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Snowdrops in Spring: A Tale of the Sleeping Beauty
Princess Emilia Vertius has spent most of her life in a secluded cottage hidden deep in the Kingswood. Despite a curse looming over her, she spends her days exploring the forest and painting everything nature has to offer. When Mia finds herself hopelessly trapped in a poacher’s snare during a rainstorm, a handsome stranger stumbles upon her in her predicament. After cutting her free, he insists on helping her home, and in doing so, threatens all the secrets she’s spent her life trying to keep.
Left with debts after his mother’s death, Luc Stone works hard as a huntsman for the palace, counting down the days until he can afford to buy land of his own. After he rescues a mysterious young woman in the forest, she offers to teach him how to read, changing his life forever. Everything about her is perplexing, from her beautiful pet owl to her contempt of wearing shoes. The more time he spends with her, the more Luc realizes that his plans for the future are missing one crucial element—someone to share it with.
As the spring and summer pass, a friendship blossoms. Mia soon discovers that while she is teaching Luc to read, he is teaching her just as much about life and the outside world. As her feelings for him grow, Mia worries that the longer she keeps her true identity from him, the harder it will be to tell him who she really is. When the king shows up at the cottage and insists she marry a foreign prince, Mia must challenge her father, court tradition, and the curse if she wants to be with the man she has come to love.
Author’s note: This book contains descriptive adult scenes. This is a standalone story with no cliffhangers and a happily ever after.
Left with debts after his mother’s death, Luc Stone works hard as a huntsman for the palace, counting down the days until he can afford to buy land of his own. After he rescues a mysterious young woman in the forest, she offers to teach him how to read, changing his life forever. Everything about her is perplexing, from her beautiful pet owl to her contempt of wearing shoes. The more time he spends with her, the more Luc realizes that his plans for the future are missing one crucial element—someone to share it with.
As the spring and summer pass, a friendship blossoms. Mia soon discovers that while she is teaching Luc to read, he is teaching her just as much about life and the outside world. As her feelings for him grow, Mia worries that the longer she keeps her true identity from him, the harder it will be to tell him who she really is. When the king shows up at the cottage and insists she marry a foreign prince, Mia must challenge her father, court tradition, and the curse if she wants to be with the man she has come to love.
Author’s note: This book contains descriptive adult scenes. This is a standalone story with no cliffhangers and a happily ever after.
275 pages, Paperback
Published October 3, 2020
70 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Penelope Daniels
5 books30 followersPenelope Daniels has loved romance novels since she started smuggling home thrift store copies as a teenager. When not writing, you can find her watercolor painting, making stained glass art, or restoring ancestral photographs.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 13, 2022
Snowdrops in Spring by Penelope Daniels
🌟🌟🌟🌟
I picked this book up because I met the author, and I’m really glad I did. This is a romance retelling of sleeping beauty, with some extra twists in it.
I loved the main characters of Mia and Luc, and the side characters were a blast and well developed as well. I love the way Mia is written. She’s a lovely young woman who knows her mind and is unique in her own way. As she grows in her confidence she is more comfortable being who she truly is, and I love that she learns to be herself.
The writing had just enough description and everyone was easy to visualize.
I would classify it as a sweet romance (HEA) with a bit of spice in it, so if that is your type of romance, then this book is for you!
🌟🌟🌟🌟
I picked this book up because I met the author, and I’m really glad I did. This is a romance retelling of sleeping beauty, with some extra twists in it.
I loved the main characters of Mia and Luc, and the side characters were a blast and well developed as well. I love the way Mia is written. She’s a lovely young woman who knows her mind and is unique in her own way. As she grows in her confidence she is more comfortable being who she truly is, and I love that she learns to be herself.
The writing had just enough description and everyone was easy to visualize.
I would classify it as a sweet romance (HEA) with a bit of spice in it, so if that is your type of romance, then this book is for you!
October 28, 2020
Enjoyable read
My favorite thing about this author's writing is that she keeps the familiar feel of the fairy tale while adding in just the right mix of unique twists and details. I enjoyed the characters and vivid descriptions. I would have liked to see more of the development of Mia and Luc's relationship before it got physical, but what was there was cute and fun. Thanks for another enjoyable read!
