Netgalley and publisher, thank you!

This is hard to put into words. I like the premise and I LOVE the writing. . . but I can't help thinking the story is better on the screen. The lines are memorable and badass. A favorite is, "‘You’ve seen enough,’ Ulovar growled. ‘You have no place in our world, demon of the past. You are dead and you will remain that way.’" and this exchange that followed: "(The baddie): In my time we would have thought you unworthy even to carry a sword.’ Ulovar (one of the good guys) thrust his point forwards, staring down the length of the blade. ‘And in my time, you are nothing but a blot on a page.’"

See how it would be majestic on the big screen? I'll reread this one in the future since it might be a series.

I found this book to be a gripping dark fantasy read where the blurb description above only hinted at the scope of this story. The protagonist, Raine, was a fascinatingly believable character to me, finding bravery in certain situations while at the same time being too naive and fearful to leave her abusive partner. She doesn’t always make good decisions, and she is conflicted about who to trust and what to do, but she remained consistent in being herself. She does undergo an odd change in the aftermath of a trauma, but it does have a concrete explanation that adds to her struggles.

There isn’t a clear distinction between good and evil and the other characters feel human and flawed. I’m not sure who to cheer for because they all seem to be doing what they believe is the right thing. As a side effect of this set up, I found myself expecting a betrayal later in the book, but had no idea which direction it would come from.

This was another series where I am enjoying the worldbuilding a lot. The author has created a unique magic system, where a set of relic-like nearly mythical Crowns hold power which the Draoihn revere over friends, family, and country (although these are somewhat linked, I think). At the same time, Raine’s ability to see the dead is a taboo power, and if anyone knew she could do this, she’d be put to death. She isn’t the only one with this ability and her secret isn’t solely hers, adding to the tension in the story.

Much is left unexplained in this first book in the series, but I’m willing to read on and wait for more specifics to emerge later. For example, a magical storm sweeps through the city and suddenly drains the color from the world. While this effect fades, it hints at a more sinister deep plot that I expect to emerge, but for now remains as an isolated oddity.

I’m planning to read the next book, Traitor of Redwinter, in March. The final book, Witch Queen of Redwinter was recently released (November 2024), so this is a completed series.

The first book in a new series THE REDWINTER CHRONICLES. Ed McDonald is also the author of The Blackwing Trilogy, an excellent series that set the bar high for Daughter of Redwinter. Lucky for us, the bar was met. We meet Raine, a young woman who has skills that she doesn't quite understand so has not gained fine control of them. But, she can't ask questions; should anyone find out she can communicate with the dead, she will be put to death. At 17, Raine questions everything she does, hoping to make it to 18. She will soon find herself on the wrong side of a group of warriors that take no prisoners. Raine enters the kingdom of Redwinter where she will become a warrior.....at least that's the plan.

Ed McDonald has flexed his creative skills to build Redwinter into a community like no other. The plot line in this first book sets the stage and the characters as we follow Raine's journeys. She will gather a team of those who do not fit anywhere else. The Draoihn warriors are determined to retain command no matter the circumstances. As the danger escalates, you will feel the story pulling you along too quickly to stop. An excellent read to escape to another world.

Raine is living in a besieged monastery, and desperate to prove herself sneaks out in an attempt to find a way to lead her companions away from the siege and to safety. Instead she finds and injured woman and leads her and an even worse fate back.
And that is just the beginning.
From there she's taken back to Redwinter, as a witness to the events that ended when the young woman she rescued came to a head and nearly led to even more death and destruction that actually had come to pass.
She's denied the right to become an apprentice, at least for a while, but is granted a high ranking position in the household of the man she aided, however inadvertently.
Raine spends a lot of time figuring out who she is, who she wants to be... and learning about those around her. She's smart and observant, she's been exposed to a little of the "magical" world the apprentices around her are being trained in, but denied the ability to learn herself, but doesn't seem steeped in resentment over it (thank goodness! so tired of bitter main characters who can't get out of their own way!)
While it was a bit slow moving, action wise, toward the middle of the book, it was still interesting, as the world building and Raine's life kept one interested.
And then the end more than made up for it!
An excellent start to a new series, it also reads well as a standalone, with no cliffhangers, just the promise of more.

Here’s my struggle with DoRw: McDonald’s given DoRw solid foundations: a scarred protagonist processing her past and ruminating on her future, a society of monk-like warriors who are above the laws applied to the average folk, the groundwork for a magic system, and a world inspired by medieval Scotland, and the beginning of a possibly-politically inspired mystery within Redwinter. But he never carries it further, from the territory of “solidly decent” into “truly great.”

DoRw has ample room for compulsive mystery as Raine learns more about inter-Clan politics and ruminates on why and how Hazia–the Redwinter fugitive she tried to help–committed such a grave sin. DoRw has room for a deep, complicated history exploring the moral implications of Redwinter’s “our lives are more important than anyone else” stance. DoRw has ASSLOADS OF ROOM for conflict and tension as a covert group comprised of others with the ghostsight invite Raine into their ranks, always with the reminder of her inevitable death if Redwinter discovers her secret. (A plot which McDonalds takes the easy way out of, btw.)

Instead, the plot is often loose and plodding, as Raine spends an endless amount of time in her head poking at what’s happened to her and what it means and what she wants. Supporting characters have enough personality to distinguish themselves, but–with the exception of the worst of them–no depth.

My emotions throughout DoRw were mostly neutral. With the exception of the last 25% or so–WHICH SHOULD BE COMPULSIVELY READABLE INSTEAD OF JUST MILDLY MORE INTERESTING–I liked the efforts in a passing, “I’ve read too many cishet romantasies for bookclubs” sort of way, but I was often disappointed it remained surface level.

Of the remaining elements: the prose is quite nice. McDonald is confident and unrushed, and capable of some lovely turns of phrase. It's the fundamental lack of immediate intrigue and tension that brings DoRw to its knees.

(I should note that Raine is bisexual and has both a girl and guy love interest, both in the early stages, although in the world of Redwinter same sex relationships are frowned upon.)

Raine can see the dead and lives where this is not a good thing. She must keep her ability private. When she rescues a random woman one day, she becomes entailed with a man of high rank who wants her to be his friend and companion. While in his hometown, things get a little sketchy for Raine.
Opinion
This is an interesting novel that will appeal to lovers of fantasy. The tale was fabulous and a great read. The soothing way that McDonald wrote the story made it easy to read and get wrapped up into the tale.
Many thanks to Net Galley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with a ARC of this book. Many more apologies for taking so long to review it. This book was fabulous.

I think the reason I struggled with this book for so long, having put it down for well over a year and finally picked it back up, despite the interesting premise and magic system at the start of the book, is our main character, Raine. I honestly did not care for her as a person, the decisions she made and the justifications she gave for them (specifically in the beginning when she was part of the troupe who followed the Three Sisters), just really gave me the ick. After conferring with a friend who did finish the book we agreed that I would not enjoy this if I did continue on so I have decided to DNF and free up my time for other books. I know other friends have enjoyed this book, I just don’t think it was for me and that is always okay.

I liked this book alright. This was not an unpleasant reading experience for me. I feel like this was overall well-written. I like the magic system and the questions that it raised and some of what the author explored through it. I would have liked a little more fleshing out of that system in this book, as there were some places where things were unclear. I also enjoyed Raine's journey. It's not entirely about her accepting and learning about her powers, but some of it does cover this familiar and favored topic. I will say, if you don't like the "not like other girls" trope, stay away. I felt that this was balanced out later in the book by the female friendships she develops later in the book, but she is a bit judgy still. I feel like that's probably a plot point that will be explored in later books.

One thing I do want to note is that there is a lot of... casual fatphobia in here in regards to one character. I had hope in his introduction that we wouldn't see that as the intro for this character was very neutral, but intentionally or not, it did not stay that way. Most of the fatphobic content seemed unintentional, any of his scenes there is a focus on him eating in a way that is not focused on with other characters, but there was at least one blatantly fatphobic statement in here.

