Lyrical and alluring, this books feats on fantastical imagination and the complexities of sister relationships. Slow-paced, and fairytale-esque, it's immersive from the very beginning, and the alternate chapters - one prose, one verse - add to the heavy atmosphere.

This review will be posted on my blog, Foxes and Fairy Tales on April 7th 2019.

I've had a eARC of The Sisters of the Winter Wood sitting on my Kindle for an embarrassingly long time. I finally got my butt in gear and bought myself a copy of the audio-book. I can't believe I put this book off for so long! I loved it and finished the book in a single day.

One of the things I lost in the audio (from what I've heard of the hard copy) is the fact that Laya's chapters are in poetry and Liba's are in prose. Listening, I didn't really see the distinction that clearly, I just noticed that the two girls had two very individual 'voices'. If the poetry puts you off, audiobook would be a great choice for you; if the poetry appeals, pick up a physical copy.

The different narration styles add to the character of the two protagonists. I loved how the sisters -- Liba and Laya -- were so different and how their personalities matched their animal forms. The writing in Laya's chapters is lighter, she's more flightly, prone to love-at-first-sight and never seems to sit still. Liba is more considered, her prose more grounded, she's a girl that makes very careful choices and prefers to sit with her father and learn.

The whole plot is full of action and romance and mystery. I just couldn't put it down. The world-building of the town life and the girls' family history is perfectly deep and detailed, pulling in aspects of Russian and German folklore (swan-women and bearmen), Jewish history and Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market. The story is magical and atmospheric. I think it will especially appeal to fans of magical realism or fabulism. It's not quite that (which I struggle with) but there are elements and touches that I think you'll enjoy.

One thing I noticed while posting my Goodreads update, was that a lot of the less positive reviews mentioned the amount of Jewish culture, religion and Yiddish being confusing or overwhelming. If this is making you wary of picking up The Sisters of the Winter Wood, please don't let it! I have very little knowledge of Judaism, I don't know any Yiddish and I didn't struggle at any point. There are phrases and words that aren't spoon-fed to you, but why should they be? The writing is good enough that you can pick up everything you need to know from context. The character's Jewishness is crucial to the story and it adds so much depth to the characters, to Liba's inner struggle and the overall plot, that I'd hate for it to be diluted down. If you're really wary, go for the audio-book as the narrator's tone gives you a little extra help in understanding the meaning of the Yiddish. I also found it helpful to hear words I might not have recognised if they were written down.

I honestly adored this book, and I really think it deserves to be more loved and hyped than it is. Don't sit on this one like I did. I'm going to buy myself a physical copy too so I can reread it and appreciate the poetry sections.

Liba and Laya live at the edge of a small village with their parents.
When their father gets news that his own father is dying, Liba and Laya's parents leave the two of them at home.
Before their parents leave, the sisters discover that they both have big secrets - their father can turn into a bear and their mother can transform into a swan.
Liba and Laya must look out for each other while their parents are away, and when a group of strange fruit sellers arrive in town, Laya finds herself drawn to them.
Can Liba protect her sister?
Are the woods more dangerous than they seem?

The Sisters of the Winter Wood wasn't quite what I expected, but I enjoyed it overall.
Out of Liba and Laya I preferred Liba, but that's because I found her more relatable. I liked that even though they were different, Liba and Laya were very protective of each other and would do anything for each other.
The plot was good but nothing that happened shocked me.
I liked the mix of history and fairy tales.
The writing style wasn't one of my favourites and it didn't grip me.
I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.

Overall this was an enjoyable read.

I loved this book!

I love Goblin Market retellings and this one had a twist with the affected girl being Jewish.

I loved both sisters pov and found it really unique that one sisters tale was told in normal text and the other in almost poem.

This was a fast laced book for me and I think the short chapters really helped with this

This book had me excited for a number of reasons - I love Christina Rossetti's poem 'Goblin Market' and this promised a magical retelling of it. I also looked forward to reading a book about Jewish culture from the POV of Jewish MCs, and liked the idea of the fantastical elements to this. These parts of the book I felt the story delivered fairly well, but I had a lot of other issues that made me a little on the disappointed side while reading.

