a book review, a contest, and a challenge of sorts

Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Ok no, not really. I just really wanted to say that for some reason. We'll call it randomness.

But I have an announcement!

I just read Ice by Sarah Beth Durst. Anyone else read it? I thought the ideas and the story plot were absolutely amazing. The plot twists honestly were some of the most engaging and original takes I have seen for an author to take from a fairytale or myth. It really impressed me and made me happy. That being said, I was so disappointed in this book. I thought that with all that potential, the completely gripping beginning that made me go to three Barnes and Nobles in 24 hours to find it again... it had to be amazing, right? But the ending was horrid. It was so rushed, and not at all given time to develop properly. I was left feeling disappointed because I wanted there to be so much more elaboration and for it to go on and on, and when it ended I was sort of shocked. That's it? It needed more time to completely come to an end, I thought.

Now those of you that know me well know that I love the myth Ice is based off of. East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a Norse myth that I was first introduced to back on 2005 when I read East by Edith Pattou for the first time. I fell in love with that book. Then a few years later, Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George was published. I was really hesitant to read it based upon how much I loved East. But I did, and it was amazing. So loving these books as much as I did I was even more cautious when approaching Ice, which leads me to believe two things:

1) I love this myth more than I probably should.
2) I need to do a reread of all three to make a proper opinion on which one I believe is best.

This sort of reminds me of the classic, "Which version of Pride and Prejudice do you think as the best film adaption?" question. I will answer that later. But for now, I'm proposing a contest of the books, and a challenge to all who wish to join me in reading for the first time or rereading them to see which is, in your opinion, the best.

Here's a link to the original fairy tale.

And here is the proposed time line: during the month of February, as you finish reading the books, post your thoughts of the original tale, your reviews for East, Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, and Ice as you read them. At the end of the month (February 28th) post your final opinion on which of the retelling's you believe is the best.

This should be really fun, and even if only a few people participate, these are amazing books so they're well worth re-reading anyways.

If you plan on participating leave a comment or email me and let me know! I'll make a master post at the end with links to all the participants. Happy reading!