My favorite thing about this author's writing is that she keeps the familiar feel of the fairy tale while adding in just the right mix of unique twists and details. I enjoyed the characters and vivid descriptions. I would have liked to see more of the development of Mia and Luc's relationship before it got physical, but what was there was cute and fun. Thanks for another enjoyable read!
July 1, 2021
Super sweet
My first sleeping beauty retelling. Very sweet genuine characters. Loved Mias free spirit and Luc’s tender nature even as a huntsman.
My first sleeping beauty retelling. Very sweet genuine characters. Loved Mias free spirit and Luc’s tender nature even as a huntsman.
June 29, 2022
Snowdrops in Spring is a beautiful retelling of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. Absolutely loved the story of Princess Mia and Huntsman Luc Stone. This is the second book I have read. An eye-catching book cover yet again. I really love the author’s writing how beautifully she describes every little detail. The character of Mia is beautifully written. She’s not just any princess she’s different and really unique and that makes her so special. The romance between the characters very sweet. I especially loved reading the part when the characters were all living in the cottage before Mia was being taken to the palace. Mia’s love for painting 🖼 makes her more special. And I also liked the Owl 🦉 Oberon , makes me want to own one too lol 😁
I would strongly recommend this book to readers if you love reading fairy tale romances with new twists. My rating would definitely be 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I would strongly recommend this book to readers if you love reading fairy tale romances with new twists. My rating would definitely be 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
May 2, 2025
After chapter 4 I knew this book wasn’t for me so I skimmed the rest of the book really fast. The two love interests have already kissed by chapter 4. I had thought this was a slower burn, because the description said over the spring and summer they go from friendship to more. But they went from strangers to romance in a matter of a few pages. I guess we got a few paragraphs of them getting to know one another slightly and them teaching eachother things. But it wasn’t enough for me personally. Especially with that book description. This book felt like it is geared toward juveniles if it weren’t for the sex stuff. If that would have been left out it would have been perfect for very young readers. The story is very surface level and easy. It read like a novella actually, because so much was under developed. I wanted the author to dig deeper and create a more realistic and more natural and immersive story. I wanted to feel like I am being immersed in the characters worlds. Their worlds and lives were not established or set up. In fact, Luc was exactly like prince phillip was in the movie in that we see almost nothing of his life outside of him visiting Mia. He could have been a ghost for all that is developed of his life. We don’t see him interact with any friends or family or fellow huntsmen, nothing like that. We barely see him hunting and selling his kills. It’s like he didn’t have a life until Mia.
So first we have Mia. She’s hiding in the woods because of this curse. It’s this horrible thing that she has to be isolated like this and the fact that she could be responsible for everyone in the castle to fall under the spell. Yet, the first chance a stranger finds out about her/where she lives, she and her caregiver Matilda don’t seem all that cautious or concerned. There’s no real way around luc, this stranger, having to know where Mia lives because he needs to help her get home, but Mia and her aunt invite him in and are very friendly with him. When he asks if he can return to help them fix their roof, they tell him YES! Inviting him back over. Even though they literally have someone trusted that is coming to fix anything they need within the month. It wasn’t like they were desperate. They don’t know this random man at all. It could very easily be a trap or a trick or anything. With their lives on the line, you’d think they’d be way more fearful of strangers. I just wanted to feel the difficult situation that Mia and Matilda are supposedly in. I want to feel their fear of being found out. I want to feel their fear of the curse and the reason it’s so necessary to be hidden away. I want the story to be deeper. Not just, ‘oh hey, here’s this good looking stranger! Cool! Let’s keep inviting him over and being kind to him. I’m sure just telling him to please keep our secret will be sufficient!’ It just doesn’t immerse me. I feel nothing because they aren’t feeling anything either. I want luc to have to actually gain Mia’s trust in some way. I want to see her showing emotion. She should be very cautious at the very least, but most likely she’d be terrified. I want to see her innocence at being isolated her entire life. She acts just so normal, like she doesn’t have a care in the world. It just doesn’t feel believable. The author is painting a very specific picture that will fit onto a pretty canvas and it feels too surface level. This is why I felt it seemed more for a juvenile audience. More like the movie where the falling in love part comes easily and is all sunshine and roses. And you don’t have to think too hard about what it would actually be like.
