Entry tags:
345. BEYONCE'S SECRET SOCIETY OF WINTER WITCHES.
Let's see if I can be one of the cool kids with my summary posts. I'm sorry in advance, but I'm inconsistent with how I format SOCIETY to WINTERNIGHT. /o\
*
I've been listening nonstop to Beyonce's COWBOY CARTER album. I think it's one of her best (although I think LEMONADE remains her best work because that album really demonstrated Beyonce being a vocal chameleon, with SELF-TITLED as the game-changing album that changed the fucking industry). Her work is very layered; the Beyhive on Twitter keep finding new things about the songs, which makes it a really enjoyable experience. RENAISSANCE was a party, feel-good album that had heavy production (and I admittedly was not feeling it until I saw snippets of her concert on Twitter, and then I started to love the live versions). I feel COWBOY CARTER is stripped back and lets her vocals stand for themselves.
My favourite songs are YA YA, BODYGUARD, ALLIGATOR TEARS, 16 CARRIAGES, SPAGHETTII, and DAUGHTER.
Beyonce is my favourite artist; I listen to her when I'm sad, angry, happy, need to be empowered, etc. and I really am hoping act iii is a rock album because I desperately need her to do a cover of Proud Mary now that her voice is deeper and richer and she does magnificent growls.
I can't wait to see how the CMAs snub her again and how she doesn't win AOTY again. She's changing the industry; no one does it like Beyonce!
This is the only time I'll ever do a LISTENING TO because I love Beyonce!
*
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
READ FROM 9 NOVEMBER 2023 - 1 APRIL 2024
I listened to the audiobook and I really loved the narrator's voice. This was my first audiobook that I took seriously (I once tried to read one of the Twilight books via audio and kept falling asleep—granted, I listened while I was in bed…).
The characters were great, and I really enjoyed a lot of their voices. I loved the world's potential, although I felt that Mandanna traded fleshing out the worldbuilding for the sake of the romance between Mika and Jamie. I would've liked to have known more about the other witches, how they felt about needing to live separately, their relationships with Primrose, and even Primrose herself.
I enjoyed the twists, but these came within the book's last six or so chapters. I would've liked it more if we had more crumbs scattered—we did have Primrose mention a dead sister, and it clicked for me who she was during one of the last few pivotal chapters, but I feel it would've been more poignant if we knew about this sister a lot earlier than an exposition dumping tea between her and Mika.
I did find it tiresome how Mika and Jamie said that they weren't loved, etc. Mika had a particularly bad habit of saying how she wasn't enough and how she wasn't loved, and while I understand that this comes from her childhood of Primrose raising her via nannies and these nannies abusing her magic… I feel like her belief Primrose didn't love her was unfounded. It was very clear to me that Primrose did, even when we were in Mika's POV, and so I felt her comments to be a bit grating. (Jamie saying he was unlovable was laughable, given that the supporting characters of Ian, Ken and Lucy disproved this over and over.) (I know this sounds heartless but I'm not joking when I say I feel the romance overtook the worldbuilding and some key character development opportunities!)
I loved that Mika was a WOC, but I felt her being Indian didn't really play into anything. I would've liked to have learned more about her mother and grandmother and the coven her grandmother was the head of. Does an Indian coven have a different culture and belief system to an English coven? Surely they would?
The book was definitely cozy and well-written. I think if I was reading the physical book I'd easily get through the pages because it's an easy read. (I did struggle a bit with the audiobook because I didn't realise I could speed up the narration. Thanks for letting me know,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
necrophilia… who also heard me complain I had so many chapters to go lol.)
âś“ Would recommend if you love witches, grumpy cat man/sunshine golden retriever woman couplings, a background but prominent m/m relationship, and kids. Don't expect a lot of worldbuilding, though. There is sex in it, and explicit language. This is a cozy book; expect it to be predictable.
-
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
READ FROM 21 MARCH - 28 MARCH 2024
Y'ALL.
Y'ALL.
Y'ALL.
I loved it.
Definitely more faster paced than the first book. I don't know what it is about this world that captures me, but I enjoy Vasya's growth so much. I love that we got to spend time with Sasha and Olga, and see how growing up has jaded them.
+ The Mulan plotline was fantastic, and I really appreciated how it showcased Vasya's arrogance and short-sightedness. She's spent her whole life being told "Don't do this" and "Be less of that", and to have her experience praise for those things because she's pretending to be a boy was wonderful and sad at the same time.