Rossner really incorporates Yiddish words AND Ukrainian language into this book, which while interesting, posed some major problems. There was just far too much of it. Each page was filled to the brim with italicised words that I didn't (and most readers won't) understand. There was a glossary at the back for reference and I'm sure that will prove useful for most - but my copy was a Kindle ARC so I couldn't easily switch back and forth between the story and the definitions. I also found most of the characters here a bit on the annoying side - in a story like this I need to root for the heroines and I found myself rolling my eyes repeatedly at Liba's stuck-up naivety and Laya's reckless stupidity. There was also far too much going on in this book in terms of the plot, it was hard to keep track of the huge number of threats the two sisters faced!

Like I said, I DID like the magic in this book. I learnt a lot about Jewish culture and beliefs (even if I had to look up most of the words), and I liked that it was partly based on true events and unrest in Ukraine at the time. The incorporation of the shapeshifting creatures and goblins was also really cool and I liked the ending actually, even if it was a little too perfect for everyone. This was a solid story for those that like something a bit different, and the writing was skilful, but I think it needed a little more editing in terms of how much actually happened in the story and the language used.

An interesting take on fairy tales with the mix of old folk tales and religion. A very descriptive and hard-to-put-down kind of book. A good read.

Sisters Liba and Laya live on the edge a forest, raised on fairytales away from the local townspeople. But when their parents leave them alone, and strangers start to invade their forests, the sisters must learn to face their true natures in order to uncover the truth about love, and the mystery surrounding their family.

I was intitially drawn to this by the concept. A lush fairytale, weaving Russian folklore with strong female leads. I was willing myself to be swept away into an atmospheric, lush world. But unfortunately this falls a little flat of my expectations. In the end, it seemed to move away from the fantasy aspects into more of a romance and murder mystery, which is not my favourite genre.

The writing style was also a little off putting, as it used a mixture of various words from different languages, making it difficult to follow at times and often left me confused as to what the characters were going on about. Laya’s chapters are also all written in verse, which I found jarring and interrupts the pace of the story too much for me to enjoy. It also felt gratuitous, and didn’t add anything to the story.

The sisterly bond was lacking, and I didn’t find it realistic or anything to suggest it was anything other than mildly friendly. Both girls were also hugely irritating in their naivety, and overall feelings of self discovery that I also didn’t find realistic or compelling. I found them both lacking in dimension and depth, and I couldn’t find myself interested in either of them - especially Laya, as her chapters in verse make it very difficult to connect with her.

The ending also feels very rushed after a mainly sedate pace throughout, and wasn’t concluded to my satisfaction at all. In fact, I think I found myself more confused than I was at the beginning. This had so much potential, and the backbone of something truely unique and interesting is there, and for that alone I gave it an extra star. I just, unfortunately, didn’t enjoy this at all.

I’ve always loved Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, so when I saw there was going to be a YA fantasy inspired by it, I was really excited! I did enjoy the elements of this book that drew on Rossetti’s goblin fruit, but I felt that there was just a little bit too much going on for that part of the story to really shine. This is, in a way, three books in one: you have the story of the goblins coming to town to steal the youths away; you have the historical story of the anti-Semitic pogroms in the Ukraine in 1903; and there’s also the Russian folklore element of the bear-people and the swan-people. While I think either of the folkloric parts could have worked well with the historical context, to have both together ended up pulling the story in too many different directions for me. As it happens, I found the bear/swan parts too much on top of the rest of the story.

The book is told in an unusual style, with alternating chapters from the perspective of two sisters – but Liba writes in prose, and Laya writes in blank verse. I really liked this (though I did have to double check, the first time I came across a Laya chapter, that this wasn’t some sort of formatting error!). It helps to capture the essence of the two sisters – Liba is traditional, focused on exploring the world in a practical way, while Laya is a free spirit whose thoughts are wilder and less contained. This did mean, though, that I didn’t connect with Laya very much, as you spend a lot more time with Liba and get to see a lot more of her world. Laya’s poetic style is great for the dreamy state in which she finds herself, and works beautifully for the ambiguous reality of the goblin world, but isn’t ideal for character-building. She’s something of a mystery to me.

It’s really great to see a fantasy story incorporate so much real-world history and culture – I know very little about this period, and I found the insights into the lives of the Jewish characters in the book very interesting. Setting this book in a historical context makes the story that much darker and deeper. There are some excellent #ownvoices reviews on Goodreads exploring the Jewish representation – I can’t speak to how accurate it is, but I found it very easy to follow, without being patronising.

