Review: You don't have to be a YA to enjoy this
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 1, 2013
The cover of this book is awesome and immediately drew me in.  As soon as it finished downloading I went into it intending to read just a few pages to see if I wanted to put it on my "to be read next" list.  Before I was finished with those few pages I was hooked and had to keep reading until I was finished.  The book is a little bit like "Sleeping Beauty" because while no one has been put to sleep, the king has been living for a LONG time under a wicked spell.The book starts when the Cold King comes down off the mountain to the village where everyone is afraid of him because of the horrific looking masks he always wears. They are also afraid of him because people who are chosen to go work for him never seem to come home again. He announces that his personal servant has recently died and he needs a replacement.  He will let someone volunteer or the villagers can choose someone.  The new servant has to be taken to the castle the next day so it is imperative that someone be chosen quickly.  Because Calia pretty much always has to do what others don't want to do, it really comes as no surprise that when no one volunteers she is chosen by the villagers to be the one who is sent to the Cold King to be his servant.There are elements in the book that remind me of Cinderella because besides being forced to perform the distasteful chores that no one else wanted to do, she was also constantly criticized for the work she did and was told how ugly she was...so ugly that she would never have a home of her own because no man would ever want her.  Sadly, the person who seemed to criticize her the loudest and the most frequently was her own mother. The book also reminded me of "Beauty and the Beast" because the Cold King wears a mask to hide SOMETHING, no one knows just what, but there is speculation that the mask hides a "monster" and people are afraid of him and don't really want to be around him.The Cold King was designated as a YA book.  Well, it's been about 50 years since I was a young adult but I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to young and old alike.