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!
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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!

A teenager discovers they have magic abilities and joins a group with the same abilities hoping to learn from them. Sound familiar? Yet, The Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald is anything but that simple. It is a story with those elements, but so is it a tale of the class divide, finding a place to belong, and reflecting and knowing yourself. Raine has the grave-sight, the ability to see the spirits of the dead, an ability that would get her killed should anyone know. The Draoihn is a group of people who are not only from renowned clans of their nation but can open what they call gates that give them otherworldly abilities, each gate unlocking different ones of varying strength. The two immediately collide to dramatic effect that will find Raine with the Draoihn’s company and living in Redwinter, their home.

Right away, Raine’s current situation is high-intensity, hooking you. She joined up with a cult of soothsayer sisters under siege in an old monastery by people who believe the sisters’ have the grave-sight because of Raine. While following a spirit through a hidden path out of the monastery where they might escape, she discovers an injured young woman chased by two people with abilities she has never seen before. After a series of tragic, traumatic, and supernatural events, Raine finds herself in Redwinter, home of the Draoihn, where she finds a life for herself. In the beginning, there were a few alarm bells that had me worried. Raine, seventeen years of age, was dating a man named Braithe, twice her age, who she had feelings for since she was thirteen. After he hits her for bringing the injured girl into the monastery, worried about their survival, Raine’s inner monologue implies that it wasn’t the first time. The word grooming is never said, but there is ample evidence in the text to draw that conclusion, as this also hovered around a cult of conwomen and fake soothsayers. However, the situation resolves with Raine realizing the kind of person Braithe truly is and what she is in his eyes. My worries were resolved, knowing Braithe’s future had nothing but suffering in it, and their relationship would no longer be a part of this book. How quickly this is introduced but isn’t romanticized and doesn’t stick around shows Raine’s uneasy life so far, even before the inciting incident that tragically leads her to Redwinter.


Easily one of the best covers I’ve seen in 2022.
After the siege and the incident beneath the monastery is when the book takes off—slowly being introduced to the world of the Draoihn as she recovers from her experience. On the road to Redwinter, the difference between Raine and her Draoihn companions slowly becomes apparent, especially regarding the apprentice and heir to Clan LacNaithe, Ovitus, despite their relative age. As they come to Redwinter, Raine feels the metaphorical and literal divide between her and the Draoihn. They believe that what they protect, a source of power they call the Crown, supposedly created everything, and thus the Draoihn put themselves over all other life to defend it. Likewise, many of the Draoihn seen in this book are part of or join economically powerful clans, so are not only their actions above other people but also their status. This divide is seen throughout the book, such as the fact that Ovitus does not know the names of any of his servants or how many Draoihn, even those apprentices who came from nothing, treat Raine differently than they would have if she were one of them. This mixing of an economic divide with the divide in power of the Draoihn versus others is so well done by both Raine and us, the readers asking ourselves whether the Draoihn are truly good or not.

It often seems that when teenagers written in fantasy tend to stop acting like a teenager when the grander conflict begins to happen, and they need to step up as if teenagers can’t act like teenagers and still be whatever archetype or role is meant for the book. McDonald never strays away from Raine and the apprentices she meets and befriends from acting their age. They have doubts about their future. They make foolish decisions. They think they know everything when they do not. They don’t know what to do about their feelings for another person, especially when those feelings would not be accepted by the religion of their society. Raine finds a place with the other teenagers, yet she isn’t one of them. She makes friends with many of Clan LacNaithe’s apprentices, but their status is above hers. She is with them but separate from them, becoming a large part of Raine’s internal and external struggle. Her being able to see the spirits of the dead is a taboo that could get her killed should any of them, including her newly made friends, find out. Typical teenage behavior is seen throughout the novel, even when their lives are in danger. Ovitus is a prime example. Without spoiling it, I guarantee many who read this book have known the kind of idiotic teenage boy the LacNaithe heir appears to be in this book.

There are often moments of self-reflection from Raine in the book, and I appreciate that in a protagonist. It seems in character, both for her age and the experiences, traumatic or otherwise, that she has survived. Because of her ability to see the dead, running from home to join a cult of charlatan sisters, and the incident beneath the monstery, Raine has built many strong walls and self-defense mechanisms. The Daughter of Redwinter is not only about Raine’s journey but how she learns to balance protecting herself and opening up. The self-reflection goes hand in hand with the novel’s worldbuilding. It is all through Raine’s eyes, as she is the one telling us this story, and McDonald does not waste any words building that world that would take us out of the book. In other words, the worldbuilding important to Raine is also essential to us, the reader. Such as the case for example, when she is on the road to Redwinter grieving for what had happened in the Dalnese Monastery. She is broken from grief, so even though she travels and learns about new places, it’s not crucial to her and, therefore, not essential to us. That is until it is vital information to Raine later, and consequently, we can look back and realize how the author gave us that worldbuilding without it bogging down Raine’s emotional journey.

Endings that seem so obvious in hindsight are highly enjoyable. The Legend of Zelda puzzle-solving sound effect occurs in your brain moments before or after the protagonists figure it out. The clues were all there, leading to the book’s climax, but McDonald has you so invested in Raine’s struggle with her place with the Clan LacNaithe that the author can slip them all past you. A substantial part of the story is seeing Raine going from broken, uncaring, and in emotional pain to finding a life, friends, and belief in herself to make the right decisions in the end. We’ll have to wait until the next book to see how those decisions will affect her future, but I am highly looking forward to it.

Very solid start to a new series. It kept interest and felt different enough to stand out from the rest.

I'm generally really particular about my fantasy books but this one was something special, in my opinion. I was drawn in by the cover and the writing kept me hooked all the way through! I definitely need to read more books by Ed McDonald.