Once Upon A Yuletide: A Holiday Fairytale Anthology

A prophecy unfolds trapping childhood friends Gerda and Kai in its frosty mists.

Gerda attends the Grimm Academy to stop her prophecy from happening to her or to anyone else. She remains isolated to ensure that everyone remains safe. One day she hears a familiar voice and it is her dear friend from childhood Kai.

Kai has grown into a fine young man who has come to the Academy to escape his own prophecy. Gerda starts to suspect he is connected to hers. As she tries to prevent the future from happening, the frost slips in unaware.

(dun, dun, dunnnnnnn)

Sorry, I could not help myself (laugh). Laura Greenwood takes on the retelling of the Snow Queen in Frost and Fears in the anthology Once Upon A Yuletide (Divination Publishing, B082FMY9KB, 2019). This is a short story and reads rather quickly.

Gerda is a strong female character who tries to take charge of her destiny, yet stumbles. I do like that Greenwood has Gerda save herself. Greenwood makes the connection of childhood friendship easily enough between Gerda and Kai, I just never felt the “love” connection between them. This could be because of the length of the story and the emotional place Kai was in for most of the story.

I was not familiar with this fairytale, but then I did not grow up with fairytales (laugh). This is a welcome new fairytale to my collection though: a girl who saves herself and her friend then goes dancing. I can dig that. ✶✶✶✶