Winterly

Winterly: Dark Creatures Book One by Jeanine Croft

It’s while Emma Rose is in London that Markus Winterly comes to her aid one night and she is both entranced and afraid. Winterly invites Emma and her sister to stay with him and attend a ball. It’s while at Winterthurse that Emma falls further under Winterly’s spell and she finds herself making a bargain with him to keep her sister Milli safe from harm. While she is afraid, it’s not so much of Markus as the darkness she fears that is inside her.

I will say from the outset this is a pretty complicated book. It’s long and it goes on tangents and isn’t quite sure what type of book it’s meant to be. On the face of it, it’s a regency romance/vampire story which would be just fine. But then it turns into a paranormal story and then, mythology and reincarnation are added in. It’s really just too much, in my opinion. I’d have liked to have a simpler story that sticks to one or two genres and does it really well. More words don’t necessarily mean a better story and sometimes the good part gets lost in all the rest.

That said, it’s not a totally bad story. There are some intriguing characters and situations that make it something of a page-turner. Milli’s character was slightly more interesting than Emma’s, for being more reckless and landing in difficult situations so easily. I’ll be curious to see how Milli’s story plays out in the next book.

Overall I give this 2.5 stars. Thank you to BookSirens and the writer for providing an advanced review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.