I love a good villain. The treacherous antagonists of my favourite childhood stories have stayed with me throughout the decades. Thus, I'm always a wee bit skeptical of fairytale retellings that recast the evildoer as a sympathetic and tragic villain. Oh they're not the evil, murderous, petty psychopath you've believed all these years, they're just misunderstood * cue traumatic flashbacks and sob story *.

This story really suffers from trying to pigeonhole the MCs into the hero and villain roles from the Snow White mythos. The steps the author goes through to tell their Snow-White-story-but-not-THAT-Snow-White-story is painful to read. Casting the characters into these preconceived molds felt like watching impromptu puppet theatre instead of a well-crafted and polished drama. The tension was flimsy, forced and nonsensical with characters constantly back flipping over illogical miscommunications and misunderstandings. It was a mess. You can see the outlines of what the author is trying to achieve. They're trying to break the pattern. They're trying to build a better fairytale mythology. But it never fully developed from blueprint to a final presentation.

In the beginning our MC's are friends, a family, who loved and trusted each other. So why not continue with that premise and tell THAT story? The characters didn't need to become adversaries just for the sake of it. You don't need to pit woman against woman just to prove she is capable and strong. Organic character growth and strengths don't always have to come from tragedy and hardship. It was an opportunity to showcase some unique with interesting characters and their journey via loving, nurturing relationships and sisterhood instead of a poorly established and unnecessary power struggle. I wish that was the story the author had written instead. By shoehorning the characters into the role of hero and villain when neither really belong, meant neither of them were memorable.

Recommended for fans of The Hazel Wood, Three Dark Crowns, The Sisters Grimm .

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Having read a number of feminist 'reboots' of traditional, often misogynist fairy tales, for my PhD thesis, curiosity drew me to 'Girls Made of Snow and Glass'. A feminist re-telling of 'Snow White' was certainly an intriguing proposition, given my academic interests. So, I delved into the book with high anticipation of something highly original. If we forget about the conscious evocation of feminist themes for the moment, then I can emphatically say I enjoyed the book. But, and its a big but, I found the originality of the feminist re-telling a little hollow and one-dimensional. The narrative was enmeshed with obvious and explicit feminist tropes, but of the type that are obvious, common-sense reflections of the ambitions of young women today. The 'you can be what you want to be' trope is fine, even a positive message for a female-orientated, YA audience, but for us older ladies, we have heard it all before. The current state of feminist theory, which confronts the real-world barriers to women 'having it all', 'doing what they want' - just like the boys, would be a more accurate reflection of contemporary contortions involving the constant negotiations and compromises of gendered identity. That is not to say the baby should be thrown out with the proverbial bathwater. The representations of relations between women are generally nuanced and well-drawn by Bashardoust. I particularly enjoyed the upending of the evil stepmother trope, recast convincingly in this book as a positive role in the constant dynamic of female-female relations. But, the emphasis on a changing, multi-dimensional femininity is unmatched by the static, unchanging - even cruel masculinity, which is the dominant trope of male characters in this book. This is a shame - a missed opportunity, even, to consider gender - encompassing both masculine and feminine, as a dynamic sets of relations between the sexes.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

Girls of snow and glass is a feminist Snow White retelling and I was right away captured by the plot and I had to request this book! I was so happy to read it and I wasn't disappointed. The story is told by two different POVs, MIna and Lynet. Mina is the daughter of a magician who replaced her heart with one made of glass and she is unable to made her heart beat with love, but eager to do it. Lynet is the king's daughter, who was created at her mother's image in snow by a magician. When Mina become her stepmother, determined to win the king's heart and feel love, both women start to form a complex and intricated relationship, who become more complicated when Lynet grows up and is ready for be a queen. Lynet is forced to decide what to do to win her stepmother's affection back and who to become.

