Absolutely enchanting dark and thrilling are the words I would use to describe this book.
A great original plot about Goblins; a magical creature that does not get very many nice stories told about them.
In this story we follow to main characters Janneka and Soren. Janneka is Human and Soren is a Goblin we get to see their relationship strained during a stressful time, with several obstacle they have to overcome.
The way this book is written is perfect! The banter between the two MC was great and the
plot kept me very much entertained.
I'm very excited for the next book to be released.
I would defiantly recommend this book.

The description of the book, along with the cover, are what drew me to this story initially. I do have to admit that I was hesitant to read this after reading some negative reviews on Goodreads, (note to self, try to avoid reviews of books until after you've the book). The book started out slow for me and I found myself feeling lost, as though I was being dropped into the middle of an ongoing story. There were many times where I felt like putting this book down, not bothering to pick it up and just dnf'ing it. But, I persevered and pushed through and found that once Janneke and Soren left on the hunt for the white stag, the action and story finally began to pick up and I was finally drawn in to the story. My feeling of loss eventually dissipated as I did finally start to be given a back story as to how exactly Janneke found herself a human living with the goblins for over a hundred years. In the end I rather enjoyed the book and was happy I pushed myself to not give up on it. I definitely plan on reading the next book as my curiousity has been piqued. Trigger warning: Rape

First Impression

I must admit that the cover is what first caught my eye with this book. Once I read the blurb, I was even more enticed to read it. Merciless monters! Sounded so intriguing to me. Goblins! A female heroin and a struggle within herself! Complete win/win and makes for an interesting plot.
The Plot

So basically, the Permafrost is a world that borders the woods and where all the goblins live. The children are always told to stay out of the woods for fear of them not coming back and being taken by the evil monsters (goblins) that roam there. Janneka was born to be the male heir. She was the last child and her father taught her hunting and tracking skills. Thankfully, this prepared her for her time in the Permafrost.

The goblins will steal humans to do the work that they cannot do themselves. Janneka was taken fairly young and has spent the last 100 years in the Permafrost. She is starting to change and is not sure if she will give in to the changes or try to stay human forever?

There is also a battle brewing over whom will be the next Elderlking. There are two main candidates and they must battle it out against each other to the death.
The Characters

I adored Janneke and felt for everything that she had been through. The fact that she struggled within herself just made me love her even more. She knew right from wrong and even after losing everything, she still wanted to be a good person.

I also really liked Soren. He was so sweet and kind which was the exact opposite of what he should have been being a goblin and all. But, I really loved him from the very beginning.

Lydian…UGH! I must say that I despised him with a fiery passion. I still have no clue what exactly it was that made him tic? I think that I may have to go back again and read the ending for it was a whirlwind of action.
Final Thoughts

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I must admit though that the beginning caught my attention so fast and I did not want to put it down but somewhere around the middle, I got slightly bored. Not enough to keep me from continuing but I had to force myself through some of the “filler” parts.

Also, this book has a lot of violence and mentions rape with dis figuration quite often. Although it is classified as a YA, I believe it read more like an NA with some of the sex scenes and past situations that the main character had faced.

If any of the above mentioned has you wondering what your missing, pick this one up! I really enjoyed the story and the ending to me, was perfection. I did not see it coming and that rarely happens for me.

Goblins, Kings, Stags and what have you not! All of it comes together brilliantly in Barbieri’s White Stag, which delivers a story that is both a blast and gives the reader something to chew on. What first drew me to the book was the cover, which has some strong Harry Potter vibes, but from the first chapter I was engrossed. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fantasy and YA are a perfect mix of genres. They really do complement each other so well! Your teenage years really are when a desire for change and adventure really rears its head and Fantasy can give you all that and more. A book like The Hobbit strikes that balance perfectly, giving us an expansive world, dragons, dwarves and elves, but also people trying to find their place in the world, figuring out who they are. This is why I keep seeking out novels like this and White Stag is the latest. I went in with mixed expectations because goblins aren’t really my thing, but after reading the first 2 chapters during my lunch hour I knew I was going to spend the rest of the evening finishing White Stag. What drew me in was Barbieri’s take on Scandinavian legends, using elements sparsely and thereby highlighting them. There are elements of Siegfried’s story, a deity may or may not appear and magic seems to float in the air. I was impressed by how Barbieri took this mythology and put it to her own uses. I’m definitely here for it!

