Thanks to Macmillan/Tor for this eARC of Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald. I picked this up about 5 times and each time I closed it and wandered away after 10 pages. I think this one just isn't for me, so I'm moving it to my DNF shelf and leaving some feedback to close it out. The premise sounds amazing, the cover is gorgeous, and the prose is good. I think for whatever reason I'm just not being drawn into the story at all. I'm not going to rate it based on my DNF, since I don't feel like I'm the target audience and my review just doesn't hold weight.

Thanks to the publisher for an advance reading copy of Daughter of Redwinter (The Redwinter Chronicles #1) for review consideration. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

Daughter of Redwinter is a spellbinding piece of fantasy; a unique world with morally grey characters abound, a fascinating magic system, buried history that oozes to the surface, and a young female protagonist you won’t soon forget. Highly recommend.

Are you a fan of McDonald’s Raven’s Mark trilogy? Well, do I have some good news and some not so good news for you (it isn’t bad news, I swear).

I’ll start with the not so good – THIS AIN’T RAVEN’S MARK. Not even close. It is a fairly bleak world with grey characters and all that, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the grittiness that the Misery brought to Galharrow and company. So if you are coming in looking for grimdark or grimheart, you will definitely be a tad disappointed to find it isn’t really here.

Oh, you wanted the good news?

This is a fantastic beginning to what I expect will be another amazing series from McDonald. What he brings over from his previous series is that ability to immediately engage the reader in his world and invest them with his characters. There is an intriguing magic system, ancient lore that is carefully revealed, a dark mystery, and a cast of characters whom not a soul can trust (especially our protagonist) – all wrapped within a world that I cannot wait to explore more of.

But let’s take a moment to focus on our main POV, Raine. She has this ability to speak with the dead, which you’d think would be useful, but really just marks her for death. Raine is young and tends to make rash decisions that put her life in jeopardy, but she is also headstrong and doesn’t take BS from anyone. I was immediately engrossed in her story arc from page 1 because, come on, who doesn’t love an archer story? Especially one that leads to lore and a magic system we only scratch the surface of.

McDonald has a winner on his hands here that is sure to enchant readers worldwide. I liken it a bit to JT Greathouse’s The Hand of the Sun King with its headstrong, naïve protagonist and intriguing magic system tied with a bit of a coming-of-age flavor. It is a definite recommendation and will land on my best of 2022.

Reviewed by my co-blogger, Adam, from Novel Notions

4.5/5 stars

Mysterious, honest, and exciting from start to finish, Daughter of Redwinter has the goods.

As a fan of Ed’s Raven’s Mark series, I had been looking forward to seeing what he had in store next. I’m happy to say that Daughter of Redwinter hits the bullseye in many satisfying ways.

Raine is a engaging character, with a strong and singular voice. She’s only seventeen, so she makes some dumb teenager mistakes that are relatable and honest. But she also has a heart of stone and a peerless resolve, which makes her very easy to root for. She has an extremely cool curse/power she was born into, and it gets more and more interesting as the story progresses. I enjoyed how it plays a key role in shaping the core of her worldview instead of simply augmenting it.

Another source of enjoyment was how unexpectedly different the writing was from Raven’s Mark. Ed writes a tight, clean prose and this felt especially well-edited and polished. Not a page or paragraph wasted; every passage was pertinent and compelling and drove the plot forward while developing the characters further. Raven’s Mark was grim, but I would not classify Daughter of Redwinter as a grim story, though it does have some dark moments and heavy themes. Altogether this book felt like a tightly-packaged, well-produced, very well-written story, start to finish. My only complaint is that I’m not a huge fan of the cover. The font and colors feel off-tone to what the story portrays.

This was less of a classical hero’s quest or a rousing good vs. evil story. More than anything, this book had the structure of a good, dark mystery novel. All grey characters whom you didn’t know what side they were on until they end, some good surprise reveals and misdirections, and some well-developed toxic relationships that are unfortunately all too tangible.

