a weird and wonderful fairy tale setting, with a strong message. perfect for fans of naomi novik or fairytale retellings. I enjoyed it, thought the style wasn't quite to my taste: blunt and otherwordly, like an old translated tale - i think lots of people will love it, but wasn't exactly to my taste.

2.5 stars

This was a strange, surprising book. It's Wintersong meets You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone with a distinct Eastern European twist, and reminds me at every turn of The Hazel Wood. It's a very, very slow-paced coming-of-age tale featuring magic, discovery and lush imagination, heavily relying on subtlety. Personally, the story was too slow and occasionally confusing for me to remain immersed. Which is why, even though I'm describing it as a mashup of two novels I adore, I didn't quite enjoy The Sisters of the Winter Wood.

Let me explain. The beginning and ending are pretty cool, with several game changers and thrilling developments, but the middle drags for forever. Most of it is repetition--the Meisels tell Liba she and Laya should get out of the woods and move into town where they're safe, Liba says no and worries about her secret while falling for Dovid, Laya wanders off with Fedir only to reappear in a hazy stupor some time later with Liba panicked, repeat for 75% of the book. Most characters besides the sisters are not memorable enough to fill in the gaps left by a minimal plot, and despite Liba constantly in a state of worry, I can't really feel the suspense through the pages.

Simply put, it gets dull after a while. Things pick up by the end, at which point the mystery that's been hovering in the background for the whole book is solved, but I feel that's another of The Sisters of the Winter Wood's missteps: The 'solution' seems to come out of nowhere, and it's one of those cases where the protagonist suddenly has an epiphany and realises the truth based on several inconclusive clues that realistically don't lead to the one correct answer.

Laya's verse chapters add to the general sense of mystical confusion, which may be a pro or a con depending on your tastes. Since I tend to prefer clear storytelling, I felt they were not that effective. If you love beautiful, abstract poetry, you'll probably take to them more than I did--for me, most of Laya's chapters sadly came off as a jumble of somewhat contrived purple prose. Every time a Laya chapter rolled around I found myself wishing to get back to Liba's POV, because at least Liba could be relied on to articulate what was going on.

However, there were several things I admired about The Sisters of the Winter Wood. One was the slow burn relationship between Liba and Dovid, which is much more understated than most YA romance because of their strict Orthodox Jewish culture. I thought it developed in an innocent and lovely way, and Rena Rossner did a splendid job showing how they came to care and stand up for each other. There's absolutely nothing steamy between the two, but there doesn't need to be. Their interactions are purely organic.

I also liked the aspects of Ukrainian/Moldavian/Russian/Romanian folklore. Rossner's story overflows with both Jewish and Eastern European culture, from which the fantastical elements are heavily inspired. Many Yiddish words appear in the story. The Yiddish dictionary at the back is helpful to decipher conversations, albeit rather inconvenient if you read in ebook format as I did. Thankfully, most Yiddish words can be inferred from context.

Finally, I'm partial to the theme of sisterhood that runs subtly through the novel. I just would have liked a lot more of it, like I'd have liked more of the mythological elements. When the sisters finally mastered their respective magical powers (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers), which had been constantly alluded to beforehand, it was so underwhelming.

I really wanted to fall in love with this book. I think, if I'd read it in small doses, I could have. The Sisters of the Winter Wood is atmospheric, introspective and filled with lyrical, subtle writing. As a fantasy novel, it runs out of momentum too soon.

*Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book! All opinions represented remain my own.*

YA fantasy, particularly with fairy tale and folklore references, is my new favourite genre. So that, combined with the beautiful cover, is what drew me to this book.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is set in the village of Dubossary, on the border of Moldova and the Ukraine, in 1903. It combines traditional folk tales and real-life history (the Russian pograms). The author's note at the back of the book explains which scenes really happened, and how she drew on her own family history for inspiration. The story is about two Jewish sisters, Liba and Laya, who live in a village where Jews and non-Jews live quite happily alongside each other, until a band of handsome men arrive in town to sell the most wonderful fruit at the market - and spread dissent. Suddenly everything bad that happens (deaths and disappearances) is blamed upon the Jews. It's hard to explain more, without going into spoiler territory, so I'll go with what it says on the blurb: 'Faced with a magical heritage they never knew existed, the sisters realise the old fairy tales are true . . . and could save them all.'

