Although not appropriate for my middle schoolers, I really enjoyed this read! Will be buying a copy for my personal library and recommending to friends!

I really enjoyed this sweet retelling of the nutcracker! It was a super cute read with lots of romance between many characters (no love triangles just details about characters romantic lives). I didn’t enjoy some of the writing with unusual word choices. Some of the scenes in this book gave me the warm fuzzies!
Pick up this book if you like cute romantic stories adapted from classic stories.
Avoid if you dislike Insta love, predictable plots and all the characters being romantic.

Thank you to netgalley, the author and publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Average. Far too long then necessary. Also the vocabulary used in some cases was inaccurate or incorrect. Maybe have an editor make sure the words being used are used correctly, or don't use big words that you never looked up the definition for or don’t use in regular speech.

This book was unique, interesting, and fun to read. While I enjoyed reading it for personal reading, I will not be adopting it for my classroom. Thank you to the publisher!

When I had read this book I really did enjoy the nutcracker theme. The Nutcracker story is one my favorites amongst the classic stories. However, I did believe it could have been shortened. But, I would still recommend to fellow Nutcracker and fantasy book lovers.

A Curse of Frost and Fate is a HEA retelling of The Nutcracker.

Klara is an ordinary girl, who is thrown into a magical world and spends her entire time trying to understand and forge connections with everyone around her. Jaemis is the cursed prince, who feels a burden to save the world around him. They both try to fight this 'forbidden' connection between them, as they try to get Klara back home.

I read this with absolutely no knowledge on the original story of The Nutcracker, so I have no way of comparing it to the original. However, just from reading it and catching onto The Nutcracker vibe that is associated in pop culture, I can say that this book succeeded in retelling a mesmerizing tale of love, good vs evil, and magic.

There was so much to learn about the different types of creatures and the magic that surround the fantasy world, yet all these concepts are swept under the rug to create a focus on the romance. I would have enjoyed more world-building, in place of the two main characters pining after each other, but I cannot deny the obvious chemistry between them. While I would have preferred a more not instant love storyline, it was delivered well with the "meant for each other" trope.

It was a pretty fast paced book, with loads of fluff. There is nothing 'dark' about this retelling. Overall, this book is a cozy holiday read for anyone that likes fairytale retellings with a little more passion and chemistry. Reading it gave me classic yet heartwarming feeling.

DNF at 45%
2.5-stars

I found this really difficult to get invested in. There’s a lot of info-dumping and dialogue that just spells things out. There’s over the top instalust that is talked about A LOT in internal dialogue as well as by everyone around them and then pretty quickly acted on. After that they’re in love I guess 🤷🏼‍♀️

The MMC has this martyr attitude like he can’t have even a little happiness because his parents are imprisoned and he has this curse - all I really know about him is he’s super handsome and used to love to laugh. The FMC I know even less about. She’s just wholly invested in this realm and the Prince.

And it’s needlessly long. There’s a whole conversation about whether to bring a horse with them or not and in the end she brings the damn horse and rides so well the Prince doesn’t believe she’s inexperienced 🙄

It’s not a bad concept overall but needs a lot more work.

This was a very long read that could have been cut in half. There were a lot of filler words that could have been left out. I felt like there were many things that were missing like the author knew what they wanted to write, but could not execute it on paper.

This is a nutcracker retelling, which I was so excited for, but it fell flat for me. There were so many grammatical errors! Im usually not one to take much notice to that but it was so frequent. There were also many words put in sentences that didnt make sense. It came across as the author just wanted to use a bigger word to seem, I guess, smarter but the word ended up not making sense at all. I also thought this book was way too long, she should have stopped over explaining every little thing and I would have enjoyed this alot more.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for this copy in exchange of an honest review.

An adult nutcracker retelling, a kingdom under a spell, a cursed prince.

The discription got me so excited I couldn't wait to dive in. Gorgeous cover (while I don't judge book by its cover it was so beautiful and I'm a graphic designer so it earned bonus points). Unfortunately I didn’t find myself getting sucked into this story and struggled with the writing at all. It was unnecessarily long (and I like long), the main characters and story felt hollow and unfinished.

Disclaimer: I appreciate NetGallery giving me an ARC in return for a honest evaluation.

The Nutcracker tale is retold in The Curse of Frost and Fate with a romantic twist and a bit of spice on the side. We learn about many different magical species, alliances, and how they all interact, which I found interesting. The plot was also promising. The issue I found with the tale was that it was largely telling you what occurred rather than showing you, which made it difficult for me to become really immersed in it. I did not feel the connection between the main characters and there were also grammatical errors that I've found.