+ Kasyan was an interesting antagonist I wish we spent more time with. I wish we had spent a little more time with Tamara, as well. But I like that these two characters are pivotal to tying the first and third books together. At first, I wasn't sure what to make of Kasyan as an antagonist because I felt like he was a filler for Medved's inevitable return, but now that I've read the third book, I understand why he was necessary for Vasya's development and learnings. She could be Kasyan if she allows her power to control her.
+ The scene revealing Vasya was a girl was brutal and made me so uncomfortable, and I appreciate that Arden included it. I feel like it's a great commentary on how women are still brutalised to this day, and while it's something I'm sure many of us wish to escape from when we read our books, seeing it happen to Vasya and seeing how she processed it at the end of this book and into the third was strangely cathartic.
- I did feel we had a significant lack of Morozko in this book, but I understand why. (I just love him. I will always be unhappy when he's not on the page.)
This book definitely served as a bridge between the first and third book, but I feel that it really ramped up the stakes, established that Vasya was no longer in her village and was playing in the real world, and really demonstrated that there were consequences (some absolutely devastating) to Vasya's actions and choices.
âś“ RECOMMEND.
All my thoughts belong to the third book, though.
-
The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
READ FROM 28 MARCH - 3 APRIL 2024
This is my favourite out of the series. Vasya comes into her own. The action is fast-paced. I adore that we get more mythological creatures. We get Vasya backstory and family history.
+ WE GET SO MUCH MOROZKO. WE GET SO MUCH MEDVED. I was a bit worried Arden wouldn't lean into the Morozko/Vasya romance, but she did and it was wonderful. They truly feel like partners; I appreciate that Morozko allows Vasya to make mistakes, and that he can be unkind in his comments. I love that Vasya stands against this very ancient creature and holds her own.
"Never give me orders."
"Command me, then."
I LOST MY SHIT.
(Chapter 17 is definitely my favourite.)
I also really love how vehement Vasya is that she belongs to no one. She is very much her own person, and I feel that, while this can be seen as an overused trope in a lot of fiction with M/F romances and power imbalances, we experience her life throughout the three books and see that she truly has earned the right to say this. She went from being property to the men in her household, told who to marry and who to have children with, the centre of Konstantin's possessive and toxic masculinity and religious beliefs, abused by Moscow, to finding herself within Midnight. Vasya belongs to herself, not her history, not the world around her, and most certainly no man's or woman's opinion.
I appreciate that Morozko never once acts like she's his property. He's such a good partner to her, and I think that's what attracts me to them as a pairing. He tries to encourage her to blossom despite being winter, which I feel has been prevalent since their interactions in the first book. He encourages growth, allows her to make mistakes, and also exerts his own boundaries when it comes to Vasya wanting him to be her bandaid at times. He lets her grow. (And she lets him grow, too. It's wonderful—and I love how poignant it is to show growth in a character who represents a time when everything is dead.)
dolorosa_12 called it when she said I'd like Morozko/Vasya and Medved/Vasya.
+ Medved was an absolute delight in this. So cheeky, so chaotic. I love that there were moments where it was clear Vasya was puzzling him. I felt like he experienced some tugs at his humanity, which caused him to have moments of pause. He's delightful on the page, and I enjoy how he's as warm and vicious as a fire and isn't completely evil.
+ I still really love that Arden made winter = good and summer = bad because I'm so used to the warmer tones of a caricature being represented as good. Having Morozko, who is our love interest, represent death and Medved, who is our villain, represent life was SO GOOD. I like how winter was also seen as bad, that summer was seen as good—that the chill of winter served a purpose back in book two by saving Moscow, but the fires of summer brought damnation and death to the city in this book (and then, AND THEN it was a source of power for Vasya, so she truly did connect the chyerti to man—having her embrace Medved's fire to kill or stop the Tatars felt like she was embracing both winter and summer). It really showed that while Morozko had beliefs and some sense of compassion and humanity he was still very much Medved's twin.
I love the summer/winter brothers and really appreciate how complex they are. Neither is good nor bad. They just are—which I feel is the point Morozko was trying to make in THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE.
+ I was very upset about Solovey and wish he hadn't died, but I love that Arden established very early on that the stakes were high and no one was safe. I suspected the firebird would take Vasya as her rider, and I'm glad that it wasn't a copy/paste of her relationship with Solovey. The firebird carries her own trauma and I appreciate her character development in understanding Vasya was not Kasyan and Vasya understanding she wasn't Solovey.
