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etoiline's review against another edition
5.0
Magic, fae, pirates...
What more could you want? This novel has historical romance, seafaring adventure, a magic box that everyone wants, a handsome shapeshifter, elemental magic, and a great secret that must be uncovered to set things right. Happy to read it.
What more could you want? This novel has historical romance, seafaring adventure, a magic box that everyone wants, a handsome shapeshifter, elemental magic, and a great secret that must be uncovered to set things right. Happy to read it.
bookwyrm_lark's review
5.0
Originally published on my blog, The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
How could I resist a fantasy about a “widowed, cross-dressing privateer captain and unregistered witch,” her pirate crew, a werewolf, a ghost, and the Fae? Also a magical box, a great wrong to set right, and a ruthless, magic-wielding government spymaster.
The answer, of course, is that I couldn’t.
Winterwood was everything I hoped for and more. I loved it! Jacey Bedford combines great storytelling, good worldbuilding, and interesting characters, serving up a compelling novel with a well-balanced mixture of action and dialogue. Add in healthy helpings of mystery and magic and a dash each of romance and political intrigue, woven into a believable alt-history setting, and it was the perfect escape from the pandemic shutdown.
The novel is told in first person from the point of view of Ross (Rossalinde), the notorious Captain Red Tremayne, a title and career she inherited from her late husband. She’s a privateer, sailing for the Crown, and prefers the sea and her ship, the Heart of Oak, to life ashore, for reasons that become evident as you get further into the book — yet at least half of the book takes place in England. Ross is strong and independent, openminded, practical, and intelligent, and loyal to her friends. She’s also lonely, misses her husband, and longs for a connection to her remaining family. She is neither a saint nor a villain, and her judgement is not infallible. Ross is, in a sense, a “Chosen One,” in that she has the power and responsibility to right a 200-year-old wrong. The implications of that decision are significant — assuming she can stay alive long enough to carry it out. Ross struggles with that decision through the book… all the while trying to come to terms with who and what she is, determine whom she can trust, and discover why a king’s agent is determined to kill her.
We see the other characters only through Ross’s eyes and thoughts, and it’s interesting to see her perceptions of them change over time — particularly the rowankind boy David, and Corwen, a gentleman who appears out of nowhere and seems determined to assist Ross. I also became rather fond of Hookey, her first mate, a blunt and sometimes ruthless pirate whose loyalty and friendship seem unshakeable. Even minor characters are well-drawn and believable, and the villain, though obsessed and despicably ruthless, acts not because he is inherently evil but out of deep-seated beliefs. In fact, throughout the entire book Bedford eschews simplistic tropes of “good” and “evil” in favor of more realistic ethical struggles between expediency and honor, self-interest and altruism, fealty vs. what is morally right, and the good of the many vs. the needs of the few.
Winterwood is the first in a trilogy. I have already ordered the next two books, and can’t wait to read them.
Read for the COYER Quarantine Challenge (Opposites Readathon), The Backlist Reader Challenge, and the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.
How could I resist a fantasy about a “widowed, cross-dressing privateer captain and unregistered witch,” her pirate crew, a werewolf, a ghost, and the Fae? Also a magical box, a great wrong to set right, and a ruthless, magic-wielding government spymaster.
The answer, of course, is that I couldn’t.
Winterwood was everything I hoped for and more. I loved it! Jacey Bedford combines great storytelling, good worldbuilding, and interesting characters, serving up a compelling novel with a well-balanced mixture of action and dialogue. Add in healthy helpings of mystery and magic and a dash each of romance and political intrigue, woven into a believable alt-history setting, and it was the perfect escape from the pandemic shutdown.
The novel is told in first person from the point of view of Ross (Rossalinde), the notorious Captain Red Tremayne, a title and career she inherited from her late husband. She’s a privateer, sailing for the Crown, and prefers the sea and her ship, the Heart of Oak, to life ashore, for reasons that become evident as you get further into the book — yet at least half of the book takes place in England. Ross is strong and independent, openminded, practical, and intelligent, and loyal to her friends. She’s also lonely, misses her husband, and longs for a connection to her remaining family. She is neither a saint nor a villain, and her judgement is not infallible. Ross is, in a sense, a “Chosen One,” in that she has the power and responsibility to right a 200-year-old wrong. The implications of that decision are significant — assuming she can stay alive long enough to carry it out. Ross struggles with that decision through the book… all the while trying to come to terms with who and what she is, determine whom she can trust, and discover why a king’s agent is determined to kill her.
We see the other characters only through Ross’s eyes and thoughts, and it’s interesting to see her perceptions of them change over time — particularly the rowankind boy David, and Corwen, a gentleman who appears out of nowhere and seems determined to assist Ross. I also became rather fond of Hookey, her first mate, a blunt and sometimes ruthless pirate whose loyalty and friendship seem unshakeable. Even minor characters are well-drawn and believable, and the villain, though obsessed and despicably ruthless, acts not because he is inherently evil but out of deep-seated beliefs. In fact, throughout the entire book Bedford eschews simplistic tropes of “good” and “evil” in favor of more realistic ethical struggles between expediency and honor, self-interest and altruism, fealty vs. what is morally right, and the good of the many vs. the needs of the few.
Winterwood is the first in a trilogy. I have already ordered the next two books, and can’t wait to read them.
Read for the COYER Quarantine Challenge (Opposites Readathon), The Backlist Reader Challenge, and the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.
wordnerdy's review
3.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2016/02/2016-book-21.html
There is kind of a lot going on in this book, but it's all my jam, so let me bust into caps for a moment: MAGICAL HISTORICAL STORY ABOUT A WOMAN WHO IS A CROSS-DRESSING PIRATE CAPTAIN AND ALSO A SECRET WITCH! Like whaaaaaaat, that is amaaaaazing. Oh, ALSO, she is being haunted by the ghost of her beloved husband. And then she comes into possession of a magical mysterious box of a macguffin, not to mention a half-brother who's also half rowankind (sort of a magical person-like thing who is sort of enslaved?), and they're being pursued, and there's all sorts of magical stuff going on. Honestly, I liked this a lot, but I've already sort of forgotten half the things that happened b/c it's a bit meandering--like, this could have been a lot tighter and more effective. But there's some fun stuff going on, even if the heroine is a dope a lot of the time. She's still really cool and sympathetic, and the world-building here is really interesting. It looks like this is the start of a series, though this works perfectly well as a stand-alone. I'll definitely be checking out the next one. B+.
There is kind of a lot going on in this book, but it's all my jam, so let me bust into caps for a moment: MAGICAL HISTORICAL STORY ABOUT A WOMAN WHO IS A CROSS-DRESSING PIRATE CAPTAIN AND ALSO A SECRET WITCH! Like whaaaaaaat, that is amaaaaazing. Oh, ALSO, she is being haunted by the ghost of her beloved husband. And then she comes into possession of a magical mysterious box of a macguffin, not to mention a half-brother who's also half rowankind (sort of a magical person-like thing who is sort of enslaved?), and they're being pursued, and there's all sorts of magical stuff going on. Honestly, I liked this a lot, but I've already sort of forgotten half the things that happened b/c it's a bit meandering--like, this could have been a lot tighter and more effective. But there's some fun stuff going on, even if the heroine is a dope a lot of the time. She's still really cool and sympathetic, and the world-building here is really interesting. It looks like this is the start of a series, though this works perfectly well as a stand-alone. I'll definitely be checking out the next one. B+.
beckylej's review
4.0
It's the year 1800 and England has a firm handle on magic. Anyone with magical abilities is supposed to register with the Mysterium. Anyone who doesn't register will be punished - most likely hanged. Rossalinde Tremayne never registered herself but she's managed to evade the Mysterium by spending much of her time at sea. In truth, she's never been comfortable with her magical abilities and prefers the life of a privateer anyway. Taking on the guise of her late husband, Ross wreaks havoc on the high seas under the banner of King George himself. But when her mother passes away, all of that changes.