The strength of White Stag is really its beginning. From the first page you’re right in the action as Janneke finds herself in a nest of vipers, also known as the court of the Goblin king. (It’s a lot more dangerous than the Goblins in The Hobbit.) In the pages that follow, Janneke has to do her best to survive amongst ruthless competitors and strange mythological creatures, all while staying true to herself. Or rather, finding herself. Torn between a humanity she remembers and a monstrosity she may be underestimating, Janneke takes the reader on a journey through the Parafrost in hunt of the elusive White Stag. A big part of Janneke’s journey is dedicated to her past trauma, which, although it happens before the book starts, is vividly remembered. This may be too much for some readers and I would tag on some trigger warnings, but the way Barbieri deals with it is praiseworthy. The effects of trauma, the consequences of PTSD, it all runs through Janneke’s story but it becomes something she survives rather than something she suffers under. Again, for some readers this will be hard to read, but I would recommend it nonetheless. It adds gravity to a story that may otherwise have been very light and potentially forgettable. White Stag also touches on topics like free will and enslavement, but only does so lightly. I do hope that part of Barbieri’s continued world building in the future Permafrost books continues to build on that.

Kara Barbieri is a Wattpad Breakout star, as the blurb for this book puts it. The consequences of that are subtle but noticeable. What it partly means is that White Stag is exactly the kind of book I would love to write on such platforms, if I could. It has everything readers love about contemporary YA and Fantasy: reluctant feelings, mythology, battles, sarcasm (oh, so much sarcasm) and a strong heroine. It’s not pandering to a fan audience but it does give fans everything they might want. What the book needed, however, is a bit of editing. Here or there the language feels too casual and the book could tighten up a bit. But none of this distracts from a lovely story told viscerally by Barbieri. The action sequences are thrilling, the world building is lovely and the character development is interesting. Since this is only the first book in the Permafrost series I am interested to see where this all goes. There is a great epilogue which definitely has me wondering how themes from the first book will develop, but even as a standalone White Stag works well.

Overall, White Stag was a great read. Barbieri’s writing sucks you right into the story and you can’t help but want Janneke to succeed. Although White Stag isn’t the most demanding of books, I had an incredible amount of fun reading it and I can’t wait for the next one.

Hello Goblin Goodness from Kara Barbieri!!

I feel like I need to start this by saying I adore anything with Goblins or Goblin Kings. It's from an early age *cough Labyrinth cough* that I've had this love.

First, big thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is book one in a series called "Permafrost" and to be honest, it doesn't end on a cliff and I'm not sure where book two will take us. I'm fully in for the adventure though.


"We're all monsters to someone or something by some definition. It's the context of the situation that matters.”  White Stag, Kara Barbieri
White Stag delivers to one of my favorite plot points. Shades of grey and the question of what really makes a monster or a villain. I love books that ride that line of questioning and also seeing the perspective from the other side. Having the reader question all characters and their motives is what makes an excellent story. (In my opinion anyway, I could be wrong...haha)

To back up just a tad, Kara Barbieri originally published this book on watt pad, where it received over 300,000 reads. This, to me, shows how outstanding this story already is before it reached my hands. There is already a following for the story and for the next book to happen.

The world follows Janneke, a seventeen-year-old that was raised on the other side of the permafrost. The youngest in a family of daughters, raised to be a hunter and tracker. Until one day her village was burned and she was stolen to be a thrall to a Goblin named Lydian. Where she's then given to his nephew, Soren.

Soren is adorable. Well, as adorable as a cruel character can be really. He tries to fit in and I guess that makes him more endearing but he also does his best to treat Janneke with respect and that makes his character good enough for me to like him. Janneke is in flux as a character and I was with her the whole way.