What if your favorite childhood story, one of magick and romance, was real? On Christmas Eve, Klara finds herself whisked away to the magical world of Galindria, cursed by darkness in this present-day retelling of The Nutcracker. She believes Prince Jaemis (cursed by Mogran the Mouse King), the realm of magick he calls home, and the fae creatures she meets all to be a dream; one inspired by her favorite ballet and perhaps a bit too much to drink. Still, she can't deny the instant connection she feels when the cursed prince enters her life; a connection that could spark her biggest adventure yet.

Verika Sloane's attempt to create a magical world based on a familiar tale is commendable. The world-building isn't so complex that you get lost, with a blend of familiar fae creatures (like the Sugar Plum Fairy) alongside a few new ones each offering their own interesting histories. Her descriptions of Galindria are beautifully attention-grabbing and engaging--enough that you can fall into the world of Galindria while keeping one foot in reality (much as Klara does at the start of the book).

The romance between Klara and Jaemis, however, feels a bit rushed, even for such a long novel. The couple was more interesting while their sexual tension simmered. Once it reached a full boil, the smut (which was a bit uncomfortable to read, given the word choice) seemed to take over the plot. Once the couple "makes love" (an antiquated term I wasn't expecting to hear from Klara, who became more heart-eyed than heroine with every page), they're too distracted by one another to see the crystal clear answers directly before them. The story dragged on a little too long, especially since the conflict's resolution is blatantly clear early on.

Klara and Jaemis, who grew up in different worlds, did learn how to learn from one another's strengths and perspectives, though. Klara is willing to take adventurous risks in the name of love, while Jaemis never makes the mistake of seeing Klara as a damsel in distress in need of saving.

That being said, the story could have used some restructuring. While the entire plot seemed to drag, the romance was rushed. Everything from the smut to the "I love you's" felt ingenuine, forced. There are a number of word choice mistakes that seem juvenile, and some concepts were over-explained.

If you're looking for a Christmas-y read and a happily ever after, this cute retelling of a classic tale is right up your alley. However, there's plenty of room for growth between the plot and writing style.

I was very excited to discover this book and was my first Nutcracker retelling. I loved the Nutcracker influence and the additional elements to keep it fresh. I loved the spice and the romance aspect to keep the reader engaged. I enjoyed this story.

This book was engaging and interesting enough, but it was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors and was entirely too long – unnecessarily so. The story's cute, and by the end I surely was invested in seeing where the characters ended up, but it was extremely frustrating to read.

As I said, this is a re-imagining of the story in the Nutcracker, so there are many similarities, with some new additions to keep it interesting and not too predictable. It was a little spicy, and very much romance filled which I can always appreciate.

I think just truly not the book for me hahaha. The writing is all over the map—it's both juvenile and pretentious, which is a weird combo for a romance book let me tell ya. The cringe factor was present for me, but that might also be because I willingly read Nutcracker smut. Not my jam, but could be yours!

I enjoyed this retelling of The Nutcracker, with its expansion on the world of the ballet and its characters. Sloane managed to elaborate on a familiar story and make it feel new and interesting again.

I have quite mixed feelings about this book. What struck me first was the title, it blends into other fantasy books and I would have liked a more unique title. The book itself is unique and I think the title should match that. I did enjoy the Nutcracker elements and the uniqueness of the book. However, I also believe the book is too long. Somehow everything seems rushed but the book's page count does not match it. I thought the love story could have a been a bit slower since, again, it seemed a bit rushed. I also found that there were words that seemed overly complicated and did not fit into the book/sentence. Other that that I found the book quite enjoyable and I didn't think about not finishing it which is a good sign. The nutcracker elements is probably the best and most central part of the book and if I could add half stars to make it 2,5 I would. Don't get me wrong, the book is good, but I just hoped for something more.

A wonderful take on the nutcracker, I absolutely loved this story and couldn't put it down. It's definitely got festive feels at Christmas time, brilliant.

A good easy fantasy read! I felt there was enough world building to really help the story and I read it in one sitting. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for access to this book

I was really excited for A Curse of Frost and Fate because The Nutcracker has been a favorite of mine since I was a child. It also helped that a few reviews I had already read had mentioned that there's a decent amount of spiciness in the story. However, once I actually received my ARC and began to read I found it hard to look past the amount of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors (I'm sorry, my family has always pointed out that I am part of the "grammar police"). I also found it hard to believe these characters were adults and not teenagers. It felt pretty juvenile. However, if you like spicy... this definitely provided some heat.
Overall, even with my love for The Nutcracker, this just did not do it for me.