The kiss was the right thing at the right time - does the Summer lady kiss the Wintersmith each year, we don't know. I always think of how arrogant the Summer lady sounded when she spoke to Tiffany but that's what Tiffany had to become. I look at her chat with Nanny about boys trying to be impressive to girls by showing how big and strong they are, and how Tiffany needs to stop being so passive and take control of the situation. She's 13 at the time of the book, not a child anymore and not a woman yet but moving in that direction. Part of this story is about Tiffany's development. I think there are a lot of small themes in Wintersmith that you could discuss ad infinitum but in relation to what you've said here's my 2 cents. She had to step into, and borrow the Summer Lady's power to do it And even then, it was mostly a metaphorical, Summer kissing Winter kiss, not a Tiffany kissing the Wintersmith kiss. I don't think she actually figured out she had to kiss him until right before she kissed him, to be honest. So she digs deep, reaches out, and twists the Story to have the ending that she wants. And by the end of the book, she's decided that Things must be done. It's a massive test of personal strength, and character. And is slowly dragging itself into being a man, so that it can love her properly. And you have this incredibly handsome, astoundingly powerful being that's completely and totally in love with her. You have a Story trying to shove her into a path. So you have a young girl, who is feeling awkward and uncertain. But she's a witch, so she struggles against it. So, a magical young girl accidentally catches the eye of The Wintersmith? That story has a weight to it. It almost never ends well, but it still happens. You have Jack Frost, Yuki-Onna, Hans Christian Andersen's Ice Queen, and a bunch of other things. And people falling in love with symbolic representations of winter is actually kind of common irl.

Plus, the Disc runs on Stories, with a capital S. And she also feels proud, and flattered, because it's a god.

I think a big part of it was because, for most of the story, she wasn't sure that she wanted to get rid of the Wintersmith.įor most of the book, every time the character pops up to flirt with her, she gets scared and tells him off.

Wintersmith book