It is a very YA story. There’s a lot of kissing, and the two sisters are extremely naive. The book focuses primarily on their love lives and their struggles with their own identity (as women, as Jews, as swan or bear people) – I would perhaps have liked a little more breadth to the tale. And perhaps, a little more nuance to the folkloric elements of the tale – I’m not sure that the sexual implications of the goblin market needed to be made quite so explicit – but on the whole, this is an enjoyable dark historical fantasy. Four out of five stars from me.

Sisters of the Winter Wood is another book that I’d seen all over the place, and I was intrigued by the story. Following two sisters as they come to learn things about their family they’d never even dreamed of, this is a hugely vivid story which pulls the reader into their world.

The main characters are the two sisters, Liba and Laya. They’re very different people, and this is emphasised throughout the book. They have different personalities, they want different things, and they approach the world around them differently. I enjoyed how we were able to see the world through two very different perspectives, and how much more depth that brought to the story. I also liked seeing the secondary characters from these differing viewpoints. Particularly given the nature of some of those characters, it really emphasises how personal perspective influences how we see the world.

As the story develops, we learn more about their town through the experiences of Liba and Laya. They’ve always felt comfortable there, though they’ve known that being Jewish sets them apart from others, and it’s heartbreaking to see that change over the course of the story. Rossner, I felt, did a brilliant job in showing the creeping changes that came over the town and its inhabitants, and how it took relatively little to bring old tensions to the surface. I think this was the aspect of the story I appreciated most, though it’s also one of the saddest elements of the book.

There are a number of themes in this book, all of which I think are woven together skilfully by Rossner. It’s a coming of age story for the sisters, with life-changing consequences for both. It’s a story about otherness, and the inherent lack of security that comes from being other in a place that, whatever the surface might show, might not always be safe for you. It’s also about family and what that means – is it blood, is it upbringing, is it the people you’ve chosen to be around you? As an overall story, I think Sisters of the Winter Wood is both honest and hopeful, and a very apt fantasy tale for our current era.

All that being said, I didn’t love this book as much as I wanted to, or as much as I feel like I should have. However, I would put that down to personal taste rather than anything else here. And the reason I say this is because there wasn’t anything particular that I actually disliked about the book, and in fact there’s a lot about the book that I think is really good; it just wasn’t for me.

Sisters of the Winter Wood is certainly an intriguing addition to current fantasy offerings, and I think it will appeal to anyone looking for a fantasy story that’s very relevant to the current world we live in. It’s got sisterhood, it’s got family secrets, and a whole lot of magic. Although it wasn’t the book for me, I think it has a lot to recommend it, particularly if you like your fantasy a little darker, but without the violence that often comes with that.

While I know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, lets be honest that a beautiful cover (such as this one) always makes me hopeful for the story contained within. This tells the story of sisters Liba and Laya who live on the edge of the woods. When their parents leave them alone for a few weeks, the girls must face the dangers inherent in the world together. Firstly, there is much to recommend in this book. The writing style is really innovative, having alternating chapters between the two sisters, with Laya's chapters told in verse. There are a lot of original elements and fairy tale re-tellings intertwined in the narrative which is impressive and holds the interest. My main issues come with the characters and specifically, some of their motivations. I just found a lot of the action completely unbelievable for the characters as they had been drawn. It is essential for me for any narrative to stick to its own internal logic, and I felt that this veered away from this on too many occasions. I also found a lot of the dialogue very stilted. All in all, I would say that this is a really ambitious book that just didn't quite work for me.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The beautiful cover reflects the gorgeous story told within its pages about two sisters, Liba and Laya. I can't speak from a Jewish perspective but the exploration of their treatment was certainly thought-provoking and frightening to read about. I loved the fairytale-esque style, with its lyrical prose and lilting cadence. Some people might not like that Laya's perspective is told in verse but I think it suited her character perfectly. The sisterly bond was the best part for me as it was so realistic. Overall, I'd highly recommend this fantasy for fans of Uprooted.

Hmmm. I honestly wanted to love this one. Jewish culture in Eastern Europe? Check. Retelling of "Goblin Market"? Check. Folklore influences? Check.

