A Crown of Snow and Ice by Melanie Cellier

 Celine has been invited to Eldon by the strange princesses from that country who participated in the Princess Tourney. Before she goes, her godmother gives her the power to command fire.  When she arrives in Eldon she discovers the value of her gift.  The whole kingdom is freezing over, and is clearly under a curse.  All the citizens are distant and apathetic. Celine knows she must do something to break the curse before everyone in the country dies of starvation because no one cares enough to grow food. She manages to free Prince Oliver first, and they work together to try to figure out the root cause of the curse before a neighboring noble marches into the capital and takes over the government.

I had a different book on hold, but when I started listening to it, it was much too spicy for my taste. So, with nothing else in my cue, I turned back to Cellier, knowing I would fine a clean, entertaining story.  Really, this story is just like all the other stories in the Four Kingdoms cannon, but I hadn't read one in a while, and it was just about at the right level for me since I was stressing over some things at work.  I actually didn't like the story of the Snow Queen when I was a child.  The Snow Queen with her power to freeze other people's hearts is a decently scary villain.  Reading this story made me realize how much CS Lewis drew on the fairytale of the Snow Queen when he wrote the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I am sure a lot of ink has been spilled about why Lewis chose her as the foil to Aslan.  (2018, 326 p)