A Dream of Ebony and White by Melanie Cellier

Princess Blanche is devastated when her father dies.  She is so overcome with grief that she fails to notice as her stepmother swiftly moves to consolidate her own power and take the thrown that should have gone to Blanche. Luckily, her oldest friend, Alexander, a royal huntsman, overhears the new queen's plan to have Blanche killed, and secrets Blanche away into the vast and dark forest.  In the forest, Blanche and Alexander become separated, and Blanche happens on a little cottage inhabited by seven orphaned children.  She tells the children her name is Snow, and soon settles into a, if not easy, at least comfortable, life with them. When Alexander finally finds her again, and tells her all the terrible things her step mother is doing as queen, Blanche knows she must muster all the courage she never thought he had and try to win back her throne. 

About 6 months ago I put a book on hold.  While I was listening to the Left-Handed Booksellers book, the book I had been waiting for came available.  I hurried to finish the Bookseller one, returned it and went to open the one I had been waiting for months for. It was then that I realized that in my haste, I had accidently returned the book I hadn't listened to, instead of the one I had just finished.  Oh Nooooo!  Sadly I put that book on hold again, with months before it will become available, and looked for something to listen to until my next hold came in. This is the one I chose.  It is the next in the Cellier series that began with A Dance of Silver and Shadow. It was actually a good choice.  Cellier's books are all pretty similar, but the good thing is that they are dependable.  They are clean and not too dark.  The writing is pretty good, and they all have happy endings. It is always fun to see how she will incorporate the elements of the original story into her retellings. Sometimes she gets a little tongue-in-cheek.  When Blanche arrives at the cottage in the woods and sees the children for the first time, she says, "Oh, you are children!" and one of the orphans quips, "What? where you expecting, dwarves?" So, hooray for Cellier, who is prolific enough to fill all the gaps in my book holds. (300 p, 2018)