Winter Glass Blog Tour & Review!!

I’m so excited to be a part of this blog tour: as I was a member of the #SpindleSquad, I hold a special place in my heart for Lexa’s books. I loved Spindle Fire, so I knew I would love Winter Glass.

Though it didn’t end how I would have liked…but that’s a big spoiler and I won’t reveal that.

Anyhoo, onto the review!!

Title: Winter Glass (Spindle Fire #2)
Author: Lexa Hillyer
Publisher: HarperTeen, 2018 (April 10)
Genre: YA Fairy Tales, YA Fantasy, YA Retellings

**I received a copy of this book from the author and/or publisher and my review is in no way affected or influenced by receipt of this book**

This review can be found on my Blog, TeacherofYA’s Tumblr, or my Goodreads page

My Review:

First, the cover and all its glory:

The covers of this series are stunning and reflect the whimsical nature of the original story, reshaped under Hillyer’s eye.

Since it’s a sequel and I don’t trust myself to avoid spoilers, I will use the blurb for the book:

Aurora, torn from the dream world and Heath, plots to assassinate the faerie queen Malfleur, only to confront temptations she never expected. Isabelle, meanwhile, opens her heart to Prince William as they attempt to unite their kingdoms and wage a winning war against Malfleur’s army of Vultures.

But when the appearance of an unbreakable glass slipper prompts Isabelle to discover more about her lineage, her true identity begins to take shape and her legacy becomes as clear as ice. Devoted half sisters Isabelle and Aurora will grapple with their understanding of love and loyalty as they face a threat even greater than that of the evil queen—the threat of losing each other forever.

So sounds good, right? It was. Not only is Lexa poetic in her writing, but she can tell a story from multiple points of view so you understand the motivation of the villain. You almost pity her.

I’ll be honest in one respect – I felt like the story was going one direction and then it totally went 180 on me. I was thrown overboard with the love interests that shifted and changed. I don’t mind that it happened, but (and without as many spoilers as possible), one character got thrown to the wolves. That’s all I will say on the matter.

Is it Classroom-Appropriate?

Both in the series definitely are, but you can’t have one without the other. And it’s hard to teach a series. I think Spindle Fire has wonderful elements on Retellings that could be useful. However, unless you plan on pairing the two books, I would just use something else and include it in a list of books possible for Book Reviews or outside reading.

So for the classroom, I would give Winter Glass ★★★☆☆: you could use it, but I would only use it if paired with the first book.

Age Range:

Well, more books need to include Lexile scores, darn it!! I’ve finally said it!

I once again have to go with my best judgement, and suggest an age range of 13 and up. There are no inappropriate scenes (maybe a hint at some intimate moments but nothing too obscene) but there is violence. But our children anymore are used to violence and it’s about as graphic as any PG-13 movie.

I’m confident that a 13 year old reader could follow along with the story and enjoy it. I also think that it represents the abilities of the disabled – Isbe is blind but clever in her bearings, and Aurora has no voice but learns other methods of communication that assist her.

The whole book shows the power in women – women don’t need to marry to be valuable and they don’t need to love traditionally to be validated.

Lots of wonderful lessons. I would give it to my 13 year old niece to read – if she read fantasy. (Trust me, I am deeply disappointed in that but she really wants The Sun and her Flowers though her mother thinks it’s too risqué for her age…at least she is reading poetry!!)

End Result:

Some of the passages are so incredible, I had to share them:

‘Happiness is like starlight, my Marigold,’ Malfleur’s father told her one summer evening when she was very little. King Verglas had always enjoyed the sound of his own voice. But Malfleur thought he was right, in a way; we do what is necessary, for our joy in this world is scarce, and must be wrestled down from the black vault of all that is random and meaningless.

So many good quotes that pull at your heart.

Aurora doesn’t know what it all means. She still can’t speak, and can’t feel. She’s human, and not fae, but she senses the way her humanity is shrinking down, day by day, to a tiny burning ember behind her ribs. It’s growing fainter, and she has begun to fear that a slight breeze might blow it out. She might not notice at first, and then she’ll look for it, and it’ll be gone, and then she’ll forget what it was she was looking for. And that’s when she’ll no longer be human at all anymore.

Great, right?

I give Winter Glass ★★★★★. I was going to give it four, because I didn’t like that my ships didn’t work out, but I can’t punish the book for that. It’s too good to do that. Just remember going in that Hillyer is going to take you on a ride and you won’t know what’s up until you’re done. The idea of “true love” shifts and changes and makes it to where the characters get what they want, but it won’t be what you’re expecting. Not at all.

What’s a book review without talking about the author that made the book come to pass?

Lexa Hillyer is the author of the young adult novels Spindle Fire, Winter Glass, and Proof of Forever, as well as the poetry collection, Acquainted with the Cold (Bona Fide Books), the 2012 gold prize winner of the Foreword Book of the Year Award for Poetry, and a recipient of the Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Prize. Her work has been featured in Best New Poets 2012, and she has received various other prizes and honors for poetry. Lexa earned her BA in English from Vassar College and her MFA in Poetry from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. She worked as an editor at both Harper Collins and Penguin, before founding the production company Glasstown Entertainment along with bestselling author Lauren Oliver. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, their daughter, and a very skinny orange tree.

So are you ready to finish the Spindle Fire series?? Ready to at least start it? Feel free to read my original review of Spindle Fireif you want to see where it all began.