Winterfall

I have really come to love this series but this is probably the book that I liked the least. I’m still giving it four stars but that’s maybe stretching it. First of all, while Mack is a great character, he is a secondary character. Many great books have been narrated from the viewpoint of a secondary character.Watson and Holmes come to mind, but the purpose is generally to deliberately keep the character mysterious, even impenetrable. In this book, the device served no such purpose, particularly since Mack and Jetta were shoved through a portal and spent much of the book having relatively inconsequential adventures while waiting to be rescued. Since we knew from previous books that Mack and Jetta are “lucky,” there wasn’t much suspense. We knew they would be rescued and so this entire section was basically just killing time.

A few other things bothered me (spoiler alert!). First, it turns out that the Summer and Winter Queens were conspiring, first to bring Declan to Faerie, then to control either Declan or Ashley or both by having Mack and Jetta kidnapped, but frankly, this made no sense at all. If they had wanted to kidnap some of Ashley’s friends, it would have gone much easier if they had not allowed Declan onto the planet. It’s never explained why they did so. Naturally, their plans come to nothing. Lastly, Caeco’s insistence on receiving a kiss from Declan as her price for sharing her nanites. Why? She explains that her cooperation is thereby on “her terms,” not his, but she looks ridiculous and pathetic. Caeco is a great character and she deserves better than to be made into a caricature of the lovelorn female.

I really do like this series, though I have had issues with various books and, sadly, this book is no exception.

Of the things, I enjoyed: The first is that the climax actually happened at the end of the book and it did not drag on long after. I also liked that many of the secondary characters who were introduced through out the series made an appearance. The story, as always, was filled with action. I also like that Christian just did not walk through the villains of this story. They were tougher then the evil characters of past books.

However, there are many things I did not like. First, Chris, Tanya, Declan and Stacie did not have any significant character development. Now, some would say that Declan did change a lot from his visit to Fairie, but it had little effect on this story and since the story was not told from his perspective you really did not see him struggle. There was a lot of story about Mack. However, Mack and his sisters big plan was to be useful until they were to be rescued. Not the most resourceful or heroic storyline. This was the first time Mr Conroe has a story about a character that was not the most powerful person of all the ____, such as Declan is the strongest male witch, Tanya the strongest vampire, Stacie the fastest changing werewolf … this story about an average person was a nice change of pace, though the wait until we are rescued attitude diminished by respect for these characters.

I really felt there was so much more that could be added to this book. Because you were jumping between unrelated storylines this book felt more like two novelettes being a shorter book at 359 pages.

Although the series has something of a rocky start with God Touched, Ive been impressed with Conroes continual improvement as an author throughout the series. Winterfall unfortunately, is something of a backslide.

The story is told through Chris first person POV, and Macks third person. The switch between them was jarring, as I cant recall reading many books that switched POV quite like this. Conroes writing is simply better suited for first person, and Mack is quite frankly a side character. I love him and Jetta, but they arent main characters, and they cant quite hold the story. The especially cant hold the story when we have both Declan and Stacia in the same group. Theyve both proven their ability to lead the story before, and Macks POV felt like something of a mistake.

POV aside, the plot was also somewhat disjointed. The increasing sci-fi elements of the story are a tad separate from the urban fantasy roots, and though Conroe brings them together to a degree, the two parallel plots clashed more often than not.

That said, this is still a Demon Accords novel, so it has all the good stuff youve come to expect. Absurdly over-powered characters? Check. Declan and/or Chris gets a massive power up in time for the climax? Check. Overly gratuitous weapon specifications? Double check. Its definitely a Demon Accords book, but I for one hope that Conroe returns to his roots a little more from here on

I generally love these books but I didn’t love this one. The scenes with Chris and Tanya were fine, but what had me checking the authors Facebook page multiple times a day waiting for this book’s release was the idea of Declan on Faerie. Instead of exploring that dynamic what we got was Mack and Jetta away from the group for the majority of the book. I like them as supporting characters but I don’t need half a book from their perspective. It made me feel like we were sacrificing an in depth look at the dynamic between Declan and Faerie. Maybe we’ll get more of that down the road but for this book I felt disappointed. I’m not bashing the series, I love these books, I just didn’t love this one in particular.

I’ll admit to feeling apprehensive when I started reading. The Declan in Fairie story that was promised in Snake Eyes was not told in the way I expected. Rather than following Declan, we instead follow Mack. At first, I wasn’t happy about this because I love Declan as a protagonist and I felt there was a lot of promise to be fulfilled with this story. But then I remembered feeling this way when Declan was first introduced in Executable. I worried how a Demon Accords book could work without following Chris’ story, and we ended up with a secondary protagonist for this series who I love every bit as much as Chris. I worried again when Stacia took the lead in Rogues, but that book was awesome too. Are you sensing a pattern yet, because I sure did? I decided to stop worrying and trust in John Conroe to deliver a solid story no matter how he chose to tell it.

And you know what? Mr Conroe delivers once again.

This book is basically two stories. We have Declan, Stacia and co on Faerie overseeing some Faerie-Dragon politics. We also have Chris, Tanya and co in Rome where they encounter a new threat. Both stories could easily have benefited from being their own novels. However, this book doesn’t hang around and neither story felt like it suffered from being under developed by the time Winterfall finishes.

I suppose there’s a part where the Declan story branches into a Mack and Jetta story that does feel a little too small compared to what is happening with Declan. But as the book starts to wrap up, there’s a good reason for this unfolding this way and I feel that the story was better for it.

My biggest praise for this book is something I seem to say in every review for these novels; this series is constantly evolving. John Conroe isn’t one of these authors who delivers carbon copies of the same book time and again. Story arcs evolve, tensions escalate, and the formula changes. Every book is different than the last and that is why 13 books in, this series still feels fresh, and is one that I can revisit time and again.

One such evolution was one of my favourite aspects of this book. I loved how the College Arcane aspect was woven into this story. What could have stood alone as an excellent bridging story of how Declan went from a small town life to playing in the same league as the God Hammer, the College Arcane story has instead introduced a new element that has allowed the author to raise the scope of the series beyond the primary protagonists in a very natural way. This natural progression has helped the overarching story grow more epic without feeling jarring.

This evolution and constant escalation leads to an awesome ending that leaves me more excited to read what comes next than ever.

In summary, this is another fast paced book that progresses a lot of overarching stories, raises the stakes for future novels and is another book that I had to read in one sitting. It’s another easy 5 stars for a book in this awesome series.

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