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    Ice
    Ice
    Ice
    Ebook316 pages3 hours

    Ice

    By Sarah Beth Durst

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    When Cassie was little she thought her mother had been taken prisoner by trolls because of a deal she’d made with the Polar Bear King. Just a fairy tale to soothe a child whose mother had died. But on her eighteenth birthday, the “fairy tale” comes true when the Polar Bear King comes to take Cassie for his bride. Realizing she has the power to save her mother, Cassie makes her own deal with the bear and finds herself on a journey against time, traveling across the brutal Arctic to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. It is a journey that will teach Cassie the true meaning of love and family—and what it means to become an adult.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9781416996897
    Ice
    Author

    Sarah Beth Durst

    Sarah Beth Durst is the author of fantasy novels for children, teens, and adults. Winner of the Mythopoeic Award and an ALA Alex Award and thrice nominated for the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, she lives in New York. Visit her at sarahbethdurst.com or on Twitter: @sarahbethdurst.

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    Reviews for Ice

    4/5

    190 ratings31 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was okay but I don't think the storyline or characters were believable enough for me to really enjoy. I never really took to Cassie as she often annoyed me, but Bear I loved. He was by far my favourite character.
    • 4/5
      Durst's writing gets better from book to book, and the middle portion is more solid than it's been in previous installments. Sadly, the payoff in the last few pages is weaker than it ought to be.Still, I'm looking forward to her next book. Eventually she'll get it right. :-)
    • 5/5
      Beautiful story and very well written! The only thing I wish was improved is that it felt like it ended too abruptly. Otherwise, a very pleasant read. I liked the originality of the tale and the in-depth exploration of love, relationships, and sacrafice.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book! I love his story and lots of other stories by this author.
    • 2/5
      I had this on my most-wanted list/wishlist on Goodreads for the longest time and I was actually gifted it this last Christmas. I was SO happy to read this book, and I don't believe I heard anything bad about it.

      It started out sounding really interesting. The prologue was the telling of the fairytale about the Polar Bear King finding a daughter for the North Wind. The North Wind promised the Polar Bear King that if he did this, his daughter would be his wife when she was old enough. We later learn this daughter is of some importance in the story and that fairy tale is no fairy tale at all - it's factual events.

      I was really excited for this story because it was so unique, which probably made my disappointment even more bitter. Cassie, the main character, falls agrees to wed the Polar Bear King in order to save her mother and planned on living her life normally from then on after. However, she falls in love and then gets knocked up. And she's only 18. I found such a strong resemblance to Twilight's romance in this, that I nearly chucked the book out the window. I only finished it for a read-a-thon I was participating in.

      The plot was so incredibly pointless that I was almost bored. There was also no way to connect to Cassie because the book moved SO fast. A chapter into the story and she's already met the Polar Bear King. There needed to be a foundation built so the reader could connect with Cassie and actually care about what happened to her.

      There were little moments in the story that I liked and thought cute, but nothing to redeem the book as a whole. I wouldn't recommend this to kids, nor to my older friends. Fantastic idea, but the execution failed.
    • 3/5
      I’ve been looking for THE re-telling of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” for awhile now. I’m afraid I’ll have to keep looking. I liked a lot of what Durst did with this story, and Cassie was a really interesting rendition of the heroine. But her journey at the end just lost me completely. [Jan. 2011]
    • 4/5
      I think this is my 2nd favorite retelling of this tale. Great story.
    • 3/5
      Mixed feelings. Well written retelling of East of the sun, west of the moon. With a little Beauty and the Beast and the tale of Psyche and Cupid for good measure. Cassie has grown up in an arctic research station. Her father says her mother is dead,. Her grandmother tells her what she thinks is a fairy tale about her mother being the daughter of the north wind, who is captive of the trolls, who made a deal with the polar bear king to save infant Cassie and her father. On her 18th birthday, the polar bear kings comes for her.What I don't like is how she makes a deal with him, to be his bride and have children (he can become human) if he'll save her mother, then plans how she can welsh on the deal later.. How she ends up falling in love with him. The relationship isn't well developed-you see him giving her things, being patient, ect.. When she leaves her home to move in with him, she snags 'a month's worth of birth control pills an assistant left behind'. She gets pregnant anyway, because Bear 'cures' her of the chemical imbalance. Which she discovers when she wonders why she is throwing up three months later! Now, it gives readers the impression that she is protected from the day she takes the first pill, and it doesn't explain why she thinks she's safe for months after only having a month's supply! Anyway, the arctic descriptions are very well done, the strength and determination Cassie shows when she must rescue her husband, pregnant and alone, to the land east of the sun, west of the moon is great. The writing is well done over all, despite the flaws.
    • 4/5
      Really liked this book! :D
    • 3/5
      I did read this in a sitting and it kept my interest, however it did leave me feeling that that there wasn't enough there for me to recommend it. Normally this sort of thing would make me very happy but the romance wasn't there. It just didn't come across as real, it came across as if she was almost doing the quest out of some sort of token-filling, and while she was in peril during it, and the being pregnant situation does reflect earlier myths and a lot of her travails are hard work they don't seem to really affect her in a serious way, or in a way that made me feel she was in real peril or under real stress.I didn't think I'd say this about many books, but it needed more romance. For an example of how a romance slowly unfolds I suggest Beauty by Robin McKinley which also has some of the same themes built in.
    • 4/5
      This novel is based on a lesser-known Norwegian fairy tale, and though I’d never heard of the tale before, this retelling was wonderfully imagined. I can’t say how much is Durst’s imagination, because it’s based on something else already.Ice is a novel not without its flaws: to me, it promotes bestiality, domestication of women, Stockholm syndrome, and the disturbing fallout from Twilight's bland Bella’s grand ambitions: to give up a promising future and be nothing more than a wife and mother.However, I did enjoy this novel. Cassie, our eighteen year old heroine (so above the age of consent) is independent, wilful, and brave to the point of insanity. She starts out absolutely wonderfully: chasing after a polar bear on the ice for her own ambitions, joy, entertainment and education. She follows through by sacrificing herself to save her mother – although she doesn’t at first grasp what exactly is required of her. When her new husband reveals his grand plans, she rightfully demands to be let go.Curiously, it’s when she’s separated from her husband that she yearns to return to her more ‘exciting life’ – one of dancing in frozen ballrooms, eating delicious food and sleeping chastely in the same bed as her husband. Cassie actually thinks this life of no ambition – trapped in an ice castle while her husband works away from home, essentially – is more thrilling than any future her human family can provide: family, friends, a future college and a better than average chance of running her own research station in the Arctic.So as you can see, I did have some issues with Cassie.But Cassie is also insanely brave and incredibly resourceful. She manipulates people to get what she needs, and she had a single-minded wilfulness to get what she wants. Despite an ever-growing hurdle against her own body, Cassie manages to do what no one else has been capable of doing: rescuing someone from the troll castle. It’s breathtaking, to look back on the novel and see Cassie’s will, her grand ambition played out, and the mastery of manipulating others, even if it tries her own patience. She fearlessly takes on characters other are terrified of, and puts her own self at risk over and over to achieve her incredible goals. In a away, her loyalty to her husband is the most amazing thing to come out of this book, even at the expense of other things that are precious to her: her family, her friends, her future.Durst is a fine writer. Her descriptions are lush and cinematic, and her dialogue is believable – if you find a talking polar bear believable, that is. However, the locations work against the novel: there’s only so many ways you can describe ice and snow. When I first started the novel, it wasn’t difficult to put it down and go about my daily life. Not that it was bad in these instances – in fact, the more I read of this novel the more awesome it became. It took until close to halfway when I realised I didn’t want to put it down, and the last quarter of the novel I simply devoured, desperate to know more.If you like fairytale retellings, you’ll probably like this. If you like romance novels, you’ll probably also like this. I didn’t particularly like seeing Cassie go from career-woman to housewife but that’s just me. The novel, apart from that flaw, was still very good. It entertained me, made me laugh and cry. I am glad I read it and if it sounds like your thing, I hope you enjoy it as well.
    • 1/5
      I’ve changed a lot as a reviewer since I started blogging about YA almost a year ago. I’ve matured my writing style, I’ve learned more about the publishing business, I’ve started to ask more questions and I’ve even made a few friends. I don’t regret my snarky sparkly beginnings because I had a lot of fun and sometimes you have to make a few mistakes to learn from. Nowadays I think I’m a much stronger reviewer and pick my reading choices based upon a more varied selection of reasons beyond snark material. This is why I am glad I didn’t know about “Ice” until I saw it recently. Had I read this last year, I would have blown a gasket and written a review to rival the abusive angels. Now, all I can hope to do is articulately explain why this book made my skin crawl. For this reason, there will be major spoilers.