I also thought it was weird that Mia offers to teach luc to read totally out of the blue. when she has no idea if he even wants to. She sees that he can’t read and then, even though she doesn’t know this person at all and even though her life is in constant jeopardy, she asks him if he wants to continue seeing her and get reading lessons. The author could have set that up better to make it seem more natural. Even after he starts his first reading lesson, Mia finally asks him if he even wants to learn and he’s like meh, I don’t really have any books. Haha. It just felt like the author needed to create a quick scenario to get them together so she just quickly tried to set something up with no depth behind it.
And then there is Luc. He’s nice and everything, but, again he isn’t developed outside of Mia. Despite the story being dual pov, I know very very little of his background or what he’s doing in his time away from Mia. The author gave him no set up at all. We don’t see into his life at all. He just suddenly appears when he first meets Mia, and then we almost only hear from him during the time he’s with Mia. Or scenarios directly involving Mia. I think a good story, especially when it’s dual POV, should show us the two characters lives separately. I want to see them interacting with their family, their friends, see that they have a real actual life. So they can come to life for us before meeting one another. It feels more real that way.
It is basically insta love. Which, in stories like this I think you need to be careful doing because when the romance happens so fast, it makes it seem like Mia would have fallen in love with anyone that happened across her path simply because she has no other options. That’s why I would have liked her to be very fearful and cautious about luc for a long time. I want to see him slowly earn her trust and then have her start seeing him differently and be attracted to him after a longer time. So it doesn’t seem like she’s just desperate for any guy because shes never been around any other men besides her dad and helper.
I thought the ending/conflict resolution was silly and didn’t feel natural. Or, again, very much geared toward a juvenile reader. Not necessarily because of what happened, but because of the way it happened. It felt too easy and not very believable that the huntsman would figure out what he did and the antidote being what it was felt really random. The author kinda tried to tie it in but it just felt disjointed.
Anyway, this is not bad if you want a simple and sweet retelling story. The characters are pleasant. I’m just looking for something more and I don’t like insta love/lust, especially in stories like this.
So first we have Mia. She’s hiding in the woods because of this curse. It’s this horrible thing that she has to be isolated like this and the fact that she could be responsible for everyone in the castle to fall under the spell. Yet, the first chance a stranger finds out about her/where she lives, she and her caregiver Matilda don’t seem all that cautious or concerned. There’s no real way around luc, this stranger, having to know where Mia lives because he needs to help her get home, but Mia and her aunt invite him in and are very friendly with him. When he asks if he can return to help them fix their roof, they tell him YES! Inviting him back over. Even though they literally have someone trusted that is coming to fix anything they need within the month. It wasn’t like they were desperate. They don’t know this random man at all. It could very easily be a trap or a trick or anything. With their lives on the line, you’d think they’d be way more fearful of strangers. I just wanted to feel the difficult situation that Mia and Matilda are supposedly in. I want to feel their fear of being found out. I want to feel their fear of the curse and the reason it’s so necessary to be hidden away. I want the story to be deeper. Not just, ‘oh hey, here’s this good looking stranger! Cool! Let’s keep inviting him over and being kind to him. I’m sure just telling him to please keep our secret will be sufficient!’ It just doesn’t immerse me. I feel nothing because they aren’t feeling anything either. I want luc to have to actually gain Mia’s trust in some way. I want to see her showing emotion. She should be very cautious at the very least, but most likely she’d be terrified. I want to see her innocence at being isolated her entire life. She acts just so normal, like she doesn’t have a care in the world. It just doesn’t feel believable. The author is painting a very specific picture that will fit onto a pretty canvas and it feels too surface level. This is why I felt it seemed more for a juvenile audience. More like the movie where the falling in love part comes easily and is all sunshine and roses. And you don’t have to think too hard about what it would actually be like.
I also thought it was weird that Mia offers to teach luc to read totally out of the blue. when she has no idea if he even wants to. She sees that he can’t read and then, even though she doesn’t know this person at all and even though her life is in constant jeopardy, she asks him if he wants to continue seeing her and get reading lessons. The author could have set that up better to make it seem more natural. Even after he starts his first reading lesson, Mia finally asks him if he even wants to learn and he’s like meh, I don’t really have any books. Haha. It just felt like the author needed to create a quick scenario to get them together so she just quickly tried to set something up with no depth behind it.
