Somehow the book didn't download on my devices before it was archived. :(

Fantastic read. Well written, with a great plot and characters. I was engrossed through the entirety of the book. I will definitely be reading book 2. I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Netgalley.

I did enjoy this book. It is different and set in Germany around the turn of the 19th Century. Liesl has heard about the stories of the Goblin King all her life. Her sister gets kidnapped from the Goblin King and Liesl knows she has to save her. Liesl has also been told all her life that the music she creates is not good. With her love of music buried deep inside her will she be able to let it out to save her sister. In some ways you actually root for the Goblin King and other times you want Liesl and her sister to run from him. I have already started the second book as I really want to see where this story ends.

The plot started out beautifully. I have to give a special mention to the prologue of the story because it was enchanting and really set the mood for the story wonderfully. The writing style throughout the entire book was almost lyrical which was very interesting and enjoyable. I loved the first half of the book where Liesl's love for her sister Käthe even takes her to the Underground to confront the Goblin King himself.

As for the characters, Liesl, started out as awesome and realistic and I really was with her when she struggled with sibling jealousy but I did slowly lose interest in her. The Goblin King was my favorite character in the book really. I went back and forth between liking and disliking him all through the book and that made him a really interesting and complex character for me.

What caught my attention first was the beautiful cover! Then when I started reading I was immediately drawn into the world of Liesl, the Goblin King, and their music. It is a fast paced and exciting read! I often felt for the main character and all of her burdens! I am looking forward to reading the next book!!

4.5 stars

Beside her family, music was Elisabeth (Liesl) Vogler's life. As a musician, she use her craft as an escape and also as something to hide behind. When her loved one was threatened, she made a deal with the mysterious Goblin King, but she never understood the degree of sacrifice it would take until she learned it the hard way.

I have a weakness for tormented soul and the Goblin King is one. I love him right from the prologue where I could feel his vulnerability. And while I like his heart, I also like his trickery lol!

Liesl was more of a constant hit and miss for me. I like how she was selfless and how much she was willing to sacrifice. But at the same time her self esteem issue was repetitive and a bit tiring.

Before starting the book I was wondering how I could possibly like a goblin hero because they're supposed to be vile and ugly. But it was also the thing that intrigued me to pick up the book in the first place. I like how the author chose to feature creature that is not traditionally loved.

This book also captured my heart with the premise. There were bits of Greek mythology (which I love) weaved with fairytale and folklore. I love the Underground world and the creatures. However, I felt some part of the book was too slow for my liking.

Wintersong is a story of love and sacrifices. It would appeal to readers looking for an emotion based fantasy.

A good YA story that is maybe a little myth about the Goblin King and his world.
Drama,mystery,and love.

Wintersong is the story of Liesl, who, to save her sister, goes into the Underground world of the Goblin King, and tries to win her sister’s freedom, but gets pulled into the world of the Underground and its mysterious, alluring Goblin King.

Growing up as a child, Liesl spent time with the Goblin King, but time and growing up have faded those memories from Liesl’s mind. She now lives for her music, composing music she believes no one will ever hear, but pouring her soul into it nonetheless. She struggles to find her identity in her family stuck between with her sister’s dreams and her brother’s talent, always the dutiful daughter and sister, until her sister is taken by the goblins, and she has to go after her. The story turns more and more into a twisted fairy tale, and Liesl eventually agrees to stay in the Underground in exchange for her sister’s freedom. Life with him isn’t what she had expected, and Liesl finds herself able to pursue her music with the Goblin King like she never could in the world above, but the curse that traps the Goblins underground has other consequences, and Liesl will have to make a choice.

I got serious Labyrinth (the 1986 movie with David Bowie starring as the Goblin King) vibes from this book in THE BEST WAY since I’m obsessed with that movie. If you like Jareth the Goblin King, you’ll definitely like this book, or if you liked fairy tales with non-traditional settings (like Hunted by Meagan Spooner, or The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, for example). I love fairy tales in all forms and fashions, and I liked Liesl and loved the Goblin King in this book - his own tormets and struggles rounded out this story for me. It’s twisted, but not dark, and fairy-tales-for-grown-ups readers will like this, I think.

As a tribute to Shadowsong being published today, I figured I would post my review of Wintersong. Let me start by commenting on how much I adore this cover. So beautiful!

What is eternal life but a prolonged death

Eternal life is certainly something that many wish for, right? However, is it really worth it in the end? Ending up alone and seeing others you care for die? The Lord of Mischief, aka the Goblin King, is the epitome of this desire. However, what happens when you only get one life? Could you risk it all to save those you love? This is exactly the dilemma that Liesel faces when the Käthe is kidnapped. In order to save Käthe, Liesel offers herself in marriage to the Goblin King.

What’s the use of running, if we are on the wrong road

Liesel, the reliable, plain child of the family lived in the shadow of her beautiful sister and talented brother. While her main source of love came from music, she was never in the spotlight like her brother, especially in her father’s eyes. In order to save the ones she loves, she sacrifices her dreams to preserves theirs, sacrificing her music for the Goblin King.

Life,” he said softly, “is more than flesh. Your body is a candle, your soul the flame. The longer I burn the candle…” He did not finish.
“A candle unused is nothing but wax and wick,” I said.“I would rather light the flame, knowing it will go out than sit forever in darkness.

After being betrothed to the Goblin King, Liesel finds that in exchange for the life of her sister, she sacrificed her own…literally. While Liesel becomes her best person living in the Underworld with the Goblin King, she is slowly dying. Getting closer acquainted with the Goblin King, both physically and emotionally, her love of music soars and is quite content with her living situation. However, this leads to the question of…What am I willing to sacrifice? Can Liesel sacrifice herself in order to spend the last of her short life with the Goblin King or will she sacrifice her love of him for life? Will love make the Goblin King sacrifice his happiness in order to save the one he loves?