      My interest in “Ice” was peaked when I saw that it was a retelling of “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”, a lesser known fairytale, and was intrigued to see how a YA retelling of a potentially highly problematic tale would work in a contemporary context. Unfortunately, “Ice” seems to be stuck in the Stone Age on so many issues, something that’s made all the more bitter by the fact that the book gets off to such a strong start. Cassie, at first, is a strong minded, hard working and intelligent young woman with high ambitions and an inquisitive nature. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for her to slide into a state of uncharacteristic stupidity, occasionally relieved with moments of clarity. However, it wouldn’t be fair to blame Cassie’s decisions for all the book’s wrongdoings, especially since she’s so often left without any real options. She’s practically forced into marrying the Polar Bear King in exchange for her mother’s safe return. Later on, she’s treated even worse, even by the man/bear who supposedly loves her.

      There are elements of “Beauty and the Beast” in this tale and it does feel as is “Ice” is trying to replicate the Disney film’s romantic feel (many of the things Cassie says about Bear feel inspired by Belle), but Durst completely skips over any romantic development. There’s a jump in time and all of a sudden, a few weeks later, they’re apparently in love. It further weakens a story that desperately needs a strong author’s hand to make it convincing. Bear may be many generations old with equally archaic ideals but this didn’t adequately justify his actions towards Cassie.

      There are certain things a romantic hero should never do. Tampering with a woman’s birth control is one of them. Cassie, who has been on the pill, finds herself pregnant because Bear used his magical powers to fix the chemical imbalance in her that was preventing a pregnancy. He didn’t discuss this with her, there is no instance of a conversation taking place between the two that discusses such matters, and he doesn’t even tell her she’s pregnant until she’s 3 months gone. I do not care how gracious or kind Bear was to Cassie earlier on (her words, not mine), you DO NOT DO THAT! True relationships are built on trust and mutual understanding. He never even talks to her about this. What makes it even more blood curdling is that Cassie forgives him. She kicks up a completely justifiable fuss beforehand, but in the end, she’s completely willing to give up all her future ambitions of university, a career and a life with her family, including her mother who she hasn’t seen for most of her life, to be a teenage wife and mother with a talking polar bear.

      Sadly, this isn’t the worst part. After Cassie has to go on a quest to retrieve Bear, who has to swear himself to the Troll Princess due to a rather convoluted loophole that I won’t explain here because it’s inconsequential, everyone she meets is obsessed with the safety of her unborn child. Not her, just her unborn child. Every other spirit, creature and guardian that she meets, of varying species and ages, cares not for her but for the fetus she just happens to be in charge of for the next few months. One character, who is thankfully painted as something of a villain, keeps her captive and indirectly harms her in an effort to stop her saving Bear because the life inside her is more important than her own. Cassie is also given the nickname “Little mother” by these creatures. Her entire worth is based on the fact that she has a functioning uterus and that’s a hell of a lot more important than her own mind and decisions. Cassie doesn’t like this attitude, it angers her, and rightly so. But why doesn’t she display this anger towards Bear, who admitted that he wanted a wife to bear his children, a task he decrees to be the most important purpose of the marriage? Cassie isn’t stupid, yet she is completely willing to let the designated love interest make these decisions for her, even if they involve lying, and in the end it’s okay? Bear says he loves Cassie but for me, all I could see was a liar who was willing to sabotage a young woman’s life in order to get what he wanted. Cassie was left to be nothing but a breeding specimen with one use.

      To be truthful, this is a well written book that is generally well paced and has an interesting mythology throughout the story. The action scenes are well done and when Cassie was an active heroine, I really appreciated. But I would be lying if I gave this book anything more than 1 star. I can’t get behind a romance built upon a much older man using an 18 year old girl in that way. Tampering with birth control and essentially trapping the wife you forced into marriage doesn’t not make you the romantic ideal, it makes you sick. Just because the original source material is old, that doesn’t mean one is obligated to keep the retelling stuck in the 1950s. Cassie was much more than a “little mother”, so to see her happily accept the fate she was forced into as the ideal life made me so sad. She was worth more than that. We all are.

