Beautifully told, I found this book a refreshing change from the current YA fantasy books out there with its folky, fairytale roots and focus on evoking all the senses through some fantastic descriptive narrative. I enjoyed the emotional and literal journey that Liesl and the Goblin King take through the story, though I found myself frustrated at times by the slow pace and repetition of scenes; Liesl repeatedly runs away - again, emotionally and literally - only to return again, which destroys a lot of the tension when done too many times.

Some of the writing could have been tightened up a bit more, but overall this book was a great read and I can't wait for the sequel.

*I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Okay, this is going to be a mini-review because I finished this book a week and a half ago, but didn't write the review until now..... stupid, lovely, addicting K-dramas distracted me.

Anyhow, I wasn't a fan of this book. I was looking forward to a quick-witted main lead who could hold her own with the tricky Goblin King, but that definitely isn't what we got. I was expecting a love story that made sense and built up until we could feel the forbidden love between them-- all I felt was desperation and surrender. I don't know why they love each other or how it happened. I don't know really what the point of the book was. There was no takeaway for me or something that I'll hold from it or even a line I can say I remember or feel when I think about the book.

The scenery was nice and some of the music stuff, although it went so far that I think I did not fully understand the book because I couldn't understand the music and I know music convenes feeling, so perhaps that is why I feel like I missed something from the book???

Perhaps I'm not being too fair to this book and my only excuse is that after a week, I can't remember if I liked anything about it :/ I only remember what I didn't like and how relieved I was when I finished it.

People who like and know music may enjoy this book more than I, so I'd be more likely to perhaps recommend it to them.

Loved this book
Didn't want it to end
Highly recommended

A fast romantic story about wit and bargains. Sisterhood is a main theme in this novel. Fun read with some angst.

I’ve never seen the movie Labyrinth, so my dislike of this book is not because it didn’t compare to the movie. I was extremely excited to dive into this book. I soon found myself very disappointed with Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones. The main character Elisabeth is extremely whiny and annoying. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get into this story. It is really hard to like a character that comes across pathetic and uninteresting. The Goblin didn’t help himself either. I found myself not wanting to finish this book at all. My determination made me finish especially since I was on the blog tour. As you can see my review is coming much later because I was not a fan.

I have mixed feelings on this book. It has been a few weeks since I read WINTERSONG. I remember going into this book with apprehension due to the mixed reviews. The good news is that I enjoyed this story very much. In fact, I found it almost impossible to walk away from.

Liesl is a fun heroine, but I found some of her skills were not well described. Liesl goes through so much growth in this story. She starts as a girl only focused on elevating her family, then on saving them, then on saving herself. Liesl really grows as a character in this story and I enjoyed the transformation.

This story focuses a lot on family and music. I don’t have an opinion about the music either way, but I think fans of music will really enjoy this story. Liesl writes music for her brother, the prodigy. Her focus is on him only at first and not her sister. Her affection for her sister is described much later. Liesl is not the pretty one or the talented one, she is the worker. Her family runs a bed and breakfast of some sort near the Goblin woods. Her grandmother is really superstitious and has a healthy fear of the Goblin king from those woods.

Something happens and Liesl is forced to surrender herself to the Goblin King instead of her sister. Once she gets to the underground, the Goblin King’s home, the story gets really good. I found the underground a bit confusing, but also very appealing. It’s almost as if anything could happen in this place and a lot of weird stuff does. I actually loved reading about Liesl in the underground. The little goblins were fun and tricky. There are also little changelings that are a bit scary. Liesl really comes into her own here and flips the script on the Goblin King, who btw has been married many times. Liesl’s quest to find out who he really is leads her to really learning about herself.

I loved the descriptive language and the Germanic folklore influence in this book. There is a dark romantic vibe to this story and I am so glad I got to read this. I found some pacing issues with this story. It is almost like 2 separate books where the first book is above-ground and the second book is everything that happens below. Whatever issues I had with this book faded completely by the 55% mark when I couldn’t wait to find out where the author would take us. I am really happy to hear that this book will have a sequel. That ended almost killed me.

I didn't manage to download this book on NetGalley but I have since purchased a copy to read and review.

Wintersong is wonderfully imagined and written book. Perfect for fans of fantasy fiction. I look forward to reading more from S. Jae-Jones

Wintersong is an “older” young adult novel that I really struggled with and I can’t quite figure out why. There were aspects of this novel that I really, really enjoyed but there was something that just lagged for me. I keep going back and forth deciding how much I liked or didn’t like this novel. Wintersong is definitely geared for the older teen. The main character is 19 years old at the beginning of the novel which is “old maid” back when this book was set.

