Wintersong – S. Jae-Jones

Book review

Read: March 18 – 31, 2017

I love reading romance novels and especially the ones of star-crossed lovers.

When I read the synopsis of this book I immediately thought of Labyrinth. I couldn’t see the Goblin King as anyone other than David Bowie and his mesmerizing eyes. The allure of the Goblin King and the world he resides in is a mysterious thought to me and it makes me want to know more about it. Add a beautiful cover on top and Wintersong became a must read for me.

Synopsis

Elisabeth has always been in the shadows of her siblings. Her younger sister is the most beautiful and her younger brother is the one being trained as a violinist. Elisabeth loves music more than anything else, but being a woman puts her in the background and by not being beautiful enough she isn’t the one who gains the favor of her childhood friend Hans. The only things she does have are her memories of the Goblin King.

Then one day the Goblin King takes Elisabeth’s sister away and thus Elisabeth agrees to play the game the Goblin King proposes. For the freedom of her sister she has to fight against her selfish thoughts and endure other trials. After all, the Goblin King isn’t called the King of Mischief for nothing.

My opinion

The way the story is written intrigued me at the beginning, but after a while it’d gotten on my nerves. Because of the whole lyrical writing, the pacing of the story felt rather slow. Furthermore, the music is a huge element in the story and Jae-Jones does a great job of implementing it in the story. But, there is a lot of talk about music and musical terms are being used and me, being more like Käthe in this story – tone-deaf and no musical ability -, had sometimes no idea what it was about. Especially when the music is used to describe the feelings of Elisabeth or the overall mood. This made me feeling detached from the overall storyline.

Rating

I’m giving Wintersong three stars. The setting of the book was enchanting and although I couldn’t stand Elisabeth and the way music is incorporated into the story, it was something different from I had seen before. There were a few things I found very clever, which I can’t tell because that would be spoiling it for you. I was somewhat bothered by the overall storyline, I couldn’t see where the story would end. Halfway through and I thought the book had fulfilled it’s purpose with Elisabeth and the Goblin King, but apparently the book was more about growth and self-love than I’d anticipated.

★★★☆☆