A review by booknooknorth
Winter of the Wicked by J.L. Vampa

4.0

Spoiler

AAAAAH IT ENDED ON A FUCKING CLIFFHANGER WHY

I want to preface by saying, that though I read this on KU, I'm getting another Kindle copy to support Vampa cause I want this series to finish, dammit.
This series was such a comfort read in Autumn and felt like a birthday present when it was released near March!
Vampa's prose is the highlight but can also be her downfall at times (as it can get clumsy, but when she nails it....ooo she nails it good)

The whole entire book sent me into a turmoil of emotions that I almost cried near the end.
The introduction of the Druid and Troupe felt like a subtle nod to "Night Circus" and "Hollow Knight" (I don't know if Vampa played that game tho) that I almost squealed when I read it.

Like "Autumn", "Winter" has a slow start, but then once we reached the peak of that hill, the action, twists, and political intrigue start to roll so fast that I had a hard time putting the book down past the 50% mark.

That said, I think this sequel did have a few pitfalls, but none of this makes me want to dock it below 4 stars. (Hell, it can be 4.5 if the below problems were fixed)

I want to say this one is a step under "Autumn" in that, I felt the prose was a bit lacking this time around. I feel having another editor and one more beta reader that's honest probably would have helped. (Vampa if you're reading this, I would love to beta future work)

Though this book was supposed to revolve around Wendolyn, I feel like we didn't focus too much on her and went back to Agatha and Grimm going to horny jail (which I ain't complaining about the spicy smut).

Spoiler

Last book we got one spicy smut scene. This book we got two...Can we get three in the next book, Vampa?

Kinda wish it was more centered around Wendolyn like "Autumn" was centered on Agatha.


All in all, this is a solid sequel to "Autumn", just wished each sequel focused more on the respective sister instead of going back to Agatha and Grimm (I understand why Vampa did it for the plot since her story needed these characters again, but it still felt like it overstayed a bit too much.)
Maybe it'll change for "Spring of Ruin".
If you have the physical version of Winter but the Kindle version of "Autumn", I highly recommend using the "Autumn" copy to ctrl F some names that you might have forgotten since the last book.

Read this book if you need your Vampa itch again, she still got it and she'll put you on the feels train whether you like it or not.

4/5