This novel was a great focus on fantasy. The title is thrilling, the cover intense, and the book itself had me glued to every page.

I read a lot of YA Fantasy, and this is one of the best YA fantasies I've read in a while. There are so many cliches and tropes you see repeated in this genre, but this one was a standout and possessed a lot of originality.

The world-building was amazingly thorough, to the point that you can see the sequels coming and I am here for them. There was really more of an ensemble cast to the story, vs. focusing on one character, but they were all extremely well developed. It's hard to give a synopsis of a lot of fantasy books without it sounding like you're jumping the shark, so instead I'll just say this one compares to Ursula K Le Guin,

This was a unique book overall but it felt too long. It took me forever to read as it dragged at times. I wish I enjoyed it more than I did. I may continue the series because the end to grab my attention.

DNF @ 42%

Unfortunately, it’s time to admit that this isn’t the book for me. Every time I set it down, I found myself wanting to come back to it less and less. The concept behind the story is interesting, but the execution and overall writing style is lacking for me.

I forgot a lot of this as soon as I read it, I didnt care what was happening. I didnt care what was happening to the characters. It was just mindless reading.

(Not Spoiler free)

I forget what drew me to this book, probably the flavor text, but it took me a while to actually get around to it. In a lot of ways this feels like pretty European-inspired fantasy with a lot of pages where nothing is really happening, but then the stuff with Raine and the dead comes up, and it gets more interesting. I look forward to seeing more develop between Raine and Esher, as well as what will happen with Sanvaunt now that Ovitus’ lying about having had a relationship with Raine is revealed. I’m also looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen with the Queen of Feathers, especially now that Raine is being recognized as an apprentice. I think this has potential and some really interesting elements that I’m looking forward to seeing further explored and expanded.

Daughter of Redwinter wasn't on my radar until the generous folks from Tor sent me a copy for review. I saw that Robin Hobb rated this book highly and any book she enjoys always piques my interest.

Daughter of Redwinter took me by surprise. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did but I went on a journey with these characters, got to know them, and became invested in their story.

Raine can see the dead but doing so means the death sentence and she can't let anyone know about this ability. When she helps an injured woman in the snow, she gets tangled up in the messy world of warrior magicians, ghosts, and demons.

Raine is a 17 yr old with no clan and no family. She is reckless and makes poor decisions but she is also young and as she deals with a lot of misfortune and trauma, Raine changes, learns, and grows to become her own person. I actually love that Raine isn't a 'chosen one' but instead she is more of a side character and we get to see her story from that point of view.

At its core, Daughter of Redwinter shows how a pious society can unjustly treat those who are different, out of fear of what they don't know or try to understand. There's politics, schemes, apprentices learning a unique magic system, and mysterious beings from the grave.

This book has great queer rep (MC and side characters), female friendships, fascinating world-building, and thought-provoking questions. The ending was quite satisfying and left me excited for the sequel. I'm so curious to see where this series goes, not just for Raine's journey but the others as well.

Thank you Tor for sending me a copy to review! All opinions my own.

Wasn't that bad, just wasn't my style. I didn't care for the protagonist at all and I found the story to kind of drag/easy to predict. I thought the world-building was pretty good. Not something I would go out of my way to continue the series for, but a decent enough book.

Ed McDonald’s Raven’s Mark series is one of my all time favourite trilogies so I was incredibly excited to read his newest release, Daughter of Redwinter. The story follows Raine, a young woman with the ability to see the dead. Having this ability is a death sentence and if anyone finds out she will be killed. When Raine finds herself at Redwinter, she wants nothing more than to be trained as one of the legendary Draoihn, but instead is forced to serve the apprentices she hoped to train with. When Raine uncovers a plot to harm the van of the LacNaithe clan, Raine has to use her ability to save everyone she knows.

Daughter of Redwinter is a book that feels completely different to McDonald’s previous work. While the story is dark, it doesn’t feel quite as grim. This first instalment is compelling and while it took me a little while to really get into the story, I was completely captivated. The story is well executed and I was definitely on the edge of my seat for the latter half of the book. There were some surprises I didn’t quite expect the ending has made me absolutely desperate to pick up Traitor of Redwinter.

