Booklist Review of ICE

The first trade review of ICE is in..... And it's good!!! Snoopy Dance of Joy!!!

My husband is enormously relieved about this. This novel is so very close to my heart, and he didn't want to have to pick a Sarah-puddle up off the floor. Sarah-puddles can be quite icky, and a huge pain to clean up, especially once they get in the carpet.....

The review is from Booklist (the book review journal of the American Library Association), and they call ICE an "enchanting tale" and "a page-turner." Yay!!!

Here's the full review:

"In a twist on the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, this enchanting tale tells of Cassie, a young woman who grew up studying polar bears in the Arctic. Cassie, raised by her widowed father and her Gram, was told the fanciful tale of her mother’s promise to the Polar Bear King and banishment to the Troll castle. On her eighteenth birthday, Cassie realizes her mom's story was actually true and makes a promise of her own to the Polar Bear King: if he rescues her mother, Cassie will be his bride. But who is the mysterious Bear and what is his role in saving souls and maintaining the circle of life? Although there is some question as to why Cassie cannot split time between her two worlds, the ending is resolved in a satisfying manner. Told in a descriptive style that perfectly captures the changing settings, Durst’s novel is a page-turner that readers who enjoy adventure mixed with fairy-tale romance will find hard to put down." -- Melanie Koss, Booklist

While we're on the topic of things that inspire Snoopy Dances and prevent Sarah-puddles, I'm thrilled to report that ICE has also received blurbs from two authors whose work I absolutely adore: Tamora Pierce (author of the supremely awesome Tortall and Circle books) and Juliet Marillier (author of the fabulous and beautiful Wildwood Dancing). Here's what they said:

"This beautifully drawn tale captured me in a realm of wonders!" -- Tamora Pierce

"I loved this deeply romantic story." -- Juliet Marillier

Just in case you're curious, my Snoopy Dance is a little like this.

Five Sarahs

Five Sarahs gathered at Books of Wonder in NYC yesterday to plot world domination. A-hem, I mean, talk about and sign books. Right. Perfectly innocent gathering. Nothing to see here. Move along, please.

But if you really do want to see... here are some photos from the Sarah Signing:

5 Sarahs: Sarah Beth Durst (me!), Sarah Cross, Sarah Rees Brennan, Sarah MacLean, and Sarah Ockler

And here is a photo of all our books:

Ooh, pretty!

I had a fantastic time. We all read for a couple minutes and then we answered questions from the fabulous audience. For example,

Question: "What weapons are in your books?"
Me, pointing at Out of the Wild: "A sword and a dragon."
Another Sarah: "A dragon is a weapon?"
Me: "It is if you use it properly."

Someone also asked what were our plans for the coming zombie apocalypse? I liked Sarah Cross's answer -- she said that if the zombies attacked, she'd probably just get eaten. Granted, as a plan, that's not ideal, but that's probably what would happen to me.

In my response to the question, I told everyone about the dream I had the night before Into the Wild's pub date: I dreamed that zombies were shambling down our street toward our house. To defend my family, I dug a moat. And then I thought that zombies could just crawl through the moat and attack. So I filled the moat with brambles. But then I thought the zombies could push through the brambles. So I filled the moat with water. And then I fetched the alligators. (Apparently, we keep them in the bathtub.) After dumping five or six alligators into the moat, I boarded up the house and hunkered down with my family to wait. The zombies were tearing at the boarded up windows when I woke up as a published author.

This is me, looking all professional yet talking about zombies.
(Thanks to Cathie for the photo.)

But the best part of the event -- indeed, the best part of any event -- was the chocolate. Sarah MacLean had these little puppies made:

Don't these make you want to be a Sarah?
(Thanks to Sharon for the photo.)

Aren't these so cool?

After Books of Wonder, I spent the afternoon with two of the Sarahs, Sarah Rees Brennan and Sarah Cross, as well as Cassie Clare, who is as awesome as a Sarah. We were later joined by Maureen Johnson, Josh Lewis, Ellen Kushner, and Delia Sherman... and thus were the Sarahs outnumbered.

Had a super-yummy dinner at a Greek restaurant that had lots of pots on the ceiling. And then I booked it out of there to catch the train home. Literally had to run through Penn Station to make it. But I did.

And the excitement wasn't over yet: on the drive from the train station to my house, at around midnight, I was pulled over by a cop. He claimed I had a headlight out. I suspect he could tell that I'd been plotting world domination with Sarahs.

Sarah Signing

Five Sarahs. One bookstore. I'll be there. Will you?

Books of Wonder. Sunday August 2nd. 1-3pm.