Audiobook Review: A Midwinter’s Wedding: A Retelling of the Frog Prince (The Four Kingdoms #3.5)

Author: Melanie Cellier

Narrator: Esther Wane

Audiobook Length: 3 hours 34 minutes

A retelling of The Frog Prince fairy tale.

Princess Cordelia is used to being overshadowed by her many brothers and sisters. So when she’s offered the chance to attend her brother’s wedding in a faraway kingdom, she leaps at it. In Northhelm, she’ll finally have the chance to stand out. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll even find romance.

But not everything in the Northhelmian court is as it appears. With her brother distracted by the wedding, only Ferdinand, the ugliest man at court, will listen to Cordelia’s concerns. An observant princess and a strangely amphibious soldier may be the only thing standing between all Four Kingdoms and disaster.

Cordelia will have to overcome prejudice, deceit and danger if she wants to save the day and find romance at A Midwinter’s Wedding.

Find It On: Goodreads / Amazon (Novel) / Amazon (Box Set)

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A Midwinter’s Wedding is the second novella in The Four Kingdoms series that falls between novels three and four. There are crossover characters and the timeline between book one until now is continuous, so this is best read as part of the series but could be read as a standalone. As with the other novels being retellings or reimaginings, this story is no different as it is a retelling of The Frog Prince. This story follows Princess Cordelia from Lanover who has traveled to Northhelm for the wedding of her brother, Rafe (the love interest from The Princess Pact) to Princess Marie. Here she meets Marie’s brother William and his friend Ferdinand (Ferdy), who has a frog-like appearance with bowlegs and bulging eyes.

As the second to last child of seven, Cordelia is looking forward to the chance to be noticed at this royal event. During her time in Northhelm, she overhears multiple suspicious conversations and raises these concerns to William and Rafe. As both dismiss her, she turns to Ferdy for help. Together they work to unravel the mysterious threat against the royals while also getting to know the other. While working together to discover the mystery, they also spend time together participating in winter activities, like ice skating. These moments were all sweet and I loved the friendship that developed between the two of them. I do wish that their transition from friendship to potential romance was done with a little more care, but I do enjoy the foundation that was built. Without some indication about the romantic feelings forming, it felt a little unbelievable, even though the two characters match each other well.

Compared to the previous novella, I loved this one more as, for me, it seemed to fit better and have more purpose. It is not that I did not like Evelyn and Sarah’s stories, but I just felt Cordelia’s weaved together with the others more seamlessly. Everything in this story is fairly straightforward, which was understandable as this was a novella; however, there was tons of potential to expand every element. The two characters more-or-less stay fairly the same in terms of development with a small bit from Cordelia, so there was room to add this to the story. Overall, this story was a great addition to the series. There was room for improvement to make it feel more complete, but I loved the individual pieces of the story a lot. I look forward to reading Celeste’s story next!