The writing for this book is rather abrupt. In the sense that you're immediately thrown into the plot and the story. Immediately thrown into the action and the hunt. The reader doesn't get time to originally process what's happening but it's very similar to what the character is also going through.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone that reads supernatural type books or action fantasy. If you enjoyed Labyrinth as a kid, I also highly recommend it. (hahahaha)

Overall Rating: 4 Stars
Plot: 4  Stars
Character Development: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4 Stars
Writing: 4 Stars
Happy Reading~
Ash

This story was a little slow to start, but once I got into it, I flew through it. I found the goblins to be very unusual creatures in this book. I always think of them as ugly little creatures, but they were more human-like and beautiful in this story. They were more like how elves and vampires are usually described.

The hunt was very exciting in the story. The goblins must compete in the hunt to kill the white stag, making the one who kills it the next Goblin King. There are two main competitors, who are the two most powerful goblins. Janneke and Soren had to battle some other strange creatures throughout the hunt.

I loved the ending, which had a little twist that I suspected was going to happen. I can’t wait to see what happens in the rest of the series!

White Stag (Permafrost, #1)
by Kara Barbieri
I am astounded by the depth and breath of this dark and mythology infused story. Like The Silmarillion by J R R Tolkien, this book looks into the ancient past and blends it with the future. The epic Hunt of goblins for who is their Erlking (ruler), the cold divide between man and mythology is transversed by a child born on the border of two worlds. It is amazing to see the story and the ideas grow throughout this dark and tortured story. The reader is bound to the darkness with the child, as she survives after her entire family is destroyed by an inclusion of Goblin raids. Janneka was enslaved and tortured by her captor, when given nearly broken to Soren. For a hundred years she scrapes by has his Thrall, thought to be his playmate and toy, but her wounded body haunts her as she struggles to survive. When the Erlking dies in a battle of will, The Hunt begins, and the tests abound. How will Janneka survive? Does she use the opportunity to escape to the human world? Or will she become what she despises?

After hearing how popular White Stag was on Wattpad, I was intrigued by the book (and the Goblin King references). This was a relatively fast read that felt somewhat episodic. That being said, it was an overall enjoyable read with some intriguing characters and unique worldbuilding. It definitely surprised me a few times by subverting my expectations.

The mashup between Norse folklore and the Goblin King mythology was interesting but I thought the two could have been melded together a bit better. The bones of the story were also good. However, I thought that the execution could have been a bit more polished. I did love the inner conflict within Janneke, particularly as it related to her feeling torn between two worlds. I also thought that her emotional growth throughout the book was good, particularly toward the end.

Overall, The White Stag was a quick, fun read. I’d recommend if you’re looking for a YA fantasy!

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I have been hearing about “White Stag” by Kara Barbieri for months. When I saw that it was available for review, I knew I just had to request it! Trigger warnings for rape, animal death, and abuse. Let me preface this by saying this was a good start to the series. With that being said, there were parts of the story that dragged on and were a little underdeveloped. I would have loved to see more dimensional characters and worldbuilding. The premise of the story was a good one! I will be sure to check out book two.

*I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

White Stag is the first book in a breathtaking and vivid new series by Kara Barbieri, an up and coming new author who is a familiar presence on Wattpad. White Stag tells the story of the young girl, Janneke who years ago was taken by Lydian while her village was being burned to the ground.

Despite the constant cruel treatment by the hand of Lydian, Janneke continues to survive and flourish in the Permafrost, especially with the care of her current master, Soren. Upon the death of the Goblin King and the reawakening of the White Stag, Janneke is left to face the reality that she is losing her connection to the human world and becoming more and more like one of the "monsters."

However, as Janneke spends more time on the Hunt with Soren she begins to understand perhaps those she has viewed as monsters are truly not monsters at all, which in turn leaves her to begin to accept herself.

Through each and every battle Janneke overcomes during the Hunt, and at Soren's side, the pair become closer and Janneke faces the fact she needs to make a choice. Let go of the past and the humanity she has clung on to for so long, or accept the changes that are leaving her to become more akin to those she once saw as the monsters.