      1/5.
    • 5/5
      Amazing. Simply amazing. Another hit for Sarah Beth Durst. Ice was one of a kind and exceeded all expectations. This has to be one of the best settings for a story that I have read in a long time. It was highly original. You would think that a story that takes place in the Artic tundra would be lacking in descriptive details and originality, but you would be wrong. The descriptions were amazing, and the setting was phenomenal. I have to admit that I was drawn to this book partly based on the location since I visited Alaska this summer. I was able to identify some of the elements mentioned in the story because I saw them with my own eyes. If the author has never traveled to this area, I am highly impressed with her ability to capture its essence. A+ in this department. The characters were very uniques as well. Cassie is your typical strong-willed teenager, but she is different. She's the granddaughter of the North Wind and the future wife of the Polar Bear King. Yeah, you read that correctly. I will admit, as far as depth goes, there wasn't much. Cassie does grow and develop throughout the story, but that's the extent of things. I didn't really connect with her, but that's ok. The story line was so good that I didn't need to feel that personal connection. Ice read like a myth, which had me engrossed until the very end. Sarah Beth Durst is known for her original stories. It never ceases to amaze me how she can write books that are so different from one another. Ice is not like any of her other books that I have read thus far. In fact, I would challenge someone to find a book similar to Ice. If you are a fan of mythology, get ready! You will love all the subtle (and not so subtle) references to mythology hiding among these pages. On the surface, this is a highly original tale of Cupid and Psyche. Complete with the West Wind (in this case the North, South, and East winds) wisking Cassie (Psyche) off to a secluded location. The invisible servants in the original myth are very uniquely described trolls in Ice. There is also Inuit mythology scattered all over the place. You see mentionings of Sedna and Inuit soul keepers. Simply put, read this. That's all I can say. It's amazing, and it will knock your socks off.
    • 4/5
      Durst's writing gets better from book to book, and the middle portion is more solid than it's been in previous installments. Sadly, the payoff in the last few pages is weaker than it ought to be.Still, I'm looking forward to her next book. Eventually she'll get it right. :-)
    • 5/5
      I read this book around the same time last year and fell in love with it. I'm writing this review after reading it for the second time. And I must say that I loved it the second time just as much as the first time.After going through a week of humid 90 degree weather, I was in the mood to read about a colder climate. And what better to do than pick up one of my favorite books.Cassie lives with her father at a research station in the arctic, where they track polar bears. Cassie's grandmother always told her a fairy tale, when she was younger, about a Polar Bear King and her mother, who got swept away to the troll castle after defying her father's wishes. Cassie always figured it was just her Grandmothers way of telling Cassie that her mother died. But then Cassie meets the Polar Bear King and realizes that the fairy tale her Grandmother always told was true. Now Cassie has the chance to bring her mother back, and finally meet her. She just has to marry the Polar Bear King first, and live with him in his ice castle.This is a retelling of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon. I didn't know what I was going into when I first picked up this book, but I loved every moment of it. This book was the reason why I picked up two other books that were a retelling of the same fairy tale. (East by Edith Pattou and Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George)Sarah Beth Durst takes an old tale and works it into modern times, which I thought worked out nicely and made the story much more interesting and enjoyable for me. The Munasqri part was a wonderful twist to the story. That was what really made me love the book. I won't go into detail of what a Munasqri is though because I don't want to spoil too much.I was attached to this book as I read Cassie's magical travels through the ice, tundra, bogs, and forests and all the creatures and people she met along the way. I even stayed up till 5am to finish it.The book does move Bear and Cassie's relationship quickly. Three months jump by with a few sentences. Cassie goes from being afraid of Bear to being his best friend, which might bother some people, but didn't phase me one bit. I fell in love with Bear as soon as we meet him. He was such a loyal character and always had the best intentions.Overall, I really love this story and is one of my favorites. It will be one of the books I revisit often.
    • 4/5
      I highly enjoyed this retelling of the Polar Bear King/East of the Sun, West of the Moon fairytale. Rather than taking the traditional fantasy route of a medieval setting, "Ice" takes place in modern times at an Arctic research station. Cassie is a spunky, likable character with a will of iron and for the most part I found her actions and reactions believable. I wish that perhaps more time could have been spent developing Bear's character, but his sense of humor, attention to duty, and deep devotion to Cassie shine through, preventing him from being completely one-dimensional. The mixing of Eskimo mythology with the fairytale gave it an interesting flavor, setting it apart from many retellings of fairytales. I also highly enjoyed the twist given to the existence of the trolls. Things did feel a little rushed towards the end of the story, but it didn't fall apart. If you like fairytales being retold, I definitely recommend reading "Ice."
    • 5/5
      This is the third book I've read within the past few years that retells the story of "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," and it is by far my favorite. I did not want to put this book down and if I hadn't had responsibilities I wouldn't have.What I enjoyed so much about this book was how everything worked so well together. In the original fairytale there is so much that doesn't make sense to me and Durst created a world where they did make sense. It was just awesome. I loved Bear and Cassie's relationship. So romantic and fun. I could totally see them falling in love. And then half way through when Cassie looks at Bear (her motivation to do so TOTALLY makes sense which it never had before) and Bear leaves, I thought the book wouldn't be so great. But it was! It was still just as wonderful with the world that Durst had created. I really liked this book. Cassie was a great heroine. Bear was a great bear. Perfection. My one complaint: it ended too soon.
    • 5/5
      ICE is a well-crafted fairy tale retelling of East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon that blends together reality and fantasy in a way that left me breathless. I would easily re-read this again to catch the nuances and understand the fairy tale world that Sarah Beth Durst has built from what I assume to be Eskimo mythology. The Polar Bear King is actually a munaqsri, which can be described as a soul caretaker who retrieves souls from the dying and delivers it to the newborn. Every living thing has a munaqsri, but a munaqsri can only do so much and cannot be in all places all the time. Hence, there is always the possibility of losing the soul if you arrive too late at a death or losing a newborn because you do not have any soul to give.The relationship between Cassie and Bear was wonderful to watch as they came to terms with each other. Bear always knew he would marry Cassie when she came of age, but he did not anticipate her strong will and stubbornness. On the other hand, Cassie had to accept the fairy tale possibility and also come to terms with marrying a polar bear whose human face she has been forbidden to see. Bear was incredibly patient, and Cassie was very adorably stubborn.They had great chemistry, and my heart melted when Cassie finally admits that she does indeed love Bear. When she loses Bear to the trolls, Cassie sets out on an impossible rescue mission without knowing where the ends of the world might be or how to even get there.There is so much packed into ICE that I am actually tempted to re-read it again because I'm getting really excited :D The richness in detail both real and fantastic, the strong heroine who runs to save her love, the supporting cast who brought both humor and terror to the story, the amazing ending that ties everything together in an unexpected way - I highly recommend ICE to any fairy-tale fanatics, especially if you enjoy Robin McKinley's Beauty retellings!
    • 5/5
      Due to all of this week's record-breaking snow, I thought it was the perfect time to talk about a recent gem I just finished reading entitled "Ice." It was my first time reading a book by Sarah Beth Durst and upon completion, I snagged her other two novels, Into the Wild and Out of the Wild, from the library. I look forward to reading them because I really enjoyed the world of Ice that Durst wove together for us. I initially picked up Ice because it revolved around a fairytale, which is one of my all-time favorite genres to read. It had been on my reading list for a while, but it wasn't until I started hearing positive feedback from fellow readers that I decided to actively read it. I don't know why I waited so long!First off, I just want to say that Cassie is a kick-ass heroine. We need more girls like her in (especially YA) literature. I love the whole "Girl Power" movement that authors like Tamora Pierce (co-founder of Sheroes) have spent time nurturing. I think the only other recent author with amazing heroines that I've read lately is Kristin Cashore (If you haven't read her novels, particularly Graceling, yet, then what are you waiting for? Run, don't walk!). Cassie is intelligent and knows exactly what she wants in life. She has a huge heart and cares deeply for the polar bears she researches. Right before her birthday, she finds out that a terrible burden has been placed upon her shoulders. Her grandmother used to tell her a fairytale about a polar bear king and the bargain he had struck with a mortal woman, supposedly her mother, who is now trapped in the troll kingdom as penance for breaking her word. Cassie never believed the story to be true until she actually encounters the polar bear, which is where Ice truly begins. Watching Cassie and Bear's relationship bloom feels infinitely fragile and wonderous. Cassie goes from loathing and fearing Bear and her situation to developing genuine feelings for him. She even blossoms as a person and realizes just how much she can help her beloved polar bears while working with Bear and soon becomes happy with her lot in life. When tragedy befalls the couple (through a situation that reminds me strongly of the mythological tale of Cupid and Psyche), Cassie sets out on a journey to reach the ends of the earth to save her beloved. Not only is the journey long and dangerous, Cassie is also heavily pregnant by the time the story is approaching its climax. I don't want to reveal much more, but there is one part towards the end that simply took my breath away and connected a lot of the dots in the novel for me in a way I hadn't realized was possible. That moment is when I stumbled head over heels in love with Ice.The story itself has a unique formatting. I like that every chapter starts off with Longitude, Latitude, and Altitude coordinates. Not only is this important in the context of the story, it also reveals a lot about Cassie as a person and her prior way of life before meeting Bear. I really appreciate how much thought Sarah Beth Durst put into her novel. I really felt like I was in the Arctic due to how life-life and precise all of her detailing was. For example, I wasn't sure of what, exactly, a whiteout was when I encountered the term in Ice, so I looked it up. The other day while watching news coverage of Wednesday's blizzard, the newscasters kept tossing the term "whiteout conditions" around and I knew what to expect due to my research on the term. I really adored reading Ice and look forward to reading more books by Durst. So far, this has probably been one of my favorite books, teen or otherwise, in the past couple of seasons.
