Fog & Mist has a powerful beginning, the prologue draws you in and lets you know the story is about to be a good one.

Immediately, we are shown into a world with a long history and many magical secrets. Upon meeting our main character, Winterberry, I instantly knew she was going to be a fighter, one who had gone through a lot already and still the story promised she would have to go through more. Watching her journey of slavery was difficult, my heart went out to her. She had never seen such horrible things, she never deserved to go through them. However, it had given her a reason to fight. She wants to become Queen so she can change the lives of these slaves, something she might never had realized was a problem until she went through it herself. This first book in the series mostly is about her journey through slavery, but there is more to the story. We also get the perspective of the Queen, we get to see her wants and desires, her reasoning behind why she hates Winterberry and wants her dead. Usually I find the villain's perspective to be so cliche that the book would be better without it, but that isn't the case in this story. The different perspective was necessary to tell the story properly, it gave us a behind-the-scenes look at what is really going on. We also have a third perspective, Prince Rus, the prince destined to save the princess. He falls into the role by accident, his mission was to save his sister, in the process of doing so he comes to meet Winterberry.

A loose retelling of Snow White, this book has all the major elements you would expect from a retelling, but it is clearly its own story. It doesn't depend on the plot of the original story to carry it, no, it can stand by itself. The new elements might take it in a different direction in the next book of the series. I look forward to reading that book because there is still so much that I think needs to happen. This first book was about the journey of Winterberry and forced her to decide if she wanted to fight for her rightful place on the throne and to save her people.

I enjoyed getting to know these characters and their stories. Each character was written well and fleshed out. The writing gave great detail and made me feel like I was there, living with these characters, seeing the world around them. Fog & Mist is emotionally gripping, I don't think I will be able to let go of these characters any time soon.

While it is a fairytale retelling, it comes across as a dark fantasy at times. There is torture, violence, sexual slavery. It has a darker tone to it, one that wrangles your heart and makes you want to change the way things are for these characters.

If this is just the beginning of the series, then I have a lot to look forward to. I have to know how the story ends. I need to know what happens to the characters.

I received an ARC of this book for free, and I am voluntarily leaving this review. ( )