White Stag is a breathtaking whirlwind of the not so pretty world of Permafrost. However, readers need to leave their first impressions and opinions of goblins behind. Barbieri makes the Goblin world as beautiful and cruel as any other court of the fine folk. The monstrous and enchancting collide in a bewitching read that will surely leave the reader wanting more. I eagerly anticipate the next book in this series. Absolutely well done for a first time, upcoming new author. White Stag is surely paving the way to success for her. Until next time, happy reading!

(3.5 stars)
A dark fantasy tale that may be too dark for some. There was a lot of violence, blood, even rape at one point.

Initially, I could not stand Soren, but I soon got to know him and he grew on me. It reminded me of the Stockholm syndrome, the way she begins to feel things for him though. I was happy to see that it was a slow burn romance and Janneke fought with her feelings but those relationships always seem a little off to me. I would love to see them together though, it was a great match.

The vivid imagery was nice, but as I mentioned above, it might be too graphic or violent for some. It could have used more detail about the surrounding world rather than battle scenes. I wanted to see the scenes in their entirety...what was the forest like? Dark and damp? Dry? What did she smell?
I do feel that this violence was needed to really understand the Goblin culture though, it deepens your understanding of who they really are as a species, making the ending just a little more dramatic.

The big lesson in this book is to question how we define human or monster. I loved that Janneke struggled with this and the outcome of the book was well manipulated. You really see how she defines monster and how different people have different views, how easily your opinion can be swayed be opening your mind to the ideas of others.

A book filled with internal and external battles, White Stag is a good dark fantasy read but not without its faults. I feel it could have been more detailed but the plot was very well written and it did grab my attention. I hope the second book is written a little better. This is probably one of the darkest YA fantasy novels I have come across and I can see why many do not like it or refuse to pick it up, but I did enjoy it.

As I have been told this has heavy trigger warnings for rape and sexual abuse, I am not able to review it. I participated in the blog tour for the book and provided an excerpt, which I have linked below. Thank you for the opportunity!

A book written as though it was a tv script. Should be labeled M for mature audiences only. the violence, blood and gore over rode the story for me. I skipped many pages to get to the next point in the story. Didn't love it, didn't hate it.

This book was a little too dark and violent for my personal tastes--with lots of bloody battles and a traumatic rape/torture that I found really disturbing (which was the point). I wasn't sure about Soren as a love interest at first either, but he did end up growing on me. There were a few secondary characters in the second half of the book that added life to the story for me as well. And I really loved the ending! If you're a fan of very dark YA fantasy, this will probably be perfect for you.

*Received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book!*

Triggerwarning (mostly flashbacks): violence, abuse, sexual violence, mutilation

What makes us human? What makes us monsters?

Janneke has lived in the permafrost of the Otherworld, the realm of the Erlking (yes, Goethe is even quoted in the beginning) for a hundred years after her family was killed and she was brutally mutilated and raped. Yet, not only herself but also her relationship to the goblins, especially the goblin who has been her master for the past 99 years, is starting to change. Time has passed, but can it really heal? Can there be friendship between goblins and humans?

When the Erlking dies and the white stag runs, the hunt begins. Who will survive the hunt, and who will become the new Erlking? And what will Janneke chose? Humanity or the permafrost? What will she become: huntress or the hunted?

What I liked about the novel: the mythological setting, goblins as the fairies, the Erlking, Norse mythology, the White Stag, permafrost, lindworms

What I did not like as much: the relationships between characters remained somewhat dubious, especially how fast things seemed to change; Janneke was a bit annoying sometimes (so stubborn!), I'd like to know more about what Janneke has been doing the past hundred years and why everything starts changing right then, seems a bit weird and rushed... I mean seriously, it's been a hundred years and nothing changed?

3,5 Stars!

So there are definitely a lot of trigger warnings for this book: rape, violence and abuse with rape being the predominant one. After reading this book, I went to check out some other reviews and a lot of people mentioned the rape culture and how it didn’t sit well with them. For me though, I thought it actually enhanced my understanding of the goblin’s culture. I mean, yes, rape is a very serious topic but when I considered what happened in our own history with pillages and conquests during the medieval and even more recent times, I thought that it made sense in a sort of morbid way. So I personally didn’t mind it as much but again, I can definitely see why a lot of people were really sensitive about this particular TW. That being said, this is my very long and complicated explanation and warning that this book does include a number of TWs.

When I first went into this book, for some reason, I didn’t expect too much despite the fact that I was fascinated with the book containing goblins. However, I was completely blown away by how much I enjoyed this book. I especially loved two of the characters: Soren and Seppo. Those two made the book really stand out for me and now I just want more of them. I especially enjoyed Soren and Janneke’s banters as well as Seppo’s own dialogues. It was a mix of romantic angst and humor that I really enjoyed.

In terms of Janneke, the main character in this book, I really liked her as well especially her growth from the beginning to the end of the book. Her struggle between trying to stay human versus becoming a goblin, a monstrous being that she refuses to become, and trying to stay alive in the Permafrost was very well-portrayed. I also loved her internal struggle between trying to do the right thing versus staying alive because there were a number of times when the two were direct opposites.

I also loved the Hunt in general. There were so many fabulous action scenes throughout the entire book and mixed in with Soren/Janneke’s romantic banters as with Seppo’s humorous remarks, I thought that the book had a lot of elements to it that I enjoyed and it was overall very well balanced. The ending definitely had a plot twist which I didn’t expect at all so I am very eager to see what would happen in the rest of the series. This is definitely a series that I am going to keep an eye out on!

Okay, so I’m going to be upfront and honest with you here: I didn’t finish White Stag. I ended up DNF’ing it somewhere around the 50 percent mark. If you know me, then you know I’m usually very stubborn about finishing books. So it is very much not like me to refuse to finish one.
Perhaps it was the mood I was in, but I just couldn’t get into it. I wanted to; I absolutely loved the blurb and the original concept. It’s about a girl trapped by Goblins, living among them as a changeling. I love fae stories, and even more so when they interact with humans. But this one just didn’t ring true for me, if that makes sense.
I will say that the cover for White Stag is beautiful, and had the concept been closer to what I anticipated I think I would have really adored this novel.

Kara Barbieri’s Permafrost series starts very nearly a hundred years into the Janneke’s life within the Permafrost, the vicious northern lands occupied by the Goblins and other Folks. Janneke, the last of seventh daughter, who was raised to be her father’s heir, is the right hand servant of the goblin lord Soren. She has done what few have before her, she is on the cusp of surviving her servitude in the Permafrost. Until the goblin king is killed, kicking off the Hunt, the competition to hunt down the white stag and become the next goblin king. I am so appreciative of St. Martin’s Press for providing me an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I’ll be honest, this is a particularly hard review to write. Not because I didn’t like the book, but because I loved it so much. My head is still buried so deep in this story, it’s hard to detach from the insane Lydian, the friendship of Soren and the humor of Seppo. I’m so excited to have started this year off with such an amazing book. No matter what I do, this review is going to feel fully incomplete for me. In that, I hope people feel free to ask me questions, because I’m happy to discuss.

Janneke is to be honest, one of the strongest leads in a YA/New Adult novel in years. Likely since Throne of Glass by the incredible S.J. Maas (which I started reading all those years ago on fiction press). To be honest, I would definitely compare Kara Barbieri to S.J. Maas in the most complementary of ways.

Barbieri develops a completely new and unique world right from the beginning. There’s no direct exposition in the beginning of the story, everything is truly experiential, and done in the most pure form of show not tell. We start the story in a fully formed world with fully formed characters and learn and grow from them as well. While we might not already know how Janneke feels, we’re given enough information to develop our own thoughts and feelings and see how they fit along side hers.

