Daughter of Redwinter

Soft DNF, not in the mood but will come back

OKay, but the cover also looks AMAZING: https://twitter.com/torbooks/status/1440692373676195851

I was pretty excited to read this because of McDonald's fanbase with his Blackwing series. I expected great prose with an imaginative world and I definitely got the unique world building. I've never read a book like this at all and for that I'll be reading the next book in the series, but the prose was a bit choppy. He really loves to make sentences short with periods instead of commas. The story was also extremely slow which is not what I expected with a book so short but it turned out to be okay. The ending fight scene was also pretty mediocre. The main character wasn't that great but she was decent. Some of the side characters were all right. The bad guys weren't all that hateable (probably because the was so short). I heard that this book was written before he wrote Blackwing so maybe that's why this isn't to par with my expectations. All of that being said I didn't love it but I liked it and will still continue with the series and definitely will read his previous series soon.

dnf

the book started out strong but as we followed Raine through her journey it became clear that she had no motivations. the story fizzled out.
there was a point where Raine had a motivation, but when she is denied what she wants, instead of fighting for it she accept it. the characters were not well rounded or deep enough for me to follow them through a story that had hardly anything happening.
i do get the impression that the end of the book would, however, deliver strong but I couldn't bring up the urge to pick this book back up to read about someone I cared nothing about. there were strange things happening in the world, and yet, no one really seemed to care to do much about it.

Ovius. I have to mention him. he comes across as the nice guy, who pines after a character who doesn't share his feelings, but the trouble is, he isn't taking the hint and lies to others saying they are together and stalking the woman practically.
there was also a instance with Raine, a 17 yr in a relationship with a 30yr. this was grooming and the author took care to make that clear.

these moments could have been explored a lot more in depth, to show Raine dealing with these situations, instead most people accept Ovtius as he is, without curbing that side of him, or letting him know that it's wrong to stalk someone who doesn't share his feelings.

this story could have delivered a lot but it failed by being boring. the MC can see the dead yet that hardly gets a mention. things are happening around Raine, but she does little to nothing about it, or her situation. there was no drive to her, and that is why I couldn't finish this book.

The Raven's Mark series is one of my all time favorites. I was so excited to see a new series by Ed McDonald. He is definitely an auto-buy author for me.

Raine is cursed. She can see the dead. She must tell no one or she will be killed for it. So she just goes meekly along, doing what she's told.
Now her home is under siege. She must find a way out to save everyone. She needs to be brave.

She goes out to look for a way to safety, and instead finds a girl running for her life. Saving her might come to be the worst decision she's ever made.

This book is fantastic! I loved following Raine's journey to find out who she wants to be. I actually loved all of the characters. I questioned all of their loyalty and motives at one point or another and didn't know who to trust until the end.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor.com Publishing for providing an ARC of this novel.

A couple of weeks ago, a publicist from Tor reached out asking if I'd be interested in reading Daughter of Redwinter. I, of course, said yes. I'm still new to the reviewing scene, and honestly, I'm going to take just about any book that Tor offers me. They consistently put out amazing fantasy / sci-fi books, and well, I want them to like me. I knew absolutely nothing about Daughter of Redwinter before going in. I had no expectations, honestly.

DAAAAAAANG was this book right up my alley. Daughter of Redwinter reminded me a lot of Mistborn and of The Old Kingdom series. The mystery at the core of the plot reminded me of Mistborn, and the main character's powers reminded me of the necromancers from The Old Kingdom. If you like those books, you'll like this one without question.

Look, I grew up on strong female protagonists, and Raine more than fits the bill. She reminded me so much of Sabriel and Vin (from Mistborn) that I couldn't help but love her. To keep things as vague as possible — Raine witnesses something awful, and becomes the only person who can save a good man from being blamed for something he did not do. She has a rather neat power — she can see the dead. (However, this power is highly vilified, and she has to keep it a secret, or her life would be forfeit.) Raine is a little broken on the inside, but through the course of the novel, she works through it. She's sassy, slow to trust, and surprisingly not good at everything. Needless to say, I really liked her.

The supporting characters are good, but many of them are rather flat. However, I'm fairly certain they were written this way because for a good chunk of the book, Raine is keeping them at distance. Remember how I said she was slow to trust? Yeah, she has a good reason for it. People have to prove to her they're worth her trust, and it takes a good chunk of the novel for her to get there.

The entire plot of Daughter of Redwinter wraps up very, very nicely at the end. So much so that I have no idea what the second novel is going to be about — and there's definitely going to be a second novel. This is no doubt the set-up novel to a series, and one that I will absolutely be following.