I actually enjoyed most of this book. Set in Germany with old world “religion” of goblins and the Underworld falling out of vogue, with a main female character that doesn’t feel like she fits, I was excited to read. But really turned me off was the sex scenes. Not that there was actual sex, but the way it was portrayed. I can’t deal with characters that go all emo and are like OMG IF I DON’T HAVE SEX I CAN’T MOVE FORWARD WITH MY LIFE. Seriously. Without that ridiculousness, this would likely be a borderline 4 star book. But I could not get over the eye rolls during that part of the book.

Wintersong started slow for me, then completely blew me away! The world building, and character development was fresh, and unique! Solid book, and looking forward to more!

I thought that the book was ok. It was a little confusing at times. It really wasn't something that I would probably go out of my way to read again. Wasn't terrible but wasn't the best book I've ever read either

I knew from the moment I heard about this book that I wanted to read it and that I would probably love it. I was not wrong. Wintersong feels like a fairytale with depth and complexity. The setting is a dreamworld and the characters are compelling in their flawed, desperate, passion, and the ending left me anxious for the next book. I am happily adding S. Jae Jones to my autobuy list because I want to read everything she ever writes!

Aside from the feeling that you have seen or read this before, aside from some moving parts, and aside from hating the way the second half felt like it was not part of the first half of the book, it still had poignant parts. However, it failed in the areas of an almost forced rape and turned from a romantic love story or fairytale into a sad thing to read when having or not having had S** is all that defines the main character. This was a tragedy and a travesty too. I so wanted to like this book! I so wanted to give it more than the stars I have to give it because this ruined the story. So aside from some good prose and good emotional scenes, this book isn't my favorite.

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

Liesl is the oldest of three children in an innkeeper's family. Her parents had once been famous court musicians, but now are in the German back country. She isn't especially close to her sister Käthe, who likes pretty trinkets and is more traditionally beautiful than her. Liesl is closest with her brother Josef, also called Sepperl, and they often create music together. But Josef may be going on to train with a master violinist, and Käthe is entranced by the Goblin King of legend. Liesl will have to choose who matters to her, and decide what it is she really wants.

There is influence of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market in the beginning of the story, as well as the quotes prefacing the different sections of the book. Liesl is a believable kind of heroine, lost in her music and hurt by comments about her appearance or skill compared to her brother's. She knows the old stories about the goblins and changelings, but didn't quite believe them until caught up in it. The power of music is truly important within the scope of the novel, so that you can almost hear it as the novel progresses. It's beautifully done, even the parts that shock and scare Liesl, because there's the lyrical way the scenes progress that really evokes poetry and music.

This book was not for me. I was bored through a good portion of it. When I wasn’t bored, I was irritated with the main character. The writing is beautiful, but it just didn’t come together. I had to force myself to finish it.

Unfortunately, this was a did not finish read for me. It was so beautifully written and the story sounded intriguing... however, it didn’t touch me the way I was hoping. Which makes me feel so bad. It really just felt like I was simply reading words on the page and not connecting with any of them.

Oh, my stars and garters. This main character is so infuriating I kept hoping the goblin king would kill her. If I had the magic ability to kill book characters I’d be sitting in fictional jail right now.

Rarely ever am I so “nasty” in a review but this book had the most frustrating, the whiniest MC I’ve ever encountered. If you thought Katniss could be whiny you’ve not read Wintersong. Liesl makes Katniss look positively charming.

Also, I keep saying that I’m not a prude but I guess I am. Cause, reading about a teenager getting her freak on is NOT my thing.

If the sex scenes themselves weren’t annoying enough, Liesl’s constant pressuring for sex was. NO MEANS NO. Had this been a male character pressuring a female for sex, I have a feeling a lot of people would have been angry. Imagine a male character grabbing a woman by her private parts and demanding to not be denied. Liesl was a wannabe rapist who had absolutely no respect at all for her husband. It is not okay to pout, demand or guilt your partner into sleeping with you. PERIOD.

And can we talk about the whole, “she bled so she’s a virgin,” thing? Puh-lease. Had this author done any amount of reading at all she’d know that not all girls bleed the first time.Even if she did, it’s so overdone in books. Just stop, no one wants to read this one more time in a romance novel. We’re over it.

Plus, the goblin king kept calling her “dear” and “my dear.” This grated on my nerves. I kept reading it in a Rumple (Once upon a Time) voice. Actually, I think I started imagining him looking like Rumple.

Anyway, I always try to say something nice about a book when I review it. So, I mean…the cover is nice. The book was so bad I mourn those hours I’ll never get back. But, the cover is pretty at least.

This book was provided to me by Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and have not been compensated for this. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book it Romantic with a bit of a dark twist,

I've never read a book quite like this. Not just because of the type of mythology used (even though that was interesting) and not because of the language (although this was also interesting), what really surprised me was the use of music. I suppose I should have expected it from the book WinterSONG, but music plays a HUGE role in this novel, which was really incredible. I didn't like that sometimes the plot felt sloppy and at times very confusing, but I did love every interaction between the Goblin King and Elizabeth, they carried the story and make me excited to read the next one.

Many thank to Jae-Jones, Thomas Dunne Books, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review. Ok first of all I just want to make this clear-I pictured Jareth through the whole book. I couldn't help it. You say Goblin King, I'm going to see David Bowie until the day I die. And in fact there were a few instances when ideas may have been inspired by his cult classic Labyrinth. My biggest issue with the book however, was with how the traits of beauty and unattractiveness were thrown around and judged. Elizabeth believes she's worthless and ugly, and no one NO ONE allows her to think differently except when it comes to her music. Her music is all that's worth loving. I hate that. It actually made me pretty angry that I stopped reading for a few days. So hopefully in the second book we stop throwing the ugly word around. Because I really did enjoy the book to want to finish the duology. For the Goblin King

WINTERSONG is part Labyrinth retelling, part musical love story, part German fairytale. It's a slow-moving, lyrical novel that's hard to label and a bit difficult to get into.
The book's plot meanders during the first 1/3, and it's not easy to tell where the central conflict is, but by the end it feels complete and whole. Certain phrases are repeated throughout, which works both to tie the narrative together and to irritate the reader. Its very much a book that you'll either love or hate, and I think the reviews reflect that. It does rely heavily on a love of classical music and fairytales, so if you like either of those, you'll probably enjoy this one.
Warning that there isn't a happily-ever-after

I was able to read this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lisel is a young girl who loves music and is constantly looking after her family. But one day when the barrier between the worlds is thin, the Goblin King comes and steals her younger sister for his bride. Lisel plunges into a quest to save her sister even if it means giving up her own life to live as the Goblin King's bride herself.

Okay right off I want to say this was not the book for me. I thought it was gonna be something else and it wasn't and we just aren't a fit.

There will be spoilers.

I've seen people saying at least the writing was good, but no. Like I can't even get on board with that. I'm so frustrated by this entire thing. The GOOD I can say is that this was written, someone sat down with a story in mind and put in the effort and time and worked and worked at this until they got it published and out into the world and that is amazing. It's a huge accomplishment and I'm so happy that someone out there got to live through one of their dreams.

That aside, o h m y g o s h
I'm almost at a loss of where to start. Well, the writing. At first I was okay with it, there were a lot of interesting phrasing and vivid imagery. It gave the right feel, you could tell the author had done their research on the time period and, if not a musician, on music. But my problem was how repetitive it all got. We were constantly told the same things about the same people. Like 'austere young man' '____,entire' 'pretty lie/ugly truth' and ohmygosh LiselLiselLisel if I never have to hear about how plain and closed off and futureless she is again that would be amazing. It is just the same things constantly said, we are always told which goblin girl is the good one and which is the bad, always told how mismatched the Goblin King's eyes are, how angelic Josef is, how womanly Kathe is. It was painful. How many times can one book describe wanting sex with your husband as 'sinful'?

And the worst for me was everything was overly modified. I think it's a legit writing practice in the right context. But okay, I was reading a chapter and midway through, MIDWAY THROUGH, started counting the times it was used. 29 times. No joke.

""Woman like Constanze and me were relegated to the footnotes, to the background, nameless and unimportant.' 'And so, Der Erlkonig has ever stood between us and them, between the world of the living and the dead, the ordinary and the uncanny.' 'I turned from the klavier, from the room, from home' 'I wanted to shy away from their scrutiny, from their judging eyes, from the sense that they were measuring me against some invisible mark.' 'she looked like a painting, a portrait, a porcelain doll.' 'I thought I would find her and we would run back home, back to the inn, back to safety.'"

I could go on, but I won't. This sort of writing slows the story down. If this was cut back on, if the repeated descriptions were cut back on, this book would be a more manageable length for the story it's telling. On top of that it just had weird imagery? Like Lisel trying to press closer to the sound of the violin music but then she's choking on dirt, like... was she trying to eat her way through the wall? I'm just... excuse me?

A few small things. I was not fond of how the German was used, it felt a bit like how I did it in my writing when I was thirteen. I've recently read some books by Anna-Marie McLemore who adds in language so beautifully, it really stands out to me now. The other thing that is probably not a big deal but with Fransicos whenever Lisel was thinking something about him she would refer to him as 'the black boy' like I got that he was black when they first met him. But he's an amazing piano player? And for someone who breathes music I would think Lisel would think of him as that first. I don't know, it was weird.

This review is jumbled but okay, next point. Characterization and world building were way off. From chapter to chapter I had no idea who these characters would be. One minute Lisel is fine with something, the next she's freaking out about... I don't even know what? Or like the Goblin King kisses one of his male attendants in front of Lisel when they're married and she's like 'hmph' and they never mention it again? Everyone was all over the place.

As for world building.... what world? I don't understand the goblin's realm. The walls are made of dirt. But they have building. There are no doors. And somehow the smoke from the constant fire light doesn't choke them. I just don't get what the whole separation of the two groups was or how the goblins function, what they do outside of balls and serving the Goblin King? Who is actually a prisoner to his crown? But could just trick someone into taking it from him? And also the Goblin Queen can control him, but he's so powerful and everyone does what he says? It's like, oh the seasons are because of the Goblin King, but uh we never hear that he actually did anything. Apparently he doesn't NEED a wife to do the season thing soooo?

It just felt in a big part that there was this idea the author had and they sort of just let it get away from them without having a clear point A and point Z.

Can I also talk about how WEIRD it was that Lisel kept comparing the Goblin King and her brother in sexual ways. Like it was really, really weird.

My last thing. Please stop sexualizing C chords. Like ohmygosh I told my friend about this and she was like 'the author's wet dream coming true' AND YEAH IT READ LIKE THAT TOO. It was just ahhhhh so uncomfortable. She plays a note, A NOTE, and he's all trembling and stuff. And just all the musical things that were actually sex things, like pls no.

That too though, Lisel was so creepy about having sex with the Goblin King. Like okay switch the roles. If he was groping her when she said NO and STOP several times, wouldn't that be creepy? Wouldn't it be not cool if he got mad at her and sulked for not sleeping with him? Broke her things? Threw a giant fit? And then tried to guilt her into sleeping with him? Cos that's what happens in reverse. And when they do the first time he's still asking to stop and saying no and then It Happens and he's laying there crying and she's like YEP I'M A WOMAN NOW. It was gross. Like yeah I know he was attracted and wanted to sleep with her but he still said no and she said who cares.

Honestly, this book was a pain to get through and I cannot imagine wasting my time on the second one. I'm really sorry to be so angry about it, I know there are people that really liked it and a lot of work went into it, but I just can't get on board.

Unfortunately, this book bored me after 30% mark. The beginning was sort of interesting. I had to figure out that its not set in modern times, but the writing felt cold after the 30% mark. I didnt feel the relationship between the goblin king and Liesl that I wanted to. This book is a dark fairytale that felt like a Grimm fairytale story in that way that it way written. I think something was missing from this story.

This book gets three stars on the strength of its first half. I enjoyed the (Austrian?) setting in the 18th century. The book begins by introducing us to Liesl and her younger sister Kathe. Liesl is the dark, not-so-pretty (at least so she thinks) responsible sister, who writes music for her talented younger brother to play. Kathe is blond, pretty, and careless, in love with fine things and fun. The younger brother, Josef, has been deemed the talented one in the family by the often-drunk father, an ex-court musician who now fritters his time away in a small village while his wife, formerly an acclaimed singer, holds the family inn together with Liesl. Constanz, the grandmother, is a bitter old woman given to vague warnings and stern disapproval.
Not a bad start for a fairy tale family, especially after the two girls go to a market fair and run across some rather strange fruit vendors. There's a theme in the book about creativity and performance and how self-doubt can sabotage a person. I enjoyed the exploration of music creation and composition, which is done knowledgeably and in more detail than you'd usually find in a book like this. Liesl both needs her brother and resents him a bit, because she knows that she has talent but in this world she must operate behind the scenes, trusting him to interpret her music and go into the world to make it known. These shadings make the characters more than cardboard cutouts. I found Kathe particularly interesting. Liesl has no use for her younger sister, but Kathe is actually trying to marry advantageously in order to help her family materially. She is more than Liesl sees her to be, and I would have liked to have seen more of her.
However, the Goblin King intervenes and Liesl ends up having to seek her sister in the underworld of the supernatural. This quest takes up the first half of the book, which I thought was by far the stronger half.
If the entire book could have remained this quality, this would easily have been a four star book. But the last half turns into a turgid melodramatic mess, which barely earns two stars from me. Liesl ends up marrying the Goblin King in order to save her sister, and possibly the Goblin King as well. And then: Liesl is willing to join with the Goblin King on their wedding night, but her turns her down, saying her "wants her entire". This felt so much like needless drama- she's willing, they're married, why not? Because deep down, underneath the mantle of the Goblin King, the man who has taken on this role is kind of a prig. It was never clear to me exactly what he wanted, but it seemed to have something to do with music. The entire last half of the book is Liesl wandering the underworld, deciding whether she should escape to be with her family or stay because she kind of wants to and because her energy is supposed to keep the entire goblin world alive or something. Over and over again we get scenes of the Goblin King and his wife in their rooms, either sniping at each other or playing music together. The conversation never evolves and neither does the storyline. The Goblin King insists on calling Liesl Elisabeth, even though she asks him to call her Liesl, because "Liesl is a girl's name, and you are a woman". Way to honor your wife's wishes in what she'd like to called, King. He himself does not have a name, and Liesl's attempts to figure out what his name once was results in retorts like "Don't you dare, Elisabeth!" Why shouldn't she dare? We never find out.
The last half of the book is some sort of fevered mess of the worst sort of fan fic of what would happen in Labyrinth if Sarah and the Goblin King got together, dramatic flouncings, melodramatic lines, and no cohesive story line. After reading reviews of the second book in the series, I'm going to leave things here and not read further. It's sort of a shame, because the author had set up some interesting relationships, but then discarded them in order to write the sort of romance that I don't want to read or experience.

At the beginning I started enjoying the dark and misterious vibe that the narration was giving. In this story fairies are not pink and good, but vicious, threaty and feared. The main character, Elizabeth (or Liesl) has lived under the shadow of her talented younger brother and her beautiful sister, as well as obliged to fulfill her duty as the "not so pretty" first child and hide her true desires.
So, when the Gobling King threats to take away her sister, she believes that she has nothing more to lose and start an ordeal to protect her. In the middle of her adventure, she is shown by the Goblin King himself (whom happens to be an old friend) that she has an option to do what she always wanted: compose music.
So we have list of very good elements in this story:
- The misterious and dreadful Gobling King which might have a kinder and lovable side.
- The dark Underwold, where terrible and vicous creatures live.
- A female character with serious self esteem problems, but with great potential.
- And the touch of music, classical music, which is magical itself.

However, somehow those elements did not work that well for me at the end.

