Tagged: the winter people
The Summer Marked by Rebekah Purdy
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
The sequel to the chilling Winter People returns to the world of Faerie, and is a romantic and enchanting follow-up.
Salome left humankind behind to be with her boyfriend, Gareth, in the Kingdom of Summer. But now forces of darkness are rising. Her happily-ever-after is coming apart, and the Kingdom is on the brink of war.
Newly-single Kadie Byers is on her way home for Thanksgiving, imagining a visit filled with hot chocolate, a hot guy for a little rebound action, and some girl time with her bestie, Salome. Except she receives a message from Salome with two important words: PLEASE HURRY.
When Kadie rushes to help Salome, she’s ripped from the human world and pulled into the kingdoms of Faerie, where she’s shocked to learn that Salome’s monsters are real, and that she’s now at the mercy of one extremely vengeful Winter Queen…
Now both Salome and Kadie must find a way to survive the deadly chaos…or lose themselves to Winter’s deadly, icy grasp.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
While I had been initially skeptical about The Winter People, the first book in this series, I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end. So when I got the chance to read The Summer Marked, I had absolutely no hesitation in getting started. I couldn’t wait to find out the next chapter in Salome’s life after the supposedly completely happy fairytale ending of the first book. Of course, not all is well in paradise.
Salome and Gareth have moved in together but Nevin (the Summer king Salome kissed in order to free him from his curse) seems to be skulking around trying to break his promise that Salome and Gareth could be together. He seems increasingly controlling and also seems to be trying to separate the two, bringing them to court only to have Gareth sent away on mission after mission. While all this sounds so stereotypical, I can assure you that as always, Rebekah Purdy has some tricks up her sleeve, including a massive plot twist that totally blindsided me. It was a pleasant surprise and explained a lot in hindsight but I can’t talk much more about it without giving away massive spoilers. Needless to say, Salome and Gareth are finally together and everyone at court including Nevin want to tear them apart. And events throughout the novel definitely conspire to do just that.
Meanwhile, Salome’s friend Kadie is left wandering on her own. She got dumped and wants to live closer to home so she dropped out of university to come home for Thanksgiving and re-assess her life choices. When she gets there, of course Salome is gone and her mother and grandmother aren’t really being clear on where she is. So when she gets a text from Salome asking her to come right away, she gets sucked into a vicious trap set up by the Winter Court and has to endure unimaginable things in the land of Faerie. All while Salome lives an ideal life on the outside while she’s secretly barely holding things together.
While I didn’t like Kadie’s point of view at first because it sounded so much like the stereotypical ditzy best friend, she really came through as a character. At the Winter Court she learns to keep her mouth shut and scheme in order to survive and sometimes does the unthinkable to do so. She gains a real strength of character that is absolutely remarkable when you compare it to how she was in the beginning of The Winter People. That’s not to say she wasn’t a strong or three dimensional character then, but she really comes into her own and controls her own story (or thinks she does) a lot more than she used to. I really did like Kadie in this second book, despite some of the things she does.
Salome, having conquered a lot of her fears in the first book, learns that she has a long way to go if she’s going to survive alongside Gareth in Faerie now that the Winter Court is on a warpath. She learns to play the vicious games that are characteristic of faerie politics while adding in some human compassion that the fey seem to lack. And when faced with two horrible choices that would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the novel, her choice shows just how much she has really grown. Essentially, Salome really comes into her own in The Summer Marked so if you loved her in the first book, you will love her even more in this one.
I found the plot was a lot faster in this book compared to the first. There was of course plenty of character development and a lot of interpersonal/intrapersonal conflict but the plot moved along quite nicely. There’s quite a bit more action since the threat of the Winter Court is ramped up and the whole of Summer is at stake. And, as with the first book, Purdy throws in so many plot twists that you can’t help but read on to find out what happens next. The Summer Marked was definitely a one-sitting book for me because of that. Even if the plot wasn’t fast-paced, it would have still been a one-sitting book because Rebekah Purdy has a magnificent writing style. It’s beautifully descriptive and she does both the darker Winter Court and the gorgeous Summer Court incrdibly well. It was her writing that initially sucked me into the first book and it’s part of why I enjoy this series so much. While The Summer Marked was far darker than The Winter People, it was still very enjoyable on many different levels.