While I did enjoy the story (for me, it's a solid four stars) it is aimed firmly at the YA market, so at times I found it a bit teenage-y. Most of the drama deals with the two girls' discovery of who they really are and the pains of first love. The growing tension in the village, and the mystery of who was responsible for the deaths and disappearances, kept me gripped and I read the book very quickly. I found the historical parts fascinating. I liked the characters and thought the way the author alternated the viewpoint of each sister - Liba spoke in prose, Laya's voice was more like poetry - was clever.

However, the amount of Yiddish and Hebrew words at the start of the book made it hard to get into at first (there is a glossary at the back), and while I like stories that reference classic fairy tales and folk tales, I did feel The Sisters of the Winter Wood borrowed a bit too heavily from Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, particularly towards the end. Meaning that if you've read that, you'll have no trouble working out the plot. (The author, in her notes, admits this is deliberate.)

So, while older folk like me might find The Sisters of the Winter Wood lacks crossover appeal, the target audience will love it and probably give it an extra star.


Thank you to Rena Rossner and Orbit for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

I was very surprised to learn this was adult fantasy as opposed to YA fantasy because for me it reads very much as YA. I love YA so this isn’t actually a criticism but if YA doesn’t tickle your fancy and you’re expecting something a bit more adult than this isn’t for you.

It reads as YA, not just because the two protagonists are teenagers (17 and 15), but because the themes are those that are often found in YA. We’re talking sibling relationships, stepping up to life responsibilities when adults have gone/ are useless, the coming of age into adulthood and the first foray’s into romantic love.

That’s the other thing that made me sigh with frustration – the insta-love. Now for one of the sister’s (Laya), the insta-love was very much part of the plot and viewed as a concern. This was because Laya’s insta-love was due to magical enchantments and breaking her from it was a motivation of her sister (Liba).

Liba had a more traditional route to love (met a nice boy from the village) but the insta-love trope was out in full force. Once she had begun to acknowledge those romantic feelings it was constantly about those romantic feelings and the recipient of those romantic feelings.

I actually really enjoy a romance plot and as Liba’s sexual awakening was part of her character development I could understand it to some extent but so much of the story started to get bogged down with it to the point where I was getting bored.

Kathy at Pages Below the Vaulted Sky reviewed a book called Strange Grace and mentioned that it was a kissing book with ‘a whole lot of smooching going on’ and I love that phrase so much that I’m stealing it for this book review because that’s what The Sisters of the Winter Wood became. A kissing book with a whole lot of smooching.

It got repetitive, incredibly so after the 50% mark, and I was desperate for more action and more plot.

That in itself is a real shame because this book was packed to the rafters with potential in the way of its plot but I don’t know if it knew what it wanted to be. A romance? A fairy tale with shape-shifting? A fairy tale with goblins? A portrayal of a terrible time in Jewish history? A commentary of what it is like to be a devout member of Judaism?

If one or two of the plot points were chosen and interwoven then I actually think this would have been a smoother ride. Even if those plot points were based on realism and magic because fantasy and fairy tales grounded in reality can really work.

A social commentary on what it is like to be a devout member of Judaism in love with someone not Jewish as a swan vs. bear metaphor could have worked. As could have a social commentary on what is a horrible and real event in history combined with the horror of goblins and what they want to achieve.

Instead I felt that the writer was trying to do too much and while it didn’t get complicated it seemed to dilute the impact of the events that happened. For example at the end of the book when they describe a horrible (and real life event) I didn’t feel the emotional impact as I should have done. This was in part because of the aforementioned ‘too much’ in the way of plot points but also because of the characters.

Everyone aside from Liba is underdeveloped and superficial, filling the role of ‘love interest’ or ‘briefly introduced before they leave parent’. Even one of our two first person POV protagonists seems designed to fulfill the role of ‘freedom craving and highly irritating younger sister.’

