Title: Wintersong
Author: S. Jae-Jones
Series: Wintersong, #1
Genre: Fantasy/Romance/Fairytale
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Publication Date: February 7th, 2017
Edition: Kindle Edition, 400 pages
Source: NetGalley
Synopsis:
Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.
All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.
But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.
Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.
Review:
Unsure how to review this book beyond saying that it was beautifully written. I know nothing about music, composing, or anything. But this was written in a way that felt like I was listening to a symphony.
This was a beautiful and sad romantic, and tragic, fairytale. The pacing was a little slow, but while reading this I was so swept into the story that I didn't really notice that I had been reading for 2 hours.
I am giving this book high praise mostly for the writing. The plot was fairly simplistic, but that's not always a bad thing and the chemistry between Liesl and The Goblin King was fairly awkward at times, I never really felt a romantic, or physical, attraction between them. But they had a deep connection that was connected to her music. Which I suppose you could argue that it was a deeper connection that wasn't relying on anything that could be deemed as superficial, but it did make the very intimate scenes between them feel off. It wasn't unnecessarily descriptive, and mostly did a fade to black or described it in a somewhat poetic way not using typical descriptors. But since I didn't really feel like it was love, they just seemed off.
I have to admit Liesl, Elizabeth, wasn't a particularly likable character. She was very critical of herself, often put herself down, and lived vicariously through her little brother and envied her younger sister. I suppose some of it was because nobody raised her up and always put her down. Her sister was considered beautiful, and her brother was a prodigy on the violin. And the one time she tried to show her father her talents, he basically stomped on them. But it would have been nice if she hadn't needed The Goblin King to tell her she was worthwhile for her to realize it herself based only on the talent she must have truly felt she had to continue to write music.
I really did love this book, it was just too well written to not enjoy it, but I do see the hiccups. The small things that bothered me. I still want to read the final book in this duology, I want to discover how things end for Liesl and The Goblin King. And I want to read more beautiful writing like this.
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