Blood and Snow: The Complete Set by Rashelle Workman: review

Blood and Snow: The Complete Set  by Rashelle Workman

Series: Blood and Snow #1-12

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Age Group: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Publisher: Polished Pen Press

Release Date: February 17th 2013

Synopsis: Every thousand years the Vampire Queen selects a new body, always the fairest in the land, and this time she’s chosen Snow White.

Snow isn’t an ordinary girl. She doesn’t know that yet.

When Snow gets bitten by a Hunter, her life is thrown into a whirlwind of change where instead of worrying about what to eat, she has to fight not to drink the blood of fellow high school students. She becomes a revenant – not quite human, not quite vampire.

With the help of an eccentric old Professor, his seven adoptive sons, and her best friend, Snow learns to control her blood craving. Sort of. She drinks a bloodlust tea, but she’d rather drink from her Hunter.

Or, a human.

She also discovers a whole other realm, one filled with fairies, dragons, and magic. And not only does the Vampire Queen want her, but there’s a pendant called the Seal of Gabriel created for Snow by the Vampire Queen’s twin sister. And Snow’s supposed to use it to restore balance to all magical creatures. Including vampires.

My Thoughts:

I love fairy tales. I also love fairy tale retellings. There is just something so magical about being able to see a different version of the story I have always loved. Blood and Snow was a great retelling that was fun, exciting, compelling and unique (at least, for me, anyway). This wasn’t a perfect novel, but was a joy to read and I will definitely come back for more of Workman’s works.

Workman’s story is completely different from the original Snow White story. Snow White is still the bases, but there are many other things that make Blood and Snow a completely different creature. For example, the addition of the many magical creatures gave the story a different air. And the other little touches made the story original, even if it is compared to the well-known tale.

This novel is actually a collection of twelve novellas that make up a series. At first, I was a bit dubious about this aspect but than found that I loved that I could read the story in small chunks. Obviously, the fact that Blood and Snow is a collection of novellas gave it a episodic feel that worked very well.

The best part about retellings is seeing how the author has reformed the characters from the original tale. In this case, there are many characters that were reformed, and some original characters that were added in.

Snow, the main lead, has morphed into a clumsy girl who has some tom-boyish traits. For me, this was a welcome change. Awhile the ‘adorable clumsy girl’ thing has been put into play in many novels, I really liked Snow. She was relatable and it was really interesting to see how she adapted to the, ahem, supernatural situation she has fallen into.

I also have a feeling of fondness toward the characters that were at Snow’s side. Most of them are quirky and a bit strange at times, but I did love reading about them.

The Vampire Queen’s character could have been polished up more. There were times when I sincerely felt how menacing and evil she was, but there were also times when I found that some of her actions didn’t seem to fit her vain character.

Workman’s writing is lovely and enhanced the magic of the story. Her prose contains descriptions that have a beauty to them. It made the story come alive. Despite the episode one through episode two feel, the author is able to write a story that flows in a seemingly effortless way.

There were also some cute comics added in the pages of this book. The art is simple but nice to look at. I think that adding little comics was a great idea and I applaud Workman for deciding to insert them in her book 🙂

The verdict: Blood and Snow is a fascinating tale that allows the reader to escape in a world full of magical creatures. I had a grand time reading this and I am hoping that I will be able to read more of this author’s works.

This post is part of the Blood and Snow Blog Tour. An advanced copy was provided in exchange for a honest review.