Summary:
As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.
Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a little humanity isn’t bad—especially when it comes to those you care about.
Through every battle they survive, Janneke’s loyalty to Soren deepens. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to. She must make the right choice to save the only thing keeping both worlds from crumbling.
Thoughts:
Oh man, I have so many mixed feelings on this one. Well, maybe not so mixed, because I really wanted to like this but it was a huge miss for me.
One thing I appreciated about the book is that the main character has been in the Permafrost for something like 100 years. So you would think she kind of has the ropes down by now and I was really looking forward to that. But…something about the relationship between Soren and Janneke felt really new. I know Janneke spent a lot time in the beginning being a captive of Lydian, but she’s been with Soren for years now. Why are they only now getting to know each other and why is their relationship only now seeming to change? And it wasn’t just the relationship, but it didn’t feel like she’d been living there that long from other things that happened and the way she reacted to them. It didn’t make much sense to me.
The characters in this, one of the most important things for me as a reader, were not great. Like I said above, the relationship between Janneke and Soren didn’t make sense as far as progression. Also, while Soren is obviously SO much better than his uncle, Lydian, who raped and tortured Janneke, he’s still holding her captive and forcing her to do things she doesn’t want to do? So…..? Why are you falling for him, girl? Why is this ok? Why isn’t he releasing her? What is the deal? Even after all of that, I didn’t hate the romance, except that I think it could have been developed so much better if their relationship hadn’t felt so weird to begin with. As it was, it felt kind of shallow. Speaking of shallow, none of the other characters are really fleshed out in this–they can be categorized either as generic evil monster or victim.
The world-building was only lightly touched on. I appreciated this sort of fae world hidden behind the real world that Janneke is from, because I love those types of worlds. But we didn’t really get to learn that much about it other than that it’s otherworldly, deadly, and full of folks fighting for power. I’m guessing the author is expecting us to fill in the blanks based on similar stories and tales of the fae, which is fine I guess, but I would have appreciated a little more exploration of the world and how it works.
At the end of the day, the only thing I really loved about this book is Janneke. She’s a human girl living in a world of monsters and doing her best to survive, wondering if she’s becoming one of them. The disappointing thing is that there’s some potential for this to have been a better story, but everything felt so surface level. I’ll still probably read a sequel because I’m interesting on seeing the author’s progress but it won’t be a huge priority. 2.5/5 stars.
Way Too Fantasy 
Darn! Sorry it turned out to be a not-so-great read. It does sound like it has some issues. I love the character names and could get lost in that cover though! I might still try it later on. Thanks for your honest review. ♥️
I really do love that cover. 🙂
I have this on Kindle but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’m a little sad to see it’s not great. 😦
As always ymmv, but it just didn’t work for me, unfortunately.
I’m not surprised by your review, a lot of readers feel the same way about this book. Too bad, I do love the idea!
Yeah, it’s a shame because the potential is there.
I love the cover.
Yes, the cover is fantastic!
…and this is why it was part of my TTT on-the-fence post!!! 😂
Yeah…. lol
Sorry you didn’t enjoy this more, but I do love the cover!
I love the cover too!
I’m just reading this – only just started though. It doesn’t seem to be winning friends at the moment so I’ve pegged back my expectations – which might help.
Lynn 😀
Yeah, low expectations may be a good strategy. Hope you enjoy it though! 🙂
Haha, yeah I’ve heard some uh, not so great things about this one. I still have it queued up to read because it’s in my NetGalley pile, but my expectations are definitely lower at this point.
I really wanted to like it so this was a huge disappointment.
I keep hearing kinda dissapointing things about this book 😦 Not sure if I will pick it up!
Thanks for the review, you explain well why it wasn’t what you expected 🙂
(www.evelynreads.com)
Thanks! It was very disappointing for me.
“Why are you falling for him, girl?” RIGHT??? I liked Jenneke too, but it’s like she turns into completely different character when she’s dealing with Soren!
Ugh, she really does. It’s like there is no consistency.
How disappointing, yours is not the first meh/negative review from readers I trust and just solidifies that this one isn’t for me. BUMMER!
It really was disappointing because I wanted to like it.
Yea it sounds like such a cool book, but I think I am going to definitely skip it now.
I’m so sorry this was such a huge miss for you
A lot of this sounds disappointing tbh- the world building sounds underdeveloped and it’s such a shame most of the characters were not so brilliant. Great review though!
Thanks! Yeah, I was looking forward to this one but it was just not up to par for me.