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bamamelereads 's review for:

The House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron
4.0
adventurous mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes

This is such a strange story, but I really enjoyed it in the end. I think the blurb doesn’t do a good job laying out what to expect here either. 

This is a slow-paced, character driven fantasy story. The bulk of it is spent in the house, with Marisha learning to become an apprentice, and Olena searching for a cure for the sleeping plague. There’s a lot of day-to-day life in the chicken leg house as they work and travel to different towns. We get a hint of something mysterious around the 30% mark, but we really don’t pick it back up until around 65% in. 

Olena and Marisha both have a lot to learn about each other and working together. Baba Zina fosters an atmosphere of secrets and competition. There are a lot of layers and secrets and intricate connections that are revealed by the end. The character development is well done and I appreciate the growth we see. 

The last 20% has a lot of action and magic and emotional impact. I think a lot of people will enjoy the ending. There’s a bit of an open end to allow for possible more adventures in the future, but this also works really well as a standalone. 

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the preview. All opinions are my own