A review by ailsaod
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

 I read this a month ago and I just started rereading it which is not something I have done before so quickly! This book is great but I feel like it sits in uncertain territory that could easily give people false expectations. The romance is quite toned down and the political machinations aspect becomes more of an investigation but this only made me enjoy it more! I usually hate the romances in books - or at best tolerate them (you may ask why I picked up a book being marketed as a Sci-fi Romance and I don't really know to be honest) but Kiem and Jainan's characters were really well written. Initially I didn't like Kiem as if you only pay attention to his dialogue he sounds like a bit of a brat but this impression of him didn't survive past the first few chapters as he genuinely wants to help Jainan.

There is some world building that I found very interesting - and presumably the author is going to flesh some of it out further as some of it was quite tantalising! I found the engineered 'wildlife' of Iskat (a terraformed planet) an amusing detail.

The arranged marriage trope was handled well in my opinion as well as a rogue appearance of 'there was only one tent' but the romance takes a back seat to Kiem and Jainan trying to figure each other out as well as solve the book's mystery.

This book does deal with some darker themes of domestic abuse as well as a brief instance of sexual assault but it does so mostly in an oblique manner that doesn't sensationalise and only suggests at what happened.

This book was one of my favourites of this year and while it probably isn't the most ground-breaking story out there it does what it does very well and I am very hyped for Maxwell's next book!
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