ICE
Sarah Beth Durst
Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster
Fantasy
ISBN: 9781416986430
320 pages

Cassie Dasent has a storybook life. As a girl, her grandmother told her that she was part of a real fairy tale, recalling the legend of Cassie’s lost mother, Gail. Cassie remembers the words of the story by heart:

“ONCE UPON A TIME, the North Wind said to the Polar Bear King, ‘Steal me a daughter, and when she grows, she will be your bride.’ And so, the Polar Bear King kidnapped a human child and brought her to the North Wind…She grew into a beautiful, but lonely, young woman. One day, while the Winds were gone (as they often were), she met a human man. She befriended him, and it wasn’t long before they fell in love. When the Polar Bear King came to claim his bride, she refused him. Her heart, she said, belonged to another. ‘I would not have an unwilling wife,’ he told her. ‘But your father has made a promise to me.’ Knowing the power of a magic promise, the North Wind’s daughter sought to counter it with her own bargain: ‘Then I will make a promise to you…Bring me to my love and hide us from my father, and when I have a daughter, she will be your bride.’”

The story ends with Gail and her love being discovered by the North Wind, who flew into a rage and blew his daughter to the ends of the Earth. Cassie’s mother was blown all the way to the kingdom of the trolls, where she still remains, captured. It’s a story Cassie believed in as a child, but somewhere along the way, she understood that Gail, her mother, must have died. 

Now a research scientist working at a camp on the arctic ice, Cassie is part of a team that includes her father. She grew up in the camp, and so destiny ensured that she would be near the polar bears as she reached her 18th year. It is on her birthday that Cassie sets out alone across the ice, encountering the largest bear on record. He eludes her when she tries to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart, simply walking through the ice. Not believing her own eyes, Cassie returns to camp empty-handed, but upon mentioning the story to her father, he becomes alarmed. Her grandmother too is panicked and attempts to convince Cassie to leave, but she refuses to believe.

When Cassie sets out again across the ice, she discovers that her grandmother was right. In front of her is the giant she encountered before, but this time he speaks. The Polar Bear King reminds her of a binding promise made by her mother, telling her that he has come for her now but would not have an unwilling wife. Cassie sees an opportunity in the offer and makes a magically binding promise to marry him in exchange for the freedom of her mother. Then climbing on his back, the bear whisks her away to his castle in the realm of the munaqsri.

The Polar Bear King introduces himself simply as Bear and assures Cassie that he would never hurt her. His home is a creation of his own magic, a beautiful enchanted castle of ice. After sharing a delightful meal, he leads her to his bedroom and, after freeing her mother, comes to her that night. In darkness, Bear transforms into a naked human man and slips quietly into bed beside her. Panicked and unnerved, Cassie sends him away. Her days in Bear’s castle bring Cassie closer to the man-beast, and she is surprised to find that he is a munaqsri, a caretaker of Earth's souls. Though he is strange, Bear proves himself a gentleman and Cassie has a magnificent time. His kind and patient nature appeals to her heart, yet as the days pass, she yearns to see her parents again. She can’t quite bring herself to leave Bear and her new home, but she feels changed; indeed she is, because her destiny has taken hold. There will come a day when Cassie will return to humanity, but she won’t stay long --- fate will see her journey east of the sun and west of the moon, to the very ends of the Earth.

In creativity and charm, there are few books that equal ICE. The storyline and quality of writing give it a timeless appeal. Readers will adore the charismatic, modern characters and the way the old fairy tale fits in with the new. But most exciting of all is Cassie’s long journey across the ice. Her travels take her across the arctic Taiga and the boreal forests, all the way to the North Pole. Upon witnessing the beauty of the aurora boreal and the treacherous ice, Cassie survives both a freezing ocean and temperatures under 40 below. Along every step of the way, she encounters creatures of the north. True to its name, it's a tale that really does begin and end on the ice.

   --- Reviewed by Melanie Smith (melanies@daywesthealthcare.com)

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.