Winter War Awakening

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. Don\’t be afraid of your gifts. You do no one a favor by making yourself small. Winter War Awakening took my heart and tore it into little pieces. Anna\’s and Matyas\’s story unmade me. Maybe it\’s too soon after reading this book, but I can barely untangle all of my feelings about this book. Suffice it to say, I loved it. It was the perfect conclusion to a beautiful series. Here\’s why: 1. Seeing Anna\’s growth throughout this series has been wonderful. She continues to discover herself, learn to accept herself. Her maturity shines with her decisions, with her growing selflessness. I\’ve been cheering her on from book one, but by the end, I was crying, grieving, laughing, loving with her. She is by far one of my favorite heroines right now. 2. Matyas. Matyas, Matyas, Matyas. He\’s so impulsive, funny, self-deprecating, honest… how can I not love him? It\’s not secret that I live off of character development, and that\’s one of the reasons I love Matyas so much. He\’s so wonderful. 3. The expansion of the magic system. It happened in Lost Crow Conspiracy with the praetherians. In Winter War Awakening, Eves further explores the magic system, and it is so intriguing: with more folklore, Anna\’s and Matyas\’s powers, and the nearness of the praetherians in this book, I am just in awe. 4. This book goes at break-neck speed, just as Lost Crow Conspiracy had. My heart was continuously pounding, and I couldn\’t stop turning pages because I just needed to know what happened. I was so invested–in this story, in the characters… I couldn\’t pull myself away. 5. Eves doesn\’t sugarcoat the brutality of this war. In fact, it\’s horrible, but realistically so. Everything was at stake, and I felt it because of this. 6. All of the side characters. Noemi, Hunger, Emlijia, the liderc, Gabor, and so many more. I loved them all. So, so much. 7. The themes, the meaning, weaved into this book are so timely and lovely. It made my heart both hurt and soar at the same time. Honestly, I could keep writing more. There\’s so much to love about this book. Eves completely smashed my expectations and I couldn\’t be happier because of it (also a little sad because it\’s the end, but that\’s normal.) I cannot wait to read more from Eves. Favorite Quote: I might lose my whole life to waiting, and I\’d rather have an imperfect happiness now than the hope of a more perfect one later. Sigh. I just want to read mooooooore.

This book had everything a conclusion should have. There were moments of tension, happy moments, moments of questioning if you have the guts or strength to do a difficult task, and obviously there were many, many heartbreaking moments…. Especially chapters 19-22….. My favorite character, Hunger, was definitely a very compelling person. I wasn\’t sure if I should like him, considering the fact that half the time I wasn\’t sure where his loyalties lied….but then I saw a brief glimpse of who he really, really is deep down and I was just in awe. He\’s one of those examples of \”what\’s a monster but someone we don\’t understand\”. Hunger is just amazing and I started loving him the moment we first met in book one And then there\’s Mtys he\’s so full of flaws and doubts, that it\’s so easy to identify with him. But despite all his short comings, Mtys pulls through. He might not want to rise up to the challenge but HE DOES. And that right there takes strength. Anna was a character that I honestly didn\’t really like in book 1….she was kinda whiney…but she also goes through a ton of ordeals and learns from her mistakes. She grows so much and learns to deal with situations a lot better. She stops blaming herself for every little thing and comes to terms with who she is and I love that! I definitely recommend picking this book up of you like historical fiction/fantasy.

There are a lot of clichs when it comes to how trilogies end, and, thankfully, Eves resisted all of them, striving instead to conclude a story in a way that is authentic to the characters and the world. This is a brilliant culmination of a world that is unique, and, again, I thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the writing. I can\’t recommend this whole trilogy highly enough.

I absolutely loved reading all three books! The plot is deep, the characters are multidimensional, the storyline continually surprised me, and best of all, each book had a \”good ending.\” The breadth and scope of the novels astounded me. It is quite a cross between Bartimaeus, Jane Austin, and dare I say, some elements of Lord of the Rings! I\’m looking forward to see what she writes next!

My JR and High school students love these series and wish the author would write more a 4th!

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