The Raven’s Mark series has really detailed world building and this is true of Daughter of Redwinter also. The magic system based around gates was fascinating and Raine’s ability to see the dead made for some particularly eerie and dark scenes. McDonald explains the magic and history clearly without info-dumping and I can’t wait to see how the world expands as the story continues.

Raine is a really fascinating protagonist and she undergoes so much in one story. I loved seeing her grow as a person and can’t wait to see where the story takes her. I particularly liked seeing her friendships grow with the other girls at Redwinter. I also really liked Sanvaunt and Ulovar and hope we get to see more of them in book two.

Daughter of Redwinter is a tense, gripping start to a new fantasy series. If you’re looking for a book that will have you turning pages long into the night, then look no further than this.

DNF @ 26%
Given 3 stars because I think this would have ended up in the 2-3 star range.

There is nothing overly wrong with this and I don't think it's bad, it's just not doing anything for me. I was reading this over the course of a few hours I was waiting in line for a concert and it was entertaining and quick to read, but after that night I just have no incentive to continue. Not for any particularly glaring issue, not every DNF is because I'm having a miserable time or because I tihnk the book is bad, this just isn't doing it for me right now.

Something that is a flaw in this book is the complete lack of any exposition or context. I don't know if this is something that was updated or fixed for the final published version of the book. I did receive my copy via netgalley, so it's possible my copy is slightly different from the published version. But every word or idea pertaining to the magic in this book went mostly unexplained. The most prominent examples is the "gates" which gives someone their magic, you have to pass through "gates" and passing through each one gives you a new ability/ deepens your magic. That was my understanding, but there was no real explanation. Is it gates inside the mind? Are these actual gates between planes of existence? What was the deal with magic having a "sound" that people who were magic users could hear?

The thing with this, is that Raine is a character that is new to magic and understanding it. She would have been the perfect vessel for exposition, since she knows about as much as the reader does. Except she doesn't ask or seem to care. I think maybe some more understanding was on the way since we were journeying to like... some sort of institution that was also under-explained. But if I'm a quarter of a way through a book, usually I am not so confused about basic pillars of the world or magic.

I think that if this book wasn't in first person it might have been better, because then things could have been explained to the reader, without necessarily being explained to Raine, or requiring Raine to care. Her emotional state and general disassociation/ apathy was understandable, so I'm not mad about that. But it prevented the reader from knowing anything or feeling grounded in the world, and therefore really impacted my ability to sink my teeth into the story.

This is always something I could return to one day, it's not like it's going to evaporate form my kindle, but for now- it's not doing much for me, and there are other books I'd rather be focused on at the moment. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What a great read! From the first page, this book grabbed me and carried me along. Superb action, wonderful characters, ever-escalating stakes, and mystery. The story opens with Raine, our heroine, creeping out the back way from a monastery under military siege, looking for an escape route, only to encounter a mysterious wounded woman who is desperate to get back in. On the woman’s heels are a group of warrior-magicians, bent on stopping her even if it means tearing down the walls. The military besiegers are willing to aid the magicians, but what they’re after is inside — people with “grave-sight” that allows them to see, and sometimes speak with, the dead. Raine is one of those with the talent that means execution, should it be discovered. All her life she has hidden, lied, and run away to save her skin, and she’s made some spectacularly bad choices along the way.

The book was full of drama and poignant emotion, hard-bitten action and sweet romance. The balance between slowly unfolding mystery, lighting reversals and betrayals, and coming of age of a most remarkable heroine was exceptionally well handled. Most of all, from the very first paragraphs, I found myself relaxing into the hands of a master storyteller, confident that wherever the tale took me, it would be a wild and infinitely satisfying ride. I was never disappointed.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me an ARC!
.
Unfortunately I DNFed this, it just didn’t catch my attention and maybe I’ll get into it again when I’m in the perfect headspace to give this another try!