Hines has succeeded in developing his trio of fairy-tale inspired princesses Talia (Sleeping Beauty), Danielle (Cinderella) and Snow (really?) well beyond their original familiar-but-twisted roots, and they exist more fully independent in this book than ever before. Reading the original’s synopsis, it’s easy to see what drew Hines into a semi-retelling of the tale – though if you tend to be a spoiler-avoider like me, I’d suggest not researching the original until after you’ve finished reading Hines’ book.

Hines’ inspiration this time around is Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” – the cool-sounding Sneedronningen in the original Danish – about which I knew absolutely nothing until I looked it up after reading The Snow Queen’s Shadow. Hines’ four-book “princess” series comes to a close on July 5 with the release of The Snow Queen’s Shadow, and while I’m sad to see this series end, he’s written a fantastic finisher.įrom The Stepsister Scheme through The Mermaid’s Madness and last summer’s Red Hood’s Revenge, Hines – a geeky dad himself who created the series partly to show his kids that princesses don’t have to be all pink icing and plastic sparkles – has constantly toyed with and turned around the worlds and tropes of classic fairy tales. The book is amusing and action-packed from page one Isaac is sure to be an instant fan favorite, and the secondary characters are vivid and multidimensional. Isaac, accompanied by dryad Lena Greenwood and pet fire-spider Smudge (familiar from Hines’s Jig the Goblin books), sets off to put a stop to the attacks and find Johannes Gutenberg, founder of the Porters, who has recently disappeared. The vampires are targeting members of Die Zwelf Portenaere, or the Porters, declaring war because of perceived assaults on their kind. After leaving the magic field for mundane work at the Copper River Library, he’s sorely out of practice, but a sudden attack by Meyerii vampires forces him to brush up on his magical talents. Isaac Vainio is a Libromancer, a rare kind of magic user who can make objects from the pages of books manifest in reality. This funny and fast-paced series opener, Hines’s first hardcover for DAW, will be sure to surprise and entertain urban fantasy fans.

The Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines