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caitl1nreads 's review for:
Bride of the Winter King
by Holly Rose
Imagine a modern fantasy romance book, based on Beauty and the Beast. Then add a load of ice and snow. That is this book.
Bride of the Winter King is the first book in a romance fantasy duology written by Holly Rose.
Every year, the Winter King hosts a ball to choose a Summer Queen, but the girl who is chosen is never seen again.
Three years ago, Adara’s sister was chosen and Adara and her father haven’t seen her since. This year, Adara is old enough to be one of the girls at the Winter King’s ball and Adara wants revenge. She wants to kill the Winter King.
First of all, I really enjoyed the pacing of this book. I thought, because it is quite a short book, that it may move too quickly or just be full of action, but it wasn’t. The story was well thought out and I never found it to feel slow or boring either, it kept me interested throughout.
The writing was also very good and I loved that it was in the 1st person. I think that was a good choice for this book, because you get to know exactly what Adara is thinking. 1st person POV also means that you are never sure what the Winter King is thinking, so you’re constantly left guessing, just as Adara is.
The author was good at keeping us in the dark throughout, which helped to piqued my interest and left me with lots of questions.
However, these questions were not answered. At all. I know no more about this world, or the King, or what happens to the Summer Queens than I did at the beginning. I know that there is meant to be a second book and I really hope that gives us some answers, but I felt that the development of the story was hindered by the lack of information.
I think this was emphasised because Adara ignored all of the signs that showed something was wrong or not as she thought it was. This was infuriating as a reader and I had guessed a lot of things whilst she was still clueless and unaware.
There was some character development but it was limited. The ending shows that Adara is still the same person, despite slowly growing more doubtful about her plan throughout the story and learning more about the winter king and the castle.
I think this was done to emphasise the enemies to lovers trope that I imagine will be developed a lot more in the second book. I also think the author was trying to create a strong FMC, however I found her to be a little plain and annoying at times and she was so useless at learning more about her surroundings.
There was also a lack of backstory for the characters. We learn very little about Adara’s past, other than her sister being taken, and we learn almost nothing about the Winter King and how he has ended up here. This made me care less for the characters and made them a little boring.
The world building was also very limited and for me that is one of my favourite parts of a fantasy book. I love learning about a new world and new places but the only place we see is the Winter King’s castle. I would have liked to have seen more of the world around it before we got a stuck there.
All in all, I think compared to other romance fantasy books, this one is lacking. With limited characters, that aren’t fleshed out very well, and a world that isn’t very interesting, I don’t think it is as good as others.
I love the enemies to lovers trope (so it get points for that) and I am curious to find out what is going on, so I will read the second book, but it is definitely not my favourite and I don’t think the sequel will change that.
Bride of the Winter King is the first book in a romance fantasy duology written by Holly Rose.
Every year, the Winter King hosts a ball to choose a Summer Queen, but the girl who is chosen is never seen again.
Three years ago, Adara’s sister was chosen and Adara and her father haven’t seen her since. This year, Adara is old enough to be one of the girls at the Winter King’s ball and Adara wants revenge. She wants to kill the Winter King.
First of all, I really enjoyed the pacing of this book. I thought, because it is quite a short book, that it may move too quickly or just be full of action, but it wasn’t. The story was well thought out and I never found it to feel slow or boring either, it kept me interested throughout.
The writing was also very good and I loved that it was in the 1st person. I think that was a good choice for this book, because you get to know exactly what Adara is thinking. 1st person POV also means that you are never sure what the Winter King is thinking, so you’re constantly left guessing, just as Adara is.
The author was good at keeping us in the dark throughout, which helped to piqued my interest and left me with lots of questions.
However, these questions were not answered. At all. I know no more about this world, or the King, or what happens to the Summer Queens than I did at the beginning. I know that there is meant to be a second book and I really hope that gives us some answers, but I felt that the development of the story was hindered by the lack of information.
I think this was emphasised because Adara ignored all of the signs that showed something was wrong or not as she thought it was. This was infuriating as a reader and I had guessed a lot of things whilst she was still clueless and unaware.
There was some character development but it was limited. The ending shows that Adara is still the same person, despite slowly growing more doubtful about her plan throughout the story and learning more about the winter king and the castle.
I think this was done to emphasise the enemies to lovers trope that I imagine will be developed a lot more in the second book. I also think the author was trying to create a strong FMC, however I found her to be a little plain and annoying at times and she was so useless at learning more about her surroundings.
There was also a lack of backstory for the characters. We learn very little about Adara’s past, other than her sister being taken, and we learn almost nothing about the Winter King and how he has ended up here. This made me care less for the characters and made them a little boring.
The world building was also very limited and for me that is one of my favourite parts of a fantasy book. I love learning about a new world and new places but the only place we see is the Winter King’s castle. I would have liked to have seen more of the world around it before we got a stuck there.
All in all, I think compared to other romance fantasy books, this one is lacking. With limited characters, that aren’t fleshed out very well, and a world that isn’t very interesting, I don’t think it is as good as others.
I love the enemies to lovers trope (so it get points for that) and I am curious to find out what is going on, so I will read the second book, but it is definitely not my favourite and I don’t think the sequel will change that.