Hmmm. It took me way longer than it should have to finish this book. I have read 700 page books quicker (City of Heavenly Fire, anyone?). I suppose I'm frustrated with it and indifferent to it.I was excited about it until Cassie got pregnant. That may sound terrible, but really, the plot would have been just as good or even better and would have moved just as well if she had not gotten pregnant. It's not just the fact that Bear altered Cassie's hormones with her permission (though that is BIG part of it) so much as Ms. Durst seemed to plop it in there for the sole purpose drama and relationship complications. It was NOT needed! If being pregnant didn't stop Cassie from rescuing Bear and going through hell to do so then her not being pregnant sure as heck wouldn't.The world- building and action was fantastic. I loved that the author chose the Artic; there are few books that have settings in Winter Wonderlands (or Winter Hellholes; depends on how you look at it). I always knew where Cassie was and how it influenced her decisions-- unlike other elements which were not so clear.It was difficult to actually be attached to Cassie and/or Bear. Usually, I'm rooting for the main characters and praying for good things to come to them. These two... not so much. I didn't dislike them as much as I felt detached emotionally from them. How they felt was told rather than shown. It's okay to sometimes just tell, but most often it is better to show. Similarly, Cassie and Bear had a, how should I put it? Rather unpassionate relationship. To me, I felt like they were just saying loving, cute things to one another as robots would instead of actually putting emotion into it. Ms. Durst constantly reminds the reader with Cassie's thoughts that they are madly in love one another but it does not show. *Sighs and shakes head*I have three last things: first, there were! too many! exclamation! points!! They irritated me so much (at least three in each chapter) I almost quite reading it. They were almost as bad as the huge leaps of assumptions some chapters took when transitioning to the next-- which is number three. Something would be introduced at the very end of a chapter and Cassie would make a decision based on it in the next, but no explanation of her thoughts were described. AAAARRRRGGGHH!! Third, I almost wish I had quit the book because the ending was way too quick, anti-climatic, and happy for EVERYONE. I was terribly disappointed. Double ARRRRGGHHH!I'm going to go with not recommending Ice, unless you really, really want to read a story set in the Artic. This is my first novel by Ms. Durst. I've never read the original fairy tale, but I've read other adaptations and like the story very much. I was very interested in this book when I realized it was set in the contemporary world.I rated this book only three stars because despite the creativity, some parts fell flat for me. Especially the ending. I'm going to apologize in advance to the author and other readers who marked this book five out of five stars. I probably would've marked it five stars, but the last few paragraphs of the book didn't produce what I'd come to expect in a fairy tale adaptation. I will explain in the coming review.Let me first start off by giving the book some positives. I very much like the heroine. She's an 18-year-old girl who's a feisty heroine. She's not sitting back and letting magic and life disappointment stop her. I've read some other reviews that stated they were disappointed with her later character. I'm not sure I agree. Even when the magic world tried to stop her from saving the hero, she persisted, even risking death. The hero was, I agree, on some level archaic in his mindset. He wanted her for the ability to produce a human caretaker of polar bear souls.I was fascinated by the setting of Alaska and the hero and her father eeking out an existence there. Using technology along with old world magic was creatively woven in and I loved it. The heroine was able to combine what she knew to help her husband. Thus, she wasn't just a baby-maker for him. She became what the contempoarary world has come to expect--they were equal partners in ther relationship.I will also say this. The way that the author resolved the conflict of rescuing the hero from the trolls was just out of this world. I'm not sure what others thought, but I thought it a brilliant way to resolve things. I also had no idea that was coming. For me, not seeing how something is going to be solved or even having an inkling of how things will end is to me the icing on the cake of a good book.Now, what I was disappointed with...I've read in other reviews that some people felt the hero was forced into her marriage in order to free her mother from the trolls. To me, this is how fairy tales go. There has to be some kind of inescapable pressure for the main protagonist, or the story, simply stated, can't go on.With that being said, I applauded that in this mix of fairy tale / contemporary novel the mother or parent figure wasn't dead. In this case, the mother was still alive and was able to be rescued. Wonderful. I love it. Reminds me a bit of aA Wrinkle in Time.What I felt unsatisfied about is that the author let us glimpse only briefly the inside of the troll castle. What happened there that had the mother screaming every night with nightmares? From what I saw, there was a room with wispy ghost-like trolls and nothing else. The troll queen also says they had no need for another human. Since this is a bit more of an adult novel than a children's fairy tale, did they try to impregnante the mother by a male troll? I mean, what on earth happened? The heroine does have at one point a thought that it was no wonder her mother had nightmares...but at the time she was only be buffeted around by the ghost-like trolls. I didn't feel the same kind of fear, panic or pressure that the heroine felt, and so I couldn't really grasp that aspect.The other thing I was disappointed with was the fact that after bargaining with a polar bear king to save her mother, the heroine had a thought that It was too late for them to bond. What a downer. I didn't expect hearts and flowers and all that nonsense, but this is a happy novel right? I'd hoped that the heroine could've at least created a tentative bond that would grow over time. The heroine would bring her and the polar bear's children to visit, etc, etc. I do admit in the end, after getting to the troll castle, the heroine made a vow to get to know her mother better, but to me as the reader, once they were all safe, the book ended. The story closed. My imagination isn't that good to imagine what the author has in mind for after the heroine and polar bear king get back to his castle.Lastly, and to me most importantly...I was disappointed with the lack of human transformation. Yes, yes, I know, I'm thinking completely in fairy-tale mode...but I can't help it. In the other adaptations I've read, the bear king gets turned back into a human. Naturally, the dynamics of the book are such that I realize the bear king isn't a normal human. I'd had hopes though. He'd told the heroine bout growing up mainly in the human world. So was his turning human at night part of the troll bargain or...what? I'm confused. And are the two of them going to go on like that for the rest of their lives? She and him plus baby or babies living happily in the ice castle? Just for giggles, I couldn't help but imagine the family photos. Mother, children...and giant bear in the background. This was the aspect of the book for me that really disappointed me. With at combination of contemporary and fairy tale, I expected a slightly better meshing of the two worlds.I'll end my review hopefully on a last, positive comment. As an adult, I appreciated that sex, birth control pills, etc, weren't carefully kept out of the story. I'm not sure what age range this book is, but I'm one of those that is appreciative of a fairy tale that has a more adult feel. It doesn't read like a romance where love scenes are described, but just the fact that we know the author is inputing such things is nice. It's a part of reality and I like reading things that don't sugar-coat or gloss over what is part of nature.Overall I would recommend this book to other fairy-tale lovers. And if you want to read other fairy tale adaptations of this fairy tale, I would highly recommend Jessica Day George's Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow. Keep in mind that it's the same fairy tale, but definitely has more of a fairy-tale feel, different pltos, different characters, situations, etc. And of course, a great happy ending.
What do You think about Ice - Hüter Des Nordens (2012)?
This book is excellent beyond words. Beautiful imagery and a beautiful fairy-tale story.
—Pratz
Qué monada :((( aunque me faltan algunas páginas al final.
—jcapuyan
