thecaptainsquarters's profile picture

thecaptainsquarters 's review for:

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
1.0

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

Upon reading the synopsis and the author blurbs, I thought this novel would float me boat. But I just could not finish it and had to abandon ship at 31%. Why ye ask? Well for a myriad of reasons:

- I kept comparing it to the bear and the nightingale which I loved. This book kept coming up short. While this is not the author’s fault, I just found this one similar but lacking.

- I could not connect to the main character, Liesl. She continued to make bad choices throughout the part I read, even when forewarned. I like me heroines to be intelligent and to learn from their mistakes. Liesl seemed to jump feet first into everything without thinking about any consequences. She also seemed to be a rather selfish character who whined about how woeful her life was.

- The contest between Liesl and the Goblin King was so odd. Part one was over before it really began and part two was predictable and rather annoying. I didn’t stick around for part three.

- This book deals with music. A lot. I have no musical ability whatsoever and so these parts went over me head or were just kinda boring. Liesl spend pretty much the whole portion of what I read lamenting that girls cannot be composers in the turn of the 19th century. This may be a selling point for someone else but not me.

- I didn’t like the Goblin King or the goblin world at all. For some reason, I thought that the Goblin King and goblins would prove to be different then the usual versions in this retelling. I was wrong.
I really didn’t understand why Liesel had anything to do with the Goblin King as a child and why she ever found him fascinating or called him a friend.

- The pacing was slow. I was not engaged in the story and just wanted something interesting to happen.

With so many books on the horizon, I just gave up. I want me reading to make time seem to disappear, not to accentuate every second passing. I am sad, but I couldn’t fight the tide.

So lastly . . .

Thank you St. Martin’s Press / Thomas Dunne Books!

Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/