And, yes, I was happy with the ending. :)
+ Is this an unpopular opinion? I liked how brutal the funeral pyre scene was. It made me so uncomfortable to read it, and I feel that was the point. I appreciated that Vasya carried that trauma with her throughout the book. I appreciated that it was her great aunt who saved her. I appreciated that Morozko was not her saviour and that perhaps her almost death may weigh heavily upon him just how powerless he really is. The brutality of it really showed how far Konstantin had fallen, and the true misogyny of the Salem witch trials.
+ Vasya and Sasha are my favourite familial relationships, and I'm so glad we got so much of him.
+ Konstantin's death was great, although I kind of found it lacklustre which… felt on point? I like that his redemption was very messy and that he was still a horrible, self-serving man lost in the chaos of his own ego. He is a tragic character. He had so much promise, but a lack of faith and arrogance was his downfall. I do love that he got to make a decision for himself at the end, but I'm glad that his fate was very much… what it was. He inflicted so much harm that his being the cause of trapping the Bear felt like his narrative arc came full circle.
I did appreciate the relationship between the Bear and Konstantin as I felt that humanised the Bear in ways that Morozko was humanised via Vasya.
+ Sasha. My Sasha! I wish we got to see Alyosha again. I hope he's thriving and Kolya's kids are menaces.
+ I cried reading the last three chapters, which only shows I cared greatly for the characters. I felt like I was saying goodbye to some of my friends.
- I wish we got more on the women in Vasya's family, especially her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. We were teased that there would be more, and I was hoping we'd see more, but I love that Vasya now knows where she comes from and is determined to learn who the women in her family are and who she can become. (Also, I love that it's WOMEN WHO MATTER IN HER FAMILY.)
- We didn't really get to say goodbye to Olga, Marya, and Varvara, which felt a bit incomplete for me. (But, again, the open ending promises Vasya will see them again, which I like. The thing about this book is that even when I'm unsatisfied, I'm fine???)
+ At first, I wanted more from the ending, but I love that it ended on this hopeful, open note. For once, Vasya's future isn't determined for her. She gets to make her own decisions, to experience freedom, and explore. I love that Morozko will be by her side. I love that she wishes to link his winter home to her lake home. I love the possibilities, and how the ending feels like Vasya's truly leapt free of her cage like the horses have transformed back into birds.
I was surprised and delighted that Medved was not confined again, and given trust and freedom while on a leash. You truly can't contain chaos or summer or fire, and I like that his ending saw him trusted for the first time in a long time.
BUT MOROZKO! MOROZKO! There is something about how he treats Vasya that I really, really love. He sees her as a partner and treats her as an equal, and while he's chilly and unemotional at times, I like that he's gentle with her (and harsh when he feels he needs to be—I trust he'll never enable her chaos like Medved promises to). I like that he enables Vasya to embrace freedom, and she in turn enables the same in him and encourages him to learn how to live. I JUST LOVE THEIR VIBE.
-
Overall, the Winternight trilogy is such a satisfying story. I like that each book shows progress and growth, and that it's a seamless journey for Vasya to become the woman she is in THE WINTER OF THE WITCH. I feel so satisfied after reading it, and I wish that there were novellas continuing her and Morozko's story. THE WINTER OF THE WITCH is definitely my favourite, with THE GIRL IN THE TOWER following after (I liked the cityscape over the villagescape) and THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE last as it did a lot of setup and was a bit slower/quieter/intimate than the other two.
I am surprised to figure out the "nightingale" in the story wasn't Vasya per se but Solovey! I for sure thought she was the nightingale referred to via the first book's title! I liked how that subverted my expectations. Yes, Solovey is Vasya's horse, but I'm so used to the protagonist being the one. (Solovey was so important to Vasya's growth as he was one of the only beings to ever encourage her to spread her wings and fly, and always supported her, looked after her, and discouraged her when she needed to be brought back down to earth. Also! He was a connection to Morozko, who we know I feel didn't suffocate Vasya but armed her to morph into the woman she chose to be!)
WHY ISN'T YULETIDE TOMORROW??? (I wasn't planning to participate in![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rarepairexchange despite co-running it and now… well… WHY ARE THERE SO FEW FICS???) Time to dive into the fic now that I have all the context!
âś“ In case it wasn't obvious: I would recommend this series if you like fantasy (historical fantasy), female protagonists, good m/f (slowburn, immortal/mortal), mythology, politics, and a main character who makes mistakes and isn't praised for it. It's such a satisfying story!
*
Making time to read has made me very happy. I can see why those of you who post about what you've finished reading read so much!
*
LISTENING TO
I've been listening nonstop to Beyonce's COWBOY CARTER album. I think it's one of her best (although I think LEMONADE remains her best work because that album really demonstrated Beyonce being a vocal chameleon, with SELF-TITLED as the game-changing album that changed the fucking industry). Her work is very layered; the Beyhive on Twitter keep finding new things about the songs, which makes it a really enjoyable experience. RENAISSANCE was a party, feel-good album that had heavy production (and I admittedly was not feeling it until I saw snippets of her concert on Twitter, and then I started to love the live versions). I feel COWBOY CARTER is stripped back and lets her vocals stand for themselves.
My favourite songs are YA YA, BODYGUARD, ALLIGATOR TEARS, 16 CARRIAGES, SPAGHETTII, and DAUGHTER.
Beyonce is my favourite artist; I listen to her when I'm sad, angry, happy, need to be empowered, etc. and I really am hoping act iii is a rock album because I desperately need her to do a cover of Proud Mary now that her voice is deeper and richer and she does magnificent growls.
I can't wait to see how the CMAs snub her again and how she doesn't win AOTY again. She's changing the industry; no one does it like Beyonce!
This is the only time I'll ever do a LISTENING TO because I love Beyonce!
*
READING
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
READ FROM 9 NOVEMBER 2023 - 1 APRIL 2024
I listened to the audiobook and I really loved the narrator's voice. This was my first audiobook that I took seriously (I once tried to read one of the Twilight books via audio and kept falling asleep—granted, I listened while I was in bed…).
The characters were great, and I really enjoyed a lot of their voices. I loved the world's potential, although I felt that Mandanna traded fleshing out the worldbuilding for the sake of the romance between Mika and Jamie. I would've liked to have known more about the other witches, how they felt about needing to live separately, their relationships with Primrose, and even Primrose herself.
I enjoyed the twists, but these came within the book's last six or so chapters. I would've liked it more if we had more crumbs scattered—we did have Primrose mention a dead sister, and it clicked for me who she was during one of the last few pivotal chapters, but I feel it would've been more poignant if we knew about this sister a lot earlier than an exposition dumping tea between her and Mika.
I did find it tiresome how Mika and Jamie said that they weren't loved, etc. Mika had a particularly bad habit of saying how she wasn't enough and how she wasn't loved, and while I understand that this comes from her childhood of Primrose raising her via nannies and these nannies abusing her magic… I feel like her belief Primrose didn't love her was unfounded. It was very clear to me that Primrose did, even when we were in Mika's POV, and so I felt her comments to be a bit grating. (Jamie saying he was unlovable was laughable, given that the supporting characters of Ian, Ken and Lucy disproved this over and over.) (I know this sounds heartless but I'm not joking when I say I feel the romance overtook the worldbuilding and some key character development opportunities!)
I loved that Mika was a WOC, but I felt her being Indian didn't really play into anything. I would've liked to have learned more about her mother and grandmother and the coven her grandmother was the head of. Does an Indian coven have a different culture and belief system to an English coven? Surely they would?
The book was definitely cozy and well-written. I think if I was reading the physical book I'd easily get through the pages because it's an easy read. (I did struggle a bit with the audiobook because I didn't realise I could speed up the narration. Thanks for letting me know,
necrophilia… who also heard me complain I had so many chapters to go lol.)✓ Would recommend if you love witches, grumpy cat man/sunshine golden retriever woman couplings, a background but prominent m/m relationship, and kids. Don't expect a lot of worldbuilding, though. There is sex in it, and explicit language. This is a cozy book; expect it to be predictable.
-
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
READ FROM 21 MARCH - 28 MARCH 2024
Y'ALL.
Y'ALL.
Y'ALL.
I loved it.
Definitely more faster paced than the first book. I don't know what it is about this world that captures me, but I enjoy Vasya's growth so much. I love that we got to spend time with Sasha and Olga, and see how growing up has jaded them.
+ The Mulan plotline was fantastic, and I really appreciated how it showcased Vasya's arrogance and short-sightedness. She's spent her whole life being told "Don't do this" and "Be less of that", and to have her experience praise for those things because she's pretending to be a boy was wonderful and sad at the same time.
+ Kasyan was an interesting antagonist I wish we spent more time with. I wish we had spent a little more time with Tamara, as well. But I like that these two characters are pivotal to tying the first and third books together. At first, I wasn't sure what to make of Kasyan as an antagonist because I felt like he was a filler for Medved's inevitable return, but now that I've read the third book, I understand why he was necessary for Vasya's development and learnings. She could be Kasyan if she allows her power to control her.
+ The scene revealing Vasya was a girl was brutal and made me so uncomfortable, and I appreciate that Arden included it. I feel like it's a great commentary on how women are still brutalised to this day, and while it's something I'm sure many of us wish to escape from when we read our books, seeing it happen to Vasya and seeing how she processed it at the end of this book and into the third was strangely cathartic.
- I did feel we had a significant lack of Morozko in this book, but I understand why. (I just love him. I will always be unhappy when he's not on the page.)
This book definitely served as a bridge between the first and third book, but I feel that it really ramped up the stakes, established that Vasya was no longer in her village and was playing in the real world, and really demonstrated that there were consequences (some absolutely devastating) to Vasya's actions and choices.
âś“ RECOMMEND.
All my thoughts belong to the third book, though.
-
The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
READ FROM 28 MARCH - 3 APRIL 2024
This is my favourite out of the series. Vasya comes into her own. The action is fast-paced. I adore that we get more mythological creatures. We get Vasya backstory and family history.
+ WE GET SO MUCH MOROZKO. WE GET SO MUCH MEDVED. I was a bit worried Arden wouldn't lean into the Morozko/Vasya romance, but she did and it was wonderful. They truly feel like partners; I appreciate that Morozko allows Vasya to make mistakes, and that he can be unkind in his comments. I love that Vasya stands against this very ancient creature and holds her own.
"Never give me orders."
"Command me, then."
I LOST MY SHIT.
(Chapter 17 is definitely my favourite.)
I also really love how vehement Vasya is that she belongs to no one. She is very much her own person, and I feel that, while this can be seen as an overused trope in a lot of fiction with M/F romances and power imbalances, we experience her life throughout the three books and see that she truly has earned the right to say this. She went from being property to the men in her household, told who to marry and who to have children with, the centre of Konstantin's possessive and toxic masculinity and religious beliefs, abused by Moscow, to finding herself within Midnight. Vasya belongs to herself, not her history, not the world around her, and most certainly no man's or woman's opinion.
I appreciate that Morozko never once acts like she's his property. He's such a good partner to her, and I think that's what attracts me to them as a pairing. He tries to encourage her to blossom despite being winter, which I feel has been prevalent since their interactions in the first book. He encourages growth, allows her to make mistakes, and also exerts his own boundaries when it comes to Vasya wanting him to be her bandaid at times. He lets her grow. (And she lets him grow, too. It's wonderful—and I love how poignant it is to show growth in a character who represents a time when everything is dead.)
dolorosa_12 called it when she said I'd like Morozko/Vasya and Medved/Vasya.+ Medved was an absolute delight in this. So cheeky, so chaotic. I love that there were moments where it was clear Vasya was puzzling him. I felt like he experienced some tugs at his humanity, which caused him to have moments of pause. He's delightful on the page, and I enjoy how he's as warm and vicious as a fire and isn't completely evil.
+ I still really love that Arden made winter = good and summer = bad because I'm so used to the warmer tones of a caricature being represented as good. Having Morozko, who is our love interest, represent death and Medved, who is our villain, represent life was SO GOOD. I like how winter was also seen as bad, that summer was seen as good—that the chill of winter served a purpose back in book two by saving Moscow, but the fires of summer brought damnation and death to the city in this book (and then, AND THEN it was a source of power for Vasya, so she truly did connect the chyerti to man—having her embrace Medved's fire to kill or stop the Tatars felt like she was embracing both winter and summer). It really showed that while Morozko had beliefs and some sense of compassion and humanity he was still very much Medved's twin.
I love the summer/winter brothers and really appreciate how complex they are. Neither is good nor bad. They just are—which I feel is the point Morozko was trying to make in THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE.
+ I was very upset about Solovey and wish he hadn't died, but I love that Arden established very early on that the stakes were high and no one was safe. I suspected the firebird would take Vasya as her rider, and I'm glad that it wasn't a copy/paste of her relationship with Solovey. The firebird carries her own trauma and I appreciate her character development in understanding Vasya was not Kasyan and Vasya understanding she wasn't Solovey.
