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A review by rachel_faerie
The North Wind by Alexandria Warwick
2.0
*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc copy in exchange for an honest review*
Unfortunately this book was not for me.
The North Wind follows a main character named Wren who is unfortunately, completely insufferable and annoying. We are in her head the entire time and she is so indecisive and contradictory it becomes a chore to read about. She will say in one breath “I must be nice to him to gain information” and two seconds later she’ll open her mouth and be a complete bitch. I don’t know if this was something the author did on purpose but it came across sloppy and unedited.
This book has a lot of similar vibes to beauty and the beast, so if you like that story you might like this one as well. I thought the premise as promising but it really lacked in execution for me. The main character is so unlikeable I felt like pulling teeth to get myself to keep reading.
The dialogue is also very stiff and inorganic. It feels like I’m reading someone writing down how they think medieval speaking sounds but it doesn’t feel like we’re actually like. Like corny Ren fair actors doing a caricature of the language.
Also the side characters didn’t have a single personality between them, they were just cardboard cutouts of each other with different names. And there was one side character who was completely useless except for in one scene and as soon as that scene was over she was never mentioned again. The continuity and believability of these people existing in the world outside the main character was null.
The way this story was written barely gave any useful world building, and any and all characters stopped existing as soon as the main character couldn’t see them any more. It didn’t feel like a fleshed out world or place whatsoever. There were some cool aspects that we got such small glimpses of and that was a shame. There’s a magical river with certain properties I wish we got more on and the gods of this world could have been so interesting if we had more back story and better motives for their actions. It just felt like a surface level draft. Didn’t feel polished or finished at all.
I think that I would check out more from this author in the future, in a different series if she ever writes something outside of this universe. Like I said there were some small glimpses of potential but it fell really flat in execution.
Unfortunately this book was not for me.
The North Wind follows a main character named Wren who is unfortunately, completely insufferable and annoying. We are in her head the entire time and she is so indecisive and contradictory it becomes a chore to read about. She will say in one breath “I must be nice to him to gain information” and two seconds later she’ll open her mouth and be a complete bitch. I don’t know if this was something the author did on purpose but it came across sloppy and unedited.
This book has a lot of similar vibes to beauty and the beast, so if you like that story you might like this one as well. I thought the premise as promising but it really lacked in execution for me. The main character is so unlikeable I felt like pulling teeth to get myself to keep reading.
The dialogue is also very stiff and inorganic. It feels like I’m reading someone writing down how they think medieval speaking sounds but it doesn’t feel like we’re actually like. Like corny Ren fair actors doing a caricature of the language.
Also the side characters didn’t have a single personality between them, they were just cardboard cutouts of each other with different names. And there was one side character who was completely useless except for in one scene and as soon as that scene was over she was never mentioned again. The continuity and believability of these people existing in the world outside the main character was null.
The way this story was written barely gave any useful world building, and any and all characters stopped existing as soon as the main character couldn’t see them any more. It didn’t feel like a fleshed out world or place whatsoever. There were some cool aspects that we got such small glimpses of and that was a shame. There’s a magical river with certain properties I wish we got more on and the gods of this world could have been so interesting if we had more back story and better motives for their actions. It just felt like a surface level draft. Didn’t feel polished or finished at all.
I think that I would check out more from this author in the future, in a different series if she ever writes something outside of this universe. Like I said there were some small glimpses of potential but it fell really flat in execution.