Review: The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy #3) by Katherine Arden

Book info:

Title:  The Winter of the Witch
Author:  Katherine Arden
Series:  Winternight Trilogy #3
Genre:  Fairy tale retelling, historical fantasy
Release Date:  January 8th, 2019
Publisher:  Del Rey Books
Source:  Finished copy received from publisher which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:
Following their adventures in The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya and Morozko return in this stunning conclusion to the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, battling enemies mortal and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen.

Reviewers called Katherine Arden’s novels The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower “lyrical,” “emotionally stirring,” and “utterly bewitching.” The Winternight Trilogy introduced an unforgettable heroine, Vasilisa Petrovna, a girl determined to forge her own path in a world that would rather lock her away. Her gifts and her courage have drawn the attention of Morozko, the winter-king, but it is too soon to know if this connection will prove a blessing or a curse.

Now Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers—and for someone to blame. Vasya finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, stronger than ever and determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself and her history as she desperately tries to save Russia, Morozko, and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all.

My Review:
This is a series that definitely needs attention while you read it.  You can't read this and watch tv or read a couple pages at a time and then do other stuff.  It is a story that requires you to be able to sit and read for at least a good 15 minutes or more at a time.  Not that this is a bad thing. It's just something you need to know.  Overall, I'd say this was a really great ending to a trilogy that has a lot of interesting ideas as well as historical aspects in it.    Now, if you haven't read the first two books, you should probably read those reviews first, and maybe not go on in this review, as I might spoil some things for you.  My reviews are here:  The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower.  
Now the one thing that still annoyed me a bit in this one, even though by this third book I knew who all the names referred to for the most part, was having the same character called by two of three different names, often within the same page or paragraph at time.  And sometimes those different names didn't match up like normal nicknames might, or they didn't refer to their position, like King or Prince, or whatever. Even though the author did address this point in the back notes of this book, and I understand her reasoning, it still made it a little difficult at times for the story to flow as easily for me.  Of course, that may be something that is only a problem for me, but I like to point it out, since it is one of the things that kept me from speeding through it, even if the story was really good.  I was definitely very happy for what finally happened in the bath house with Vasya and the Winter King.  I'd been rooting for that for so long!  The ending was good, and I liked again how the author talked about the actual history behind what had happened in this book and how she took her liberties with fitting the story around those things.

A great fantasy, with some great history and mythology/fairy tale retelling in it.  A series I keep in my high school library, and recommend to anyone who wants more Russian themed stories. 

ARC Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Book info:
Title:  The Bear and the Nightingale
Author:  Katherine Arden
Genre:  Fairy tale retelling, historical fantasy
Published:  January 10th, 2017
Source:  ARC won from Goodreads Giveaway
My rating:  4 stars

I am usually a pretty big fan of fairy tale retellings, especially when it is one like this was blurbed to be, a not so well known Russian tale.  I was lucky enough to win an advanced copy through a Goodreads giveaway.  However, when I first began this, I was afraid I wasn't going to finish it.  It took me a bit to get into it.  In the end though, I'm glad I stuck it out, as it turned out to get really good, and so hard to put down!

The story is about the winter demon basically. At the beginning, the mother of the family goes off to the woods, and swears that she will have a baby like her own mother was.  Her mother was part royalty, but also had some kind of unusual ancestry.  And when she has this child, she dies in childbirth, and the new child is odd.  This new little girl is named Vasilisa.  Vasilisa doesn't behave like a normal girl would, she enjoys playing outside and stays outside. She also acts like she sees the little creatures that are part of the Russian folklore.  Well, she really does see them, even some of the dangerous ones that she is able to help save some of the townfolk from.  When her father travels into Moscow, he ends up with a wife, and soon after that, a new priest.  A priest who wants to force the backwards village people to give up all of their old ways and "false idols" to worship only the one true god.  But in doing so, the villagers lose their protection against the winter demon and soon bad things start to happen. The winter gets really bad.  Very large wolves begin attacking.  And the people begin to turn on Vasilisa, believing she must be a witch because she doesn't give up the old ways.  

All kinds of things are tried, her stepmother even tries to send her away when her father is not there, wanting to get rid of her, and the attention that the priest seems to be giving to Vasilisa instead of the stepmother.  The stepmother has always seen the creatures, and thinks they are demons and that she is going crazy when she sees them.  

There is so much  more to this story.  Vasilisa will have to go back into what her mother did to bring her into this world, and she will discover her own connection to the winter demon, and why she can see all these creatures.  She will also have to figure out if there is a way she can help her people, basically save them, when it seems the person they have now turned to for their salvation, is the one that has brought the devil into their midst.  