Elisabeth or Liesl as her family calls her is the oldest child in her family. She is musically gifted with the piano and violin but she’s had no formal training. She is quite plain, tall and skinny. Her sister Käthe is tone-deaf but she’s got all the looks and is quite voluptuous. Her younger brother Josef is even more musically gifted with the violin. Their father having given him formal training. Josef is quiet and sickly. Liesl and Josef often play music together.

As a young child, Liesl would hang out in the Goblin Grove and converse with a young boy who kept asking for her hand in marriage. Eventually life kept Liesl away and she forgot all about the young boy. Now, all Liesl wants to do is to write music and she’s quite good at it but her father won’t let her because women just don’t do that kind of thing. Liesl is jealous of her sister Käthe’s good looks. Liesl has grown up believing her grandmother Constanze’s stories about goblins and the Underground were fairy tales until one day she thinks that there may be a grain of truth about the Goblin King. When the Goblin King strikes, taking Käthe to be his bride instead of Liesl she is heartbroken and a wee bit jealous.

Liesl is one-minded about her brother Josef which her sister Käthe points out early on in the story. Liesl only wants Josef to go out into the world and be a talented and famous musician because she cannot. Liesl is so focused on Josef that she allows Käthe to be taken by the Goblin King. Liesl is the only one who can rescue her sister and through a series of strange events she finds herself growing ever closer to the moody, gorgeous Goblin King.

Music plays a huge role throughout the book which I did find pretty awesome but I couldn’t really appreciate it because I have no musical training at all and didn’t know what half the terms she was talking about meant. I do appreciate Liesl’s passion for her music. My heart did break during quite a few scenes for her especially as it dealt with her music.

Selfishness also plays a huge role in this novel and that may have been where I had some issues. Yes, Liesl and the Goblin King eventually learn their lessons but getting to that point was a huge, moody, emo mess. I feel like romance is better when one of the characters keeps giving until the other learned the error of their ways but in this one it just felt like both characters kept taking and taking and taking from the other. Liesl is selfishly redeeming because she does everything she can trying to save her sister but in the end she’s the one who did what she did out of jealousy. She didn’t like the Goblin King valuing her sister more than her. Sadly, I can kind of relate to the selfish side of her so I didn’t hate her.

Let me talk about the comparisons to Labyrinth for a moment. This novel is set back in time so there is nothing like the movie in it but the movie is definitely a muse. Every time I read the Goblin King described I kept seeing Jareth/David Bowie in my head. When a random goblin was described I saw Hoggle. Every time the Underground was mentioned that song started going through my head. Even the ball scene reminded me of the movie. I kept trying to see a younger Goblin King but I just couldn’t even though this Goblin King was no David Bowie. I didn’t feel the charisma.

Overall, I think Wintersong may be a hit or miss with readers. I liked the musical flowy atmosphere of the novel. I loved how it was a love story to the Labyrinth movie. I didn’t like how it seemed to go slow in places, I was just really bored with her brother’s audition which is at the beginning of the novel. As a standalone, I’m not too sure about the ending either. The story does get wrapped up but there are some lose ends that could be open to a sequel.

Oh boy. Prepare yourselves for a long, not very complimentary review ahead.

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones is another one of those books that I requested through NetGalley, and was approved to read it, months before it was published and yet I put off reading it until after it was already out for the general public. And from what I saw on Goodreads and Instagram (which I primarily use to follow people posting about books) everyone absolutely loved it.

Wintersong was a case of gorgeous cover combined with an interesting premise. Liesl, a young girl with a strong love of music, had grown up on stories of the Goblin King. (You should definitely think David Bowie from Labyrinth because it was very clear that’s where Jae-Jones was getting her influence from even before I saw the author’s website where she admitted that was the source of her inspiration.)

In this story the king must take a bride every so often in order to keep the world from experiencing eternal winter. Even though Liesl’s always been the one to pay the most attention to the old stories, it’s Liesl’s sister Kathe who taken to be that bride.

And so begins a little cat and mouse battle where Liesl offers herself in her sister’s place and then alternately finds herself wanting nothing more than to return to her family and wanting to stay with the Goblin King as his wife forever.

After all that hype I’d heard I was let down, primarily because of the characters. Liesl harps on and on about how she is not attractive, especially compared to her sister. She talks about how her sister shows off her figure too much and more or less slut shames her but once Liesl marries the King she throws herself at him, pressing herself against him and touching him even when he tells her no. This causes her to throw a literal “break all the shit in my bedroom because somehow that will help the situation” tantrum because he didn’t give her a proper wedding night. Then, later on, when she does something that almost gets her killed the King throws a tantrum and Liesl calls him out for being childish. Oh the irony.

But the worst thing of all? Once they finally have sex Liesl feels as though she’s been broken open and has finally discovered her true self and her music. It gives her the freedom to finally compose the perfect pieces of music that she’s always wanted to compose. No, let’s stop having female characters who only discover themselves through sex and their relationships with men. It’s not cool.

And the repetition. The Goblin King is actually a title. The Goblin King has been many people over the years and his name is not one he wants others to know. So Liesl calls him The/My Goblin King or, Der Erlkonig, or, when he has a certain look in his eye, my austere young man because that’s not annoying at all. Liesl’s brother is also given three or four names/nicknames/titles. She also gives herself different names.

Oh and remember when I said Liesl was musically talented? Well, if you’re not musically talented (which I am not) you might get confused. Every so often she sits down to compose or play and we’re left with pages and pages of musical terms all written as though we should understand her moods with how she’s the music is flowing but, with no musical talents at all, I did not understand.

So to summarize this novel this was full of problematic plot lines and annoying characters.

Wintersong is a young adult magical fantasy by S. Jae-Jones. Wintersong is the story of the Goblin king. It is also a retelling of Labyrinth, but I know very little of that story so I can’t really speak on how good or bad of a retelling it was in that regard. But I can tell you that this was an enjoyable story with lots of music woven in. I liked the musical elements of the tale best. Overall, I found this story to be lacking…something…but I don’t really know exactly what it was. I’m not really sure it was that was holding me back from going from like to love with this one, but it was something. Overall though, Wintersong was a good read. I enjoyed it.

Wintersong is the story of the Goblin King and Liesl. I loved the musical feel of the writing. Music plays a big part in the storyline of Wintersong but it also played a part in the flow of the story. Author S. Jae-Jones does a fantastic job of making her words have a cadence. They felt musical. But sometimes the pacing felt a little too slow. I think that was my biggest downfall with the story. I was really interested in the world and the characters, but I did find myself getting a little bored at times. I wish it had been a bit more of a fast paced story however, for the most part the slow and deliberate pacing worked well with the Goblin King and Liesl. ( I know that might not make sense. I liked the slow pacing for parts but not for the whole thing…if that makes any sense. )

I really liked Liesl. I admired her for going to rescus her sister when she was taken, and I admired her journey from start to finish. Wintersong has a melancholy feel to it and it extends to all parts of the story…the characters, the romance and even the ending. In some regards I loved that about the story. It felt different and it was certainly emotional, but on the other hand it bummed me out a bit. I wanted a bit of a happier ending.

Bottom line: Wintersong is a beautifully written story of the Goblin King. I haven’t read anything quite like it before. I enjoyed this one, but I didn’t fully love it. It is very well written and for that reason, I can’t wait to read more from author S. Jae-Jones.

My God, this book. Just wow! I mean, just…umm. *speechless*

I may ramble incoherently, as I often do about the books I love, but this stunning book is so rich, sexy, magical that I feel I need to just scream about it from the roof-tops.

First off – That beginning. Oh my god! Fairy tales are a big favourite of mine, and from that first paragraph, I was enraptured, I could picture it in my head and was excited for the story to come. Music and magic coming together are a match-made in heaven for me, and as the story unfolds the sensual effect of music, magic and love left me breathless.

Secondly, the characters will stay with you for a long time after you finish reading. Liesl, Käthe, the Goblin King – all were so well-developed and so extraordinary that they leapt off the page and I could see everything about them that I needed to to really believe in them. I understood the battle of light and dark in the Goblin King, I felt Liesl’s reluctance to find herself, after years of helping her siblings find themselves, and Käthe, the girl who realises after it is too late how much she loves her sister.

Written in mind for the elder YA audience, this book has everything in it I wish I’d had to read as a teenager. Deeply, but not overtly, sensual, I would not recommend it for under sixteen years old, but there is something about this book that will trap you in its spell and let you recognise your own desires through Liesl’s experimentations with her music.

A stunningly written, sensual and fantastical romance, Wintersong is a must-read for fans of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted and Angela Carter.

5+ Stars!

*Review copy kindly provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

FOr once, a fantasy novel without endless sequels. An. engaging storyline with credible characters. The music references with somewhat lost on me, but didn't detract from the overall plot. A definte buy for my fantasy fans at school.

This book has been marketed as a good read for fans of "Labyrinth," and while I'm familiar with the movie, I wouldn't say that I'm a die hard fan by any means. I think I've only seen it once? But from what I remember, this book description does seems very close to that story. Perhaps too close? I have read several iterations of the "Goblin King" fairytale, however, and have had a hit or miss run of them. But I'm always intrigued by the basic arc and curious to see what new twists each author will bring to a fairly established story. However, while "Wintersong" is written beautifully, after reading it I wouldn't list it as one of my top choices for this type of story.

Basically, this story can be split into two halves. The first deals with Liesl's mission to save her beloved sister Kathe from the clutches of the Goblin King who has stolen her away. For the most part, I very much enjoyed this first half of the book. Liesl's relationship with her sister is realistically complicated, based in both deep familial love but also challenged by Liesl's jealously of the perfection she attributes to her sister based on her beauty. While this strained relationship could at times leave Liesl looking a bit selfish and self-centered, I felt like it also tapped into the true undercurrents that develop in many sibling relationships. And the fact that beneath it all Liesl would do anything, even sacrifice herself, to save her sister properly orients both her character and the sisters' relationship as a positive one.

The second half of the story is where it goes a bit off the rails for me. This is kind of surprising, because as much as I loved the first half, I always knew where the meat of this story would lie: Liesl's time spent as the wife of the Goblin King. And typically, this is the part of these types of stories that I enjoy the most. That said, it is also the most challenging to write as now the Goblin King must be developed to have more layers beyond villainy and the complicated relationship between him and his stolen bride must be more fully fleshed out.

And while there were elements of this half of the story I did enjoy, I also felt like the novel became a bit confused about what it was trying to do and say. Honestly, it almost feels as if this book would have done better if it had been marketed as an adult fantasy novel. Being pushed into YA territory leaves the physical aspects of the two's relationship rather strained and almost working against the author's arc of self-discovery for Liesl. It just felt odd at times.

The Goblin King's transformation into a tragic, romantic hero also felt like something we have seen too often before. And while that isn't always a fault (as I said, I've read many of these types of novels), this book's descriptions of him at times seem to take its own angst and oh so tragic beauty too seriously. The lyricism of the novel that serves the story so well in its world building and descriptions of music, begins to feel a bit empty and cliche when it comes to their romantic relationship.

At this point in the review, I would say the book was coming in at a solid 5. I liked the first half, didn't really like the second half, so a very middle of the road read. However, I won't spoil it, but I was very disappointed with the end of the novel. I understand what the author was trying to do. However, there are too many questions left unanswered, and, again, the beautiful tragedy of it all seemed to be taking itself too seriously for the type of book this is. I hear there is a sequel in the works, and I do not appreciate books that leave cliff hangers that require readers to continue to get any sense of resolution. Sure, leave the door open and set the stage, but end it in a way that is still satisfying if readers don't want to continue. So yes, I was unhappy with the end of the book. It may work for some, but it didn't for me, hence the extra drop in my rating of it.

Rating 4/10: Strong writing and a solid first half sadly sunk into overly dramatic angst with a frustrating end.

Boring and slow read. I feel like I have read this book before multiple times, which would not be a problem if the author had brought something new to the story. However, it was the same thing and the main character made one bad decision after another, I just could not get on board with her or her way of thinking.

For the second time this year, a Young Adult novel has disappointed me by starting off with a lot of promise, only to completely fizzle out in the second half. Gah, I just want to slam my head against a wall. After all, it’s one thing to read a book I did not like, but it’s quite another to watch incredible potential end up being squandered.

To its credit, Wintersong did have a great start. In fact the book had one of the most well-written and put together intros I’d ever read. The story begins in a simple 18th-19th century Bavarian village, where our protagonist Liesl and her family run an inn. All her life, she has heard tales of the mysterious Goblin King, a dangerous trickster who rules the Underworld and stalks the forests around their home, waiting to enrapture his next victim. An aspiring composer, Liesl has allowed these stories be her inspiration, even though she hides her talent from the world. In her family, it is her little brother who is destined for greatness, and all of Liesl’s efforts have gone into making sure that young Josef will get noticed and receive his apprenticeship.

But soon, our protagonist realizes she has made a mistake. With everyone’s attention on Josef, it is Liesl’s younger sister Käthe who has paid the price. One night, Käthe goes missing, stolen away by the Goblin King. Blaming herself for her sister’s plight, Liesl has no choice but to journey to the Underworld in the hopes of finding a way to rescue her. However, once faced with the Goblin King himself, she is reminded that in accordance with the Old Laws, Käthe’s freedom can only be bought with a sacrifice. The only choice Liesl has is to offer herself in her sister’s place, a trade that the Goblin King accepts.

While this is nothing terribly groundbreaking as far as folklore/fairy-tale inspired retellings go, I was initially impressed by Wintersong because of the writing. Whatever the story lacked in originality was made up for by S. Jae-Jones’ beautiful style, which is bursting with rich description and yet still incredibly easy on the eyes. For a debut novelist, she has a master’s talent for conveying a perfect atmosphere for whatever scene she is writing, and even a predictable plot could not prevent me from getting into the story. It helped that the beginning few chapters were so full of interesting conflicts, like the preparations for Josef’s once-in-a-lifetime audition or Käthe’s impending marriage to Liesl’s childhood sweetheart. Liesl herself intrigued me as a character, for even though she was the stereotypical bland and self-sacrificing older sister, I sympathized with her because of all that she’s had to give up for her family.

If I could have rated sections of Wintersong individually, I would have given the first half 4 or 5 stars—I just loved it that much. I was psyched. Imagine that, a book that has been described as Labyrinth meets Beauty and the Beast, actually living up to the hype.

But alas, it seemed I’d gotten my hopes up too soon. Around halfway, the story took such a steep nose-dive that I have to wonder if the second half had been treated to the same amount of scrutiny while in the editing phases. Barely anything happened. Liesl became a completely ineffectual, tedious character. The narrative spent an inordinate amount of time getting into the minutiae of musical theory. The story became an almost unbearable chore to read.

Once again I blame an awkward romance. While I can see how some readers might find the dark and sexy undertones beneath Liesl and the Goblin King’s relationship appealing, I believe a satisfying and realistic love story should encompass a lot more than that. What I missed from their entire courtship was a sense of chemistry or anything to convince me that there was something deeper, and unfortunately the longer the story belabored their hokey romance the more exasperated I became with everything.

It’s a real shame, because Wintersong could have been great, but sadly the promise shown in the intro did not extend into the rest of the book. At the end of the day, I simply wanted more to happen in the story, I needed more agency in the protagonist, and I needed a lot more conflict than just the cloying empty calories of a romantic drama. I do think that the author will have a long and successful writing career ahead of her though (because man, she can really write), and I am definitely open to the possibility of reading more of her books, but ultimately this one was just not for me.

I give the book three stars. I found the book to be too slow moving for me and had trouble getting through it. I think others would enjoy the story especially who like old folk lore.

I am unabashedly in love with this book. I am head over heels for this book. I would gladly go into the Underground for this book so great is my love.

Bowie did the Goblin King a great service in Labyrinth but S. Jae-Jones gave him depth. She gave him gravitas, and longevity. He was not just a mischief maker, he was a man. And while I love Jareth, this Goblin King has my heart if only because he has one too, even if he has forgotten it.

Liesl was refreshing as a character and I greatly appreciate her age, many people forget that 19 year olds are still teenagers who are trying to find a place in this world. She gives hope to the reader who believes they are stuck, that the life they are living is their only option, she reminds them that they have a choice and they are allowed to be selfish. Just because you are an adult in the eyes of the law does not mean you feel like one or always act like one, and Liesl shows that balance beautifully. Her relationship with the Goblin King, her Goblin King, is "hot ice and wondrous strange snow" (to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare) and it is enthralling. It encapsulates the inner wars both sides are facing and how they crash together in a brilliant chaos.

This was not a pretty fairy story. This is uncanny, and strange, beautiful and repulsive and at its heart: human. I do not believe their story is over and I cannot wait to see what come next.

This turned out to have exquisite writing. One where I was lost in the world and the story. But for some reason I wasn't wholly invested in it. The story seemed too similar to Hades and Persephone. Or as someone commented in my status, a Labyrinth movie retelling. There's nothing wrong with doing a retelling at all, and the concept was still good, but I felt like it was just lost to me? I couldn't really get into it.

The big reason why I wanted to read it was a couple of blogger's who loved it and because of the gorgeous cover. The writing was exquisite, but the characters? And the romance? I don't wholly enjoy it. I felt like it was the only main focus and with that, I got rather bored. I wanted a bigger emphasis on her journey to this world and her sisterly relationship but it didn't feel like it was enough. Maybe I'm being picky, but I do think there are more ways to garner a reader's attention than just romantic love.

I also had a lot of trouble with how slow it starts and how there was hardly any plot to keep me entertained. As for the characters, I wasn't swept up in their personalities or their shortcomings because they were too forgettable. This did remind me of The Star-Touched Queen, but that was one I enjoyed. So if you're a fan of that, you might be a fan of this one too.