Girls of snow and glass is a very interesting and well written book, an original retelling of Snow White, exploring the characters of Lynet and Mina and their relationship, that is one of the things I liked the most in this book. The dual POVs were interesting and captivating and I loved reading about them.
Both women are strong, stubborn and determined, complex and shaped by their own pasts and fathers. I was impressed by the development of the characters, reading how they grown, change. I liked the inclusion of a F/F romance, it was really sweet and well done.

Firstly, I want to say thank you to the publisher and netgalley for sending me an e-arc of this book. I am really grateful for this opportunity.

I am struggling to write this review, and put my feelings into words. This is not a bad book, I did really enjoy it however certain factors really contributed to a lower rating which makes me sad.

The first 40% of this book really intrigued me. I was hooked and I could not get enough. I found that the writing style was really easy to get into, the magic system albeit very small was easy to understand and I was enjoying the characters. I really enjoyed the way that the chapters are split into the perspectives of Lynet and Mina, I enjoyed that we went into the past with Mina and understood how she became married to the King and step-mum.

However, after 40% it began to drag. Whilst I was still very much intrigued I was not as hooked as I originally had been. I wanted to know what happened, but it wasn’t an immediate urge that made me want to pick up the book at every opportunity. Which for me is a real shame because it had so much potential.

Whilst the characters were something that I enjoyed I couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling I had when it came to the King and Mina. Now I might have missed this, but were their ages every discussed? I feel like the way the author writes the characters, the King was a lot older than Mina – when I say a lot I mean significantly. That might not be the case and I might be wrong, but I dont feel like the characters were written in a way where they both appeared to be of a similar age and I feel like this made me feel uncomfortable. Maybe Mina was written in a far more juvenile way than she should of been? I dont know. I just couldn’t shake the feeling.

I am happy that I read this book and it is one that I would recommend to friends as like I said for a lot of it I did enjoy. I am intrigued to pick up another book by this author.

I really enjoyed the story and the authors way of writing . Entertaining and twisted , everything I love In a book !!I would like to read more by this author !!

Hasn't realised that I had already read this book back in 2017. This book is a retelling of snow white but with a twist as it's about the daughter and step mother without the dwarves.

It's all about searching for love and finding happiness it's okay as a retelling but there is no urgency in the book and so it a hard book to get in to.

Mina, with a heart of glass, believes she can never love anyone. She plans to capture the heart of the king to finally know love. Princess Lynet is the image of her late mother, but she would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. When the King takes away ruling responsibilities for the South away from Mina and hands them to Lynet, stepmother and stepdaughter must both make important choices for their kingdom, and each other.

I really enjoyed this captivating story full of interesting twists on fairy tale elements. The strong characters of Mina and Lynet and the relationship between them is at the heart of the story. The stepmother/daughter relationship of many fairy tales is explored in a deep and emotional way. I also really liked the love and friendships Lynet and Mina had with other characters in the books. My favourite element of this book was the use of magic to explore what makes someone who they are. I enjoy all types of fantasy stories, but this book made me realise just how special fairy tales are.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys magical stories with strong, complex characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder Paperbacks for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a retelling of Snow White. And it does exactly what is says on the title. Tell a tale of Girls Made of Snow and Glass.

Told from the alternative perspectives of Mina and Lynet. The storyline is non-linear as Mina is slightly older than Lynet so we have to wait for Mina to catch up. And I much preferred Lynet story. I was waiting for Mina to get over herself but it never really happened. 

For me the story fell a little flat. The 'big reveal' is in the title, so there is no spoilers here or real suspense. There is only a fizzle of anticipation as you wait for the two to realise what they are made of. And then you are left feeling slightly flat. And a bit cheated...

Okay so the last 30% of the book wasn't bad. While we knew how it was going to pan out (I have mentioned that its a retelling), the how caused some excitement. There was something about the book that made me keep reading. Something that meant that even though I could have happily put down this book on several occasions I kept going. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was hope that things would improve. May be it was hope that I'd missed something. 

