I've been reading a number of fairy tale retellings lately, so when I saw this book at my library I snatched it up with high hopes. This is not so much a retelling as an expansion of Disney's Snow White, told from the perspective of the Queen. A backstory is added to show the Queen marrying Snow White's father and then his eventual death. My memory is a little shaky on the movie, it was never my favorite, but I don't remember three (annoying) evil women who introduced the Queen to black magic, though they were in the book and played a short but significant part. 
 The Queen was suitably sympathetic and her motivations were fleshed out in such a way as to seem significantly less shallow and vain than the movie implied. Despite this, the Queen lacked a certain depth and, possibly because of this, likability. I liked the reason the author gave for the Queen's descent into vanity and wickedness, finding it both complete and believable. Still, understanding a person's motivations does not mean you'll like them, and this story did not make me like the Queen. It's not a very happy story, though I guess that isn't a surprise considering the subject. 
 What really drew me to this book was the cover, which is gorgeous. Unfortunately, the writing was definitely NOT beautiful. It was serviceable, but the beauty in both imagery and sentence construction found in so many fairy tales and fairy tale retellings was absent here. This stood out especially in contrast to Cameron Dokey's books in the Once Upon a Time series, which are filled with beautiful imagery. 
 Recommended, but not passionately.