Waiting on Wednesday: Ice by Sarah Beth Durst

"Waiting on" Wednesday was created by Jill of Breaking the Spine, and is a way for bloggers to share the upcoming books that they're longing for. This week I'm waiting on...

Ice
by Sarah Beth Durst
Published October 6th, 2009

When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairytale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth to become a prisoner of the trolls. Now that Cassie is older, she knows that this was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, she is determined to become a scientist, and she has no time for make believe.

Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face to face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned in the troll castle. And that he can bring her back--if Cassie will agree to be his bride.

That is the beginning of Cassie's own real-life fairytale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knew will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her--until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.

Why I'm waiting:
Sarah Beth Durst's previous novels, Into the Wild and Out of the Wild, were great fun and very imaginative. The cover and summary of Ice makes it look like it will be an equally as well written book, but aimed at an older audience. And while I've already read two retellings of East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Edith Pattou's East and Jessica Day George's Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow), I think Ice will still be original--for one thing it's set in modern times, while the other two were not.