Ross has never been close to her mother. Their relationship turned cold the minute her mother realized that Ross had magic in her veins. So it's strange to find that her mother has been holding onto a magical heirloom passed down through generations of her family. Ross never knew anything about her mother's family, certainly nothing that would suggest magic, but the legacy is apparently hers to deal with. But it's a legacy Ross wants no part of, especially when the King's agents begin snapping at her heels!
Pirates, magic, and fae in nineteenth-century England. Yes, please! Winterwood marks the start of Jacey Bedford's new Rowankind series and it's a series I can't wait for more of!
Having said that, I should probably admit that it took me a while to really get into Winterwood. It begins with Ross's reunion with her mother and launches into the action very quickly. But the world itself takes a little longer to develop.
We know that folks in England employ Rowankind as servants. (Employ is a stretch as most folks don't actually pay the Rowankind.) But it's unclear to the reader exactly what makes the Rowankind different. The varying magical abilities and the Mysterium itself also take some time to become really clear to the reader. None of that was much of a deterrent to me overall because once Ross was really off on her journey to find out more about her family and the box, the book picked up significantly for me and I was able to set aside any lingering questions I had about the world we were diving into.
Patience pays off big time here because it turns out that a lot of those more detailed world building elements are actually key to the overall plot. It helps, too, that Ross herself has little knowledge of the overall workings of magic thanks to her continued efforts to ignore her powers but for the occasional weather change to help her ship.
Ross is a smart and capable leading lady. Of course thanks to the time she lives in, and the story does stay quite true to the history of that time, she's not expected to do much more than be a wife. Which she is, but she's also captain of her own ship too. In disguise. Oh, and her dead husband is still by her side.
Ross's own family history is quite fabulous and I ADORED the blend of British folklore and history. As mentioned above there are the fae, there's also the Green Man and his lady, and Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, Walsingham, plays a significant role in the story as well. See - blending folklore and history :) All in all Winterwood is a fantastic read and one I definitely recommend to fantasy readers who like a dash of history in their stories.
So far there is just one follow up title due out in this series, which we won't see out on shelves until next January. Winterwood does work quite well as a standalone, though, so while it will be a welcome return to the world and the characters there's not really a crazy cliffhanger waiting to be resolved. (Whew!)
Ross has never been close to her mother. Their relationship turned cold the minute her mother realized that Ross had magic in her veins. So it's strange to find that her mother has been holding onto a magical heirloom passed down through generations of her family. Ross never knew anything about her mother's family, certainly nothing that would suggest magic, but the legacy is apparently hers to deal with. But it's a legacy Ross wants no part of, especially when the King's agents begin snapping at her heels!
Pirates, magic, and fae in nineteenth-century England. Yes, please! Winterwood marks the start of Jacey Bedford's new Rowankind series and it's a series I can't wait for more of!
Having said that, I should probably admit that it took me a while to really get into Winterwood. It begins with Ross's reunion with her mother and launches into the action very quickly. But the world itself takes a little longer to develop.
We know that folks in England employ Rowankind as servants. (Employ is a stretch as most folks don't actually pay the Rowankind.) But it's unclear to the reader exactly what makes the Rowankind different. The varying magical abilities and the Mysterium itself also take some time to become really clear to the reader. None of that was much of a deterrent to me overall because once Ross was really off on her journey to find out more about her family and the box, the book picked up significantly for me and I was able to set aside any lingering questions I had about the world we were diving into.
Patience pays off big time here because it turns out that a lot of those more detailed world building elements are actually key to the overall plot. It helps, too, that Ross herself has little knowledge of the overall workings of magic thanks to her continued efforts to ignore her powers but for the occasional weather change to help her ship.
Ross is a smart and capable leading lady. Of course thanks to the time she lives in, and the story does stay quite true to the history of that time, she's not expected to do much more than be a wife. Which she is, but she's also captain of her own ship too. In disguise. Oh, and her dead husband is still by her side.