Sadly I just could not warm to Laya. Her POV sections are brief but are almost boring because they’re so brief. We never know her, never get to care for her and the sister relationship, a driving factor of the plot, is almost non-existent.

A unique approach is how the first person POV’s are presented. Liba’s is done in standard prose while Laya’s is done in verse. This is to reflect the different natures of the sisters and (I’m guessing) the nature of Laya being less typical and more ‘free-flowing.’

Again, this may work for some but sadly not for me.

I found
that the way it
was presented was
highly annoying and
difficult
to read.
And at first,
I thought
it was my Kindle
doing something funny
or my eyes.

I liked the originality but I didn’t fully understand why Laya’s POV needed to be presented this way. But then I didn’t do English Literature so maybe there are reasons.

In short – this book is probably for many people but not for me. But it definitely makes me want to read Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.

I found this book very hard to get into and for me, the characters seemed a lot younger than what they were supposed to be. The Jewish phrases through me quite a bit too and there was no explanation for them or the words used which pulled me from the story quite frequently. The story doesn't really kick off until the girls' parents are forced to leave and the secret of their heritage is revealed. One is a swan and the other a bear. I found this a little hard to believe, but kept reading anyway. The story is told from both Liba and Laya's points of view which I don't mind, but there just didn't seem to be enough realism in the book. Both girls were too innocent for the ages they were supposed to be and at times the storyline was a little difficult to follow especially Laya's chapters which were written in verse. I couldn't understand why this was.

The religious tensions were done really well but without explanation of the different words and stuff it was difficult to understand.

There were numerous occasions when I wanted to give up on this book but I read to the end. Some readers are going to love this book and I think young adults, in particular, will find it great. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a mix of folklore, history, and Young Adult elements that brings its readers in a fairytale-like atmosphere in which two Jewish sisters learn what it means to become adults in a time of hate and ignorance. Laya and Liba are two young girls in the town of Dubossary. Very different one from the other, they are like the night to the sun, and not just in looks but also regarding their characters. While Liba is dark-haired, studious, thoughtful, and timid, Laya is white blonde, open, apparently superficial, and friendly. While persecutions start to make victims in nearby villages, the two girls parents are forced to leave when a distressing message reaches them. The serious Liba has the task of looking after her sister, but both girls find themselves in the mids of events bigger than themselves.

Strong points of this book for me are:
- interesting rendition of the history and cultural aspects characterising Jewish and non-Jewish people in the East of Europe
- good characterisation of the MCs and description of the world. Even if based on real places the fantasy part lends to a solid balance between the actual and the fantastical world
- nice use of folklore to recount a difficult time in history and to deliver a tale about familial relationships and the passage from childhood to adulthood

The weak points are:
- the author falls too easily in the Young Adult stereotype on the use of love. Naturally, the age of the protagonists, Laya and Liba, calls for some romance but in this case, I feel like she should have balanced this differently and kept it a very light, very secondary element. I am sure that if the book had been classified as Young Adult, I would have entered the story with another mindset, however, since it wasn't that clear that it is a YA I expected less childish bickering and romance
- I have to admit being one of those who was quite put-off by the way in which this novel is written. The story is on both Liba and Laya points of view, and the author well managed this, but the two ways of writing, one normal discourse and the other in verse gave me pose quite often during the reading
- some of the choices taken by the main characters where a bit questionable and, even if needed to support the storyline, I would have liked for them to be based on more stable ground

3.5* rounded up.
I enjoyed this fairly dark fantasy about two sisters. One will be able to transform into a bear, like her father and one into a swan, like her mother. They are a Jewish family but because Mami, converted, they are never quite accepted by the Jews of their village, and live outside the community in the forest.
The girls Parents have to leave the girls behind in the forest, while they go back to Tati's home to visit his dying father. Liba, the older sister (bear) is asked to guard her sister Laya from the swans, who may come back for her. Meanwhile, several strangers are turning up and the pogroms are starting nearby.
There are several different threads to this story, but this doesn't make it too complicated to follow, which can sometimes happen.
In atmosphere, this reminded me of a cross between 'The Bear and the Nightingale' and 'The Gloen and the Djinn' I think readers who enjoyed those books will like this one.

