Reviews

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

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xenchiaa's review against another edition

5.0

Its been long since a couple in a book had me grinning like this one
They made me genuinely happy and I'll cherish them forever

laelyn's review against another edition

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3.0

This was such a sweet story with so many tropes that I genuinely enjoy - arranged marriage that turns into love, opposites attract, some good old misunderstandings thatkeep them apart. I wasn't blown away by this story as much as I wanted to be, but I still really loved reading it.

"Winter's Orbit" tells the story of Kiem, one of many many princes of Iskat, and Jainan, a nobleman and scientist from Iskat's vassal planet Thea. They are thrown together for a last-minute arranged marriage to basically save the future of their star system. Their characters couldn't be more different: Kiem is a wayward prince who's caused quite a number of scandals, is irresistibly charming, outgoing and social and never actually knows when to shut up. Jainan on the other hand is a super intelligent, quiet genius who prefers to not be seen and have no attention thrust upon him, dutiful and loyal to a fault, barely speaks a word. They are both interesting, complex characters and the book tells their story from both their perspectives. They have their distinct voices and go about solving the many problems in their path in very different ways that are in line with their personalities. There is a certain twist when it comes to Jainan that I could basically tell from the first time I met him, so when it was revealed it didn't really touch me emotionally because well yeah, that was obvious. I do think that Maxwell tended to focus too much on certain plot-important aspects of the characters and didn't fully flesh them out. The way Jainan was written regarding said twist felt a little superficial at times. He reads like every fanfiction-character with his kind of trauma, though it didn't keep me from enjoying him.

The writing is very accessible, with lots of humour and some world-building involved. While this is a scifi-setting, the focus isn't on the scifi-part but the romance so obviously the reader can't expect there to be Sanderson-levels of world-building. Still, the world is interesting and has a lot of potential, and there are some concepts (like how society views gender) that I absolutely adored. The Resolution ist so so interesting too! And what is going on with those remnants?

The plot is rather standard and it did feel like I was reading a fan-fiction for most of the time. Not that that is a bad thing at all, but the structuring of the plot, the pacing, the kind of problems and obstacles in the protagonists' way and the, in the end, rather simple and easy ways they overcame these obstacles resembled works I've read on AO3. And while I do love a good misunderstanding as a way to keep two lovebirds apart for a while longer, it has to be, well, a good misunderstanding. It has to make sense. The aforementioned twist about Jainan's past was so obvious that it made Kiem seem rather idiotic for not recognizing the signs, and major parts of their misunderstandings could have been solved with a good earnest talk way earlier in the story. It drags out a little and thus becomes a bit annoying at some point. Once the misunderstanding has been cleared up, though, boy they become a power couple! We stan! I do think that the reveal of the aforementioned twist could have been handled better, but there is actual progress of the couple and I loved to read it.

In the end, this is a cute, comfy scifi romance between two sympathetic boys, set in an intriguing world that I hope Maxwell might work on even more because I'd definitely read more stories set in her galaxy. It has its flaws, it's very fanfiction-y, but it is a feel-good story that gives all them fluffy emotions and is perfect for a cold sunday afternoon in bed.

many many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for the arc!