The cold never bothered me anyway

What if Anna and Elsa never knew each other?

When a magical accident erases Anna and Elsa's memories not only of magic, but of each other the sisters are separated for protection. But when Elsa unexpectedly finds herself as a young queen mysterious magic begins to happen and questions of her past start to form. Will the sisters ever be reunited?

I need to start out by saying that I love Frozen. Anna is my favourite Disney princess because she has this honesty to her. She's quirky and clumsy and makes mistakes. She has depth that many of the earlier Disney princesses are lacking. When I got this book for my birthday I was nervous to read it. I knew that it was going to change the story that I knew and loved. I have a couple other of these books but hadn't committed to reading them because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to picture this twisted world that was so different from the one I already knew. I grew up as a Disney kid, so there is always going to be a nostalgic factor when it comes to the Disney universes because of that I didn't know how I would react to all the changes that these novels made. When it came to this one in particular, I was worried that they would take away Anna's charm or Elsa's strength. However, with this being a newer addition into the Disney franchise it wasn't linked so closely to my childhood that I thought this would be the best to start with.

I loved it. The story was twisted but the characters weren't. Anna who grew up as a baker in a small town outside of Arendelle was still loving, hopeful, and awkward. When she meets Kristoff, she still makes a fool of herself and he loves her for it all the same. Elsa, still a princess who lost her parents, who is scared of the powers she doesn't understand and who wants to protect everyone around her even from herself. It's a book instead of a movie so there is more time to establish relationships, feelings, desires. You dive deeper into these characters allowing you to understand and love them even more.

The plot was different but a lot of the scenes from the movie appear in the novel and yet even they are twisted in one way or another. It has this unique ability of reminding you of the original but without taking you out of this new adventure. Hans takes advantage of Elsa's loneliness instead of Anna. Olaf was created to keep Elsa company inside the castle, hidden away in her room. We get to know the king and queen of Arendelle before they die and are introduced to a handful of new characters. It's fun to see the story progress in a different way than the movie did even if we ultimately see the same result. One could argue that the book is predictable but it never bothered me. I was worried that these novels would veer too far of course but this one doesn't. It sits right in the pocket of being different enough to be interesting but similar enough to not be off-putting.

The most important part of Frozen is the heart of the story and that doesn't change in this twisted version. I'm an only child so I will never fully understand the bond of having a sister but the movie and this book still gave me all the feels.