Elaine White's Life in Books

Book 3: Winterwode
POV: 3rd person, multi-character
Pages: 370
Star rating: ★★☆☆☆

Okay, you have to excuse me, because I'm writing this immediately after finishing the book and I'm angry.

1 – this is advertised as a “series”, only for me to discover in the Author's Note that it's actually two trilogies. Although, how it can be called that when the author claims “Winterwode is, as the beginning of a new trilogy and the third book in the overall series” when it takes three books to create a series, I just don't know.
2 – I've pushed myself through all of these three books without one ever having a proper ending. They all leave you with a cliffhanger and uncertainty. There is not ONE straight ending to ANY of the books!

3 – I was supposed to read book 4 to review, but after the lengthy and exhausting sludge through the first three books, that won't be happening. Not when I know that I'm only going to end up reading the same story, all over again, with no ending in sight. And, how do I know it's the same story? Because EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Is about Gamely and his damned existential crisis between whether to follow Robyn or follow his faith. It is not only boring, but tedious and frustrating and so damned repetitive that I could read book 1 over and over again and never miss anything important. Because NOTHING HAPPENS. Ever.

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Right, with that off my chest, here goes my review of book 3.

I still feel like Marion's only part to play is to be a woman, cook and care for the boys, while getting her own POV to snoop on Robyn and Gamelyn, to tell us things about them that we can see quite clearly without her. Unless her real purpose is to cause trouble – because she excels at dropping the boys into hot water and then acting all innocent, like it wasn't her fault, or even going so far as to be the victim. It rubs me up the wrong way, because it's all been done before.

The first 10% of the story was brilliant. I loved that it started with something other than an old guy in the woods, Seeing things that were very mysterious and prophetic. But by the 15-20% mark it all unravelled a little. It became just as stagnant, repetitive and predictable as the first book was, using new characters to explore the same plot/threats in so many ways. The pattern continued with every 10-20% block of the story. Some blocks would be brilliant, some would just be rehashing stuff that we've already read before.

The one thing that definitely hasn't changed it the completely frustrating inconsistency of these “dreams” and how some are italicised, giving us fair warning of a switch from past to present POV, but most are not. It is the one thing that is plucking at my last nerve and I'm almost tempted to not read the last book, because of it. Only, the author added the new addition of not italicising a letter or even separating it from the main text, as well, so that's something...new.

The Horned Lord and Lady are useless, as far as I can see. They're nothing more than puppet masters, constantly whispering their plots and plans into Robyn and Gamelyn's ears, but never acting in time or allowing them to. If they love their people so much, then why not change things? And if it's one of those things that can't be changed, because an alternative would have more drastic consequences, why force them to try to change it at all? Or are they really so ignorant as to not let on that these things are set in time and can never be changed, hoping that the pain and consequences of the trying will make their puppets stronger? Because, if so, that's an f-d up idea. As usual, it's up to Robyn and Gamelyn to do their dirty work, often without having any clue they're doing it, and suffer the consequences.

So, I'm glad that the Dierdre issue was resolved, but I really don't get why. It was all for nothing, giving her a POV threatening revenge and then making it a huge waste of time by eliminating her from the equation. Why couldn't she simply have been killed off in the Wild Hunt, along with the Abbess, and one of her nun friends could have delivered the arrow, as Dierdre's dying wish.

Finally, we were allowed to see the Robyn, John and Gamelyn tangle unwind into something beautiful, with a hint at an MMM romance. And, while I love that it happens, because I've been waiting for it since book 1, and that neither Gamelyn or John are threatened by each other but accepting, I'm pretty miffed that there is no equality. There is no we-are-three concept, there is no equal sharing of each other between all three of them. It's merely that Robyn and Gamelyn are together, heart, body and soul, while John sits on the sidelines accepting whatever scraps that he's given. That is not a true poly- or MMM relationship and that makes me frustrated at the misrepresentation.

Worse, I really hate the constant thread of Robyn-Gamelyn-Marion. It's gross, despite the timeline, to think that Robyn and Marion are supposed to be entwined in some lovers triangle, constantly being referred to by the Gods as brother-lover or sister-lover. It's always made me feel squidgy, throughout the first two books, but this one really lays it on thick, especially with the constant hints and suggestions that Gamelyn and Marion have some sort of “connection” and are flirting with each other. I don't mind that Gamelyn is described as bisexual, in this book, what bothers me is that it was NEVER once mentioned before. He has NEVER shown interest in a woman, until it becomes convenient for the plot of this book. Worse still, this incest – because, let's not sugar-coat what the author is implying here – has no emotional or physical basis. It's not as if there is ANY hint of chemistry between Marion and anyone but Will and Much.

Which bring me to the warning that there is MF sex contained in here. It's not overly explicit, but it's there for anyone who'd rather not read it.

And while we're on that subject, I'm really annoyed that Much and John's relationship has never been explained, nor that John can't have someone of his own to love fully. Because, it's clear that while Robyn loves him, it's not the way he loves Gamelyn. John deserves to have that kind of love of his own and I'd hoped it would be Much, after that tearful, excited reunion in book 2, but that fizzled and went nowhere. We didn't even get an explanation of WHY they behaved like two long-lost lovers.

Overall, Book 2, for me, was the best. It could have easily have been a standalone novel, based on the story of Robin Hood, by adding maybe another 50-100 pages to it, to offer flashbacks to tell the story of how Rob and Gamelyn met, then how they had their romance and the inevitable “betrayal” at the end. For me, I can't see the need for any of the rest of the books. They don't amount to anything but repeating the same storyline over and over again. Book 2 is the only one that had a consistent, logical plot, with characters that grew and learned and actually had an impact, while the rest are, as I said above, just puppets being twisted in the wind by their Gods.

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Favourite Quote

“Only Robyn would call him “beloved” with tears running down his cheeks, and mere moments after hurling a veritable fury of indignation; a backdraft of fire up a turret stair, just as quickly sucked back into the depth.”