Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow

by Jessica Day George

When a woodcutter's daughter known simply as "the lass" agrees to accompany a great white bear to his castle, she believes she has made a wise decision. After all, the bear has promised her family untold riches in exchange for a year of the lass's company. Although she is given every luxury, the lass feels more a prisoner than a gues, and it's not long before her contentment turns to unease. One by one the servants disappear, and the lass suspects the bear knows more than he's telling. In her quest to learn the truth, the lass unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that take her on a windswept journey beyond the edge of the world, to fight for the man she has only just discovered is her true love.

Based on the Nordic fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and with romantic echoes of Beauty and the Beast, Jessica Day George's spirited retelling will lure readers in and hold them happily spellbound to the last page.

Okay, so I actually bought this book because it was supposedly much like Beauty and the Beast. While it does have some similarities, it is so wonderfully norse that I was tickled to read it. I adore Norse history and mythology and had never come across this story. One thing that hooked me right off the get-go was the fact that the main character doesn't even have a name! Her mother was so sick of having had girls that she didn't even name her and she is simply known as "lass". This book is so fun to read and full of that fairy-tale feel. The only thing that I don't like is the ending feels very rushed to me, and I wish it had been more detailed and drawn out better. But it's the kind of ending I like: happily ever after....and then some!