**Many thanks to Netgalleyfor an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review**

A well crafted, atmospheric and enthralling book. I loved the mix of folklore, Jewish culture and historical events.
Everything in this book is special, starting with the wonderful cover.
It's difficult to described as there're so many nuances and so many things involved that keep you reading, when you think you're understanding there's a turn and you keep on turning pages because you want more.
I was sad when it was over because it was a wonderful trip in a very fascinating world.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for this ARC

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a mixed retelling having inspiration from many sources, including Goblin Market, East European fairytales, and has a historical setting in being around a time of Jewish persecution in early 20th century. In the town of Dubossary, the main characters live in a town that has both Jewish and non-Jewish people, and while on the surface things are cordial, underneath it is very much divided. Laya and Liba's parents live on the outskirts of town, following a different part of Jewish faith, in a strict upbringing that has Liba devout and Laya rebellious. When their parents leave town to attend to their sick grandfather, Liba is told to protect her sister from their families - for they are not just people; they are shifters whose powers come through their family lines of being bears and swans, enemies of each other.

The things the book did well were bringing out the heightened tensions between the religions during that period of time, as well as the Jewish customs followed by Leib family. The latter differs from the customs followed by other Jewish families in their town, which is why Liba is very hesitant to pursue a romance with Dovid, even though there is a reciprocal interest. Meanwhile, Liba, who has always looked for adventure, seeks it in a non-Jewish Boy (I keep forgetting his name, so it will be Boy in this review), part of a set of traveling fruit merchants. She falls for him, hard and fast, and there may have been some intoxicating fruits involved, which is why Liba gets really worried when she falls sick, and only wants him. Meanwhile, a couple of non-Jewish residents have been found dead on Jewish properties, adding the metaphorical fuel to the fire, and while they are pointing fingers, the Jewish residents are looking for the bears who they think are the cause of the deaths. Add to that, Liba is trying to protect her sister from lover Boy, her bear family, Laya's swan family, and that is a lot of stress for her to take on suddenly, and she mostly relies on Dovid for strength and reassurance. The plot brings out the awakening sexualities of the teen girls through the comparison with their awakening powers, but also through the head-over-heels kind of romance they both get into. There is also a questioning of faith, of dividing yourself from others because they don't follow the same customs as you, and the power of community and the strength of resilience borne from ancestral stories of valor.

But what ruined my enjoyment of the book was, firstly, the fact that Laya's chapters are in verse and there is no specific reason for it to be so. In fact, I was reading my galley in both the pdf and kindle version, so I could compare how the presence or absence (respectively) of formatting for the verse parts, did not make a lick of difference; the verse parts were just sentences with the enter key pressed every few words. (Yeah, I am not a fan of verse novels, as you can see, but I am an even worse critic of those that don't even make an effort to be poetic) Secondly, while these are young teens and it is obviously very hormonal, I couldn't take the fact that it heavily relies on the romance angle. 50% of the plot is them sighing over passionate kisses, running to or from their respective beaus; Liba's includes some healthy eating, and occasional self doubt, but Laya's is especially infuriating because even when Liba tells her the Boy make anti-Semitic comments, she instead blames her sister and fights with her. Even when her sister comes to rescue her, she is like 'go away you liar'; I should not she had no plans of her own escape at this point, and intoxicated or no, she was a shitty sister. The romance-heavy plot left little consideration for the historical and folklore aspect of this plot, until nearly the last quarter when it actually got into that.

Shortly, a good blend of history, magic, and folklore, but romance-heavy.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Little Brown Book Group, via Netgalley.

I have decided to just give up on this. I am very much not the right kind of reader for this which is odd because I thought I would love this: I adore fairy-talesque stories influenced by Northern European folklore. I like books described as whimsy. I love stories focussing sibling relationships. But what I don't enjoy is YA-Romance; which this seems to mostly be. I could not get on board with the language nor the tone of the story. I don't think I would have picked this up if I had known that every second chapter was written in verse. (And to be perfectly honest, the rhythm of the poems did not work for me whatsoever -if they had a lovely cadence I think I could have adored this.)

