Reviews with content warning for Grief - The North Wind

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The North Wind by Alexandria Warwick

11 reviews

booksbyfi_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious sad 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

3.5

Thank you to Simon & Schuster (Australia) and NetGalley for providing me with this e-ARC! Opinions are my own.

➼ ★★★.5 stars

if you’re looking for an enthralling, steamy, captivating romantasy read - you need to read Alexandria Warwick’s ‘The North Wind’ RIGHT NOW!!! Prepare to be transported to a world where Boreas, a devilishly handsome and misunderstood God who reigns over the deadlands, collides with Wren, a headstrong, stubborn, altruistic heroine determined to flip his realm upside down…

"Endure. Survive. Fight. It is all I can do."

we LOVE a girl who would do ANYTHING for the people she loves and miss wren does just that!! Her relationship with her sister, Wren, was very real in terms of the burden eldest daughters have to carry when it comes to their siblings (even though Wren and Elora are twins, Wren just gives the vibes of the eldest daughter!).

“unhand me…or I will castrate you, immortal or not.”

wren made me laugh in this book so much bcs she has NO CHILL HAHAHAH she really eats up these one-liners when interacting with those in the way of what she wants to achieve, and i love that for her lol

“but he only pushes back his hood, revealing a countenance of such agonising beauty that I can only look at him for so long before I’m forced to run away."

Now, let’s talk about THE NORTH FREAKING WIND mmhm…

Boreas is your classic dark-hair, misunderstood, cold-hearted, “villain” mmc and i ATE IT UP!!! That man could take me to be his wife and I wouldn’t complain one bit, if it meant I got to live with his GORGEOUS self lol. He was actually kinda funny too bcs some MMCs lack substance, period.

notes:
- worldbuilding was great!
- pacing was great up until about 75% of the book - it got quite slow here and kinda felt like filler chapters and then picked up in the last 30-40 pages!
- the side characters are so cute esp orla, pallas, silas, and thyamine (my faves)
- hades x persephone retelling
- inspired by the beauty and the beast

tropes:
- enemies to lovers
- slow burn romance
- one bed

Content Warnings

saliwali's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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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>

Content Warnings

alyssasaurus's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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queenie_ofthe_void's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.75

It felt like a mash up of Uprooted and Spinning Silver, both Naomi Novik books. And because I really loved both of those books, it made it hard for me to enjoy this one. Parts of this book didn't even really make sense.

Wren getting the shit beat out of her in the ghost town makes sense, since they hate the king so much. But then less than a few weeks later they go to the mid winter festival. And host a party for them at the Citadel. I would not party with people who almost had me drawn and quartered.

More technically, the timline felt inconsistent like the author couldn't keep track of the days. But I likes Wren, and I liked Boreas, so it kept me going.

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sarah_br's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The slowest of slow burns, and so worth it. I didn't want to put this book down, and cannot wait for the next story in the series. Wren is bullheaded and has bite to back up her bark, Boreas is the frosty king with an unsuspected heart of gold. The story is original and gripping

(after the "stolen away to be a god/king's bride" trope)

, and the romance is a slow, slow burn - but the cute, funny moments and the epiloge we're the best.

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