To Ride the Wind and To Steel the Sun by Melanie Cellier

Here is a two-book retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon set in the Four Kingdoms universe.  Charlotte is the odd man out in her family of three sisters.  When a mysterious talking white bear  promises her family riches and prosperity in exchange with a hasty marriage with Charlotte, they only make a pretense of objecting.  Something in the stranger's eyes captures Charlotte's trust, and she decides she is as well off with him as in a love-starved home. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn is the obedient daughter of a tyrannical queen of a high mountain kingdom.  She is so cowed by her mother that she fails to see how oppressed her servants and the people of the nearby village are.  Then one day something happens that opens her eyes, and she knows she must do something to help. When Charlotte makes a mistake that separates her from her beloved bear husband, she teams up with Gwendolyn in hopes of saving both him and Gwendolyn's kingdom.

This fascinating fairytale has always been interesting to me, and I think Cellier does an decent job on the odd story. It takes some plot acrobatics, and some convenient "Godmother gifts" to make things work out, but Cellier manages to pull it off.  The tone of the story is very much like all her other fairytale retellings.  It is actually something I like about Cellier, you pretty much know what you are getting when you start reading one of her books.  The princesses and princes all have almost the same personalities from one book to an other, with only a few small variations. This princess might be a little more spunky, and that a little more shy, but in the end they are all the same.  Still, it makes her books a predictable read when you need a predictable read. To Ride the Wind (2024, 314 p) To Steel the Sun (2024, 282 p)