The Glass Palace by Kathryn Trattner — bringing the magic to this fairy tale retelling

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The first word that comes to mind when I think of this book is “magical”, followed shortly by “beautiful”; the writing, the story, the visual imagery, all of it. I love a fairy tale retelling, though this one I was unfamiliar with (East of the Sun, West of the Moon); however it seems akin to Beauty and the Beast, in the beginning at least. I enjoyed the friendship between Astrid, and the bird, Chinook who was always full of wit and incredibly blunt.

It is set in the late 1800s but also kind of lost to time, in the magical patches of the world. Astrid is bound to Tyhr in an arranged marriage. He doesn’t come to collect her until a tragedy strikes her family, which is the catalyst of a magical adventure for the two. Astrid is to break Tyhr’s curse, but fails initially in doing so, leading her on an adventure and many near death experiences on her journey to save him. The encounters along the way have lessons in them, a physical token taken from each, and though she makes some dumb decisions she also learns from them. For someone so closed off initially, she learned to open up and love. I thought this was a really beautiful read and I quite enjoyed it.

Thank you to Book Sirens and Kathryn Trattner for the early copy and chance to review this.

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