Reviews

Winter of the Owl by Iris Foxglove

whatthefridge's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Overall, this was a fantastic read with great chemistry and pacing. There was probably only one major hiccup that got to me, but not enough to ruin the story as a whole. 

So in this world, people are literally born either dominant or submissive like it’s a tertiary sex trait. For example, a dominant can compel a submissive to follow their orders. And there’s mentions of spellwork too, though magic doesn’t particularly play any role in this story. 

The whump is delicious in both directions. Victor, a submissive, was raised an orphan who never got adopted. He felt unwanted even before he got preyed upon by a gaslighting professor who ground his self-esteem into atoms. And Sava, a dominant, wanted to prove he was strong enough for his lover, but by the time he was ready to make a move, the lover killed himself. Sava blames himself for not being enough for his lover to choose life instead.  

Victor and Sava are in forced proximity for the entire winter, and so their feelings for each other begin to simmer. Except neither feels worthy of the other, and you’d expect the mutual pining to keep holding strong when they admit they don’t feel like they deserve each other.

Then Sava immediately makes a move, berating himself for doing it right after trying to convince himself to stay away. He doesn’t understand why Victor would settle for him until it dawns on him that Victor’s low self worth would be the reason he’d be satisfied with a less than worthy mate. Sava decides he will make himself worthy of Victor, who to him is beyond perfect and beyond what he currently deserves.

I’m all sorts of emotional. 

I really liked that Victor and Sava have open communication about their feelings. The conflicts that arise end up being them dealing with their respective worth issues and working through it together. 

My problem arises with

Ivan’s jealousy issues. I think the story works the way it does only if you completely ignore the parts that indicate polyamory is an option. Listen, I know jealousy can still happen in polyam, that’s not where I’m going with this. The way Ivan acts is as though Sava can have only one mate total. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the concept of a mated pair welcoming a third, but I would assume the third becomes part of a mated triad. And, in theory, Ivan would still gain access to Sava as a third, whether with Milan or Victor. But Ivan is acting like it’s all or nothing. There’s not even a reasoning for rejecting being a third. So the conflict is very frustrating to witness unless you close your eyes to the existence of polyam in this culture. Additionally, Ivan’s villain monologue at the very end isn’t about to endear him to Sava even if Ivan’s plans came to fruition somehow.

It was too heavy handed and contrived for my taste.

Also, much smaller gripe, the sex scenes feel very rushed. Not enough lingering. Just very utilitarian with word choice. It’s still explicit and serviceable, but I wish it had more on-page weight in the narrative. 

But honestly I still had a great time, and I’d want to read more from this author duo under a single name. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Murder

allie8973's review against another edition

M/m and vibes mystical but basically no spice and I had such high freaking hopes for all the set up. Even the biokink was basically non-existent 

chiarob's review against another edition

4.5

This is such an original story. It has a melancholic feeling, but it was still cozy

teenykins's review against another edition

3.0

It pains me to give this 3 stars. Maybe it's my mood, maybe it was my expectation based on the Starian Cycle? I don't know.

This is a feel good story, with the two MCs supporting each other and soaring each other up when the other person needed it and some angst to get the heart pumping. But see here's the thing, the sex scenes weren't as graphic, exciting and titillating as in Starian, something that I noticed with [b:The King's Mage|59049225|The King's Mage (Starian Cycle #5)|Iris Foxglove|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1632262680l/59049225._SX50_.jpg|89985616] as well which was a bit of let down. Sava and Victor were cute and sweet but I found my self drifting while reading their story unfold.

I loved all the Lukos info and can't wait for more! Although I do know that books 3 and 4 will be MMFs so that's something that I'm still unsure on how I'll proceed (I left MF romance behind for reasons).

teenykins's review

3.0

As always I'm always game to do a re-read in the form of listening to the audio book.

Narration: 4 stars
Story: 3.5 stars

Kris Antham is really a talented narrator and I really love listening to him even though sometimes the editing misses things that should have been cut. Here he was great even though at times I couldn't understand what Sava was saying with how heavily accented he was made.

Now when it comes to the story I'm expecting a certain level of spiciness from Iris Foxglove that admittedly since the 3rd-4th book in the Starian Cycle it had began to patter out, so scenes fading to black and reminisced about is not my preference and this is what happens here between Sava and Victor in part. Really it's a quiet affair between them despite everything else going on.

On the other hand though we get beautiful and imaginative landscapes of Lukos with a lot of history and found family and that's quite amazing!

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

cglckk's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

justgrey's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

kattandra's review against another edition

bored, not invested in characters or plot

anbananova's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

i liked this book. i enjoyed the vibe and the characters. there were unpredictable twists that i didn’t see coming. the only thing is till don’t understand - the world building - are witches still alive, does magic still exist? 

pearlc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0