Oooh spooky, scary skeletons. Without the skeletons.. maybe.

After a slow start some slight gothic vibes, magic systems, raging wars and found family all come together in a pile of goodness in this one. Wren is definitely one of my favourite protagonists in a while; "strong" without being annoying about it, absolutely ready to do whatever it takes, but best of all, she is visibly emotional. And while she's not always too happy about how visibly emotional she is, throughout the book it seemed almost like she "grew into" her emotions and absolutely let it free instead of trying to hide it, and I love that. Give me emotional characters who don't see emotion as a weakness. Let people cry and yell and be emotional. Here for it.

Absolutely adored the interaction between Wren and Hal, but I didn't care much for the romantic subplot, which didn't seem necessary and didn't actually.. matter? At all? It felt a bit too instant-love-y and very convenient and I wasn't convinced. That might just be me, though, I'm seeing a lot of people really enjoying that aspect of it.

While on the subject of interactions, this was a really fun read, interaction-wise. The side-characters were developed beyond just their name and function to the plot, and their twisty-turny personas kept me into this whenever it was dragging a bit.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, this is a good book. It's not a perfect book, but a darn good one, and if you dig spooky castles owned by.. "eccentric" people, where you can get trapped in a snow storm trying to heal someone you probably shouldn't be, this is for you.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.