Despite my lack of warm response to this book, I have got the next book by the author to read. And I am actually looking forward to reading it. To be honest if you are after a retelling of Snow White then this is the book for you. If you are after something completely different then I suggest that you look elsewhere.

How can a girl with a glass heart learn how to feel again? How can a girl made from snow ever provide a warm embrace? How can these two lost souls learn to find happiness in themselves?

This felt very much like a Snow White and Frozen mash-up and I initially loved it for that. Slowly, however, I came to see that the icy setting and fairytale undertones were too slow in manifesting into anything else for me to continue to fully enjoy this. The fantastical elements continued to intrigue me throughout but this did wane over time as the pacing was a little too sedate to keep me truly engaged. At no point did I dislike what I was reading but neither was I enamoured with the proceedings.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for allowing me to read a copy of this eARC.

Okay so, I absolutely loved the concept of this book. An intriguing twist on the evil-stepmother cliche and girls who are human but not quite, but there was just something that was missing from this book that stopped me truly enjoying it.

The pacing of the book is so slow; for the first 40% or so absolutely nothing happens. The first part is centred around getting to know the two main characters, Mina and Lynet, but the book doesn't feel character driven either? It's a bit like the author wasn't sure what they wanted their focus to be on and so did half and half and just hoped for the best. The pace does then speed up but things happen so fast it's hard to follow and invest in. There was just something that was lacking from making me fall head over heels with the book.

The characters are okay; I most defintely prefer Mina and feel she is much more of an interesting character than Lynet and I thought her chapters were more gripping. Her development felt real and nuanced whereas Lynet's was just lacking something and was stilted at times. I found myself a bit bored during her chapters watching her climb wall after wall and fail to give any sort of opinion. I largely like their relationship but again wish it had been a bit more developed.

This isn't a bad book at all, it's just not overly thrilling or intriguing. If you want a slow-paced fantasy based more on imagery than action, this is probably one for you!

ARC received from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review

A feminist LGBT+ retelling of Snow White?! Umm yes! I was set up to love this book so much and I did for 3/4 of the book, then the last quarter came and ych a fi.

I loved the feminist messages in this book and they are the themes that young girls just need to be reading about, how you can grow up to be who you want to be, even if you're given this mould and that girls are worth so much more than their beauty.

I think the author was trying to do a plot twist but it was very obvious. I also think there was not enough time spent with the love interests in this book, the platonic relationships were amazing and I love the found family themes throughout, but the romance just fell a bit short for me, I didn't really believe them and would've liked more time spent between them.

The wintery atmosphere in this book was so lovely, it hasn't snowed this year again for me and I'm really missing my yearly dose of snow, this book helped with that need for snow for a bit, Lynet's love for snow made me feel like a little kid running out after the first snowfall.

I would recommend this to all the preteen girls out there, you need to read this to know that you are just worth so much. Thank you.

I liked this retelling of White Snow, it's well written and engrossing.
The cast of characters are fleshed out and the plot was well crafted.
An interesting and enjoyable read, recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I really liked what this book was trying to accomplish, but I felt like the execution just wasn't quite up to the task. It tells the story of Mina, a young and beautiful girl who wants to win the heart of a King and Lynet, a young girl trying to escape the memory of the mother she looks exactly like.

The Positives: I thought that the mother/daughter dynamics discussed in the book were definitely the best part. It was so interesting to have a Stepmother character that was nuanced and sympathetic and a daughter character who loved and respected her so deeply. I also thought that the magical elements of the narrative were really well done and that the world in general was well constructed.

The Negatives: I felt like the plot became a little bit repetitive at times and that an awful lot of the conflict would have been solved with some communication, which is something that I find particularly irritating in stories.

Overall, I think this was an enjoyable read that introduced some interesting concepts, but ultimately it was a bit lacklustre plot-wise.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was an interesting premise and I liked the two girls in this but I think that it didn't work for me. I got bored partway through it but the original idea was unlike other young adult fantasy books i'd read before.

