Hi friends, happy Friday! I hope you’ve all had a good week. Today I’m posting my review of the final novel in the Winternight trilogy, The Winter of the Witch by: Katherine Arden.

You can read my review of book one: The Bear and the Nightingale
You can read my review of book two: The Girl in the Tower

The Winter of the Witch by: Katherine Arden: Moscow is in ruins. The Grand Prince continues to choose allies that create more of a problem than a solution. On the flip side, a wicked demon has returned more powerful than before determined to cause chaos. Then there is Vasya, who is caught between the two worlds and the fate of both of them on her shoulders. She wants to be able to save both, but her destiny is uncertain, so all she can do is try. This is the final novel in this astounding trilogy and it wrapped up everything so nicely. The ending is what truly tipped this read as a final five star read. Up until that point, it was reading more of a four star in terms of plot progression and character growth. The plot moved, but it was slow paced, even through longer battle scenes everything felt like it moved in slow motion. The reader enjoyed the writing because it was gorgeous, but it almost felt like we weren’t getting to the point fast enough for the reader to want to continue at times. The character growth somewhat stopped in this novel; it focused less on our main character Vasya, and more so on the secondary characters around her, namely her siblings and family. It was great to finally see her siblings come around to understand Vasya because for so long they just dismissed her as being crazy or a witch, but now seeing them come together for her to help everyone as war ascends on Moscow, was so well done and just so beautiful. At times it was a little too late, but not for all and that’s what made it feel balanced. It wasn’t all or nothing, but a bit of both so it felt realistic. The emotions that came out of the ending were something else. Arden has this mystical way of writing that just transported her readers and made them feel so many emotions. That was why it was the tipping point for this reader; that and the fact that Vasya got an ending worth celebrating. This trilogy as a whole was impressive and remarkable, so well written, thought out, with characters who could be morally grey and loveable, they were truly multidimensional. Highly recommend this trilogy to anyone, especially the fantasy lovers.