The Cold King

By Amber Jaeger

Calia Thorn has lived her entire life in a small town sheltered by the Cold King’s mountain. Working day and night to care for her younger siblings, complete her unending chores and please her selfish, lazy mother has left her with few dreams for her own future.

But then even those meager hopes are taken from her when the Cold King comes down from his mountain to demand a new servant. Ungraceful, unladylike, undesired and unwanted by even her own family, Calia is chosen to be sent to the palace.
The Cold King has lived for three hundred years under a curse imposed by his own father. With no hope of ever breaking it, he settles for keeping his heart frozen against any pain—or hope.
When his new servant arrives, she challenges him in ways no one ever has and sparks fly. But not every Beast is a prince charming at heart and not every beauty is a maiden just waiting for love.

Sometimes happily ever after isn’t so easy…

 

This is yet another retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  My aim is to find the best one out there! This one as they go, was different and very good. It’s more ‘realistic’ rather than fantasy. It dealt with abuse and some other mature issues along those lines. Calia is treated abominably not only by her family, but by the “Cold King” as well. He isn’t the charming misunderstood cursed beast that we’re used to; he’s really quite damaged. He’s suffered a great deal and it’s made him selfish and truly cold to other people. While he offers kindness to his servants, who love serving him and would do anything for him and their home, he has difficulty trusting people and allowing them to care for him. Calia is forced to become his personal servant, basically a sacrifice. Their relationship is interesting and complicated, just as relationships are in real life. It’s a gradual thing and sometimes a very painful thing. Like I said, there are instances of abuse, neglect and attempted rape. This is a book for more mature audiences, that being said it handled things very well and tactfully. There are hard themes in this book and while I don’t particularly think this is the best re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, it is a good book. I just prefer my fairy-tales to be more whimsical, believable, but light. This was heavy and at times cringe-worthy in the cruelty shown.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5 because it was well-done and handled hard topics