East

East by Edith Pattou is a retelling of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". Ebba (actually Nyamh) Rose, was first conceived as a replacement due to her deceased east-born older sister, Elise, but a twist of fate ends with her being a north-born child. Her mother is upset, due to her family's beliefs about north-born people being wild and generally ill-behaved, not to mention the prophecy about any north-born child she has dying buried in snow and ice, and so decides to pretend that Rose was a east-born child in the hopes of averting it. However, nature wins out over nurture time and again, and Rose proves to be very much not like Elise.

Many years later, one of her older sisters gets sick, the first in a series of unfortunate events that leave the family worried about their future. One stormy night, a white bear comes to their house, promising to somehow fix things if they will let him have Rose. She agrees, traveling with him to a castle hidden in the mountains, and for a while everything goes all right, until Rose's curiousity turns out to be her undoing. Determined to set things right, she sets off for the land "east of the sun and west of the moon" to rescue her white bear once and for all.


 * All Trolls Are Different: Trolls in this novel are beautiful humanoids with rough skin, equally gruff voices, and the ability to use magic.
 * Chekov'sGun: 
 * Curse:
 * Dead Older Sister: Elise.
 * Gratuitous Foreign Language
 * Half Truth:
 * Horny Vikings: Thor, who helps Rose travel North.
 * Ill Girl: Sara
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: The slank which the trolls were giving their human slaves to keep them docile
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket:
 * Really 700 Years Old:
 * Replacement Goldfish: Rose was born to replace her older sister, Elise.
 * Screaming Birth: Rose's own birth during a storm.
 * Stalker with a Crush: The Troll Queen, who abducted when he was a child.
 * Switching POV: The novel switches between Rose, her brother Neddy, her father, the bear, and the Troll Queen.
 * Theme Naming: The first letter of each of her childrens' names is that of a direction on a map, e.g. Neddy Wilfred (North West), Sara (South), and Wilhelm (West).
 * Yandere: