The Snow Queen, by Mercedes Lackey (Five Hundred Kingdoms #4)

  Aleksia, Queen of the Northern Lights, is mysterious, beautiful and widely known to have a heart of ice. No one would seek her wisdom except as a last resort. But when she's falsely accused of unleashing evil on nearby villages, she realizes there's an impostor out there far more heartless than she could ever be.
And when a young warrior following the Tradition disappears, leaving his sweetheart and mother to fear the worst, Aleksia's powers are needed as never before.
Now, on a journey through a realm of perpetual winter, it will take all her skills, a mother's faith and a little magic to face down an enemy more formidable than any she has ever known....


In one of Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms, Aleksia, the Snow Queen, is not leased to find out that she is being blamed for murders she had nothing to do with. Determined to find the imitation Snow Queen and clear her name she sets off on an adventure. Along the way she meets up with Anukka and Kaari, who are searching for Veikko, Anukka's son and Kaari's fiance, who has been kidnapped by the evil Snow Queen, and Veikko's teachers who help them in the search.

I really enjoyed the other Five Hundred Kingdom books, but one noticeable difference between the others and this one was the average age of the characters. Aleksia's age is never actually mentioned but I inferred it to be anywhere from 35 to 45 (and she's years younger than Annuka and the two men), while the characters in the other books are either teenagers or in their twenties. This upped the maturity level a few notches and made the one young couple, Kaari and Veikko, seem extremely naive and immature in comparison. It was cool to see adults go on a fairy-tale adventure, but it just seemed a bit odd and out of place.

I am an extreme girly-girl and one of my favorite types of books are those with fairy-tale princesses, which is why I started reading the Five Hundred Kingdom books in the first place. Therefore, when I realized that this book had no princesses in poofy dresses I was severely disappointed (hence the low rating). The Sammi magic was interesting, but it didn't make up for the lack of pink fluff that I love so much. My other big complaint is about how little background information is given about Aleksia. She tells a tiny bit of her history and gives off the feeling that it's just history to her but almost nothing is told about her years as Snow Queen save her normal tasks and almost nothing is told about her predecessor besides a few details about her magic. In a book so full of extraneous details, you'd think a few more could provide some insight into the main character.

3.8 stars