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A review by justinlife
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
This is what I came here for. This is what I want to read. Sci Fi space saga, murder mystery, slow burn romance, political intrigue. Give it to me. inject it in my veins. I couldn't put this down and didn't want to. It was so much fun.
Maxwell does incredible work doing the difficult job of building a large universe with complex political systems while keeping the nuances of a small moments of a burgeoning relationship fun. It's masterful storytelling. She doesn't bore the reader with her world building. The plot moves quick and Maxwell knows the genres she's playing in and expects the readers to have a working knowledge of those genres. It's a hard balance and she manages it well.
The slow burn is super slow though. What I love about the relationship is that their main problem is communication and mixing signals, which, I mean... is the majority of problems. There is some trauma from intimate partner violence that is dealt with, so keep that in mind. Maxwell handles that well extremely well. I think the reader can see it coming as the actions of the character felt like someone who had been through something traumatic.
Toward the end, the plot seems to buckle under the weight of it all, but at that point, I didn't care that the actions didn't seem logical. This is a space saga. What makes sense about a galactic treaty, deep space mining, and murder?
Overall, highly recommend this book. It was so much fun. It was a delight and I look forward to exploring Maxwell's world a bit more.
Maxwell does incredible work doing the difficult job of building a large universe with complex political systems while keeping the nuances of a small moments of a burgeoning relationship fun. It's masterful storytelling. She doesn't bore the reader with her world building. The plot moves quick and Maxwell knows the genres she's playing in and expects the readers to have a working knowledge of those genres. It's a hard balance and she manages it well.
The slow burn is super slow though. What I love about the relationship is that their main problem is communication and mixing signals, which, I mean... is the majority of problems. There is some trauma from intimate partner violence that is dealt with, so keep that in mind. Maxwell handles that well extremely well. I think the reader can see it coming as the actions of the character felt like someone who had been through something traumatic.
Toward the end, the plot seems to buckle under the weight of it all, but at that point, I didn't care that the actions didn't seem logical. This is a space saga. What makes sense about a galactic treaty, deep space mining, and murder?
Overall, highly recommend this book. It was so much fun. It was a delight and I look forward to exploring Maxwell's world a bit more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse