Stitching Snow: R C Lewis

This was a book geared towards teens, but I loved it! It was like "Star Wars" and "The Left Hand Of Darkness" with the fairy tale aspect. Very original and I loved how it broke the gender barriers. The story opens and we meet the main Character Essie, given name "snow" short for snowflake. She lives on a rough island and earns her keep boxing and working on her droids, which do the mining in the village of all men. One day a boy, Dane, about her age crashes his space ship and she helps him repair it. He kidnaps her and tries to take her home in exchange for his people who were imprisoned after she left home and ended up on the mining planet. She reprograms the ship to take them to his planet. Her mother was from the same planet as Dane and she learns her mother kept her "species" hidden in order to have a child with the ruling planet's leader, knowing the child would one day be ruler. Snow's mother was killed by her stepmother and Snow left when the queen tried to have her killed. The planet it overthrown and peace is restored to the galaxy. The book was a quick read with the right amount of suspense.