Synopsis

January Snow has blood on her hands.

Never the obedient daughter of her father’s expectations, she finally thinks she’s found a way to earn his respect. But when her plan to take down her father’s rival ends in disaster, her stepmother is convinced that the tragedy that ensues is January’s fault—and she might not be wrong. Maria d’Angelo has spent her life communicating with the spirits, and now she’s certain they’re telling her one thing: January needs to die.

David Brendan has been searching for his brother’s killer, but the only witness to Jon’s death is the runaway daughter of one of the city’s most notorious crime bosses. Suddenly thrust from his high society world into one of mob violence, shadowy spiritualism, and political conspiracy, he realizes that he’s not the only one looking for January Snow- and if he doesn’t find her first, she won’t be the only one who ends up dead.

JANUARY SNOW is a retelling of “Snow White” set during the Roaring Twenties.

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Snow White in the Jazz Age. This is everything I didn’t know I ever needed!

January Snow is a novella Snow White retelling and Hayden’s second fairy tale novella. (The first being With Blossoms Gold which you should also read because it’s Rapunzel in Renaissance Italy and absolutely fabulous.) This is  historical fiction, so no magic (save for a touch of supernatural stuff), but still with SO many threads of the original fairy tale. It was brilliance!

THE RUNDOWN

January Snow, or simply Jan, doesn’t exactly live the life of a regular gal, being as how her dad is the head of a mafia family. Her greatest hope is to earn her father’s respect but, unfortunately, her means of getting there leads to a tragedy. Now Jan’s stepmother is out for revenge. She thinks Jan is dangerous, and will stop at nothing to end her stepdaughter.

Forced on the run, Jan finds some help amongst a group of unlikely friends. But how long can she keep hiding before her stepmother finds her?

Meanwhile, David is on the hunt for his brother’s killer. When his search leads him straight into the mafia, things become more entangled and dangerous than he ever thought possible.

THE CHARACTERS

January Snow: This firecracker of a girl kept me on my toes, let me tell you. Spirited, fiery, and clever—it’s never a dull moment with Jan. She had me cackling SO many times. But she’s not all snappy comebacks and eye rolls, there is a big heart inside her. Unfortunately, life has forced her to shove it far, far down. I think my favorite thing about this book was Jan’s growth. Watching her open up, learn that it’s okay to be vulnerable, to realize maybe there is worth in her after all. Her growth was beautiful and truly the heart of the book. This is Jan’s story, through and through, and I came to love this girl SOOOO much! Sometimes I have a hard time connecting with standoffish, snarky female characters, but not with her. Not even a little bit. She felt so real. It took me all of two pages to become completely and utterly attached to this woman. Her fears, her struggles, her growth—they resonated off the pages. I could feel them. I JUST LOVED JAN OKAY.

David: Speaking of loving people…MY SWEET DAVID. Where Jan is more a prickly cactus, David is a sunbeam. Warm, open, but certainly not above shooting out some sass himself when the need arises. I loved his tenacity. After his brother dies, he’s determined to get to the bottom of it. Even when he’s way out of his depth, he keeps pushing on, keeps trying to find answers, bring justice. When so many others would just give up, David never did. I also love his relationship with his mother. You don’t see that much in fiction and it was so sweet! His respect and love for her was so refreshing. He was such a well-rounded character. He wasn’t above shedding a tear nor getting his hands dirty. His goodness and hope was just what Jan needed in her life.

The “Dwarves”: I won’t tell you who the seven dwarves are because it’s more fun to discover it yourself, but they are there, and I adored them! They were such a realistic portrayal of men. They made me giggle many a time.

Maria a.k.a. the Evil Queen: I didn’t know I needed a crime boss evil queen, BUT HERE WE ARE. Maria was suitably wicked and chilling. I loved how she wasn’t just the “bad guy” causing trouble. We got a lot of point-of-view scenes from her and got to truly see her—her depth, her thoughts and motivations, who she was to the core. And truthfully? It made her even more scary. Seeing where she came from and how far she’d go to get what she wanted made me so scared for the characters. I love it when stories take the time to really dig into the psyche of the villain. She was a fascinating. And terrifying. I loved it!

Literally every single character, even just the random side ones, popped off the pages. They all had such strong motives, such realistic reactions to their circumstances, such personality. It can be hard to breathe this much life into characters in a novella, but Hayden did it brilliantly. These characters made me laugh, ache inside, and even choke up. (Or shudder in fear, in Maria’s case.) This book is filled to the brim with memorable characters, and I’m so happy I got to know them all.

Also, all the different character dynamics were PERFECTION. The dialogue alone is reason enough to read this book. This author knows how to write some delicious, snappy dialogue!