Like I said, it took me a while to get into, about a fourth of the way before I was to the point of having trouble putting it down.  But halfway through I was at the point that I could barely put it down to go to work or bed or anything else.  If you have the patience for the slow beginning build up, the payoff is totally worth it in the end. 

 

Review: And I Darken by Kiersten White

Book info:
Title:  And I Darken  
Author:  Kiersten White
Series:  The Conqueror's Saga #1  
Genre:  YA alternate historical fiction/fantasy
Published:  June 28th, 2016
Source:  ARC received at bookstore where I work from publisher

Synopsis:
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

Review:
I really enjoyed this story!  While it was a change in the actual history, the bits of real history that were woven in were enough that I really became very intrigued about the time period.  I guess I hadn't realized quite how far back in the history of Vlad that the author was going to go.  And I was really thrilled to learn it all. 

I loved the characters. While at first Lada was kind of rude and you could definitely say unlikable, I really understood her irritation and reasons for behaving the way she did. And, I really liked her by the end.  The love story for her was so good, heartbreaking, but good.  And then to learn about what her brother really wanted in life, and how he grew up and began to see the way she had treated him.  All the love and family and friendship in this book made for emotions and tension, and a great story.  I loved the battles, and learning about the women's lives in the harems.  The religion itself was also a big part of the story that I hadn't actually ever thought about with what I knew about the true history of Vlad the Impaler.  But I also loved Mehmed, and while I understood Lada's reasons for keeping herself separate as much as possible, I wanted them to be together more than anything. 

When I went online to update my progress as I read on Goodreads, I realized it was a series, and the way this ended, and how it didn't get to the part of Vlad's life that I really knew about, I am so glad to know that.  A great read, and two more on the way to finish up the story.  The author was so detailed with both the history and the life and characters, that I am sure to be more involved after each new book.

Review: The Curse of Jacob Tracy by Holly Messinger

I have to thank one of my fellow teachers for passing this ARC on to me a month or so ago.  The author is a friend of one of our art teachers, and I'm actually going to get to meet her when she comes to talk to the students at our school in December.  When the art teacher first told me about the book, I went and looked it up on Goodreads, and was immediately intrigued.  The story sounded really good. And I loved that part of it was going to be set in Missouri, even if it is on the other side of the state from where I live.  I've really started enjoying historical fiction these days I guess.  And while this is fantasy, it is definitely a bit of a scary story as well. And can I say that I could totally see this book as a really great TV series or movie? 

The main character is, as you would guess, Jacob Tracy.  The story takes place back in kind of the old west.  After the Civil War really.  Trace, as he goes by, can see ghosts and such things.  He tries not to give into the things he sees though, especially not to tell those around him about his ability, because in the past when he'd done that, his family - parents and wife - had all died.  He does kind of odd jobs around the town he lives in near St. Louis, Missouri, with his partner/best friend, Boz.  Sometimes the jobs are clearing out trees for farms, other times it may be acting as guides for those traveling out West. The story really gets going when a strange woman offers him a job, going to pick up something that a dead friend of her's left to her. But in the trip, it turns out that maybe her story isn't quite true.  And the place she sends him to is haunted, and he begins to see more ghosts.  He finds out that she actually knows about his powers, and she wants to help him learn to use them, and in some way, then he'll be able to help her with whatever it is that has been causing her illness. 

Working for this woman, Miss Fairweather, will lead him into all kinds of sticky situations.  Ghosts, strange bearlike creatures, demons, and even werewolves, will all be things he has to deal with.  All the while he will fight her influence, try not to give into what she wants, while at the same time he will feel that she is helping him, and he is learning to control his powers the more he works with her.  It won't be just one bad guy he deals with, although there does seem to be one "boss" or "master" that is sending them all to find about him, and possibly get him to join and give over his powers.  This master is also someone that Miss Fairweather had dealt with in the past, and she will do her best to help Trace as much as she can, even while still keeping her own secrets about what she actually needs.

Like I said, this is one that as I read it I could totally picture watching it.  The characters were really well done.  The historical time period was very detailed and seemed just like what you would imagine.  One of the characters in the last section of the book, named Remy, was a Cajun man, and as I read his dialogue, I totally heard the accent and voice in my head.  I look forward to reading more by this author, especially since I think this definitely left off for a sequel.  There is more that I need to know! 

Also, I love the publisher's little symbol.  I'm pretty sure it is a dachshund!