We interrupt our regularly scheduled Something Southern post for a very important book birthday. My pal Claire Legrand’s book Winterspell is out today. I was one of the lucky few who got to read this early on and it’s SO FULL OF AWESOME, I just can’t even. I’ve been eagerly awaiting release day so that I can PET THE PRETTY :impatiently eyes mailbox: This Nutcracker inspired fantasy is dark and epic and delightful. GO FORTH AND BUY IT.
The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.
New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.
Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.
Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly nothuman. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.
Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.