Title: Stitching Snow
Author: R.C Lewis
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Retelling
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: October 14th 2014
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: ARC received by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Indigo | TBD | Goodreads







Princess Snow is missing.

Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back-but that's assuming she wants to return at all.

Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.

When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane's arrival was far from accidental, and she's pulled into the heart of a war she's risked everything to avoid.

In her enthralling debut, R.C. Lewis weaves the tale of a princess on the run from painful secrets . . . and a poisonous queen. With the galaxy's future-and her own-in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.


I could not help myself when I started to read this book to compare it to another space theme retelling of a fairy tale. I will say that yes, there are many similarities between Stitching Snow and the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Was I angry at this? of course not, authors are allowed to write fairy tale retellings in space, its not something that only Marissa is allowed to do. What were some of these similarities? Well there were many cyborgs in this book, also our main character Essie was in love with technology, which is very similar to each character in the Lunar Chronicles. But the one that was the most prominent was the fact that our main character was hiding from a king and queen that are feared in their rule. This was the one that might cause the most issues, but for me it was just something that added an extra bolt of mystery to the story. Comparisons aside, I really enjoyed this book, and since i have gone through all of the things that made it the same as another series, now it is time for me to say what made it different and why I liked the book so much.

I loved Essie's character. She was self sufficient and some one who didn't take any shit for anyone. She took care of herself and was kind of bad ass throughout the book. I loved that. I loved reading strong female characters, especially in YA, and this is one of my all time favs now. She was a fighter, literally, and she was extremely smart with technology and with common sense. She never relied on someone else to get her out of any situation, even though at times she DID need help. But what I think I liked the most about her was that she was never afraid to ask for help. Yes she was strong and fiercely independent but she was also only a teenager. When she needed help she was ask for, it that was humbling to read.

Dane, our mysterious bad boy/love interest was one of my favorite parts of this book. This is probably due to the fact that he was a mystery throughout the entire book. He was the one person who we really didn't know anything about and was full of surprised throughout the book. I loved that his relationship with Essie was very slow going and they really got to know each other first before they followed their feelings.

I will admit that in the beginning when Essie and Dane were on Thanda, a very cold planet, the story dragged for me. I felt like the story really go going once they left there and went on their adventure. It is not that I didn't like the story up until that point, but I thought that I really got into the story and the characters once they left that planet and traveled to others. The pacing itself throughout the book was pretty solid. I mean there were times where I thought the story dragged and there was too much description and not enough character interaction, but overall I thought this book was a great read, especially for those sci-fi lovers that also love a good retelling of a classic tale.