Series: Winternight Trilogy #2
Author: Katherine Arden
Genre: Fantasy, Historical, Fairy Tale
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: December 5, 2017
Source: Bought
The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.
Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.
I honestly was pretty scared to read this book. After loving the first book -- The Bear and the Nightingale -- and loving it, I was worried that this one wouldn't live up to my high expectations. While I didn't fall in love with it like I did with TBatN, I still thoroughly enjoyed falling back into this world with these characters!
In this second book, the already lush and vivid world established in TBatN was expanded -- we saw a lot more of Russia and were given more details about the different conflicts occurring at the time. There were a lot of different threats surrounding Vasya and the people she was with -- one of these threats being the fact that no one in Moscow knew she was a woman. I'm generally a fan of this aspect in books and I was a fan of it in this one. Of course, it was frustrating and infuriating seeing the way Vasya was treated as a man versus how she was treated as a woman, but I think showing this injustice is important.
The characters in this series are amazing. They have completely stolen my heart and I don't even want it back. I'm so inspired by Vasya's resilience and strength. She's so unapologetically herself and, honestly, I wanna be like her when I grow up! And then we have Morozko, the love of my life. I need more of him in these books. Seriously, I do. He's such an interesting character and I love the mythology surrounding him and the magic. I'm really, really hoping we see more of him in the third book.
Like I said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book but I wasn't quite as in love with it as I was the first. I don't know exactly why -- it may be because there was a lot more politics throughout this book. While I enjoyed that aspect, I missed Vasya's home and the magic and wonder of the Russian wilderness surrounding it. The city just didn't hold that same spark for me.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel. It was a great sequel for The Bear in the Nightingale and has made me even more excited for the third (and final) book in the trilogy to release in August.
“Witch. The word drifted across his mind. We call such women so, because we have no other name.”
Four out of Five Teapots
I STILL need to read the first book in this series! I'm sorry you didn't love this one like you did The Bear and the Nightingale. Great review though!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It was still a great read but I'm definitely hoping the next book is as amazing as the first one!
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