This is part of a series, but I never read the first one and didn't feel as if I was missing anything. The religion aspect of this book gets old fast. It was a bit of a slog to get through. It could have been, and really should have been, edited down to up the pace and make it more engaging and interesting. Brielle is a wet napkin character. She gets treated like shit by everyone, and even though she's totally buff and could easily clothesline all these bitches, she just cowers and runs away over and over. The chick who gets sent on the mission with her, whose name I have forgotten and can't be assed to dig this book out of my kindle to check it, was a mega twat and an imbecilic child, and the reasoning for her tire fire personality was laughable. Her sudden turnaround of character was not believable in the least. The romance was meh. Feh.

I'm a bit torn. While I do think this was well-written and could be quite interesting, it was far too long and had far too many extended boring swaths in between the good bits. I did like that the fae aspect was more traditional, unlike a lot of shit today where people are writing vampire fairies and fucking werewolf fairies etc. Anyways. I don't regret reading it. I'll keep this author on my radar.

“You,” he says, “are a bright, willful woman who understands the sacrifice true dedication requires. It takes strength of character to extend compassion to so many, even those who don’t deserve it.”

The West Wind is the second book of the series The Four Winds and its main character is Zephyrus, Bringer of Spring, an immoral god. He’s in a badly shape thrown in the forest when Brielle finds him and decides to help him get better. However, Brielle is a novitiate of the church and she’s not supposed to be near a man. Zephyrus gets better and convinces Brielle to go Under (a place with folk people, and magical creatures who are dangerous for humans) to get an answer to all of her questions. Brielle slowly starts to realize there’s more to the world than the church and she starts questioning her belief and her future. Later on, she’s send on a mission to retrieve a sword, that seems to be important to Zephyrus as well. Brielle needs to make so many decisions which will change her future as a novitiate.

I absolutely loved reading this book, and the story of Zephyrus and Brielle. The idea of the Under world with all the magic, the folk people and other supernatural creatures. Even though Zephyrus was portrayed as an arrogant character, he still got out of his way to help Brielle at every moment she was in dangerous. The end had me in tears, it was just beautiful and unexpected. I highly suggest everyone to read this book.

Thank you Net Galley for providing me with an ARC.

After reading the first book in this series, The North Wind, last year I was excited to get into the second instalment. The West Wind picks up where we left off with Zephyrus, but now we add in Brielle. She is an incredibly religious woman who is striving to be an acolyte of Thornbrook.

First off I really enjoyed how this was more of an adventure story than the previous book, and I could relate to Brielle’s hardships being bullied by her peers. But I felt that at her age (early 20s), she should have had enough of them and stopped letting them walk all over her.

I really hated Harper in the first half, but as she softened and realized how terribly she had been treating people, she redeemed herself for me. Also in the second half we see the pace pick up a bit, the romance becoming more pronounced, and Brielle finally gaining a backbone.

After finishing the book I enjoyed both the story and character arcs, and how they were all wrapped up. There was much that didn’t need to happen, and I think was added to try and add suspense or raise the stakes, but I felt they were really unnecessary.

And I am intrigued by Notus, The South Wind! It’ll be interesting to see how his story is told.

I really enjoyed reading this. The premise of the book intrigued me enough that I wanted to pick it up. It was a good introduction to the tale of Tam-Lim, especially for individuals like myself who are unfamiliar with it. The pacing was a bit slow at first, but it picked up once she embarked on her quest. The main character, Brielle, was tough to get used to at first because of how pure and naïve she's written to be. But over time, I found that I grew to love her more and more as the book progressed. The romance aspect of this book was adorable to see unfold. I loved watching Brielle and Zephyrus learn to trust each other and make sacrifices for each other. I also liked how the book didn't just focus on the romance between the main characters. The friendships in the book were also really heartwarming. The epilogue was my favorite part. It was just so cute and sweet and definitely worth the emotional rollercoaster I went through while reading this book.