ARC Review: Winterlight by Kristen Britain

“I am so emotionally involved with the world and the characters”
~ Under the Covers

Recommended Read!

As the seventh book in an extremely long yet highly entertaining epic fantasy, this is a very hard book to rate & review for me because I am so emotionally involved with the world and the characters that I don´t even know where to begin. But that in itself tells a lot about how incredible the story is, right?

This is an epic fantasy world were Karigan G’ladheon, our main character is a woman who becomes the part of the elite horse-riding messenger service of the king of Sacoridia called the Green Riders. But not all is as it seems and these riders are not your typical mail: they have a special power thanks to a pin they keep on at all times, and they get into all types of trouble as they work with the King to keep the peace in the realm. Moreover, they have specially bred horses that are just amazing! In comes our main character Karigan, who has had a list of adventures and, shall we say misadventures at times, and she goes from newbie Green Rider to one of the most important people in the realm. Magic & fantasy elements are woven throughout every book, including magic, elves, kingdoms and wars, magical creatures and bad bad magical villains. There are also extremely low – I´d say almost nonexistent – romance elements in some of the books, so if you are looking for romance here, I’d say look elsewhere. This is full on fantasy world to fill your appetite of dangerous gripping adventure. So, if you haven´t yet read these books and love a good fantasy that has a long story, go look for a copy of Green Rider because it will not disappoint.

And Kristen Britain has given us a great addition to the series with Winterlight. I´d even go to say it’s one of the ones I loved the most. We have everything we expect from her books: adventure, peril, danger at every turn, magic and obviously horses. Some of her books have sometimes been side stories to the original plot, but in this we are thrown right into the thick of it.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I’ve felt that we are making more progress towards seeing a possible conclusion with the main villain of the story, Mornhavon the Black, with the final battle between them in sight for the next book. New characters are brought in, and we get to see and hear what a lot of the old ones are up to.

The previous book ended with both Karigan and King Zachary having suffered a lot. As expected, this book deals with Karigan as she comes to terms with her new physical limitations and the mental/psychological aspect of her recovery. The long path to recovery takes up much of the book, and it became at times long and tedious to read. But even as I say this, I can also appreciate the level of detail and depth that Britain has given us: there is no quick and easy way of getting over trauma, and we struggle with Karigan as she tries to overcome what was done to her.

We’ve had hints of a possible relationship blooming between our main characters for years now and we cannot wait to see where it´ll go. Even though the previous book ended with us thinking, this could be it, as always we still haven´t reached a possible conclusion between these two. The relationship between Karigan & Zachary has low simmering tension that could hopefully see a conclusion in the next book, but who knows? Personally, I am just so in love with both of them that I cannot wait to reach the end of Karigan’s journey and what will actually happen between them.

I felt that the middle part of the book dragged a bit, but the last twenty percent of the book was a wild ride! And did it finish with a bang!! In a change of pace compared to her previous endings, I felt that this one has left me itching to read the next book ASAP. Stakes are higher and we must know how this story will finish. I felt we´ve made strides towards reaching the final climax and the end to all of Sacoridia’s troubles.

Hopefully after reading this it´s spiked your interest and you´ll read the books! Overall, Winterlight has been a great addition to the Green Rider series and I cannot wait for the next!