Janneke is not perfect. She is strong, she is fierce, but she’s not perfect. She’s conflicted, she’s afraid, and she has suffered great trauma. She sees the world through biased and damaged lenses and has to face her own preconceptions, has to face the lies she tells herself time and again. But that’s the thing, she does face them, head on more often than not. I’ve known a lot of strong people in my life, and they’re all the kind of people that face their troubles head on and don’t let them control them, this is the kind of person Janneke is.

GoodReads is already showing book two with a summary, and I keep looking around to see if I can find a publish date. I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

One note I will leave, however, is that this story may hit people with trigger or content warning issues. There’s a lot of talk about abuse and implied rape. Also, the main character is clearly dealing with PTSD from these things. As someone who has had this kind of PTSD and come out the other side, I really appreciated the way that Barbieri handled these things. She wasn’t explicit and they had a point, a reason, but I know these things aren’t for everyone and it’s something to keep in mind. Additionally, it’s not for the younger end of YA, due to the abuse and a very brief romantic interlude that, while mostly implications, isn’t quite for the youngest of YA readers.

Review will go live at Commute Reads and be cross posted to GoodReads on January 21, 2019.

While I very much enjoyed the premise of the book--a Norse girl gets taken to the goblin realm and tries to discover where her allegiance lies--the execution left something to be desired.

I went into this book blind, expecting a atmospheric fairy tale-esque story from the cover and the title. A gritty norse-goblin story dressed ill-fittingly as YA and dripping berserker rage--minus anything that would actually make a gritty norse-goblin story with berserker rage interesting--wasn't quite what I had in mind.

The YA label is a strange one. The themes of rape and torture suggest otherwise--while the book doesn't show anything, there's graphic talk of how the main villain had raped her near insensate over three months and mutilated one of her breasts and that's not something I anticipate in the YA books--but the dialogue and romance subplot are very much YA.

As for the characters, while I enjoyed the fierceness of the main character, her relationship with Soren, her goblin master/caretaker, felt very underdeveloped.

The same could be said about the worldbuilding. It's like low-budget play that comes with only a handful of background scenery--wintery trees, generic stretch of land, generic castle/mansion interior, and a dark cavernous area. And when you point to the space beyond the trees and ask, "What's over there?" the book shrugs and goes, "I don't know." And that's never fun.

It's not a badly written book, but with a world that is sorely underdeveloped, secondary characters that are just merely present, and a plot that sits around twiddling its thumbs, White Stag made for a curiously hollow and stagnant reading experience.

White Stag was a book high on my anticipated reads list, and for very good reason. This book made my expectations, and I’m so thankful for having been asked to join this tour.

Janneke is a character that I was and wasn’t expecting. I was completely blindsided by how out of the ordinary the author made her, and I absolutely loved it. I loved how I had to learn as the pages were turned, as each sentence continued on. Though, I hated how I felt about certain parts (and that’s a good thing. You want to be able to really feel when reading a good story).

"You could hide in the dark, listen in the dark; in the dark you could see your enemies, but they couldn't see you."

This quote was impactful. You don’t really take into account the fantasy settings of things until they hit you in the face. However, this quote was well written and well placed. It was put in a paragraph to add more to what we were already feeling as we read the passage.

Barbieri made a gorgeous novel that surprised me at every turn.

The plot of the novel—the one to kill the White Stag before it’s reborn becomes the next ruler—was something completely unique and different to everything I’ve ever read. In an age of entertainment where retellings or remakes are becoming more popular, it’s difficult which story to pick and choose from.

However, this made the choice easy. I loved that the characters all evolved with the flow of the plot, and that their dynamics fit into what was occurring. An obvious bit of information is that our main character is the most important person in the story, and the author made that well apparent throughout the chapters.

Though there were a few punctuation/grammar mistakes, I didn’t let it bother me. All in all, the plot flowed, the characters all developed, and the story in itself was—I will state this again—unique. For that, I rate White Stag 4/5 stars.

I love seeing Wattpad authors make their way onto shelves, and this time is no different than the rest. I’m proud to see this book has released for the world to view in their own pleasure, and I’d be happy to recommend it to many.