    • 5/5
      I am a huge fan of East of the Sun, West of the Moon type books. There are quite a few out there, and Ice was one of my favorites. I enjoyed how Durst took a bit of a modern approach with the initial story line and transformed the main character, Cassie, into the daughter of a scientist, rather than taking the common approach of making her the daughter of a poor and struggling family. This was a heartwarming story, full of love and sacrifice that will not leave you disappointed.
    • 3/5
      What started out as an interesting retelling of the folk tale East of the Sun, North of the Moon, quickly turns into a bizarre sort of romance novel. I was really disappointed in the twists the story took, though I don't remember the last time I read the source material.
    • 4/5
      Once upon a time there was a wind, a polar bear, and a promise; and a promise made can not be broken. It all began with a story, a fairytale of a young girl stolen and raised by the north wind. A young maiden who was promised to a polar bear. A young woman who risked all for love breaking her fathers promise.When Cassie was little her grandmother would tell her the story of the polar bear who had stolen a child for the wind, a girl who was latter lost beyond the ends of the world trapped there never to return. It was the only story her grandmother ever told her, and in her frozen world of youth Cassie whole heartedly believed that her mother was lost there still.As the years went by and Cassie grew up she came to see that this story was nothing more then a fairytale, a fantasy created to save her from the truth that her mother was dead. Nothing and no one could change the fact that her mother was gone and never coming back. But having her mother back was the only thing Cassie ever wished for.ICE is an impossible love story that never gives up, never gives in and is never afraid. All the obstacles thrown in the way only prove to strengthen a love that can conquer any impossibility, even dangerous elements and an endless land of ice. A magical fairytale adventure with a modern twist that shows the power of true love and the importance of family, acceptance and following your heart.
    • 4/5
      The book Ice is a modern day re-telling of the fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". Seeing the fairy tale through the eyes of a scientist was very interesting at the beginning. Her attempts to explain away this talking bear and her family's strange actions all come across as very realistic. As she ends up getting pulled into the fairy tale and making deals with these, to her mind imaginary, beings and enters into this completely different world she changes with it. The uniqueness of having a scientist be the protagonist in the fairy tale is gone by the final third of the book. She is just like any other young woman by the end, just herself.I was at once disturbed by the premise of the fairy tale and surprised at how well it was handled. This is a woman raised in a western society who is now faced with an arranged marriage made before her birth. It's a lot to take in even aside from the fact that it's to a talking bear. When they strike a deal, her marrying him in exchange for him freeing her mother, they do become husband and wife and he whisks her away to his home. Despite the fact that they are now married he still treats her with respect and doesn't demand anything. He even honors her choice to go if she wishes, as long as she just gives him enough of a chance to show her the life she would have if she stayed. I don't want to spoiler too much, but let's just say for an arranged marriage the bear is determined to win his bride through courtship and not through force, and not at all if she doesn't want to in the first place. Still a little freaked out by the age difference (old enough to be the king while her mother was an infant?) but other than that tastefully well done.If you know this fairy tale, or any of the many similar ones that are often told (this is kind of like a beauty and the beast of the north pole) then you know every twist and turn in advance. There are still some surprises though. Having a scientist for a wife with access to modern day technology turns out to be an unseen perk. The ending though, like I said, leave a woman stripped of all of that as her quest leaves her with little to get through but her wits, stubborn will, and sheer determination. Unfortunately these sometimes result in more harm than good and at one point I was just about ready to string her up for her thoughtless stubbornness.This book also brings up an interesting theory on the point at which life truly begins, it has a mythology surrounding the concept of that being at birth. Meanwhile the actions throughout the book imply communication and validation of life before that. It definitely provides a lot for a teen to think about on both sides of the argument with subjects such as abortion, unwanted children, stillborns, a mother's acceptance, a child's life being valued over that of the mother's, and, of course, childbirth. These are brought up, and generally placed in an ambiguous light. It is liberal leaning, very much so, but in a lot of ways this book is meant to get kids talking about these subjects more than sway them one way or the other.For younger kids, perhaps steer clear due to the subject matter. For older ones, especially ones that enjoy rewritten fairy tales, I say you should give this book a whirl. I definitely enjoyed this unique modern day take on an old fairy tale.
    • 4/5
      This book is another retelling of the classic tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". I got this through the Amazon Vine program which was ironic since last month I read Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George, another beautiful retelling of this classic tale. Overall I really liked this book; Durst did an excellent job at updating this tale to the modern day world. I have never read the original tale so I don't know how true this version of the story stays to the original.Cassie is an 18 year old researcher at an arctic polar bear research facility. Since she was little her grandmother has told Cassie the story about her mother, the daughter of the North Wind and how she made a deal with the Polar Bear King. As she gets older, Cassie realizes that this is just a nice way of saying that her mother died. That is until one day she tracks one unusual polar bear across the ice pack. She finds that her grandmother's story was not a story but truth. Her mother may still be alive, but will she be brave enough to face the promise that will get her mother back?This was a great re-telling. Cassie is a tough character and I liked her a lot. The Polar Bear King is also a wonderful character. The plot moved quickly and made this book an easy read that was tough to put down.I also loved the mythos created around the Polar Bear King and the other beast-like keepers of souls. I am not sure if this was in the original story. But it was very creative and very different from how Jessica Day George dealt with the story in "Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow". Durst did an excellent job modernizing this tale. She worked in the researchers efforts seamlessly with the Polar Bear King's soul taking/giving duties. I love that she included modern cold weather technology and even little things like birth control. It was very well done and very creative.Overall I liked this book a lot. Parts of this story remind me of "The Beauty and the Beast" too.I didn't give this book 5 stars because even though I liked it it was not something I would read again. There were also some inconsistencies. Especially with Cassies's stages of pregnancy; I failed to understand how Cassie had morning sickness in her second trimester of pregnancy and not in her first, that was a little off. Also the second part of the book where Cassie goes seeking the Polar Bear King had a very different tone from the first part. All of the wonderful modernization that made the first half of the book so great fell off in the second half as the book transformed to a more traditional fairy tale.A great story; I would recommend to those who like fairy tale retellings or fairy tales in general. I will be keeping an eye out from more of Durst's works in the future.
    • 4/5
      A conversation about metaphysics between a teenage scientist and her husband, who is a giant talking polar bear. Right now you’re either pulling a face at me or you’re hooked, right?I was pretty hooked. This is not a story that pulls punches with the absurdity of it’s premise. Durst’s novel is a re-telling of the fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Now, the original is a strange and compelling story that leaves a lot of strange gaps in the plot – gaps that are just begging to be filled in and explored by an enterprising YA author. So it’s no surprise that this story has already been tackled multiple times, most memorably in Edith Pattou’s exquisite East. The strangeness of this particular story is brought into sharp relief by Durst’s choice of a modern setting, and it can be jarring – both for the reader and the characters. But if you’re willing to suspend a little disbelief, you will find a wonderful love story and an epic adventure in Ice.Durst’s take brings in some unexpected elements. Myth and science are married in many ways in this novel – most literally in the actual marriage between Cammie, an 18-year-old arctic scientist, and Bear, a giant mystical polar bear. Durst also throws an interesting touch of religion into her explanation of Bear’s strange powers. It’s a wonderful mix, especially when Cassie and Bear find an elegant way to bring their talents together, using Cassie’s scientific expertise to help Bear’s magical purpose along.In the original story, the heroine saves the polar bear through her exceptional laundry skills. Cassie brings a little bit more to the table. She is a dedicated scientist even at 18, and her passion for the arctic is palpable even at times when the brutal wilderness is moments away from killing her. She is a risk-taker who will throw herself whole-heartedly at a problem, usually without much of a plan. But her determination and ingenuity see her though, making her a pleasure to read.I did sometimes find the plot of the book fragmented. Cassie’s goals change several times over the course of the novel, and some of those goals feels much more urgent and are better at driving the story. I felt this most in the parts of the story that dealt with Cassie’s mother, who Cassie is so dedicated to saving in the book’s beginning, but who never becomes an important part of the story after she has been saved. I would have liked to see more growth in that relationship. The second half of the novel gives Cassie one clear goal – to find Bear and bring him home. This brings the story into sharper focus, and also brings Cassie’s best qualities – her determination and fortitude – to the forefront. Cassie is a kick-ass girl, and she gets to show her grit when this thoughtful story turns into an epic survival adventure in the frozen north.Review copy provided by the publisher at the author’s request.
    • 5/5
      Ok confession time. I don't like the fairy tale beauty and the beast. I get grossed out by the fact that Belle falls for what looks like a Giant St Bernard. So imagine my doubts when I started reading a book with a girl cuddling the coca cola bear! Add to that the words on the bookmark: "a polar bear, true love, and one girl's impossible quest..." The story has also been described as a "deeply romantic story." by Juliet Marillier. But a girl. A bear. True love? I gave an internal what the hell? Then, I opened the book and read the first line: Once upon a time...I was gone from there. I can't explained what happened with me. What-where did I go wrong? How did Bear get me? I guess I should say what went right. Ice by Sarah Beth Durst did everything right. Bear, that's the polar bear king's name, was oh my heck loveable. And not because he was a giant teddy bear. Very rarely I do I fall in love with a book hero yet when I closed my eyes one night I saw a waltzing polar bear and a girl with her head thrown back in laughter. And holy heck! That girl was none other than me! ME! With a dang polar bear. I knew right then...Ice was my undoing. Ice had me. But Bear is so much more than that more than a polar bear, more than a human. He is just more. He is honest, strong, funny, vulnerable, reasonable, caring, patient and easy. He is all a girl could dream for. Cassie, the books heroine (not me lol) had no choice but to go head over heels gaga for him.Cassie, was a well written character. I always find it hard to find a heroine I like. I didn't particularly like Cassie but she wasn't too stupid to live so it's a plus. I will say maybe she was too STUBBORN to live. Her stubbornness and unwillingness to understand is what caused the whole conflict that happened in this story to began with. I know it had to happen but the fact she tried to somehow put what she had done on purpose, on Bear and what he had done out of naiveté and misunderstanding, helped demonstrate her immaturity. And you saw her sort of grow up while trying to get love back. So at first I told myself that, Bear loves her so, like a good Bear groupie, I can put up with her if she is what makes him happy. Then I saw her mature majorly at the end of the story. Her display and bond with whom she loved brought a tear to my eye. I was surprised.But, like I said Cassie is a great heroine. Durst knows how to write great, believable and flawed characters. You can imagine meeting these characters in real life. I love that. The secondary characters, the munaqsri to be specific, whom Cassie gave adorable names too. For example she called the artic fox, Fluffy. I grew to love every single character especially Cassie! Her forgiveness also demonstrated her growth from child to woman.The amount of love Cassie has for Bear is touching. She is literally willing to go to the ends of the earth for that man. Its heart warming to read a story where its not one sided. The love, you can see it flowing both ways. Its not one of the stories where you have to be constantly told, these two people love each other. But you ask yourself 'uh ok? Why? and where?' If they never said they loved each other once in this book, you'd STILL know that they did and why.
    • 4/5
      Cassie is the daughter of an Arctic researcher and has grown up on an Arctic research station with the knowledge that her mother is dead. However, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie learns the shocking truth: her mother is imprisoned by trolls beyond the end of the world, and she herself is promised to the Polar Bear King in marriage. Cassie agrees to marry the gentle but powerful Bear if he will rescue her mother.The wedding, which sprang out of necessity, soon blossoms into true companionship and romance. But Cassie makes a terrible mistake that costs her her love. Now, she must draw on all of her Arctic knowledge and courage to make a nearly impossible journey if she wants to save Bear.Please excuse me if I break from my usual review style for ICE. That is because I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK. It had everything I wanted from a book of its kind: a feisty female protagonist, epic adventures, luscious writing, and the kind of romance that stops hearts and makes you remember why romance exists in the world. It was love at first sight for me and this book, and our love will continue to evolve and endure as long as my memory does not fail me.From the first page, I was ensnared by Sarah Beth’s writing, which I must describe as “clean and fresh”: it’s like wiping away a dirty window and gazing in wonder out at a beautiful, crystalline winter scene. Sarah Beth wastes no words, and yet manages to describe for readers an unbelievably beautiful and mesmerizing world with simple prose. Her writing style will appeal to fans of fairy tale writing, for its gorgeous, ethereal descriptions, as well as those of realistic fiction, so well grounded in our world it is.Indeed, the way ICE inhabits a perfect space in between fantasy and reality is one of its unique and strong points. I love that this old Nordic legend is grounded in science: a research station with modern characters and real-time technology. We weave easily in and out of the magic and the real, making this an interesting reading experience. Cassie is feisty and snarky enough to make her a great 21st-century protagonist, and yet she is also courageous and incredibly determined, qualities that connect her with other epic fantasy heroines.Of all the great parts about ICE, I think I like Cassie the best. You don’t find girls like her very often in literature or real life anymore, girls who will do anything for love, girls who tire of domesticity and want to be useful, girls who don’t want romance to consume their identities, girls who are scared of growing up too fast and making decisions that will affect them permanently. I related to Cassie so well and admired her so much, I think I cried. I loved how she faced problems of things like love vs. self-identity with—let’s admit it—mistakes and awkwardness. For a character of a fantasy novel, Cassie is remarkably relatable and can instantly be your best friend and role model for realistic issues.And of course, I cannot end this review without talking about the romance between Cassie and Bear. Fans of Beauty and the Beast (especially Robin McKinley’s Beauty) will see strong echoes of that kind of gradual love in ICE. Bear easily won over my heart with just a few lines of dialogue; if you want a nice-guy love interest, well, here he is. Gradual development of attraction and love are hard to come by nowadays, which is one of the reasons why I’m so happy the romance in ICE was done so well. Theirs is a love that grows subtly out of undramatic scenes, and is proven to be eternal by a literal “epic journey.” It is, once again, the result of the perfect blend between fantasy and realism.ICE is certainly not without some weaknesses, of course. Supporting characters, especially Cassie’s parents, are rather underdeveloped, and super-picky readers may have trouble following the occasionally choppy plot. However, readers looking for an old-fashioned fairy tale would do well to check Sarah Beth Durst’s ICE out. Maybe I read it at the right time for me to fall head-over-heels in love with it—but I think that you’ll be able to appreciate the gorgeous world-building and story, no matter what kind of genre you enjoy best.
    • 5/5
      I really liked Ice! An updated version of the fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, it was different from what I expected, but I’m not entirely sure what I expected. A girl who falls for a polar bear? Yeah, right, there’s going to be a twist there somewhere. And yes, there is a twist, but it does happen; a girl falls for a polar bear.There is a whole lot more to this polar bear than meets the eye though. His magic abilities, for instance; how he can make food appear on a whim, how he can travel super fast, and his actual reason for being – to transfer souls from the dead to the newly born. He really is a great guy, is ol’ Bear, as he is called.Then there’s Cassie, who just wants her Mum, who was taken away from her when she was very small. Bargains are made to save her life, but after a while, life happens, and things don’t go according to plan. Cassie’s life is turned upside down, and she finds herself on an unimaginable journey.I cannot believe the strength of this girl. Seriously, first she has to accet fairy tales are real, and get used to that idea, and then when things go pear shaped, she has to go through so much, emotionally and physically. Her strength and determination are awe-inspiring. This is one tough chick!As I said, I really liked Ice! At first, it reminded me a lot of Beauty and the Beast, where Beast is actually really nice. The novel is separated into three parts, but for me, it seems more like two; the first where deals are made regarding Cassie’s mother and then her time with Bear, and then the second part when things end up not so great. What happens? You’ll just have to read!The book feels a lot like a fairy tale, even though it’s written to seem like this could actually happen. This is no bad thing, but it’s just not as urban fantasy as I thought it may have been. I equated a fairy tale that has been updated and modernised with urban fantasy. I suppose Ice could be in a way, the fairy tale elements are still there which make the story more like a cozy read that will leave you smiling than a story that will have you buzzing. It’s a nice cup of tea to urban fantasy’s glass of pop.It really was a beautiful story, and at times, so much goes on, and it really does leave you wondering how on earth the story is ever going to get round to an end – you’ll understand when you read it. I highly recommend this book, it’s lovely, and such an great page turner. I’ll definitely be picking up more of Sarah Beth Durst’s novels.
    • 3/5
      First, I have never heard of the tale of East of the Sun, West of the Moon before, which is strange because I adore fairy tales. I also love Polar Bears so I had to grab up "Ice" which is a modern retelling of the East of the Sun fairy tale, in which a teenage girl falls in love with a Polar Bear King. Cassie has grown up hearing a story told by her Grandmother in which a Polar Bear king kidnapped a human child and brought her to teh North Wind. The North Wind raised the girl as his own. Then the girl meets and falls in love with a human man. The Polar Bear returns for the girl intending her to be his bride. The Girl refuses the Polar Bear and asks him to let her be with the human man and hide them both from the North Wind and in exchange the Polar Bear can marry her first daughter. When the North Wind found the girl, her human husband and new baby daughter he blew the woman far to the end of the world where she was captured in an unreachable castle by trolls. Cassie alwasy figured that this story was a nice way to say her mother had died. One day Cassie meets a talking polar bear and realizes the story was true and now the Polar Bear king has come to her intending to take her as his bride. The first part of the book is all about Cassie meeting Bear and going to his ice palace. I loved this part of the tale, as they became friends and worked and played together. If anything I thought this part of the tale was far too brief. The second part of the book takes a sharp change. Cassie has done something against Bear's wishes and it has tragic consequences. He is whisked away to be held captive by the trolls in that unreachable castle that her mother was trapped in. Cassie fights all the harsh arctic elements and meets with strange and sometimes cruel figures that help or hinder her along her path to rescue Bear. Meanwhile she is pregnant and her baby continues to grow inside her. This part of the book was hard to read. Page after page of her suffering was a little much and I feel like this would be a big turn off to middle school readers which are the book's targeted audience as well. I was grossed out a time or two by things that happen in this section and it didn't feel like a fairy tale at all at this point. The last few chapters are again magical and I wish they would have last longer. I think the portion of the book dealing with Cassie getting to the castle could have been handled in a manner that made it fit better with the rest of the tale. Bear and Cassie were intriguing but I felt like there wasn't enough attention to their relationship...we never really feel or see the moment when Cassie falls in love with Bear. This book was good and I don't regret reading it for in certain points the story is just lovely...but it didnt' live up to anything near what it could have been. I do know that I want to read more stories based on this fairy tale though.
    • 5/5
      I love unconventional love stories! I was amazed by this story. It was one of the most beautiful tales I've read in a long time--a wonderful fairy tale. The writing was not only beautiful but the plot was intriguing that I had to keep reading and didn't want to put the book down. The depictions of the world in the book were described in a way that I felt I was there in the cold arctic (I recommend reading this with a cup of hot chocolate or else you might be shivering).The romance was wonderful. It was more of a quite love story that slowly built into something very profound, and this was showcased when Cassie had to risk her life by rescuing Bear from being held prisoner by trolls. Even though Bear and Cassie are incredibly different, their connection felt believable to me. I loved how this unlikely pair came together and I admired both of their courage as the fought to continue to be with one another.

    Book preview

    Ice - Sarah Beth Durst

    PROLOGUE

    The North Wind’s Daughter

    ONCE UPON A TIME, the North Wind said to the Polar Bear King, ‘Steal me a daughter, and when she grows, she will be your bride.’"

    Four-year-old Cassie clutched her quilt and stared at her grandmother. Tall and straight, Gram looked like a general. She perched stiffly on the edge of Cassie’s bed. She had a mahogany cane in her left hand. Tonight, Dad was away from the station, which meant Cassie would hear the story. Gram never told it when Dad was home. It was the only story she ever told.

    "And so, the Polar Bear King kidnapped a human child and brought her to the North Wind, and she was raised with the North Wind as her father and the West, South, and East Winds as her uncles. She grew into a beautiful, but lonely, young woman. One day, while the Winds were gone (as they often were), she met a human man. She befriended him, and it wasn’t long before they fell in love.

    "When the Polar Bear King came to claim his bride, she refused him. Her heart, she said, belonged to another. ‘I would not have an unwilling wife,’ he told her. ‘But your father has made a promise to me.’

    "Knowing the power of a magic promise, the North Wind’s daughter sought to counter it with her own bargain. ‘Then I will make a promise to you,’ the North Wind’s daughter replied. ‘Bring me to my love and hide us from my father, and when I have a daughter, she will be your bride.’ And so, the Bear carried the North Wind’s daughter to her human husband and hid them in the ice and snow.

    "Angry, the North Wind tore across the land, sea, and sky. But he could not find them. For a long while, the North Wind’s daughter and her husband were happy.

    "In time, the woman had a child. Passing by, the West Wind heard the birth and hurried to tell the North Wind where his daughter could be found. With the strength of a thousand blizzards, the North Wind swooped down onto the house that held his daughter, her husband, and their newborn baby. He would have torn the house to shreds, but the woman ran outside. ‘Take me,’ she cried, ‘but leave my loved ones alone!’

    The North Wind blew her as far as he could—as far as the castle beyond the ends of the world. There, she fell to the ground and was captured by trolls. Cassie heard the bed creak as Gram stood. Her rich voice was softer now. It is said that when the wind howls from the north, it is for his lost daughter.

    Cassie blinked her eyes open. And Mommy is still there?

    Gram was a shadow in the doorway. Yes.

    PART ONE

    The Land Of The Midnight Sun

    ONE

    ONCE UPON A TIME, in a land far to the north, there lived a lovely maiden . . .

    Latitude 72° 13’ 30" N

    Longitude 152° 06’ 52" W

    Altitude 3 ft.

    CASSIE KILLED THE SNOWMOBILE ENGINE.

    Total silence, her favorite sound. Ice crystals spun in the Arctic air. Sparkling in the predawn light, they looked like diamond dust. Beneath her ice-encrusted face mask, she smiled. She loved this: just her, the ice, and the bear.

    Don’t move, she whispered at the polar bear.

    Cassie felt behind her and unhooked the rifle. Placid as a marble statue, the polar bear did not move. She loaded the tranquilizer dart by feel, her eyes never leaving the bear. White on white in an alcove of ice, he looked like a king on a throne. For an instant, Cassie imagined she could hear Gram’s voice, telling the story of the Polar Bear King. . . . Gram hadn’t told that story since the day she’d left the research station, but Cassie still remembered every word of it. She used to believe it was true.

    When she was little, Cassie used to stage practice rescue missions outside of Dad’s Arctic research station. She’d pile old snowmobile parts and broken generators to make the trolls’ castle, and then she’d scale the castle walls and tie up the trolls (old clothes stuffed with pillows) with climbing ropes. Once, Dad had caught her on the station roof with skis strapped to her feet, ready to ski beyond the ends of the earth to save her mom. He’d taken away Cassie’s skis and had forbidden Gram from telling the story. Not that that had slowed Cassie at all. She’d simply begged Gram to tell the story when Dad was away, and she’d invented a new game involving a canvas sail and an unused sled. Even after she’d understood the truth—that Gram’s story was merely a pretty way to say her mother had died—she’d continued to play the games.

    Now I don’t need games, she thought with a grin. She snapped the syringe into place and lifted the gun up to her shoulder. And this bear, she thought, didn’t need any kid’s bedtime story to make him magnificent. He was as perfect as a textbook illustration: cream-colored with healthy musculature and no battle scars. If her estimates were correct, he’d be the largest polar bear on record. And she was the one who had found him.

    Cassie cocked the tranquilizer gun, and the polar bear turned his head to look directly at her. She held her breath and didn’t move. Wind whistled, and loose snow swirled between her and the bear. Her heart thudded in her ears so loudly that she was certain he could hear it. This was it—the end of the chase. When she’d begun this chase, the aurora borealis had been dancing in the sky. She’d tracked him in its light for three miles north of the station. Loose sea ice had jostled at the shore, but she’d driven over it and then onto the pack ice. She’d followed him all the way here, to a jumble of ice blocks that looked like a miniature mountain range. She had no idea how he’d stayed so far ahead of her during the chase. Top speed for an adult male bear clocked at thirty miles per hour, and she’d run her snowmobile at sixty. Maybe the tracks hadn’t been as fresh as they’d looked, or maybe she’d discovered some kind of superfast bear. She grinned at the ridiculousness of that idea. Regardless of the explanation, the tracks had led her here to this beautiful, majestic, perfect bear. She’d won.

    A moment later, the bear looked away across the frozen sea.

    You’re mine, she whispered as she sighted down the barrel.

    And the polar bear stepped into the ice. In one fluid motion, he rose and moved backward. It looked as if he were stepping into a cloud. His hind legs vanished into whiteness, and then his torso.

    Impossible.

    She lowered the gun and stared. She couldn’t be seeing this. The ice wall appeared to be absorbing him. Now only his shoulders and head were visible.

    Cassie shook herself. He was escaping! Never mind how. Lifting the gun, she squeezed the trigger. The recoil bashed the butt of the gun into her shoulder. Reflexively, she blinked.

    And the bear was gone.

    No, she said out loud. She’d had him! What had happened? Bears didn’t—couldn’t—walk through ice. She had to have imagined it. Some trick of the Arctic air. She whipped off her goggles. Cold squeezed her eyeballs, and the white was blinding. She scanned the frozen waves. Snow blew across the ice like fast-moving clouds. The landscape was as dead as a desert. When the cold hurt too much for her to stand it a second longer, she replaced her goggles.

    Her radio crackled. She pulled it out of her parka pocket. Cassie here, she said, trying to sound casual. She’d chased the bear onto the pack ice without backup. If she’d caught him, all would have been forgiven. But now . . . How was she going to explain this? She couldn’t even explain it to herself.

    Cassandra Elizabeth Dasent, get home NOW.

    Dad’s voice. And he was not happy.

    Well, she wasn’t happy either. She’d promised herself that she’d tag a bear as a birthday present to herself—she was turning eighteen in just a few hours. It seemed the ideal way for the only daughter of the head scientist at the Eastern Beaufort Sea Research Station to celebrate becoming a legal adult. When this bear had sauntered past the station while she’d been out fixing the radio antennae, it had felt like a gift. She’d never expected the chase to lead her so far out onto the ice, and she’d never expected the bear to . . . He couldn’t have gone far. He had to be somewhere just beyond the ice ridges. She checked the gas gauge. She had another three hours of fuel to spare.

    Cassie? Cassie, are you there?

    I’m going after him, she said into the radio. She revved the engine, drowning her father’s response, and headed across the ice.

    * * * * *

    Cassie abandoned the snowmobile in the shed. Slinging her pack over her shoulder, she trudged to the station. She ached from head to toe, inside and out. Even her fingernails ached. The sun hovered on the horizon, as it would for less and less time every day before it sank permanently for the winter. The low-angled light made her shadow look like a snow giant out of an Inuit legend.

    She’d lost him.

    She didn’t know how, but she’d lost him. She kept replaying the search in her mind as if that would make her envision the tracks she must have missed. If she’d just searched more carefully in the first few moments instead of speeding across the sea ice . . .

    Owen, the station lab technician, met her at the door. She blinked at him—a potbellied man with a pepper beard. Clearly, he’d been waiting for her.

    Cassie, the case! Owen cried in an anguished voice.

    She glanced at her pack. The syringe case dangled out of the bag. It was encrusted in ice. Cassie winced. He got away, she said.

    Owen rescued the bag and gun from her. Do you know how much these cost?

    Cassie followed him inside through the double door entryway. As she shut the inner door behind her, the thick, sour warmth of the station rolled over her like a smothering wave. It was the smell of home, stale and stifling and comfortingly familiar. She wished she had been coming home victorious.

    Clucking over the tranquilizer gun, Owen said, You have to be careful with this equipment. Treat it like a baby.

    Her stomach sank as she watched him examine her equipment. She didn’t need another strike against her. She’d taken the snowmobile out onto the pack ice alone and she’d been careless with equipment. Dad was not going to be pleased. Peeling off her outer layers, she asked, Where is he? Radar room? She’d better get it over with. There was no point in delaying.

    Owen didn’t respond. He was absorbed in cleaning the tranq gun. She could tell he’d already dismissed her from his mind. She almost smiled. He loved his equipment like she loved the pack ice. Both of them were a bit . . . single-minded. She could admit that about herself. Jeremy? she said. The new research intern looked up from his desk.

    He’s not a happy camper, Jeremy confirmed. He wants to talk to you. He nodded toward the research lab door. You’re welcome to hide here, he added helpfully, pointing under his desk.

    She managed a grin. Jeremy had been blasted by Dad his first week at the station for going out on the ice without the proper gear, and now he had a healthy respect for Cassie’s father’s temper. Of course, in that case, he had deserved it. She didn’t care if he was from UCLA—what breed of idiot went out on the ice without a face mask? You’d never catch her making that kind of newbie mistake. No, she thought, I specialize in the more spectacular mistakes, such as misplacing a full-grown polar bear.

    Cassie pushed through the door to the research lab. She scooted between the boxes and equipment. She could hear Dad’s voice, deep and clipped, inside the radar room. Ugh, this was not going to go well. Here in the faintly sour warmth of home, it was going to sound like she was quoting Gram’s old fairy tale about the Polar Bear King. What seemed almost believable out on the sea ice seemed patently unreal here, back in the prosaic old station. Here, it seemed far more plausible that she’d imagined the bear walking through ice. She wished she’d imagined losing him.

    In the radar room, Dad was in his typical position, half-perched on a stool, flanked by two other researchers. Cassie halted just inside the doorway, watching them. Her father was like the sun. People tended to orbit around him without even realizing they were. Scott and Liam were his most common satellites. She wondered if that was how she looked next to him—overshadowed and small. Not liking that thought, Cassie stepped farther into the room.

    The door swung shut behind her, and Dad looked up at the sound. He lowered his clipboard. His face was impassive, but she knew he was furious. She steeled herself. She’d deliver her report as professionally as possible. How he reacted would be his choice.

    Scott flashed a smile at her. Ah, the little workaholic.

    Could you gentlemen excuse us? Dad said to Scott and Liam. Family discussion. Oh, that was not a good sign. She swallowed hard.

    Cassie wondered, not for the first time, if her mother hadn’t died, would that have softened Dad? Would she have been able to talk to him without feeling like she was approaching a mountain? So much could have been different if her mother had lived.

    The two scientists looked from father to daughter, as if suddenly noticing the tension that was thick enough to inhale. Both of them bolted.

    For a long moment, Dad didn’t speak. His expression was unreadable. His eyes were buried underneath thick, white eyebrows. His mouth was hidden in a mountain-man beard. Six-foot-five, he looked impervious. Cassie raised her chin and met his eyes.

    Finally, he said, You know better than to go out on the pack ice without backup. I raised you to be smarter than this.

    Yes, he had. One thing he’d always made sure of was that she knew the rules of the ice. Everything else in her childhood he may have left to others. With her mother dead soon after Cassie was born and Gram gone from the station when Cassie was five, she’d done a lot of her own raising—with only a sort of tag-team parenting from Dad, Max, Owen, and whoever else was passing through the research station. But he had made sure that she knew what to do when she stepped outside the station, and she was grateful for that. I know, she said.

    You could have fallen into a crevasse, he said. A pressure ridge could have collapsed. A lead could have split the ice, and you could have driven directly into ocean water.

    I know, she repeated. What else could she say? She wasn’t going to make excuses. Maybe she would have a few years ago, but she wasn’t a kid anymore. If she expected to be treated as a professional, she knew she had to act like one.

    He continued to scowl at her.

    Cassie felt her face redden, but she forced herself not to look away. She refused to be intimidated by him.

    Dad sighed. Report, he said.

    There’s something unusual about this bear. Taking a deep breath, Cassie plunged into a description of how she had tracked him and how he had walked into the ice. She told Dad about searching the pressure ridge and failing to find tracks leading out of it. She told him how she had searched the surrounding area, crossing miles of pack ice, with no further sign of the bear. Finishing, she braced herself, waiting for Dad to tear apart her report.

    Instead, she saw the anger drain out of her father’s face. He dropped his clipboard to the table, and he hugged her. I could have lost you, he said.

    This was new. Dad, she said, squirming. Anger she had expected, but hugs? They were not a hugging family. Dad, please, I’m fine. I know what I’m doing. You don’t have to worry.

    Dad released her. He was shaking his head. I should have known this day would come, he said. Your grandmother was right.

    Awkwardly, she patted his shoulder. I’ll bring backup next time, she promised. I’ll catch the bear. You’ll see.

    He didn’t appear to be listening. It’s too late for application deadlines for this year, but some of my friends at the University of Alaska owe me favors. You can work in one of their labs and apply for undergrad next year.

    Whoa—what? They’d agreed she would take courses remotely. She wasn’t leaving the station. Dad . . .

    You can live with your grandmother in Fairbanks. She’ll be thrilled to say, ‘I told you so.’ She’s been pushing for this since you were five, but I selfishly wanted you here, he said. I’ll contact Max to fly you there.

    She stared at him. But I don’t want to leave, she said. She loved it at the station! Her life was here. She wanted—no, needed—to be near the ice.

    He focused on her, as if seeing her afresh. You’re leaving, he said, steel back in his voice. I’m sorry, Cassie, but this is for your own good.

    You can’t simply decide that—

    If your mother were here, she would want this.

    Cassie felt as if she’d been punched in her gut. He knew full well how Cassie felt about her mother, how much she wished she were here, how much she wished she’d known her. To use that as a weapon to win an argument . . . It was a low blow. Cassie shook her head as if she could shake out his words. I’m not leaving, she said. "This is my home."

    Her father—who shied away from feelings so much that he had delegated her childhood to her grandmother and had left her puberty to a stack of bio textbooks—her father had tears in his eyes. Not anymore, he said softly. It can’t be anymore.

    TWO

    Latitude 70° 49’ 23" N

    Longitude 152° 29’ 25" W

    Altitude 10 ft.

    CASSIE BLINKED AT HER CLOCK: THREE A.M.

    What were they doing? It sounded as if the whole station staff were stomping around outside her door. She could have sworn she’d even heard a plane engine. She tossed off her covers and raked her fingers through her hair. She knew she looked like a redheaded Medusa, and she was sure she had bags under her eyes the size of golf balls. She was wearing long johns, mismatched socks, and an oversize T-shirt that read: ALASKA—WHERE MEN ARE MEN AND WOMEN WIN THE IDITAROD. Cassie yanked on pants and a sweater over her long johns and T-shirt before she stuck her head out her door. She spotted Owen scurrying down the hallway. Hey, she called to him. It’s three a.m. She nearly added, And it’s my birthday.

    Max’s plane is here, Owen said. Just landed. We’d have had more warning if you had fixed the antennae instead of going off to chase trouble.

    She winced. She deserved that. After all, she’d wrecked his equipment. His crankiness was justified. But what did he mean that Max’s plane was here? Max wasn’t scheduled for a visit. . . . Oh.

    He’d come for Cassie.

    Her heart sank. How had Dad convinced him to come so fast? Before the budget cuts, Max had been on the station’s staff. He’d flown his Twin Otter for them when Cassie was little; he’d been her earliest babysitter, practically an uncle to her—but now he worked for a commercial runway in Fairbanks. He couldn’t take off on zero notice. She hadn’t imagined Dad would call for him immediately.

    Cassie brushed past Owen and headed for the research lab. She had to put a stop to this right now. She had to talk sense into Dad and convince Max to return to Fairbanks without her.

    Before Cassie reached the lab door, she heard boxes scrape across linoleum, and the door flew open. Cassielassie! Max bellowed. He strode down the hall and scooped her up into a bear hug. He swung her in a half circle, then thumped her shoulder blades as if he were burping her as he set her down. Did you find the Abominable Snowman? he asked,

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