Ross's own family history is quite fabulous and I ADORED the blend of British folklore and history. As mentioned above there are the fae, there's also the Green Man and his lady, and Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, Walsingham, plays a significant role in the story as well. See - blending folklore and history :) All in all Winterwood is a fantastic read and one I definitely recommend to fantasy readers who like a dash of history in their stories.
So far there is just one follow up title due out in this series, which we won't see out on shelves until next January. Winterwood does work quite well as a standalone, though, so while it will be a welcome return to the world and the characters there's not really a crazy cliffhanger waiting to be resolved. (Whew!)
chelseaj91's review
3.0
It's 1800--
Mad King George is on the British throne, and Bonaparte is hammering at the door. Magic is strictly controlled by the Mysterium, but despite severe penalties, not all magic users have registered. Integral to many genteel households is an uncomplaining army of rowankind bondservants, so commonplace that no one recalls where they came from.
Ross Tremayne, widowed, cross-dressing privateer captain and unregistered witch, likes her life on the high seas, accompanied by a boatload of swashbuckling pirates and the possessive ghost of her late husband, Will. When she pays a bitter deathbed visit to her long-estranged mother she inherits a half brother she didn't know about and a task she doesn't want: open the magic winterwood box and right an ancient wrong--if she can.
Enter Corwen. He's handsome, sexy, clever, and capable, and Ross really doesn't like him; neither does Will's ghost. Can he be trusted? Whose side is he on?
Unable to chart a course to her future until she's unraveled the mysteries of the past, she has to evade a ruthless government agent who fights magic with darker magic, torture, and murder; and brave the hitherto hidden Fae. Only then can she hope to open the magical winterwood box and right her ancestor's wrongdoing. Unfortunately, success may prove fatal to both Ross and her new brother, and disastrous for the country. By righting a wrong, is Ross going to unleash a terrible evil? Is her enemy the real hero and Ross the villain?
This was a decent book, but it was kind of slow for me.
It started off good enough and I thought I was going to just fall in love with it. I mean, magic, shifters, Fae? That's right up my alley! But after the first chapter, it got a little boring and it felt like it took forever for anything to happen. There was a lot of travel and Ross arguing with Will over leaving the box. Then about 200 pages later, things finally got going but it was still a little boring.
I really didn't like Ross's whole relationship with Will. I mean, I understand her missing him, but all her trying to convince herself of celibacy because she could never love anyone else got really annoying. And then when she tries to have a moment for herself (which she's allowed to do!!), he shows up and she basically lets him ruin the moment. I did like how the crew respected her and the whole family dynamic that happened on the ship.
ssione55's review
3.0
Honestly, much better than I expected. Romance heavy, but with a sound plot and a good amount of action. I'm generally not a fan of historical fantasy, but this was entertaining, and managed to provide nuance to the plight of a hero. 4.5 stars!
prgchrqltma's review
3.0
Characters: privateer/widow with ghost husband, wolf shapeshifter
World Building: forbidden magic, privateering, Fae
Plot: running hither and yon by land and sea, gathering unknown family, protecting artifact, pondering
Sex: tepid, largely off screen
Read another: Probably not
The premise showed interesting potential, but I thought it largely unrealized. And the romantic aspects? The relationship seemed to come out of nowhere.
World Building: forbidden magic, privateering, Fae
Plot: running hither and yon by land and sea, gathering unknown family, protecting artifact, pondering
Sex: tepid, largely off screen
Read another: Probably not
The premise showed interesting potential, but I thought it largely unrealized. And the romantic aspects? The relationship seemed to come out of nowhere.
serenarae's review
4.0
I enjoyed it. It was a fun read with likeable characters in an interesting setting. The only complaint I have was that I felt Corwen needed more development and the love story felt a bit rushed.
k8brarian's review
4.0
Let's see here: pirates, werewolf -- strike that, lupine shapeshifter -- Fae, intrigue, social justice, and a strong female protagonist, plus just enough romance and humor, in an easy-to-digest, compact fantasy novel. Yup; no complaints here. It's not a 4-star book in terms of objective quality, but I enjoyed it plenty and look forward to the sequel.