The main reason I got interested in this book was that I had read Spinning Silver earlier this summer and it seemed like The Sisters of the Winter Wood had a really similar vibe to it, being set in eastern Europe and with Jewish protagonists as well. I wasn’t wrong, Sisters just turned out to have a bit smaller scale adventure.

The book was told from both Liba and Laya’s point of view in a pretty cool way I hadn’t seen before: Laya’s chapters were written in verse. Since I was reading an eARC it took me a moment to figure out if her chapters were actually like that on purpose or if it was some weird Kindle formatting but yeah, it was on purpose. It really fit her personality and her being a swan and the way her story ended up going in general so I liked it a lot.

Liba’s chapters were just normal and also usually longer than Laya’s because of that, so a lot of the plot progression seemed to happen during those. She’s the more serious big sister trying to take care of Laya and figure out what’s happening in their village so it made sense for her to get a bit more of a spotlight. Her being the responsible one in the story was kinda interesting for me actually because usually I kinda ignore the characters’ ages in YA books and forget how young they are, but in this one I found myself totally agreeing with Dovid’s mom who actually told Liba that a seventeen-year-old shouldn’t need to deal with as much responsibility as her parents left her with. I liked Dovid’s mom a lot for that.

The major role of religion in the book surprised me a little bit, because even though I knew from the description that Liba and Laya were Jewish, I still expected the fantasy side of the book to be the more major element, but it’s actually kind of the other way around. Author’s notes reveal that many of the events in the book are actually based on real events that happened to Jewish people in history, in the very same village where Liba and Laya live in the book (Dubossary), which I found really interesting. The book is basically about bad things happening in a peaceful community and Jewish people getting wrongly blamed for it and trying to save the situation before things escalate to something horrible. With a bit of magic.

The magical fairy tale side is honestly pretty lowkey in the beginning, and for a long time it felt like the girls were more interested in kissing boys than anything else and most of the struggle with transforming into animals seems to be that would be awkward to accidentally bite your boyfriend’s face off, but once the real plot starts moving and the magic really happening it’s actually pretty beautiful. The whole backstory of how people who can turn into bears or swans came to be was really interesting: you basically become what you need to be.

One more thing before I end this long ramble: the characters use a lot of words and phrases in their own language(s) which I liked a lot because it added authenticity to it and I could kind of hear in my head how they would speak. I think there’s translations for phrases at the end of the book but I didn’t really feel like I needed that, because most of the time it was easy enough to guess from context what the words meant or the same thing was in English right after.

For some reason trying to type up proper thoughts about this book was really hard, but I hope I’ve made some sense. Just know that it’s a beautiful book and I feel like there’s a lot of little details especially for Jewish readers to appreciate. I’d also definitely recommend this to fans of Spinning Silver because even though The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a very different story it has that same magical wintery feel to it.

An enchanting, magical tale with family at its heart. I enjoyed the beautiful story but for me it was a little heavy on religion, and I wasn't a huge fan of the way Laya's parts of the book were written in verse. A great book for those who are particularly interested in the Jewish faith and its folklore.

The Sister Of The Winter Wood was a unusual and yet a fascinating and extremely atmospheric read indeed.

For a debut novel, Rena Rossner really impressed me with her light touch, creative folklore and nicely fleshed out characters. The mythology behind the folklore is wonderful and gives the story a real, solid basis from which the real magic springs.

This glorious and outlandish tale is told from the dual perspectives of two Jewish sisters, in a time where Jews were horribly persecuted which gives the story a really firm base in reality, that compliments the more fantastical side of the sisters tale. One sister, Liba, tells her side of the using regular format storytelling while the other, Laya, use a more whimsical free-flowing poetic style of story telling which is interesting but Laya's parts didn't exactly work for me. I do think that this was more to do with the basic formatting of the ARC and I really believe will come across much better in the finished book when it's presented properly. Each of the sisters isn't quite what they first appear to be but it's too spoilerish to say more on that and it's these facts that lead off into the fantasy and folklore side of the story. Each want to live their own lives but have simple family expectations put upon them by their parents, both are fighting their own fight for a certain kind of freedom for themselves.