And, yes, I was happy with the ending. :)
+ Is this an unpopular opinion? I liked how brutal the funeral pyre scene was. It made me so uncomfortable to read it, and I feel that was the point. I appreciated that Vasya carried that trauma with her throughout the book. I appreciated that it was her great aunt who saved her. I appreciated that Morozko was not her saviour and that perhaps her almost death may weigh heavily upon him just how powerless he really is. The brutality of it really showed how far Konstantin had fallen, and the true misogyny of the Salem witch trials.
+ Vasya and Sasha are my favourite familial relationships, and I'm so glad we got so much of him.
+ Konstantin's death was great, although I kind of found it lacklustre which… felt on point? I like that his redemption was very messy and that he was still a horrible, self-serving man lost in the chaos of his own ego. He is a tragic character. He had so much promise, but a lack of faith and arrogance was his downfall. I do love that he got to make a decision for himself at the end, but I'm glad that his fate was very much… what it was. He inflicted so much harm that his being the cause of trapping the Bear felt like his narrative arc came full circle.
I did appreciate the relationship between the Bear and Konstantin as I felt that humanised the Bear in ways that Morozko was humanised via Vasya.
+ Sasha. My Sasha! I wish we got to see Alyosha again. I hope he's thriving and Kolya's kids are menaces.
+ I cried reading the last three chapters, which only shows I cared greatly for the characters. I felt like I was saying goodbye to some of my friends.
- I wish we got more on the women in Vasya's family, especially her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. We were teased that there would be more, and I was hoping we'd see more, but I love that Vasya now knows where she comes from and is determined to learn who the women in her family are and who she can become. (Also, I love that it's WOMEN WHO MATTER IN HER FAMILY.)
- We didn't really get to say goodbye to Olga, Marya, and Varvara, which felt a bit incomplete for me. (But, again, the open ending promises Vasya will see them again, which I like. The thing about this book is that even when I'm unsatisfied, I'm fine???)
+ At first, I wanted more from the ending, but I love that it ended on this hopeful, open note. For once, Vasya's future isn't determined for her. She gets to make her own decisions, to experience freedom, and explore. I love that Morozko will be by her side. I love that she wishes to link his winter home to her lake home. I love the possibilities, and how the ending feels like Vasya's truly leapt free of her cage like the horses have transformed back into birds.
I was surprised and delighted that Medved was not confined again, and given trust and freedom while on a leash. You truly can't contain chaos or summer or fire, and I like that his ending saw him trusted for the first time in a long time.
BUT MOROZKO! MOROZKO! There is something about how he treats Vasya that I really, really love. He sees her as a partner and treats her as an equal, and while he's chilly and unemotional at times, I like that he's gentle with her (and harsh when he feels he needs to be—I trust he'll never enable her chaos like Medved promises to). I like that he enables Vasya to embrace freedom, and she in turn enables the same in him and encourages him to learn how to live. I JUST LOVE THEIR VIBE.
-
Overall, the Winternight trilogy is such a satisfying story. I like that each book shows progress and growth, and that it's a seamless journey for Vasya to become the woman she is in THE WINTER OF THE WITCH. I feel so satisfied after reading it, and I wish that there were novellas continuing her and Morozko's story. THE WINTER OF THE WITCH is definitely my favourite, with THE GIRL IN THE TOWER following after (I liked the cityscape over the villagescape) and THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE last as it did a lot of setup and was a bit slower/quieter/intimate than the other two.
I am surprised to figure out the "nightingale" in the story wasn't Vasya per se but Solovey! I for sure thought she was the nightingale referred to via the first book's title! I liked how that subverted my expectations. Yes, Solovey is Vasya's horse, but I'm so used to the protagonist being the one. (Solovey was so important to Vasya's growth as he was one of the only beings to ever encourage her to spread her wings and fly, and always supported her, looked after her, and discouraged her when she needed to be brought back down to earth. Also! He was a connection to Morozko, who we know I feel didn't suffocate Vasya but armed her to morph into the woman she chose to be!)
WHY ISN'T YULETIDE TOMORROW??? (I wasn't planning to participate in
rarepairexchange despite co-running it and now… well… WHY ARE THERE SO FEW FICS???) Time to dive into the fic now that I have all the context!✓ In case it wasn't obvious: I would recommend this series if you like fantasy (historical fantasy), female protagonists, good m/f (slowburn, immortal/mortal), mythology, politics, and a main character who makes mistakes and isn't praised for it. It's such a satisfying story!
*
Making time to read has made me very happy. I can see why those of you who post about what you've finished reading read so much!
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Thank you!
I am betting right now I'm going to fall in love with Nina from everything I've osmosed. ;D
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