The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

She has a choice.  She can either marry the old man her father chose or go to the convent.  She doesn't want to marry and she doesn't want to go to the convent either.  So she dresses herself as a boy and decides to go traveling...

Del Rey sent me an ARC of this book to read for review (thank you).  It will be published December 5th.

This author's words resonate in my soul.  What she writes talks to me.  She uses some traditional fairy tale characters but changes the story enough to make it new.  She also doesn't make anyone very nice.  There's lots of danger and her main characters just barely survive, but it makes for a good story.

This girl is friends with the frost demon and while they have a symbiotic relationship, they aren't that close.  He has saved her life and he's also falling in love with her but he can't.  She's human and he's not.  That relationship is what will keep her alive.

She finds bandits in the woods and she recovers the girls they stole.  Her only place of refuge is Moscow and she gets there just ahead of the bandits.  What she doesn't know is that one of the Prince's friends is false.  And when she finds out, it's almost too late to save herself...

It's a gripping tale that holds on hard to you, the reader.  I read it in one evening and I'd read another by this author.  She writes excellent tales!  

The Girl in the Tower by Lisa Schroeder, Nicoletta Ceccoli (Illustrated by)

Her mother and father are minstrels that travel from town to town, make their music, get some donations to live on and see the world.  When it's time for the child to be born, they ask for help at the castle they are entertaining.  The mother is in labor, so they take her in.  But they don't give her back...

Henry Holt and Co. and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published March 29th.

Violet has lived in the tower room with her mother since her birth.  She's not unhappy because she's never known any better.  They get food and drink.  The servants sneak in some extra food and drawing paper and even books sometimes.  Violet's greatest joy is to play in her secret garden.  She's not supposed to be out of the tower but the garden is hidden and she should be safe.  

The Queen is a wicked witch.  She wants to be beautiful and that takes a hair from a beautiful child and a hummingbird feather to conjure the spell.  She decides Violet will do for the hair and, since Violet and the hummingbirds are friends, she's going to get her to teach her how to befriend them.  Then she'll have her feather...

The Queen casts spells on everyone, including Violet's father.  When the Queen finds Violet in the secret garden, she takes possession of her and leaves her mother in the tower.  It looks bad all around but this is really a sweet fairy tale that isn't too dark or wicked.  Everything gets resolved for the good by the end of the story.

If I were a hummingbird, I wouldn't like the Queen either.