You really can’t go wrong with The Winter People series. If you haven’t read the first book, you absolutely should right now. If you read the first book and loved it, then you definitely need to read this second book. It will blow you away.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Winter People by Rebekah Purdy
(Cover picture courtesy of Bibliophilia, Please.)
Salome Montgomery fears winter—the cold, the snow, the ice, but most of all, the frozen pond she fell through as a child. Haunted by the voices and images of the strange beings that pulled her to safety, she hasn’t forgotten their warning to “stay away.” For eleven years, she has avoided the winter woods, the pond, and the darkness that lurks nearby. But when failing health takes her grandparents to Arizona, she is left in charge of maintaining their estate. This includes the “special gifts” that must be left at the back of the property.
Salome discovers she’s a key player in a world she’s tried for years to avoid. At the center of this world is the strange and beautiful Nevin, who she finds trespassing on her family’s property. Cursed with dark secrets and knowledge of the creatures in the woods, he takes Salome’s life in a new direction. A direction where she’ll have to decide between her longtime crush, Colton, who could cure her fear of winter. Or Nevin, who, along with an appointed bodyguard, Gareth, protects her from the darkness that swirls in the snowy backdrop.
An evil that, given the chance, will kill her.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
Through the first few chapters of The Winter People, I kept thinking “Oh no, there’s going to be a love triangle just like every other YA book out there.” Still, the premise of this book was interesting enough that even a love triangle couldn’t dissuade me. I was resolved to give it a fair try and I’m so glad I did.
Yes, The Winter People seems like it has your absolutely typical love triangle in the beginning. But I promise you that doesn’t last as Salome realizes not everything is as it seems and not everyone is deserving of her affection. She really matures as a character and desperately tries to get over her justified fear of winter from a previously traumatic incident only to realize that she should still be afraid of it. Very, very afraid.
The thing that really sets The Winter People apart from most YA books I’ve read lately is the quality of writing. Rebekah Purdy really does have a beautiful, descriptive writing style that sucks you into the story. She doesn’t describe things in mind-numbing detail but the way she describes them really does make you feel like you’re in all of these scenes, both magical and ordinary. It takes a talented writer to do that and I really believe that if nothing else, the writing alone would be enough reason to read this book.
However, the main character is pretty awesome as well. Salome is terrified of winter because she fell through the ice in her family pond at a very young age. She was rescued by our mysterious Nevin at the time but she still retained a somewhat justifiable fear of all things wintery. Now in high school she’s having to cope with taking care of her grandparents’ house when they go south for the winter because her dad is usually gone (as a trucker) and her mother has a broken leg. Seeing how she deals with that really gives me a lot of respect for her because despite her fear, she’s determined to help out her grandparents.
In the beginning Salome is a bit naive but never falls into the ‘too stupid to live’ category. She really grows and matures not only as she falls in love (then realizes what love really is thanks to a little help from a special someone) but as she fights for her life. There’s a mysterious curse hanging over her head and no one will tell her anything about it so she’s absolutely determined to find out on her own in order to save herself and her family. You really can’t help but love Salome as a character.
The plot isn’t insanely fast-paced because this is a character-driven novel but it is pretty exciting. Just when you think you know how things are going to end, Rebekah Purdy throws a twist in and you’re left scrambling. There were one or two twists I predicted but in general I was pleasantly surprised by most of the turns the story took. They stayed true to the essence of the story while still throwing the reader for a loop and that takes talent on the part of the author.
Even if you’re not big into fairies, I can’t recommend The Winter People enough. These fairies really aren’t all that they seem and they’re more like the fairies of old, not the sweet, innocent and ridiculously hot fairies of most books these days. They’re more capricious and dangerous than your average YA fairy and it certainly makes the story more interesting in that things aren’t only in shades of black and white. After reading this book, I honestly can’t wait to read more of Rebekah Purdy’s work.
I give this book 5/5 stars.