozen land cursed by a Queen’s suicide, the magic of glass and snow, and the completely authentic emotional struggle at the heart of the story. It reminds me a bit of The Wizard of Oz, of the seekers desperately seeking what they already have, if they only realized it. There are real lessons to learn here, about not allowing others to define your capacity or limitations, not accepting outside judgments, and of believing in yourself.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass falls solidly within the traditional fairy tale tradition of telling stories of real traumas and fears that young people may face and providing a vehicle for working through them. There is loss, violence, thoughts of suicide, alienation, infidelity, and parental malpractice from too little and from misdirected love. This story is often grim, despite the beautiful and fanciful settings. That is what the fairy tales are for, for working out and through our fears. In this story, though, love is redemptive.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass will be released on September 5th. I received an advance e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass at Flatiron Books, Macmillan
Melissa Barshardoust author site