Review: Red Winter by Annette Marie

Red Winter (Red Winter Trilogy #1)
by Annette Marie
narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Fantasy/ Mythology/ Paranormal Romance
Age Category: Young Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Emi has spent her entire life hiding from the creatures that hunt her. The savage earth spirits are determined to kill her before she can become the living host of a goddess, so she stays hidden–until the day she saves the life of one of her hunters.

Shiro isn’t the harmless fox spirit she thought he was. He’s mysterious, cunning, unpredictable … and now hers to command. He’s sworn to pay his debt to her, but he doesn’t know who she is. If he finds out, he’ll kill her.

But she can’t send him away–not yet. Her future isn’t what she thought. The lies surrounding her fate have begun to unravel, and she needs answers before time runs out–answers that lie in the spirit realm. Shiro can take her there … if she dares to trust him.

And only then will she find out how deep the gods’ treachery runs.

My Review

I received a free audio copy from Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.

I’ve read and enjoyed plenty of Annette Marie’s books before, but the Red Winter series was one that was still on my to-read list. When I saw this one in audio and got the chance to review it, I knew this was my opportunity to finally read this series. And I am so glad I did and got this one in audio as I really enjoyed this book. The story is really good, the characters interesting and the narrator brings it all to live.

The start of the story is a bit slow and I struggled a bit with the start. I have had the same experience with other Annette Marie books, so I stuck with it hoping it would get better. And it did and when it did it was awesome. The slow build does serve a purpose and seeing Emi’s carefully crafted life slowly unravel and her start on a new journey was great to see. The further I got the better the story became and then I was hooked and wanted to keep listening to see what would happen next. I started to speculate what would happen next and what reveals might be next. There is plenty of action as well as more quiet character focused scenes. And all the twists and turns I’ve come to expect from an Annette Marie book. I really liked seeing the plot play out.

The characters are all so interesting with their own lives and motivations. I really liked getting to know Emi. And while she comes across as naive at times, I thought her behavior always made sense given her life. Even how she sticks with what she believes for a long time even with evidence to to contrary made sense. I liked seeing her learn more about what was going on and seeing her change and grow throughout the story.

The side characters are all great too. They all have their own personalities and they really come alive. I liked getting to know Shiro and how open and honest he was about what he is. I liked seeing him grow closer to Emi and their slow burn romance is awesome to see progress. The way Shiro noticed some truth about Emi that no one had seen before really hit me and I liked that about him. Yumei was interesting too, he’s kinda ruthless and grumpy, but in such a straightforward way that was quite interesting to see. The three of them have some great banter and I liked reading about them and learning more about them.

This book had quite the different vibe than most of Annette Marie’s books. This one heavily leans into Japanese mythology with yokai and kami. There is plenty of explanation about the relevant mythology as well as traditions. I thought it was well written and while some parts could be a tad heavy on the explanation of the relevant details early on, I do think this is helpful for those who know little about the subject.

The narrator for this book was one I have listened to before and I really enjoyed her narration for this book. I thought her voice for Emi fit her character well and she did lots of different voices for the side characters. I especially liked her voices for some of the kami that are introduced later on in the book. I only wish the volume was a bit more consistent in a few places as some characters speak very softly and as I don’t have my volume very loud I missed a few things and had to switch the volume up for those parts.

To summarize: I was excited to start the Red Winter series as it had been on my to-read list for a while. The start is a bit slow, but it serves a purpose and once I got a bit further into the book and the story picked up, I was hooked. I wanted to keep listening and see what would happen next, there are some awesome twists and turns as well as exciting reveals. I liked reading about Emi and seeing her grow and change throughout the book. Shiro and Yumei are both really interesting characters too and I liked the banter between the three of them. The slow burn romance between Emi and Shiro is awesome to see and I liked seeing them grow closer. This book has a lot of Japanese mythology and while the start could be a bit heavy on the explanations early on. I liked reading about the yokai and kami. The narrator was awesome and I thought her voice fit the characters well and she has a lot of different voices. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one!

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– Audible
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.