Review: The Winter King by C.L. Wilson

The Winter King by C.L. Wilson

• Pub. Date:July 29, 2014
• Publisher: Avon
• Pages: 608
• Series: Weathermages of Mystral #1
• Rating:5/5
• Goodreads/Amazon/Book Depository

Wynter Atrialan, the Winter King, once lived in peace with his southern, Summerlander neighbors, but when the prince of Summerlea steals Wynter’s bride and murders his young brother, Wynter calls upon a dangerous Wintercraig magic called the Ice Heart and marches against Summerlea.

After three bitter years of battle, a victorious Wynter arrives at Summerlea’s royal palace to issue his terms of surrender. The prince of Summerlea stole Wynter’s bride and slew Wynter’s Heir. He wants the loss replaced. The Ice Heart is consuming him. Wynter hopes holding his own child in his arms will rekindle the warmth in his heart before he becomes the monster of Wintercraig legend, the Ice King.

The Summer King has three very precious daughters whom he loves dearly. Wynter will take one of them to wife. She will have one year to provide him with an Heir. If she fails, he will send her to face the mercy of the mountains and claim another princess for his wife. And so it will continue until Wynter has his Heir or the Summer King is out of daughters.

The plan is perfect—except for one small detail. The Summer King has a fourth daughter. One of whom he is not so fond. And she is a fiercely passionate creature, with a temper as volatile as the forces of her weathergift, the power of storms.

First Line:"Do you have to go?"

Review: I passed up on The Winter King a few times because of that cover, it's so cheesy, and I've never read anything by C.L. Wilson so how was I supposed to know how amazing her writing is. Anyways I saw quite a few reviews of The Winter King on blogs about how not to judge the book by it's cover which evidently I was guilty of doing and I am so glad I picked The Winter King up, all six hundred pages of it was just amazing.

I was sucked into the story right from the beginning. Khamsin "Storm" is such an awesome character. She is the fourth princess in the Summerlea Kingdom but because her weather gift killed her mother when she was three her father the King hates her and has abused her physically and emotionally in the worst ways not even allowing her to be a part of the family to the point most of the kingdom has forgotten there ever was a fourth princess. You think she would be broken and yes she is but her strength is something fierce and when meeting Wynter the Ice King of Wintercraig I just knew she would be the perfect match for someone like him.

Wynter, I slowly fell for him, we know he is kind but the world in which he lives in the other kingdoms fear him and which they should. Wynter's brother was killed by Khamsin's brother The Prince of Summerlea who also seduced Wynters future wife and took her with him anyways three years later Wynter has conquered Summerlea. The Ice Heart which has given him powers of an immortal god is consuming him and any part that makes him human and in order to solve that he wants one of the three Summerlea princesses to wed and produce an heir with one of them thinking that the love for his child will melt the Ice Heart within him what he doesn't know is that there is a fourth princess one who is just as strong and stubborn as him if not more.

The chemistry between Khamsin and Wynter was intense but it took a long time for the two to confess each others feeling for the other since neither one trusted the other and because of that there were quite a bit of misunderstandings not to mention Khamsin is from an enemy kingdom so even a lot of the Wyntercraig people had a hard time trusting their queen which made it even that much worse for Khamsin and Wynter since the men Wynter trusted were also always putting doubts in his mind about her and where her loyalties may lay. 

The plot was very fast paced even with the six hundred pages. The world building was very well done I felt like I was in Khamsin's world seeing through her eyes the whole time and the characters every single one of them had many layers and depth to them. I can't wait for the next book in the series The Sea King to come out, we already got to meet the hero and heroine in The Winter King and I was already starting fall for the guy so can't wait to read more about him.



Memorable Quotes 

~ "A giant ice wolf, they called it." ........ "Ice wolf, my ass. Show me one wolf--just one!--that can climb a tree!"

~"Idiots and frost brains."........"That's what men are. I've no idea why Freika ever bothered creating you. She should have recognized perfection when she created woman and stopped while she was ahead."