Throne of Ice

Gothic Faerie Tale #1

by G. Porter (Editor), P.M. Christou

An original tale loosely based on a fusion of Snow White, The Snow Queen and other fairy stories.
The peaceful Kingdom of Turia awaits the birth of their king and queen’s first child. But a cruel twist of fate and a demon’s intervention destroys their lives forever.

When Princess Khione’s beloved father dies, she despairs at ever finding love and happiness again. She finds comfort in her nursemaid Agnes and her friendship with her daughter Gerda. Years later, events orchestrated by her heartless and jealous mother, Queen Eleanor, take away Khione’s freedom and almost her life. She is forced to flee into the Forbidden Forest, the home of the Fae.

Banished from Turia, Agnes and Gerda try to start a new life in the nearby Kingdom of Agraunia. There Gerda befriends her neighbour’s son Kai. Their close friendship eventually blossoms into love. Their happiness is short-lived, Kai suddenly becomes cold and distant. When Kai disappears rumours persist that he is dead. Only Gerda believes he is still alive and instinct tells her he is in danger. Gerda sets out alone to rescue him, blissfully unaware of the danger before her.

The Gothic Faerie Tale Series, a fusion of faerie tales, folklore, myth & legends, with action/adventure and a magical touch of romance.

The story continues in Queen of Thorns.

Perfect for those who love a story with strong female protagonists, and so much more than an adaptation or reworked faerie tale.

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 30, 2015

Reviews

[Scribblegirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is two stories in one, a retelling of Snow White, combined with one of The Snow Queen. Neither is awesome, tho the SQ half is better-written than the SW half... insomuch as "better" can even apply, which is really only loosely and by a pretty thin margin. Neither is even *remotely* correctly punctuated. Christou seems to be laboring under the misconception that the comma is all-purpose... when s/he bothers to use one. There are commas where there should be periods, commas where there should be semicolons, commas where there should be dashes, commas where there should be ellipses, commas where there should be conjunctions, commas where there should be pronouns, commas where there should be prepositions, no commas at all where a reasonable person might expect a comma to be, about half as many periods as there should be, words just plain missing, etc. 86 pages into it, I finally had to DNF it in the interest of keeping my temper. If the rest of the writing were better, I'd tough it out, but it isn't. Neither main character is very bright, the writing feels borrowed, and frankly, there's just nothing here to warrant the time.

Note: If you are a friend or fan of PM Christou, do not bother to comment here just to call me names because I didn't like this badly written book. Just go give it 5 false stars and a glowing review on your own page. I don't believe in coddling bad writing. No one becomes a better writer unless they are able to learn from their mistakes. (And there are a LOT of mistakes in this unpolished draft of a book.) Now, if you want to comment here with a polite argument for why you think I'm wrong or why you think this is an awesome book, go for it. But expect discussion to result, because I will most likely disagree with you. If you are unwilling to return for discussion or to remain polite, expect to be deleted. I am not here for you to troll because you can't stand people with opinions different from your own. I have written some pretty scathing reviews on GR, but this one is pretty tame. Honesty is hard to hear, and I get that, but I review with my honest opinion and for READERS, NOT AUTHORS. Or their friends.

[Douglas Meeks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this will be short because I have too many books I have to read including the follow-up to this one.

This was a GREAT story, just enough of the old fairy tales to make you feel a bit at home while a completely original story unfolds around you.

You can read the synopsis as well as I can so I will tell you that I seldom give 5 Star ratings to books with semi-cliffhanger endings (not a full cliffhanger but this is a trilogy I believe and the first part was done and we move on but I wanted it NOW!!) so I hope that gives you an idea of how much I liked this story.

I am a fan of fairy tale "retellings" and this is definitely one of the better ones I have come across so grab this one and then you will be ready for the next one around mid December 2015 and don't start this late at night unless you plan to lose a lot of sleep.

[Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really do recommend this book. It is written in a very accessible style, is instantly engaging, and I found it difficult to put down! Multilayered, Pauline tells a great story, much more than a new or reworked faerie tale. Highly recommended and I can't wait for the next in the series

[Ann Pratley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that anyone who loves a good in-depth story that follows the lines of well known, traditional fairy tales, might love this book. The author's ability to twist an old formula and make it her own made this story a joy to read.

Plenty of creatures and character abound, providing a quirkiness that I greatly enjoyed. It left me eager to dive right in and read more by this writer.

[Emmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did attempt to read this ... I love retellings and Snow White was one of my two favorites as a child and Snow Queen shaped several of my Halloween themed costumes as a young adult (before Elsa ruined it).

However the story telling was flat and rushed. Too much tell and not show. I couldn't connect, grammatical and sentence structure aside.