I love a fairy tale re-telling when I don’t remember the exact details of that fairy tale. It helps me get lost in the story instead of making comparisons to the original. Spinning Silver was a new take on the story Rumplestiltskin and about all I could remember from that story was that there was a girl that spun straw into gold and got her some unwanted attention. Our heroine Miryem has a talent for turning things into gold but it’s not by spinning straw. She is the daughter of a family of moneylenders, and while her father is horrible at collecting those dollars owed, Miryem excels at remaining cold to their customers excuses and keeps her hand out until it is filled. While walking home through the forest one day, she makes an off hand remark about being able to turn anything into gold and the Staryk overhear. The Staryk are a race of (for lack of a better term) ice people. They live in winter 24/7 and are the boogeymen of Miryem’s world. When she catches their attention she does what she does best. She gets them results and gets some unwanted attention in return.

Miryem is not the only main character of this book. It’s actually told through multiple POV’s and I’ll admit that that got a little confusing. Especially when a new POV was introduced and you spent a few paragraphs reading to try to figure out whose eyes you were seeing through this time. Each character had their own plot that spun and twisted together to combine into a satisfying conclusion to all of their storylines. I’ll admit to liking Miryem’s story the best, but maybe that’s because her POV was easy to spot.

The pace of this story helped the overall feeling that you were reading a fairy tale and the writing was well done. However, there was a lack of warmth for these characters. I so wanted to like them but something seemed to be missing. They were all so determined in their lives, but nothing seemed to make them very happy. Overall, even though there was a happy ending, I felt kind of unhappy about it all. That’s not to say that I didn’t appreciate the writing, the story had twists and turns that I didn’t expect and I certainly appreciated the craftsmanship of the author, but for me it lacked heart.

I have read nothing but great reviews for this novel, but because of that lack of warmth I could only give it a 3.5 rating. Sorry Naomi! However, as with all books reading is subjective and all of you may LOVE this book. Even though I am always right (not really), if you are interested in reading this book, please do! I would love to hear what you think. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

Click this link to purchase!* Spinning Silver: A Novel

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate