Dreams and Dragons: Magic Mirrors Tour: The Seven Drawers Review

Happy Halloween, y'all! It's the one day of the year when you have an undeniable excuse to cosplay in public! Sadly, it's also the last day of the Magic Mirrors blog tour . . . but we're finishing up with an awesome book: Kendra E. Ardnek's The Seven Drawers. I got to read multiple versions of this story, and I loved all of them, so naturally I had to review the book for the tour. But we'll get to that in a minute — first, a bit about the book and author.

About the Book

Gwen's life has been absolute misery for the last two months. Her father died, she was written out of the will, her stepmother kicked her out of the house, and, in that time, she's not heard a word from her boyfriend of five years.

And she might be suffering from insanity. A chest of drawers just appeared at the foot of her bed, and as she opens each drawer, she's spirited away to another realm where she finds herself in increasingly bizarr prisons, each the fault of her stepmother.

Can she win back her life - and kingdoms? - from her stepmother? Or will Editha win?

Find it on: Amazon || Goodreads

About the Author

Kendra E. Ardnek loves fairytales and twisting them in new and exciting ways. She’s been or acting them on her dozen plus cousins and siblings for years. “Finish your story, Kendra,” is frequently heard at family gatherings. Her sole life goal has always been to grow up and be an author of fantasy and children’s tales that glorify God and His Word.

Find her online at: Website || Blog || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter || Amazon

My Review

One thing's for sure: no one can ever accuse Kendra E. Ardnek of having unoriginal ideas. Nor can they accuse her of failing to pull off even the craziest of those ideas. Even the ideas that you think could never work, not in a hundred years, somehow do, often magnificently. The Seven Drawers, her second retelling of the story of Snow White, is no exception.

The Seven Drawers was, if I remember correctly, inspired by misspelling "the seven dwarves." From that phrase, Kendra spins a tale of parallel universes, betrayal, intrigue, true love, mystery, danger, and sacrifice. Through it all, she weaves the tale of Snow White, but in a way you've never seen before.

Aside from the uniqueness of the concept, my favorite part of The Seven Drawers is just how many of the elements of the Snow White story (both the original and the Disney version) Kendra manages to include — and how many variations on the basic storyline she comes up with in the process of creating the overall story. The well-known roles and elements of Snow White — a beautiful princess, a wicked stepmother, a handsome prince, a magic mirror, a poisoned apple, a huntsman sent to cut out the princess's heart — all appear, sometimes in multiple ways. In addition, some often-forgotten pieces of the story, like the comb that the stepmother originally uses on Snow White, appear as well, and even small details in the original become significant here. All these pieces are entwined together with the astonishing creativity you'd expect from Kendra's novels.

Plotwise, The Seven Drawers is, again, very well done. Kendra maintains a steady tension throughout the story that'll keep you from setting the book down in a hurry. Her twists are well thought-out and foreshadowed without being instantly obvious. Of course, the frequent shifts between realms help with that, and Kendra gradually reveals the mystery of those realms in a way that's natural and intriguing.

On the character front, we have a fairly small cast. Gwen is an excellent protagonist: smart and determined and doing her best to be strong in the wake of tragedy. Yet Kendra also allows Gwen to be vulnerable and non-dramatically broken in ways that make her quite relatable. Editha, the evil stepmother, is, well, evil. She's not a sympathetic villain, but she's a cunning opponent, which is what the story needs most. And Jeremy, Gwen's boyfriend, is just a wonderful human being. He's not given as much characterization as some characters, but given the short span of the story, there's not much that could be done about that. He and Gwen are adorable together, though. Relationship goals, those two.

I'm not going to say that The Seven Drawers is now my favorite of Kendra's novels — not with Lady Dragon, Tela Du and The Worth of a King on the table. But I will say that it's only a spot or two below those. And if you're looking to experience the story of Snow White in a way that no other author could give you, The Seven Drawers is exactly what you need.

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Are you excited for The Seven Drawers? What do you think sounds most fascinating about this story? Please tell me in the comments! And, as always, don't forget to check out the rest of the day's tour stops and enter the giveaway on the master post.

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Blog Tour Stops: October 31

Knitted By God's Plan: 7 Reasons to Read

Light and Shadows: 5 Reasons to Read

Dreams and Dragons: Review

Heather L.L. FitzGerald: Character Spotlight - Jeremy
The Langauge of Writing: Review

Jenelle Schmidt: Review

Reality Reflected: Review

Keturah's Korner: Review

Resting Life: Character Spotlight - Gwen

Reveries: Character Spotlight - Editha.