Description
Winter Queen
Amber Argyle
Summary from Goodreads:
~Becoming a winter queen will make Ilyenna as cold and cruel and deadly as winter itself, but it might be the only way to save her people from a war they have no hope of winning.~
Mortally wounded during a raid, seventeen-year-old Ilyenna is healed by winter fairies who present her with a seductive offer: become one of them and share their power over winter. But that power comes with a price. If she accepts, she will become a force of nature, lose her humanity, and abandon her family.
Unwilling to pay such a high price, Ilyenna is enslaved by one of the invaders, Darrien. While in captivity, she learns the attack wasn’t just a simple raid but part of a larger plot to overthrow her entire nation.
With the enemy stealing over the mountains and Darrien coming to take her to his bed, Ilyenna must decide whether to resurrect the power the fairies left behind. Doing so will allow her to defeat Darrien and the other invaders, but if she embraces winter, she will lose herself to that destroying power—forever.
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About the Author
Amber Argyle is the number-one bestselling author of the Witch Song Series and the Fairy Queen Series. Her books have been nominated for and won awards in addition to being translated into French and Indonesian.
Amber graduated cum laude from Utah State University with a degree in English and physical education, a husband, and a two-year old. Since then, she and her husband have added two more children, which they are actively trying to transform from crazy small people into less crazy larger people.
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Review
Ilyenna is clan mistress and the best healer in her village, which means she must put the clan before her own desires. That rule is not too difficult to follow, until the people she loves are forced into a war with a neighboring tribe. Until Ilyenna herself becomes a slave to a terrible man who intends to use her slavery to force her into marriage. In the midst of this are the winter fairies - beings who offer to give Ilyenna freedom from bondage and safety for her loved ones, but at the cost of her humanity and her love all she cares about.
Winter Queen was awesome! I loved every word of it, from the first page! I have never read any of Amber Argyle’s books before, but this one makes me want to read more.
I loved the character Ilyenna. She was stubborn, a little too much sometimes, but she made up for it with her indomitable kindness, even for people who did not care for her. She was determined to help others, often at the cost of her safety. She rarely backed down, either. Sometimes that made Ilyenna reckless, but I loved her all the more for it. And her romance! - watching those two characters made me swoon. I wish we all had a boyfriend/husband as caring as Ilyenna’s!
The setting was pretty good too. It reminded me of the setting in Beowulf, with the chieftain’s great hall, warriors, and women with decently-high standing in the community. The clans had their system of government to decide laws among the different groups in the alliance. And the supernatural setting was perhaps the most interesting. The author clearly set up supernatural being and laws to govern the world. The Balance was part of it; kind of like Karma, it gave every act or situation have an opposite: Summer and Winter, death and life, good and evil. So, Ilyenna bargains for two lives of those she loves, and ends up losing two others to death. In some circumstances, it sucks, but in others, at least the people can hope for retribution for the evil done to them. I liked the way this law was so thoroughly entrenched in the story world.
And I must talk at least a little about the ending. The mere fact that the main character could lose her humanity and the things she loves puts the ending up in the air. I was afraid that after everything, Ilyenna and her love would not be able to be together, either through death or the winter fairies. It made me hesitate to read through to the ending, even as I was curious to find out what happened. Suffice it to say, I think the ending was well done. I wish it were a little different, but it was still happy, which I appreciate. After everything they suffered, it had to have been happy, and I am glad to say it was.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to older teens who like romantic fantasy.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Language: 0/5; There was none.
Drugs: 3/5; There was alcohol but it was used mainly for medicinal purposes.
Violence: 5/5; Physical and mental abuse, death, murder, attempted rape, and more; the characters were fighting for their lives!
Romance: 4/5; Rape and sex were threatened by the antagonist; the main character and her love interest had sex, but the scene was not described but faded to black; sex itself was not outright talked about but often implied and threatened.
Magic: 2/5; No spells or witchcraft; the fairies and their queens had natural magic; the dead had some power and marked one of the characters for death, but their power was not described or mentioned often.
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For ages League mothers have told their children terrifying stories about the Black Hats: the enemy, eager to slay anyone who falls into their grasp, always searching for their next victim. 
Ren Garcia
is a Science Fiction/Fantasy author and Texas native who grew up in
western Ohio. He has been writing since before he could write, often
scribbling alien lingo on any available wall or floor with assorted
crayons. He attended The Ohio State University and majored in English
Literature. Ren has been an avid lover of anything surreal since
childhood, he also has a passion for caving, urban archeology and
architecture. His highly imaginative "League of Elder" book series is
published by Loconeal Publishing.