I could go on about the interesting magic system in the world, or the religion and lore, but it’s best to go into most of it blind. All in all, this was a real page-turner, one that kept me guessing, and pulling the rug out from under me. It’s a bit of a slow burn, but tensions are kept high while new questions kept rolling in. This is an exciting entry to a new series and I’m already looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel.

I flew through this.
It has that combo of nonstop action, interesting world-building and one of my favourite tropes: Found Family.
-You know how in first book in a fantasy series, there is an introduction and lull before things start happening? Well, this book is not like that. First chapter, right away you are thrown into danger alongside our protagonist, Raine. She finds an injured woman who is on the run and against her better judgment decides to help her and this decision will change her life forever. Fast-paced fantasy novels are ideal way to get lost in completely, but what added to excitement for me was the fact I was constantly surprised because McDonald kept flipping usual fantasy scenarios:
For example, it sets the stage with poor pursued girl who is running from old powerful magician and then it flips. Or how I was pretty damn sure that the next step for Raine is to attend this magical school to become Draoihn (a warrior magician) since she showed the potential and she will be so behind everyone and they will laugh at her... <b>because this stuff usually happens in fantasy books</b>, but I was wrong. Plus, I really enjoyed the episodic nature of this first instalment in the series: there is a mystery at the centre of the story and by the end it gets resolved. There is even one "Witcher contract"- like case Raine figures out using her ability. Sure, there is more to be discovered about the world and characters, but I really liked we didn't drag this major question into the next book.
-The world of Redwinter Chronicles is inspired by Scottish folklore. And yes, that means fairies. :) They are actually not in the book as a part of Draoihn magic system: they are magic, but they are incorporated more as a mystical part of the world. Now Draoihn is a complex concept and the best way to describe it is that magical aptitude of those who have the gift depends on their ability to access different realms of the world. The more "Gates", as they are called, you can access, the more powerful you are. Raine can see ghosts and in this world people who have access to the realm of dead are despised and executed which is why Raine has to hide her ability. The part where they explain to Raine (and reader) how someone becomes Draoihn and how they practice to focus their gifts was a bit info-dumpy, but not too much and I have a feeling there is something that will connect all these things together in future instalments in an interesting way. It's a dark and mysterious world, but not overly bleak.
-Raine's ability makes her a troubled individual. You open up a book with her being not in a good place and you find out she never really was because of her curse. When she joins the LacNaithe household in Redwinter it seems like another thing she has to endure. Honestly, as people who will likely kill her if they know, McDonald did an impressive job to make Draoihn, and especially Ulovar and his pupils really fun, and likeable characters. I am so used to magical schools with Draco Malfoys and bitchy girls, I found this so refreshing. Girls have a night out, Ulovar wants to protect them all and romantic interests are both lovely <i>(she is 17, roll with it.)</i> There is even some politics between clans involved and one guy who is a scion of a rival clan was one of my favourites and I hope to see more of Castus in future books because he was awesome. Just genuinely fun cast of characters and you have no idea how relaxing that was.

I did have one issue with the book.
-There is something that happens to Raine in first half of the book that makes her reactions to certain things weird. Entire book is written from Raine's point of view in first person which only accentuated this. I wasn't a fan of this plot thread, because I wondered after did I really think some parts were infodump-y or the way it had to be written <i>because of it</i> made it feel like that. Hence, unlike with other characters, I have to say I liked and cared for Raine despite of it. She is resourceful, intuitive and inherently kind, so I was happy every time she breached this imposed character trait. So, yes, it was an issue, but didn't affect my enjoyment overall.

All in all, I really liked this and can't wait to get back to Redwinter with Raine, Esher, Sanvaunt, Liara, Ulovar and Grandmaster Robilar. (Everyone except Ovitus. Ovitus deserves to be kicked by a donkey.)