Winterspell • Claire Legrand
The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.
New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.
Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.
Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.
Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.
So, shall I list all of the reasons I can’t wait for WINTERSPELL by Claire Legrand? Ok.
- Turn-of-the-century New York City
- Christmas
- “Beings distinctly not human.”
- Faery queens
- DROSSELMEYER
- NUTCRACKER RETELLING
Friends, a retelling of The Nutcracker just gets me so excited. I love The Nutcracker. When I was younger, my family would go the McCarter Theater in Princeton to see it at Christmas time, and since my dad has a soft spot for classical music, there were many holidays when we listened to Tchaikovsky during dinner. Also, there was the movie with Macauley Culkin, obvs. Claire Legrand is an author that I’ve just recently discovered, and I’m totally confident that her retelling will be fantastic. It sounds dark and magical, and THOSE are two things that are perfect together.
UPDATE: I completely forgot to address the fact that the girl on the cover is pretty much K. Stew. She generally bugs the crap out of me, but I’ll allow it. I do like this cover.
WINTERSPELL comes out September 30, 2014 from Simon & Schuster BFYR
So I’ve seen this round and all that but I don’t that I ever paid much attention to the synopsis because this sounds really good! The only thing I know about THE NUTCRACKER is the little bit (aka nothing) I remember from seeing the play when I was super young. And I love the bird on the cover! Also, the novella (SUMMERFALL) sounds super good as well! Great pick!
How gorgeous is that cover, too? Can’t wait for this either, sounds amazing! September isn’t too too far either. 🙂
Here’s mine
Kirsty @ StudioReads
You’re going to guffaw in my face for this but I’ve never seen or read anything related to the Nutcracker. WHAT, I know. But it’s never appealed to me before. BUT THAT SUMMARY THO. I’m really feeling that book. *enters into TBR* I honestly think my goodreads tbr is going to collapse on itself.
I’m super excited about this one, too. I love ballet and I’ve seen the Nutcracker a zillion times (I’m only exaggerating a little).
I never realized that the cover model does look like K-Stew. Huh. I do think the cover is pretty though 🙂
Nice pick indeed. I really love the cover for this book. This book just has a cover that says “Buy Me.” Plus the blurb sounds really good as well.
Grace
I am so excited to read this one! i love story retellings and gosh that cover is stunning!
Here’s My WoW