And then there is Luc. He’s nice and everything, but, again he isn’t developed outside of Mia. Despite the story being dual pov, I know very very little of his background or what he’s doing in his time away from Mia. The author gave him no set up at all. We don’t see into his life at all. He just suddenly appears when he first meets Mia, and then we almost only hear from him during the time he’s with Mia. Or scenarios directly involving Mia. I think a good story, especially when it’s dual POV, should show us the two characters lives separately. I want to see them interacting with their family, their friends, see that they have a real actual life. So they can come to life for us before meeting one another. It feels more real that way.
It is basically insta love. Which, in stories like this I think you need to be careful doing because when the romance happens so fast, it makes it seem like Mia would have fallen in love with anyone that happened across her path simply because she has no other options. That’s why I would have liked her to be very fearful and cautious about luc for a long time. I want to see him slowly earn her trust and then have her start seeing him differently and be attracted to him after a longer time. So it doesn’t seem like she’s just desperate for any guy because shes never been around any other men besides her dad and helper.
I thought the ending/conflict resolution was silly and didn’t feel natural. Or, again, very much geared toward a juvenile reader. Not necessarily because of what happened, but because of the way it happened. It felt too easy and not very believable that the huntsman would figure out what he did and the antidote being what it was felt really random. The author kinda tried to tie it in but it just felt disjointed.
Anyway, this is not bad if you want a simple and sweet retelling story. The characters are pleasant. I’m just looking for something more and I don’t like insta love/lust, especially in stories like this.
July 31, 2023
Another enjoyable instalment in the retold fairy tales collection. This time Mia who is the hidden princess, meets Luc, the huntsman in this retelling of Snow White. Luc and Mia fall for each other as they teach each other skills. They start out as friends and then become lovers. The dark, sinister curse is waiting in the wings to destroy them all. Prince Henry brings a clever twist to the story but the part about the snake is a bit too far fetched for me and spoilt the story just a tiny bit. A great plot and interesting characters.
December 23, 2022
In hiding
Great story, with a fairytale twist of sleeping beauty. Mia runs for her life, a spell was cast on her 15 years ago . When she meets Lucy
The woodsman, he will help her break the curse. And of course Mia is the princess.
Thank you ❤️
Great story, with a fairytale twist of sleeping beauty. Mia runs for her life, a spell was cast on her 15 years ago . When she meets Lucy
The woodsman, he will help her break the curse. And of course Mia is the princess.
Thank you ❤️
May 8, 2025
Loved the characters
Although this is a retelling of a familiar
fairy tale, Penelope Daniels, puts a spin on the characters that is fun. It's more of the back story of sleeping beauty and it was nice to get to know the princess and her world before she slept. Well done
Although this is a retelling of a familiar
fairy tale, Penelope Daniels, puts a spin on the characters that is fun. It's more of the back story of sleeping beauty and it was nice to get to know the princess and her world before she slept. Well done
June 18, 2025
This book reminds me of how the original fairy tales were written. There isn't a ton of action, but there is sweet romance. I liked the twist of how the curse came about. It is a slow book, but it kept my attention.
July 8, 2025
Charming fairy tail
Very much a sleeping beauty tale with curses, spells and living creatures changing from humans to snakes, and back again. I haven’t read anything like this in years
Very much a sleeping beauty tale with curses, spells and living creatures changing from humans to snakes, and back again. I haven’t read anything like this in years
November 11, 2025
Enchanting
This is an enchanting love story, a sleeping beauty tale. The characters are well formed and lovable. This book took me back to my younger days and the magic of fairy tales. Fun read!
This is an enchanting love story, a sleeping beauty tale. The characters are well formed and lovable. This book took me back to my younger days and the magic of fairy tales. Fun read!
March 7, 2021
Wonderful....
April 30, 2025
A very enjoyable retelling of an old classic
I enjoyed this retelling of sleeping beauty even more than the original that has been one of my favorites as long as I can remember.
I enjoyed this retelling of sleeping beauty even more than the original that has been one of my favorites as long as I can remember.
August 11, 2025
Okay this was like so fucking cute and I’m obsessed!! So cottage core, so nature, so pretty. Loved it!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews