Daughter of Redwinter

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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.