But in practice? I just couldn't get into the story. The plot felt badly paced and I couldn't really make sense of Laya's pov in some scenes. The ending felt a bit sudden too, not enough resolution for me to be fully satisfied. The writing is beautiful, though, and it might work better for someone else. It just didn't do the job for me.

while the book looks amazing and the set up was really cool, I felt like the characters didn't live up to the potential. I feel like a lot of YA books end up being just a bit immature when they don't have to be. There were also some cliches I wish YA writers would just stop using :(

This is one of the slow reads which goes to create an aura from the first page. The story is told from the sisters point of view with a poem in every other chapter. The book has an electric feel to it that takes time to get used to. A Jewish story and a fairy tale retelling, it adds to a powerful imagery when strange men arrive to the village luring the sisters to their poisonous fruits. Laya gives in to the temptation and Liba does everything to save her. I loved the sisterly love this book strongly evoked. I loved the emotions it pulled out of me.
The story had a few flaws which niggled me, the romance which felt a little too out of place for this kind of a story. The slow pace initially and the alternate prose and poem frustrated me till I got into the rhythm of the tale.
Overall an enjoyable read which took a few days for me to complete.

Like all the best fairy tales, The Sisters of the Winter Wood take us on a journey through the darker side of life.

Sisters Liba and Laya have been left in their cottage on the edge of the forest while their mother and father travel to reclaim all that they’ve lost. Their mother is fed up of the life they’re living which has been forced on them (their father is Jewish and their mother Ukranian). Before they leave for Kupel, Liba hears something she shouldn’t…

Not only left to fend for themselves, the sisters have to come to terms with the family secret as well as experiencing the first heady feelings of falling in love. Things become even more complicated when the strangers appear in the market place, selling their fruit and appearing to capture hearts. It’s hard enough being on the cusp of moving from childhood to becoming a woman, add in the mix the family secret and emotions become even more complex. Liba’s very real fear of not knowing what to do without a guiding hand is palpable.

Rena Rossner’s writing style is fitting for a fairy tale, evoking darkness and light (and all the shades in-between). The setting is perfect and scenes in the cottage, the forest and the market place had me right there beside the characters.

There’s so much I enjoyed in this story, feeling caught up in what was happening. However there were times when I felt uncomfortable too. Often people only look at the label of a religion and not who the person really is. They lack any understanding of traditions. This is portrayed so well in this story. It’s not until you get to the author’s note at the end of the story that you understand the deeper meaning of the prejudice and persecution. I think Rena Rossner can be proud of what she has achieved, winding this reality through her re-telling of the Goblin Market.

If you enjoy a fairy tale, I recommend you add The Sisters of the Winter Wood to your list. You won’t be disappointed.

Unfortunately I didn’t finish reading this book as I couldn’t connect with the story. I love the idea of the story and the characters, I just found the format difficult to read with the chapters switching, which was very jarring.

Sadly, I DFNed the book. Although the concept and the folk it's inspired by are very interesting, I found the story very slow-paced. I may finish it in the future - some books just need to be read on a different life moment-, but for now I had to DFNed it.

This was such an interesting fantasy book. It reminded me of The Bear and the Nightingale and in such a good way. The setting was described really clearly and Rossner created an Eastern European setting that was so believable. The two sisters stories were told in very different ways, one in verse and one in standard prose. I really like how the Jewish mythology was used in the story and it seemed like this could be connected to the real world, given how Rossner builds in historical issues that occurred.

The whimsical feel of the writing in this book is mind blowing! I just couldn't get past how slow it was, I was continually bored throughout all 50% of this that I read, and I just couldn't read anymore. I know a lot of people will absolutely adore this, it reminds me of The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert and Leigh Bardugo's writing which are two things I LOVE but I feel as though I just wasn't in the right mood for it. I will however probably continue at some point just not right now. I would recommend giving it a try because the writing on it's own is worth the experience!

I'm giving it three stars for now, but I feel likeI could rate it higher in the future when I actually finish it.

I DNFed this after 20%. The story seemed weirdly rushed and slow at the same time and didn't make a lot of sense to be honest. The protagonists claim that their parents are very protective of them but then they just leave without giving their children enough information to defend themselves.

I also didn't get why one perspective was written with a different formatting as if it was poetry even though there was no recognizable metre.