"Words have power, but they have weight as well, and some of them are so terribly, terribly heavy."

At eleven years old, Snow had to run away. Her entire murdered family and a scar to hide her identity haunt her for the next seven years. Now, the Selection has come to her village, and she has the chance to face the one responsible for all her pain under the pretense of being trained to marry a royal. Between deals, magic lessons and chess games, Snow tries to figure it out how to bring justice to her loved ones and her kingdom without revealing her true identity.

Thrilling, right? I love fairytale retellings, it's always interesting to see what each author decides to twist from the original stories and how they do that, and in White as Witching things definitely took to a grimer (sorry) tone.

The first half of this book is impeccable. I was ready to give it 4.5/5 stars. I'm all in for a more mature approach and pacing, and the evil aunt/stepmother has a nuance I love to see in villains. She's doing bad stuff but she has a reason! She thinks she's in the right and is genuinely baffled when people disagree. She isn't evil for the sake of it, just like our heroine isn't just a goody two shoes fighting for honor or whatever. There are also quite a few nods to other fairytales that are really well interwoved to the world and are really fun to spot! I'd say this book is worth a read from that first half alone, specially if you're interested in those elements mentioned.

But what about the other half? Unfortunately, that's where the book lost me. Katherine Buel is a really good writer, and none of the issues I had were about the story itself, but with the way it was presented.

Here's the thing: if you want to write a standalone, you can't have the plot of a trilogy. From the point the stage is set and things pickup there's not a single moment to breathe, and it all feels really rushed because there're too many things happening. I had a hard time caring about most events because we don't really see the story unfolding, but instead a couple paragraphs summing up what they did and what was decided, sometimes covering the span of weeks. Show me the scenes! They look cool!

And that's the thing. I like the sum of the story, the direction it took and how it got there. But I feel more like the author got halfway to the page count and oops, realized they wouldn't have enough space so they just outlined for me how it ended and gave me a bit detail on the important parts. This book doesn't reach 300 pages. Spread out to an extra 100! Make it a duology! Give this story enough room to exhist! I genuinely thinks it deserved it.

**Spoilery PS**
PS: I have to take note on the decision to magically get rid of the face scar. I understand the attemp to make it less "problematic" by giving a speech about Snow hiding behind it but this is a character problem that could've been solved without making her conveniently pretty again. I'd rather she had learned that being the fairest of them all is not defined by a facial scar or whatever. It's a much better message as well.

I was provided and advanced copy by NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op for reviewing purposes. This book will be available on October 4th.