At the end of the day though, this is a dramatic and effective folklore tale in a similar vein toe Naomi Novak's Uprooted (probably her Spinning Silver too, although I haven't read it yet so don't know for sure). It's written in a beautiful style and the atmosphere just flows off of the pages in superb style... it's a simply remarkable tale and worth recommending, I will be re-reading a finished copy of the book at some point to see if it can recover the deducted star take away by Laya's storytelling, to see if I'm right about it being down to the formatting or not.

This book was a huge disappointment for me. I really love this genre and this won my heart by the mention of Uprooted and Bear and the Nightingale. These two books were also mentioning/telling other cultures, using cultural references as background; Uprooted Polish and Bear and Nightingale Russian. So a Jewish tale sounded so promising, as I thought it'll be interesting to read. But Sisters of the Winterwood isn't using Jewish culture. It's overwhelmed by the religion and the endless terms. Religious terms, (if they are really, as I have no idea what all that words mean, apart from Bat Mitzvah never heard any of them) are so many that I lost my concentration.

I don't think it's possible for anyone not knowing Judaism to keep up with this book. There are too many Hebrew(?) words, and I had no idea what they meant. The proof didn't have any footnotes or explanations. I kept reading up to the point I felt like I am completely detached from the book. Sadly, this isn't for me.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is Rena Rossner's fantasy debut novel and it is inspired by Christina Rossetti's poem Goblin Market, jewish folklore and history. It talks about the love and bond between two sisters with fantasy elements.
After finishing it, I had mixed feelings. I liked the setting and the jewish folklore, the characters were okay, even if not very remarkable, while what I didn't enjoy was the romance. It was a little bit too rushed and without a solid basis. Plus, some scenes and chapters were too long for my liking.
All in all, it wasn't a bad book but nothing extraordinary either.

On the whole, I enjoyed The Sisters of the Winter Wood, though there are several lulls in the narrative (primarily in the first half of the novel) that make it a little difficult to be completely enthused about reading on at all times. However, I did read from about a third of the way in to the book's conclusion in one go, unwilling to put it down.

The two narratives are presented in different formats, one being prose and the other poetry, and I spent a good deal of time wondering if there was a particular reason for the poetry beyond Laya's particular quirks, but once the ties between the story and Goblin Market became apparent, it was much clearer. This said, I could be making assumptions that Laya's narrative takes the form of poetry to mimic Rossetti's Goblin Market because she is the sister who takes on the heavier elements of the tale. There are many lines lifted almost directly from Goblin Market, which, having studied and taught Rossetti's work, I found increasingly distracting, yet this is unlikely to be an issue for all readers. It is certainly effective in conveying the same themes and ideas from the original. The language features and structural devices in Laya's point of view work well to convey her naivety and youth, contrasted with the unfortunate reality that she is the one drawn down into much more mature situations.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood reads quite like a tale within a tale within a tale, and though I enjoyed elements from each of them, I was left wondering which of them it truly wanted to be. In parts, it is a fantasy novel, while in others it reads like historical fiction, with the retelling of Rossetti's work woven through the middle. There were sections of descriptive prose that I loved, particularly concerning the swans and Liba's interaction with Dovid's family, and though I started the novel finding the switch between prose and poetry little jarring, I did begin to look forward to Laya's narrative.

Though I found it a bit difficult to believe the actions of Liba and Laya's parents (in leaving them alone) and Liba's 'handling' of the situation with Laya (in that she repeatedly either lets her go off alone or gets distracted from addressing it), at its heart the story presents some positive messages about family, love and forgiveness. A unique read and one I would recommend.

— DISCLAIMER: I received a eARC of this novel via NetGalley – thank you to both Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group for the opportunity! All opinions expressed in this review are my own. —

I really enjoyed this book. Although the story dragged at times, it was very well written (and I love me some beautiful prose), and much deeper than I had expected. The tale revolves around the two sisters coming to terms with who they are and how their world works. While this is a fantasy novel, it does address many of the social issues prevailing throughout Europe for centuries. Not only does it feed off the idea of intrusive foreigners, but it looks at the strained relationships between Jews and Christians, and how these might have evolved or been influenced, as well as the interactions between different societies. This is one of the stories of which I believe that they are important to be told. While this year has been great at producing diverse reads (for example, the fabulous short story collection All Out or the badass black heroine of Dread Nation), this seems to hit close to home. Perhaps this is because I grew up learning history from German textbooks, where the Holocaust is central, it seems that this is a topic I've thought about for most of my life. But at the same time, relationships between different social or religious groups are also a very current topic. I do hope that this book will be able to inspire more tolerance in young minds.

