by Claire Eliza Bartlett
Published on March 3, 2020 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: ARC
Pages: 432
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
An enchanted tale of intrigue where a duke's daughter is the only survivor of a magical curse.
When Ekata's brother is finally named heir, there will be nothing to keep her at home in Kylma Above with her murderous family. Not her books or science experiments, not her family's icy castle atop a frozen lake, not even the tantalizingly close Kylma Below, a mesmerizing underwater kingdom that provides her family with magic. But just as escape is within reach, her parents and twelve siblings fall under a strange sleeping sickness.
In the space of a single night, Ekata inherits the title of duke, her brother's warrior bride, and ever-encroaching challengers from without—and within—her own ministry. Nothing has prepared Ekata for diplomacy, for war, for love...or for a crown she has never wanted. If Kylma Above is to survive, Ekata must seize her family's power. And if Ekata is to survive, she must quickly decide how she will wield it.
Part Sleeping Beauty, part Anastasia, with a thrilling political mystery, The Winter Duke is a spellbinding story about choosing what's right in the face of danger.
Ah well, I wanted to like this one. I really did. But The Winter Duke just really wasn’t for me. It wasn’t BAD, but after trying four times to get into it, I had to give up. Too many other books beckoning to me, you know? I think for the right reading, this book could be pretty enjoyable. I just had too many issues with it right off, and was bored to death waiting for something exciting to happen.
Characters are always the first aspect of a story that I look to hoping for a spark that will ignite something while I’m reading. Halfway through The Winter Duke I was still waiting for that spark from any character. Serious, any of them, I didn’t care who, I just wanted one single character to interest me. But none of them did, least of all the main character(I’ve honestly already forgotten her name, yikes). She was boring to read about, and I never began to care about the “dire” situation she found herself in.
The world-building wasn’t terrible, but I wanted a bit more. The concept of a wintry “Above” and the watery depths of “Below” was cool, and I couldn’t wait to see Below. It was honestly my favorite aspect of what I read, but I still found myself wishing for just a bit more. The world-building wasn’t enough to salvage this one for me, especially when nothing besides Below really peaked my interest.
The pacing on this one was odd. It seemingly started off fast, with the inciting incident arriving on the page not long after I started reading. But at the same time, other than that big incident, it felt like nothing was happening. Lot’s of talking and politicking(I’d heard this one went heavy on the politics, which is almost always a no-go for me. Should have trusted my instincts). I think what I didn’t like here boiled down to my personal preferences though, so anyone who is into more political fantasies could actually really enjoy this aspect.
Overall, I just wasn’t having a good time reading The Winter Duke. I wasn’t going to force myself to finish a book that wasn’t fun for me to read. I think people looking for a slow, somewhat unique, political fantasy might actually like this a lot more than I did. Like I said though, this one just wasn’t for me.
About Katie
I'm a twenty-something aspiring writer who really, really needs to get back to revisions. I've been reviewing books since 2014, and am determined to somehow make stories my day job. I truly think that every book out there contains something good and is meant for somebody.
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