When the old woman dies, Grace and Kai have only each other for companionship, but Kai's marriage proposal - a perfectly logical step - is shot down by Grace's desire for freedom. Grace and Kai have been best friends forever - how could they avoid it when they grew up next door to each other? They played together by day and in the evenings, Grace's grandmother would tell them legends about the Winter's Child, an immortal princess from the land of ice and snow cursed to undo the damage wrought upon the world when her mother smashed a cursed mirror filled with fear and released its damaging shards throughout the world. Unlike Melinda Lo's Ash, a surprising and wonderful retelling of Cinderella, Winter's Child takes few risks and never rises to the promise of a retelling making this reader question why bother retelling the story at all if it isn't going to at least offer some surprise or contemporary merit?

Ultimately, this book reads like a Harlequin romance meets Hans Christian Andersen-a pleasant and completely provocative piece of fluff.

These are too far and few to add merit to the novel. There are moments of poetry, occasional lines that are lovely to read. Instead, the three characters sound very much alike and Dokey uses chapter headings as an affectation to differentiate for the reader which of the three is talking. Unfortunately, she doesn't make much effort to give each character his or her own voice or tonal mannerisms. This literary effect is clearly used because the only way Dokey could tell all sides of the story without using third person was to shift from one person to another. Kai and Grace are also present, neighbors and best of friends.Īfter the initial chapter the novel shifts into first person narratives, each of the major characters telling their part of the story. The book begins with a typical fairy tale sounding exposition about how vanity led to the fragmentation of a family and created The Winter Child (née The Snow Queen) and her quest to heal all who have been touched by the curse her own father placed on a mirror. This one by Dokey is a retelling of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. Winter's Child by Cameron Dokey is part of the 'Once Upon a Time' is Timeless series-a collection of fairy-tale retellings.