4 stars overall

In the Darkest Midnight - Grace Draven 4.5 stars

Grace Draven delivered on a novella with the fullest sense of story, characterisation and completion. It had a seasonal feel in terms of some key moments in the story, though of course not traditional Christmas. This is a story told over more than a decade that is set in a world tenuously connected to Bast Haradis with a cameo from a character from Radiance and Eidolon. Jahna was a wonderful character, with that departure from traditional beauty that Grace Draven is so good at. Her admiration for Radimar is something to behold, young crush at first and over time their connection was beautiful. The world and the characters pulled me in so completely, the writing slipped into my imagination with ease. This winter anthology started off in the best way possible.

The Chosen - Thea Harrison 4 stars

This is my first read by Thea Harrison and I can say I’m infected in the best way by the story and characters that she weaved. This magical story of war, confrontation, leadership, desire and connection was superb. Wulf was both bad and good guy wrapped up in one, formidable and yet honourable. Lily was the chosen one, leader of her people at the abbey. She was a very interesting character to get to know and I loved their chemistry together. I would have to say that I came to this anthology for Grace Draven and found Thea Harrison of a similar style, so I’ll be checking out her work.

The Storm - Elizabeth Hunter 2.5 stars

My least favourite of the anthology, partly because angel stories aren’t really my bag (despite the subtlety of the context) and partly because I just didn’t gel with the storyline. I think this is because it is a novella from a wider series and I lacked knowledge of the world building necessary.

The Snows of Windoven - Jeffe Kennedy 3.5 stars

Whilst this book is a novella from a series I’ve not read, I did not feel disadvantaged. It was cleverly written so I could understand everything I needed for the purposes of this story and it’s world. The focus was a relation of some longevity, a queen and consort and their battle to keep or lose what they had. It was sensual and riveting with a fantasy world that piqued my interest.

A copy of this anthology was provided by the publisher through netgalley in return for a honest review.

Reviewed for Jo&IsaLoveBooks Blog.

I didn't realize when I requested this that these were fantasy romances, so I won't say much because they really aren't my usual thing and I have a hard time judging them on their own merits. I also definitely got the impression that quite a few of these were part of larger series, and since I was unfamiliar with them, it could be slightly confusing. I liked that they were novellas. I think anyone who knows and loves these authors would appreciate them, probably more than me. I'm experiencing NetGalley guilt right now!

I enjoyed the first story a lot, about a young girl who has a terrible birthmark and is basically shunned from society. She's always hiding herself with hoods and scarves. She meets her brother's sword-fighting instructor (what's not to love about that?) and has a massive crush on him. Nothing happens because she's so young, but he teaches her invaluable lessons about how to hold, carry, and be proud of herself. Years later, their romance sparks. This was a well-written story and one I think people would enjoy.

Amid the Winter Snow is a beautiful anthology of stories by well-known authors: Grace Draven, Thea Harrison, Elizabeth Hunter, and Jeffe Kennedy. Of the four I had only previously read titles by Grace Draven and Elizabeth Hunter. Although now I will certainly be checking out Thea Harrison’s other titles.

The Darkest Midnight – Grace Draven

For fans of Grace Draven this novella is everything that you would expect, maybe not as steamy as her full length novels, but the emotion more than makes up for it!

Grace has this magical way of writing her stories. Her prose is almost lyrical and often hypnotic in a way that you just can’t stop reading. It’s always ‘just one more page, one more chapter….’ Her characters are always well developed; you will not find any unrealistic paragons of virtue in her stories, all characters have their strengths and weaknesses and are more real, and so more likeable, because of it.
It’s difficult to talk about this story without giving away any spoilers. But in a nutshell, it is a critique of the petty mindedness of the ‘herd mentality’ where to be different means to be shunned and excluded. It is a story of strength and resilience and it was a joy to watch Jahna grow from the young girl hiding in the shadows to the strong and confident woman she becomes, thanks in part, to her relationship with the sword master, Radimar.

This story is connected to the Wraith Kings series, but it can be read as a standalone as the connections are very minor. Although I highly recommend reading the Wraith Kings it is a brilliant series!!

The Chosen – Thea Harrison

Thea Harrison is a new author for me, but I enjoyed The Chosen so much that I will be going back to her other titles. Wulf is absolutely gorgeous and together with Lily they make a good pair. This novella had so much potential to be expanded to a full book. I hope we’ll get to opportunity to meet up again with these characters in another series.

The writing was smooth and flowing, world building was excellent, and all characters, including those in the periphery, were well developed.

This was a lovely fast paced romance. Highly Recommended.


The Storm – Elizabeth Hunter

This story is a novella of the Irin Chronicles, but it can be read as a standalone as enough information is given to follow along. You may not completely understand the wider scope of the relationships between the secondary characters and who they are, but it’s not really important to this story.

This story is ultimately about tragedy and letting go. It was lovely. I’d quite happily take Maxim home myself, such a lovely character. There was certainly chemistry between Maxim and Renata and I found myself cheering for a happy ending.
I’ve read a couple of Elizabeth Hunter’s books and I enjoy her writing style. Her world building and characterisations are always consistent and she has that extra something that makes you want to turn the pages.


The Snows of Windroven – Jeffe Kennedy

The Snows of Windroven is a novella of the Twelve Kingdoms/Uncharted Realms Series. Jeffe Kennedy is another new author to me, but unfortunately this was my least favourite of the anthology but not because of any deficits in Ms Kennedy’s writing. This was the only novella in the anthology where I felt I needed to read the other stories in the series to get more information.

This story read like it was the final chapters, or an extended epilogue, of the main book. Although attempts were made to explain characters, situations, and concepts I felt that it left the reader with only a surface understanding of who was who and what was happening.

For me, this was a shame because the novella has a lot of potential. I liked the characters, they seemed like they would have been well developed and so easy to like, if not love, if you’d read the earlier book(s).
This story has piqued my interest enough that I will put this series on by TBR pile and see if I can catch up with these characters and understand more fully where they are coming from.

If you’ve read the other books in this series I’m sure you’ll love this novella. I very much enjoyed Ms Kennedy’s writing style, I just found myself floundering to keep up with the characters.

Full review to be published online in mid December.

The Darkest Midnight - Grace Draven.
4.5 Stars. This is such a lovely story, as always. Draven is a wonderful fantasy storyteller who I wish put out books at a faster pace. The novella is set in the same world as ‘Master of Crows’ and ‘Wraith Kings’. Jahna is a spirited young woman with a facial disfigurement, and Lord Radimar her brother’s new sword master. An engaging, well told short story which takes place over period of years as Jahna, a young apprentice king’s chronicler, pens a record of Radimar’s life. The ending was a tad cutesy in the rush to wrap up; but overall it was prime Draven excellence.

The teaser about Megiddo left this fangirl’s heart fluttering. Le sigh...

The Chosen - Thea Harrison
3 Stars. This one is part of the author’s pretty good “Elder Races” series, but takes place completely on Ys, with random mentions of the earth plane. Lily is ‘the Chosen’ of the realm, and has a vision that two warriors will battle over her home, and one will win her. That’s pretty much it for the storyline. It took place in just a couple of days; in which Wulf came, saw, and conquered. This short story suffers from the same problems as Harrison’s other between-the-books ss. There is really not much plotline, the story rambles on, and is highly over-descriptive to fill page space. As always, these ss suffer greatly from the lack of professional editing and polish that could reduce some of these glaring issues.

The Storm - Elizabeth Draven
4 Stars. This short story takes place within Hunter’s “Irin Chronicles” world. Renata lost her mate to a Grigori attack, and Max has spent 18 years trying to work his way into her heart and life. Although I love Hunter’s lyrical writing style and her other books, this has not been my favorite series written by her. I did enjoy the second chance at love trope, but I’m not a fan of flashbacks; and this went even further, into timeline jumping. I found that frustrating. Other than that, this is a very enjoyable, well written story by a favorite author set in a fascinating fantasy setting.