Winterdream

Should have DNF'd 😮‍💨

While I enjoyed the sweetness of the romance and the traditional elements of the story, this retelling falls short of what I was hoping for. Clara is a frustrating character as she is not consistent. Sometimes clever, sometimes oblivious. Sometimes mighty, sometimes meek. She claims to not want the trapping of the elite class but is enamored of it and struggles with jealousy. She claims to want to marry for love but easily falls in love in a matter of days. She wants freedom but doesn't really fight for it in the moment it matters most and relies on her uncle's magic to just make things perfect for her (this was the most disappointing part for me). As for the rest of the characters and the parts they played it was fine, nothing groundbreaking or deep but enjoyable for a quick Christmas-y read.

note: I have the Beacon Box Excl Ed and it is riddled with typos and grammatical errors. Not sure if this is the case for other editions but it's pretty ridiculous for an exclusive edition.

I haven't read a Nutcracker retelling before. Honestly, I forgot I even had this gorgeous edition from The Beacon Book Box. Serious case of too many books, not enough memory