Full review available under: https://libridraconis.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/the-sisters-of-the-winter-wood-rena-rossner/

This novel is a retelling of The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti and has many other Russia myths woven in.

The novel follows the story of two sisters who live with their parents at the edge of a town along the Moldova and Ukraine border. Who are isolated from their town due to the fact that their mother is a Jewish covert, despite this they have lived in relative peace until one day a relative of their father turns up at their door asking their father to go back to his home town as his father is dying. Their mother and father decide to leave the sisters at home due to the dangers that those of the Jewish faith face when traveling. However, before they leave their mother tells them a family secret that will change their lives forever and makes them promise to protect each other from the dangers lurking in the woods.

The story follows two POVs one for each of the sisters. The first is Liba who is 17, very devoted to her religion and reserved. The second is Laya who is 15, she is much more carefree than her sister and more open. Both of these POVs are written in different formats, Liba’s is in standard format while Laya’s is in alternative verse. I really loved how each of these formats fit with each sister’s personality. Liba’s is more in depth and detailed, whereas Laya’s is more flowy and dreamlike. I also feel like I connected with each sister in different ways. Like Liba I’m more reserved and feel like I’m always on the outside looking in and like Laya I’ve always wanted to fly away.

This book also follows the each of the girls sexual awakening as now that the girls parents are away they are both able to explore love and lust in their own way. Liba with a fellow Jew from her town who she doesn’t believe that her father would approve of and Laya with one of the new boys who have turned up in town selling fruit. I love how this theme of the book really helps each girl to learn the true meaning of unconditional love.

This is such an atmospheric book and the writing in this is so beautiful and lyrical and really makes you feel like you are there when reading it.

Trigger Warnings for antisemitism, unhealthy thoughts around eating and body image, abuse, death and past slavery and rape.

Overall, this book had me hooked from the first line and while this is definitely a hit or miss kind of book, I’m so glad to say that it was a complete hit with me. I gave this 5 out of 5 stars.

On another note, if you pick up the book make sure you read the authors note as it heart-breaking and really helps you to understand the authors reasons and inspirations for writing the novel.

[this review will be posted on my blog, acquadimore.wordpress.com, on 09/22/2018]

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a historical fantasy novel following a Jewish Ukrainian family. The two main characters are Liba and her younger sister Laya, and this is a story of self-discovery that almost reads like a dark fairytale, partly inspired by Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and by many Russian and Ukrainian folktales.

Sadly, I couldn't get into this book at all. Half of it, Laya's PoV, is written in verse. I usually don't agree with those who say that modern poetry is just prose randomly broken up, but... this totally felt like prose randomly broken up. I don't understand why it was even told that way - there was nothing poetic about it, it just felt stilted.
Not that the writing in Liba's PoV was much better. All the dialogue felt really forced to me, and I can't figure out if the way the writing always kept me at arm's length from the characters was intentional or not.

If it hadn't been for the writing, I'm sure I would have liked this, maybe even loved it. The dark, mysterious atmosphere was there, there were a lot of food mentions and descriptions (worldbuilding done through food is my favorite kind of worldbuilding), and this blend of fairytales, coming-of-age themes and history could have been a very good adult/YA crossover.
Unfortunately, I just couldn't finish it.

Classic fantasy writing from a very capable author. The story centres around Aranthur who travels from his farm to study at the academy in the big city. He is a likeable character who is not very worldly wise and is basically thrown in out of his depth. He knows little of the world and is confounded by people from all stratas of life. From the drug addled, nobility and even the Emperor. Somehow he even gets involved in politics which brings to his attention a conspiracy and a mysterious character known as the Master..
The characters are varied and well written. The world building and action scenarios are also very well done. Interested to read more.