I am a digger for drama and pational romance, and I thought for a moment this is the road the story would take. But ended up being confusing.
The rules of the Underworld were confusing as well.
I couldn't understand completely what was the Goblin King. Why did he changed of attitude so quickly, so many times.
The need of Elizabeth for something or someone else to feel worth was annoying and also (again) confusing. Like, she had the chance to do what she always wanted to do, but then "no thanks, this is too much for me". What?
And even though she got what she wanted (not minding other people feelings) she is not satisfied and start being so dramatic I wanted to slap her.

The goings and comings of this story started not making sense for me from the half of it. The consequences where not clear, plot twists made no sense or where too obvious to be called a plot twist. And the ending was dull.

I feel like for trying to be poetic the narrative turned queasy and for trying to be misterius things that we needed to know to better understand the plot were hidden.

Well, life got away from me and it's taken me approximately a fafillion years since I downloaded this to actually read it. I'm really glad that I finally did, because although it had some stumbles, it was a book I always wanted to read that I never knew I needed in my life.

Nineteen-year-old Liesl has always been in the background of her own family. Her prodigy violin player younger brother is the pride and joy, and her younger sister Kathe is the beauty. Liesl's musician father is also an alcoholic and a gambler, and Liesl's mother is something of an enabler. Rounding out the family is Liesl's grandmother, who is superstitious, constantly warning the family about The Goblin King. Though Liesl is an incredibly talented composer in her own right, she keeps this part of herself secret from her family (all except her brother) because she's afraid of how they, and the world, will react. Over a series of a couple of days, a prominent teacher comes to scope out her younger brother, her sister Kathe is taken by The Goblin King, and Liesl's life is changed forever.

So, this book was reminiscent of so many things that I love. There was some Labyrinth, there was some Beauty and the Beast, there was some Phantom of the Opera, there was some good old Greek mythology feelings with shades of Persephone and Hades. I LOVE ALL OF THESE THINGS. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in those things as well, WITH the caveat that you be prepared for some of the things I mention below.

The language that Jae-Jones uses when discussing music is poetic and lyrical and beautiful, as you might expect it to be when discussing music. I didn't understand quite a lot of it, but I imagine a music nerd would love this as much as I love it for the callbacks to the things I mentioned above.

The book was REALLY strong through the entire first half. The storytelling, the slow build of the back story between Liesl and her family, and Liesl and The Goblin King, was phenomenal. As I got to about the midpoint, things started to slow down a bit. There was a bit of meandering, it got a bit repetitive in parts, and there were some pieces where it felt like she lost the trail of the story altogether or was just vamping for time/space. It's also definitely a melodrama, teen soap opera style piece. Which is exactly the kind of shit I like, so it was right up my alley.

I fully acknowledge that there are definitely some problematic things about this fave. (As there are with the problematic faves I listed above.) The Stockholm Syndrome aspect is no joke, and starting a "relationship," especially a romantic one, based on a what is essentially a bribe, borderline kidnapping, is not a solid foundation. But because I AM a sucker for stories like this, and have been since I was a young teenager, I'm willing to let this be a fave that is problematic. I feel it's also important to acknowledge that, unlike Labyrinth and even Beauty and the Beast, Liesl is an older teenager at 19, and turns 20 while living in the Underground. Not that it makes it SO much better, but a little bit more development that has happened in those several years.

One of the things that I did really appreciate was the consent during the sexy times. As far as I remember, all of the times that they are about to get it on, The Goblin King waits for a very clear "yes" from Liesl before really going for it. So maybe he's a kidnapper but at least he's not a sexual assaulter...?

The sequel to the book, Shadowsong, was just released in February, so I'm definitely going to check that one out. This one didn't QUITE end on a cliffhanger, but it did leave some questions and I want them answered.

This was heart wrenching, and I loved every moment of it. Not without faults, but breathtaking all the same.

Wintersong is an interesting read about the world of the goblin king. I must admit I didn't connect with the main character, Liesl as well as I had hoped, but the writing is truly lyrical and it was a concept, indeed a world I had not yet seen in fantasy before.