THE PLOT

The plot itself was so much fun! With both high action and moments of reflection, and plenty of humor to balance the darkness.

It doesn’t waste time throwing you into the action right from the start, with death and shootings and car chases and narrow escapes. It slows down a little bit in the middle, to give us (and the characters) time to breathe. I love that the story took time to really let Jan grow. She goes from life in the city as a daughter of a mafia to hiding away in a much quieter place, where she begins to questions her life and wonder if there’s something more for her. The balance of action and reflection was perfect.

The pacing in general was great. With so many novellas, I’m left with the feeling of wanting more. I much prefer full novels. But this one felt right. Sure, I would have adored a novel just to get to spend more time with these precious characters, but as far as the pacing, I didn’t feel like it was too rushed. The story fit just right in its size, leaving me utterly satisfied by the conclusion. (And I think it’s on the longer side of a novella, so that helped too.)

And GUYS. 1920s Snow White! I loooove the 1920s culture, and this book really brought it out…without shoving it down our throats. It was just enough where you really felt like you were in the 20s, experiencing the culture, the hardships, the glamor, the mafia, all of it. The setting truly came to life with perfectly placed descriptions of the clothes and phrases and the general lifestyle. It was such a fun, unique setting for a fairy tale. Speaking of which…

All the Snow White elements were BRILLIANT. At first it doesn’t seem like much of a retelling and then BOOM! Next thing you know, all the elements are there, interwoven so seamlessly the story wouldn’t have even worked without them. Sometimes retellings throw in random elements from the original fairy tale just…’cause. But this one USED the elements to truly tell the tale. I got so excited each time one cropped up. I adored the twists put on Snow White. It was genius. There were even red shoes! No one everrrrr seems to remember red shoes are a big part of the original Snow White story. I was thrilled to see them in this one! The way all the fairy tale elements came out was one of my FAVORITE things about this story.

Truthfully, I’m not sure I have any complaints? It was just a fun, solid, good story, with such fleshed out characters and a wonderfully well-balanced plot, all in the fabulous backdrop of the Jazz age. It is officially one of my favorite Snow White retellings!

CONTENT CAUTIONS

Let me start out by saying, this was written from the Christian worldview. There were some beautiful messages of worth and forgiveness and second chances. To the point I was tearing up at the end of it all. But what I particularly loved was how the themes weren’t heavy-handed. Nothing was shoved in your face. It was subtle, but in a way that left an impression. Like the soft push of a fingertip. And that is my favorite kind of story.

So, with that said, it is in fact clean. No language or sexual content or anything like that. AND, shock of shocks, there’s pretty much no romance. Yes, a Snow White story with no romance! Gonna be real, I was utterly delighted about that. It’s so RARE we get such a thing. The story was really about Jan’s growth, not about her falling in love. It was so refreshing! (Not to say I don’t like romance, but it is nice to find books without it. Especially in a fairy tale retelling! That basically never happens.) Hayden’s ability to retell a fairy tale with no romance is awe-inspiring! Talk about skills.

This is a bit of a dark book though. Not excessively, but I certainly wouldn’t label it fluffy by any stretch. We’re talking about the mafia here, after all. There’s some violence, some death, plenty of danger. Nothing overtly gory, but there is a touch of violence. Some mention of drinking too, which is totally expected given the setting.

The big thing is one of the characters is a medium, and performs séances and uses reading cards and such. BUT. This is absolutely portrayed as a Bad Thing. She’s a villain after all. And villains do villainous things. So often mediums are used in books almost like fairy godmothers and aid the protagonist. It was so NICE to have it actually shown as a BAD thing for once. So I was 100% okay with it.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this to super young readers, but I think it’d be fine for 15 and up.

CONCLUSION

I adore when fairy tales are told in a whole new setting, and this book hit the spot perfectly. Snow White just WORKED in the roaring 20s. It followed the same beats of the original story, while still being utterly original.

But my absolute favorite was the characters themselves, especially January and her journey. This broken, spitfire of a girl tugged at my heart, and watching her growth brought me to tears.

A brilliant twist on a well-loved fairy tale, realistic, lovable (and deliciously detestable) characters, a fabulous 1920s backdrop, plenty of action, fantastic dialogue, and beautifully subtle themes—this is a story worth reading!

. . . 5 out of 5 Stars . . .

LET’S TALK!

What do you think? Have you read this one yet? (Because you totally need to.) Do you enjoy stories set in the roaring 20s? What’s a unique setting you’d like to see fairy tale retellings in?

NOTE: I received a free ebook copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.