Firstly thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with the e-ARC and opportunity to review Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust.

What a retelling! I've been entranced by fairy-tales since I was a child and my Nana gave me a family copy of Grimm's Fairytales and this book provides a retelling of Snow White that is unique and enchanting.

The story is told from the perspective of the two key characters Mina and Linet. Mina is the daughter of a magician, who replaced her heart with a heart of glass when she was a very young child. She grows into a young woman shaped by her father's psychological abuse, believing that she can neither love nor be loved because she has a heart of glass.

Lynet is the daughter of a widowed King, forced to grow up in the shadow of the dead mother she physically resembles. Her father's grief shapes her life, pushing her down a road to become a duplicate of her delicate and frail mother.

Neither of these young woman are provided with the familial support, love or encouragement to become their own true selves and they meet through Mina's obsession to attain power as she cannot have love. Mina marries Lynet's father and becomes Mina's step-mother.

All of the above align perfectly with a step by step retelling of Snow Whites, but Bashardoust does far more with this story. She tells the whole story from their perspectives, ensuring that you know exactly who is telling the story as you proceed. She definitely doesn't go down the traditional path and doesn't shy from facing those telling and difficult themes.

Both women are fighting to escape the gilded cages that have been placed around them by their fathers, the book challenges gender stereotyping, familial and extended family relationships and psychological and physical abuse to name a few.

The book draws out the moral challenges and battles that these women face and doesn't fear to tread a different path when telling the story.

The world building could be more sophisticated and there are a few holes in the back-story and political structure surrounding the kingdom and territories, but these are minor aspects of the whole that can be overlooked and shouldn't distract from a story that starts gently, gradually building the pace towards fruition.

I really enjoyed reading this retelling and I was delighted by the seamless stitching together of the traditional story with a wholly unexpected and wonderful conclusion. If you are a fan of fairy-tale retellings, protagonist, particularly female perspective and all round good story-telling I recommend you pick this up.

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

Story
“Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale.” This description immediately had me hooked. I dove into this book with high expectations and unfortunately, my expectations were not exactly met. I enjoyed the story, but it only really started to pick up around the 50% mark and I was bored for the first half of the book.

The last 50% was much better, the plot moved faster and the relationship dynamics between Mina and Lynet pick up. I’m a big fan of retellings, especially Snow White retellings, and this one was great.

Writing
I found the writing a little juvenile. I honestly thought Lynet was 10-12 years old in the first chapter. It’s written like a middle grade in the beginning, but once again after the 50% mark, the writing evolves.

The world-building was well done, even though I would have wanted it to be more in-depth. I enjoyed the legend of Sybil, the way Mina and Lynet’s powers worked, and the stark contrast between the North and the South.

Characters
Mina and Lynet’s relationship is at the heart of the story and I really enjoyed reading about them. This book portrays a complicated mother and daughter relationship and the dynamics shined through really well.

I will say that this book makes use of the “miscommunication” trope, and the whole last 30% of the book could have been avoided if the two characters just talked to each other.

Other than that, this was a fun and enjoyable read.

This is a young adult re-imagining of the classic fairy-tale Snow White.
Told from two POV's Lynet and her stepmother Mina's this is narrated from both a past and a present viewpoint jumping between the two time-frames.
A reckoning and cultivated rivalry between two young women.
Both want nothing more than to be loved for what's in their hearts and though they seem so different initially both just really want the acceptance of those around them.
This is a story of strong woman and weak men, its not really about good or evil and neither woman here is all good or all bad, instead, this is more a story of family bonds and sisterhood.
I actually had great sympathy for Mina and what she had evolved into, she was a product of her past and was used to coming in last, so It was not really surprising that she acted the way she did.
Kindness is not something she has had directed her way before so she believes she is at her core unlovable.
So why the low rating for this one, well, in a nutshell, I was bored, it moved at a snail's pace and I didn't really enjoy it at all.
I found myself skimming whole chunks of text and if it wasn't for the fact this was an arc I don't think I would have bothered finishing as I just wasn't invested in this at all.
There was nothing actually wrong with this and the writing itself was fine it was just a bit blah and unexciting.
If you like fairy-tale retellings you might like this one.
I usually am a big fan of them but this one unfortunately just didn't work for me on any level.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of Girls Made of Snow and Glass

