DNF at 51%.
The Winter Duke takes place in an icy world. Everything is basically made out of ice and it is cold. Ekata is fourth out of thirteen children. She is not from a normal family. All the family members are out to sabotage and murder one another. One day, Ekata wakes up to find out all of her family members have been cursed except her. Everyone is sleeping and there is no cure so far to the curse. So, Ekata has to become Duke.
The Winter Duke is accepting to the LGBTQ+ community where everyone is accepting of identity and sexuality in the book, which is great. Also, it is feminist. The title Duke never changes for whatever gender takes the title.
Now, the reason I dnfed The Winter Duke was because nothing literally happens. It’s basically a lot of thoughts and sitting around in council meetings and dinners. We know not that many things about Ekata and she is just plain boring. The writing and pacing is done well, but it comes off stiff and boring if that makes sense. I really wanted to enjoy this since I’ve been looking forward to reading it all year, but this isn’t for me.