The Winter King

"The world building was great. The plot is gets a little bogged down at the 30-40% part but starts picking up from there. It’s like 800+ pages/20 + hours if your listening. I managed to read/listen to it in two days so it is captivating (compulsively, readable). The The heroine starts out pretty annoying and then grows and develops as a person throughout the story. The hero doesn’t so much. However, the real bummer, and the reason I could not give it more than 3 stars is the romance. They could not trust each out and said as much until like 10 pages from the end of the book. Where there is no trust, there cannot be true love. I felt the lust but never the love. Also, they are apart from each other most of the time so not fun for me as a reader who would rather have a little fantasy with my romance vs a little romance with my fantasy. P.s. They had a lot of spice in the beginning which I mostly skipped over. "

"Yes! It took a tiny bit to adjust to the writing style but i am obsessed. New favourite "

"Loved it."

"so cute! the chemistry between the two character is just spot on! Loved the storyline...my emotions were all over the place!! "

"Don’t judge this book by it’s awful cover. SJM fans need to read this one ❤️‍🔥"

"I liked the character development! Very immersive story in my opinion 🫶 The beginning is what drew me in the most. "

"2.8 stars DNF with 100 pgs left<br/><br/>ok I stopped reading this book a while ago, but I just couldn't bother to update it on goodreads because I wasn't sure if I was done. the first half was pretty much just a bunch of lust between them, but they at least formed a friendship after that and then lust turned to love, so that was fine. Khamsin was portrayed as a strong independent female type of character, who rebelled authority and didn't let her husband bully her into doing things, though I feel like that wasn't true. it was said, but when the time came for her to make choices for herself or resist Wynter, she did what he wanted every time. and Wynter spent a lot of the book either ignoring her or being very standoffish, so I can't say I care too much about him either. I stopped reading at the climax of the story because I really couldn't bother to find out how it would end for myself, so I guess I'll never know. and also, I didn't like that Khamsin was pulled away from her home and left everything she's known and came to this new cold cold place and was expected to prove herself to people, and earn their respect when I'm not sure they were entirely deserving of it. The northern people or whatever their country is called did absolutely nothing to make Khamsin feel welcomed yet somehow she stayed firm in the belief that this was her home and she needed to protect the people and whatever. It was frustrating seeing her try so hard for something I'm not sure was worth it. I really don't like that Wynter has pretty much all the power/authority in the relationship, and its when he decided to act like a decent husband that people started to warm up to Khamsin, as if it was her fault.<br/><br/>this book just didn't feel very empowering, which I'm realizing is very important to me in the stories I read.<br/><br/>also, I know this review is crap and some sentences ran on with crap punctuation, but so it goes<br/><br/>on to the next"

"This book was honestly so good. One of the best fantasy/romances I’ve ever read"

"My favorite book"

"This book is a great fantasy romance read. The plot was really intriguing and it truest felt like you were apart of the world that author had created. One of my favorite reads yet. "