Reviews with content warning for Death - The North Wind

I had high hopes for this book, but it was a real slog for me unfortunately. I was never very interested in the world, and Part 1 of the book felt very repetitive and slow for my taste. While the twist that launches Part 2 was interesting, and did keep me more engaged through a lot of the second half of the book, it didn't hold my interest all the way through the end. I appreciate that Wren is written as a genuinely flawed heroine, but her thought process and decisions were extremely frustrating, right up until the end when things seemed to be resolved. It often felt like the conflict was being artificially drawn out and forced, and took away from my satisfaction with the HEA. I don't fully understand a lot of what was going on with Boreas, though my inattention through some parts of the book likely contributed. I did generally enjoy Warwick's writing style, and the book had many really lovely moments, but the whole just didn't come together for me personally.

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lauralouise93's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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koistyfishy's review

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

3.5 Stars ⭐️

This is a hard review to write as I need to find a way to articulate that on some levels I ABSOLUTELY loved it and on other levels it frustrated and annoyed me. This book had a tonne of potential to be an absolutely excellent story but in the end it just fell short and ends up at fine. I think what was missing is that final bit of polish or few rounds of editing to just clean it up a bit.

The book starts almost identically to ACOTAR - I mean girl in the woods with a bow and fighting for her and her sister survival. Due to this initial seed of similarity being planted I battled to distinguish the story as something original or bordering on Fan Fiction. There are parts in the plot that read like Alexandria Warwick had a tropic scene she wanted to write and then just dropped it into the plot. Examples of this are:

Wren Robin Hooded Boreas's arrow and they share a meal where they have to "feed" each other

. We also get a lot of lets go to this place, then this place, then this place.... and it does not have the full cohesion it needs to have to explain why and so ends up seeming like an idea just needed to be on page because she wanted to write it vs the scene has a full purpose.

Overall the story starts off enticing and I wanted to keep reading, but then the story loses the plot. Quite literally. I had no idea what direction the story was going. It became a slow drag with no clear motive or pointed direction.

It does contain tropes that tick all of my boxes
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Marraige
- One Bed/Horse
- Beauty and the Beast/Hades and Persephone

I also really liked the influences of the Greek Mythology surrounding the Four Winds, it was a unique take on an old legend and then twisted to the "Hades" vibes was also something new seen in a typical Hades/Persephone type book.

One thing that was a strange juxtaposition for me is how excellent and then confusing the transition from enemies to lovers occurs. My pet peeve in some enemies to lovers books is that sometimes the characters go too quickly from "I hate you" to "I absolute love you with all my heart". This book had aspects of that but then also had one of the best transitions to lovers I have ever read.

There are weird moments where Wren basically a couple of days before wanted to kill him and now she loves him, but there is also a really gradual understanding that develops between Wren and Boreas whilst they move from Enemies to friends to lovers. They started seeking the companionship of each other as friends and then the attractions started slowly bubbling up to slight flirtation to out write flirtation.

This transition to me is not often something you see done so well and I really appreciated the time it took for this gradual change to occur.

Wren herself is a weird contradiction. She starts of being explained as this selfless character but makes selfish, stupid and utterly dumb decisions in the book that make her unlikable.

In the end I was left with a tonne of unanswered questions that just confuse me and just things in the plot...that I am like what????

Questions and What Moments:

1) YOU ARE UPSET that he is leaving you unsatisfied because he has to go fight in a war to save his people??
2) Boreas - YOU gave up immortality for a woman I am sure you only love because she reminds you of your dead wife???
3) Who is going to do the whole judgement of souls now????
4) How did Zeph get the darkwalkers to obey him?
3) Why does he need a new wife every 30 years? What happened to the last one - why does he only talk about the one that died 300 years ago
</spoilers>

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meliroo's review

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dark emotional slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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nebulasaurus's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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