Another solid book for the Twisted Tales line but not one of Calonita’s best compared to the other two she wrote for the series.

It starts out well with its intriguing “What if the sisters had never met?” How so, you ask? Simple, they were split up before either could really form memories of each other (Not true. There’s a more magical reason but I don’t want to spoil it). Elsa lives in the palace where she is learning how to become a ruler from her parents. She also doesn’t have powers. Elsa, without her powers, is still reserved but it comes out more in shyness that she admits makes her wish for more permanent playmate than just advisor’s children. She wishes for a sibling.

Meanwhile, Anna lives in a distant village in her adopted family’s bakery. In this case, she is aware that she’s adopted, but her Mom and Dad are so bubbly and huggers, I‘d believe them to be related to her. Anyway, I found their small family very sweet, and it gave Anna an additional aspect to her besides being quirky and lonely like in the movie. She’s a creative baker, which I felt perfectly suits her

I enjoy the split seeing how their personalities, still similar to the movies, are changed. They felt a bit more mature to me. I’m not sure how, but I felt it and I enjoyed it.

It gave some more depth to Agvarr and Idunna seeing Elsa’s interactions with them without the fear of powers. Idunna is secretive and sad for obvious reasons and Agvarr is perceptive and kind father.

All this sets it up for the big tragedy that you just know is coming even though it hurts. The king and queen die at sea. The grief ends up sparking Elsa’s powers. She manages to keep it a secret by hiding in her room, and continues to do so, only coming out for lessons/duties over the three years. In the privacy of her room, she continues to experiment with her powers and creates a new friend, Olaf.

However, coronation day is when things starts to head back to the movie plot. Her ice powers revealed, she leaves Arrendale in eternal winter. Anna, who had always wanted to head to the kingdom’s capital city takes the chance to go and investigate what happened.

Now this is where it went a little off for me. It was a variation of the movie plot. Kristoff and Anna fight wolves, Elsa makes ice palace, ends up in jail, Hans tries to get to Anna after finding out Elsa won’t fall for her advances, Kristoff realizes he loves Anna etc. It is not completely the same as the movie as again, there is a curse and secret sisters thing that make it unique and compelling. But when there would be a twistto certain scenes like the dungeon scene, I’d get excited to see where it would go but then it steers right back to movie scene. It just felt like a lost opportunity.

Another thing that felt off was Elsa building ice palace scene, not only does she describe what happens in let it go, but uses some of the lyrics from the song to describe Elsa’s internal thoughts which just took me out of the story. It just made me want to put down the book and blast out the song.

Another thing that took me out of it was the one chapter from Hans‘ POV and Kristoff’s two POV chapters. They offered no new internal depth or characterization or scenes that we haven’t already seen in the movie so I felt it was unneeded. However, I did like Hans’ chapter if only because it was so charming even as it revealed his true colors.

Really, what I most enjoyed were Calonita’s original additions to the story. Describing the traditional Nordic pastries Anna makes in her bakery, the matured personalities of Anna and Elsa, and the servants that were Elsa’s psuedo-family. I especially loved that she named two of them, Kai and Gerda. They were the names of the protagonists of the Ice Queen of which Frozen is based. I was slightly disappointed it didn’t have them in more prominent roles.

Generally, I felt like it could be more creative. Calonita was given such leeway to create such an original beginning for the story, totally unlike the movie (just as she had with the other books) that it’s a shame she felt compelled to keep whole scenes from the movie.

Also disclaimer, this book came out in 2019 when Frozen 2 came out. Obviously, the book was written before so there are no mentions of anything that came from that sequel like Elsa being the fifth spirit or whatever. Also there’s none of Hans’ infamous “If only there was someone who loved you”. It wouldn’t have made sense in the story, but still just saying for anyone who enjoyed that Hans line.