Vintage Tuesdays - Seasonal Tales; Winter

Once Upon a Winter’s Night


Written by: Dennis L. McKiernan

Released: July 1, 2001 by Roc

Summary: From the bestselling author of the Mithgar novels comes a new version of a classic French fairy tale. A young woman marries a mysterious Prince, only to have magic steal him away-and, once upon a winter's night, her quest begins.

This was a book that I had bought at some random book booth at a small strip mall because the cover reminded me of the old fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon and I love the movie The Polar Bear King. Really, it’s as simple as that. I barely even read the back of the cover to see what it was really about.

Thankfully, it turned out to be some amazing money spent because not only is it a fantastic book – and a great adaptation of the fairy tale – but it opened the door to the rest of the series which was still being published.

I loved Camille as a heroine and as her journey took her from her home, into the summer kingdom, and then on an adventure to find her Prince, I really connected with both her and her quest, not to mention the story itself. This is one of those books that you get more and more into as it goes on until you’re on the edge of year seat at the very end. And even though I knew how the story ended, it was great to read how it unfolded – the events sometimes throwing me for a loop since I never expected them.

Sadly, there are a lot of negative reviews on Goodreads, and it makes me wonder if I missed something when I read it the first time since I was so enthralled with the fairy tale aspect of it. I definitely think that I’m going to have to re-read the book soon; which is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while since it’s been well over 5 years since I read it the first time. However, from memory, this was a 9/10 book for me.