Reviews

The Fear of Winter by S.C. Sterling

adreannavincent's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

robinwalter's review

Too dark for my tastes

jergrylls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

donasbooks's review against another edition

3.0

Thank you to the author S. C. Sterling, publishers No Bueno Publishing and as always NetGalley, for an advance audio copy of THE FEAR OF WINTER.

This book is a basic murder mystery, with all the players you expect, and a pretty predictable ending. Still thrilling and it's an enjoyable audiobook, in part thanks to excellent narration. One thing I do like about this book is the large cast of interesting characters (usually not my cup of tea) with a couple of bad to the boots women mixed in. I love fiction stories set in factual places. This one is set in Colorado, where I used to live, and loved living there. Sterling used this element in a detailed way, almost as a character. I really connected to the story at this fictional element, which feels very real thanks to the detail work. Heads up: The chapters are loooooong!

Rating:

trinad's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

sparksinthevoid's review

mysterious medium-paced

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

1.25

mottlau's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

400mom's review against another edition

3.0

I'm having a hard time with this one. I think that it was fine but not great. The characters who were developed were generally unlikeable. I could see how events had shaped them but still didn't feel sympathetic to how they had dealt with the events. I guess I never felt that the story held much hope for any of the characters. So maybe it was just a little too bleak for me?
I did like the descriptions of the area in Colorado where the book was set. I felt that the setting was a big part of the story and could clearly picture it. I was also surprised by the ending and I will be interested to see how this continues as a series. I will certainly give the series another shot when the second book comes out.
Thank you to the author and Library Thing for providing me with a digital copy of this book.

heatheradoresbooks's review against another edition

4.0

4⭐

Book 1 in The Fear Of series

Featuring ~ multiple 3rd person POV, crime thriller debut, missing woman, abduction, serial killer, rape references, suicide, depression, self harm, drug and alcohol abuse, long chapters

There are quite a few perspectives to keep track of:
Tom & Lisa ~ parents of Megan, who is missing
Marshall ~ private investigator
Hannah ~ Marshall's assistant
Kevin ~ serial killer

A cold case of a missing woman ~ yes please! An action packed solid crime thriller debut that kept me mostly engaged throughout. The grief and broken marriage was written realistically for characters wondering what happened to their daughter. The prologue + 8 chapters were awfully long and we are abruptly thrown into another perspective without warning, which was frustrating, but didn't take away from my enjoyment.

Narrated by Jess Nahikian for 7 hours and 10 minutes. I was quite pleased with her skills ~ I even liked her male voices, but still wouldn't have minded a male narrator.

I'll for sure read the next one in the series.

Side note ~ I really like the cover.

*Thanks to [a:S.C. Sterling|14493999|S.C. Sterling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1639236304p2/14493999.jpg], No Bueno Publishing and NetGalley for the audio copy. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

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kuritsahreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

I won this book in a StoryGraph giveway. All opinions in this review are my own.

This was a very quick read that I enjoyed overall. The intrigue definitely had me turning the pages, as I tried to figure out how the different POVs connect to each other. 

This is a very dark book, and I can't say that the ending left me happy. The book touches on a handful of topics in gloomy details, from self-harm to alcoholism to how families can fall apart after losing a child. After each reading session, the story weighed on me, but I must say that I like how to author described and navigated through these topics.

Two things I sadly did not enjoy were the POVs with time changes (I think ? There were 2 really bizarre passages about

Kevin

), as well as the first few chapters that felt like the author was trying to cram in as many American brands, bands and locations as possible. While naming all the roads and highways makes sense, I could have done without all the food brands and album names. I felt like I was reading a commercial.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Grief, Car accident, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Death, and Drug use