I know, I know, I'm super late to the party on this one. I only recently received a copy of this book for review, presumably ahead of Bashardoust's newest book, Girl, Serpent Thorn, and as Girls Made of Snow and Glass is now coming out on Kindle with Hodder & Stoughton. It was such a joy to read though, that I wish I'd got my hands on it sooner!

If Angela Carter had written a Snow White YA, with a pinch of Natasha Ng's Girls of Paper and Fire, then it might have turned out something like this. This tale takes what you know of the original story (or at least, the Disney story) and upends it, making it so much more about the 'evil' Queen, the strength of the apparently fragile daughter and how these stories revolve around each other.

And, thanks to everyone knowing the Disney story so well, and the grim nature of the original fairy stories, it means that you can't quite guess the ending - will it be one of redemption? Blood on snow? Misery?

I loved the way that the characters grew and evolved in this, from the stepmother Mina's broken heart, to Lynet finding her conviction, to Nadia finding her loyalty. It was really about these three, but also about the bonds bringing them together and tearing them apart - it really felt like the characters were making their own decisions about who to trust and who to support.

It was a little stereotypical YA - the men were grief-stricken, empty or cruel, which allowed the women to find their own strength. And there are definite kingdom issues with having one half in perpetual winter and the other in perpetual summer (and for all citizens to just deal with this) - more world-building would have been welcome - but it was still enjoyable, and all of these details set the scene for the main characters to grow and develop.

What was most enjoyable, though, is that apart from the story revolving a stepmother and stepdaughter, very little about it felt 'Snow White' - it felt like a story by itself.

A comfortable 4.5 stars rounded down to 4.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a fairy tale novel that rethinks some of the tropes of fairy tales to focus on women getting to be their own person. Lynet is fifteen and the princess of snow-covered Whitespring Castle. She looks just like her dead mother, but it turns out that isn't just genetics, but magic that formed her from snow in her mother's image. Her father can't accept her being anything but like her mother, and Lynet has always turned to her stepmother Mina for support. Mina has secrets of her own, having grown up with a terrifying magician father who replaced her heart with glass, and later made it her goal to marry the king and escape. When Lynet becomes old enough for her father to want her to take on the duties of a queen, the bond between her and Mina becomes more complicated, and Lynet's sheltered world must change, with the help of a new female surgeon who appeared at the castle.

I don't normally read fairy tale retellings as they tend to be more fantasy than I tend to enjoy, but I'd heard good things about this one, and wasn't actually aware which fairy tale it was meant to be retelling whilst reading it. At first the setting didn't engage me (I'm really not someone who enjoys fantasy), but once I got more drawn into the character relationships the novel became more gripping. The gradual telling of the story, both present and past, from Lynet and Mina's perspectives works well to at first contrast them, and then to show how assumptions and confusion can cause havoc with emotions people don't necessarily find it easy to believe or display. There's a nice side romance between Lynet and the surgeon girl, but the real focus is on the daughter and stepmother relationship, in some ways reclaiming the fairy tale image of the evil stepmother.

I'm glad I gave this novel a chance, because it was a good read, with a good blend of darkness and optimism, and not the kind of retelling that feels too gimmicky. It isn't bogged down in fantasy detail or worldbuilding (why I tend not to enjoy the genre), and it didn't take too much concentration to read.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a retelling of Snow White alternating between the story of Lynet, the young princess, and Mina, her stepmother.
There are many insights to the villain of the story as we go back in her life,= to her young years. This is an aspect I loved a lot.

Overall it was interesting, well written and entertaining. Recommended.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.