Book Review- Ice by Sarah Beth Durst

OK I admit it I walked into this book knowing nothing about it except the gorgeous cover. Oh the cover! I've said it before and I'll say it again I'm a book cover whore. Who can resist such a beautiful cover?  The book is a retelling of an old fairy tale East of the Sun West of the Moon. I've never read the fairy tale before though I can tell it has similar elements to other stories.


Warning there are some spoilers in the summary! Cassie has spent all of her life with her father at his polar ice research station. She has grown up hearing the same fairy tale over and over again from her grandmother. The North Wind promises his daughter to the Polar Bear King. However the daughter falls in love with a human and begs the Polar Bear King to let her be with her love and that she will give her child to the Polar Bear King to be his bride. The North Wind finds his daughter with her human love and blows her away to the trolls castle. Never did Cassie believe in the fairy tale till one day she encounters a polar bear who vanishes into ice. After telling her father about it he is rushing her off to Fairbanks Alaska to be with her grandmother. He is worried for her safety. Her grandmother comes to collect her and tells her that the fairy tale she told her granddaughter was no fairy tale. The polar bear she saw was the Polar Bear King and he has come to claim her as his bride as was promised to him by Cassie's mother. Not believing either her father nor her grandmother she is determined to stay at her beloved ice station. She bundles up and grabs supplies.  Soon the polar bear king or just plain Bear. Take her with him to his castle. The two form a friendship that turns to love. For Bear visits her at night in human form.  Bear makes a bargain with Cassie and has her mother released from the trolls. But there was a price to pay for her mother's release and Cassie makes a mistake one night that has the trolls taking Bear away from her to their castle. Now a pregnant Cassie must fight her way to the trolls castle to win back her beloved.


Ok this book was good. I really loved the obvious fairy tale feel to it. While I have not read the original fairy tale before it truly had a beauty and the beast feel to it along with a touch here and there of other fairy tales. The first half of the book is the best. The second half was only meh for me. I will definitely have to check out the original fairy tale though! I give this book 3 and half out of  5 stars.