If I could reread the labryinth this would be it. A retelling that isn't a retelling. The characters are all hinting at a connection but still strong on their own. The fight for her sister while fighting both herself and the goblin king draw you in. A tragic love story you just can't put down.

I received a free copy of this book from the author. I had the opportunity to review or not.

Can cruelty and love exist together? Perhaps in the underworld. The tale of ErlKonig, Elisabeth and Kathe begins with a fairytale, or so it seems; but nothing is as it seems in this tale of secrets, hope, deception love, and sacrifice,

Elisabeth and the Goblin King played together as young children and developed a friendship over the years. But Elisabeth grew up and no longer went to play with him. She forgot about her childhood friend. He did not. He lures Elisabeth into his kingdom using her sister Kathe. When Elisabeth agrees to stay with him, he releases Kathe. The two childhood friends are each at odds with their feelings but try to make it all work. The story revolves around that conflict.

This well-written and well-developed tale is filled with descriptive dialogue and an amazing underground world of captivating creatures. The world of the Goblin King is filled with changing scenes, changing attitudes, changing items and changing feelings.

I noticed it had mixed reviews comparing it to Labyrinth so I was a little apprehensive going in, since that's probably a top 5 movie for me. And the first half of the book a lot of details felt similar but not enough to annoy me, and they were minor - mostly goblins that might have been influenced by those in the movie.

I feel like we could've gotten to know the Goblin King a little better than we did, and there were a few loose ends that I hope are cleared up in the sequel.

A favorite quote:

'hope was stubborn. Like a weed it returned, even after I had plucked it away again and again'

I really enjoyed this, so much so that I bought the hardcover copy for my collection. And I tried requesting the ARC for the sequel on netgalley but unfortunately, I wasn't approved so I just have to wait a couple weeks until it releases :/



*I received a free copy from netgalley.

I received this via Netgalley (thank you) which in no way influenced my review. I see a lot of readers instantly dismissing this as Labyrinth rip off and somehow missing that the whole idea of a Goblin King (known as the Der Erlkönig in this book) predate the Jim Henson movie by centuries. It’s an entire mythology found throughout Europe and not just a David Bowie movie (but yes both are pulling from the same mythology) with written records going back to the tenth century so my advice is put the movie aside and try to read this on its own merits.
And it’s a book well worth it. It came close to getting five stars from me and might have if not for a few things. Liesl is a young woman of talents from a musical family fallen on hard times thanks to her father’s alcoholism. She is, however, also unhappy and it’s hard to blame her. It’s the 1700s and a woman composer such as herself has no real future due to her sex. Her much prettier sister, kathe, has been engaged to Hans, a man Liesl hoped to marry. Liesl has her own future hopes tied up in her sickly brother Josef, a talented young violinist. He plays her music and they consider themselves two halves of one coin.
When she was younger, she and her siblings played in the Goblin grove with another young boy with whom Liesl was close. Now she has set aside childish things except for listening to her grandmother’s old-fashioned superstitions about the goblin folk. As the time for Josef to audition with a famous musical mentor comes close, the house is in an uproar and Liesl’s mother doesn’t allow for the old fashioned protections against the goblins in her house fearing the mentor would take them for bumpkins. This is a mistake.

Kathe is kidnapped by the Goblin King (yes like the movie, yes like a hundred other folk tales from centuries ago) and Liesl must rescue her. That is only a third of the story and for me the least of it. What is far more interesting is the sacrifice Liesl makes bringing her into the Goblin King’s world. The rest of the novel revolves around Liesl and Der Erlkönig. She wants to reclaim her life and the world above (shades of Hades and Persephone) but she is intrigued by the Der Erlkönig who she realizes is more complex than she thought. Der Erlkönig is both the Goblin King but like her, now his queen, was once human.

Tehey share music and hope and hopelessness. They are complicated and fascinating characters whose story I didn’t want to end. Der Erlkönig’s secrets weren’t all revealed and for all his monstrous at times, kind at times behavior (shades of Beauty and the Beast) , he is very sympathetic. Liesl’s heart breaks for him (and mine was tugged as well). I wanted a happy ending for them. Through this we see Liesl’s coming of age as a woman, shedding her childhood name and embracing her identity as Elizabeth, a woman filled with music, magic and wildness torn between her enigmatic lover and her family in the world above, especially her brother Josef.

I loved the characters and the setting. I wanted more of them. So why not the full five rating? There is a bit of repetitiveness that slowed this down, especially in the beginning. I was getting weary of how many times Liesl had to tell us how plain she was and how she could never expect to out compete Kathe. Her music and her relationship with her brother, while good, also trod the same ground over numerous times. Also, wasn’t entirely a fan of the ending. There will be more as it’s a duology (though from the author’s own answers to reader questions it wasn’t really planned that way and this nebulous ending was going to be the end of it.) I think the reason I wanted more from the ending (spoilers ahead) was that there was hints that the Goblin King could lay down his crown. Okay more than hints but it wasn’t explored fully or even suggested between the two of them (because it did have dark implications). I would have liked to see that explored more. I hope it is in the sequel.

This review is also available on my goodreads, and blog. Blog site is abookishbeginning.wordpress.com

In return for my honest review.
This book had everything, magic, goblins, romance, and heartbreak. It was the perfect tale.
"The young boy asked the girl, will you marry me?"
It took so many different twists that i was not expecting!! I knew somewhere the Goblin King had loved her, but I would not have guessed the ending!!
Elizabeth was always worried of others. Always cared for their needs and had forgotten her own. She had forgotten who she was. She had forgotten who he was.
She had always had her music but it was not her music people wished to hear, or was it? He had wanted her, her entire. Her music, and heart selfless, and yet selfish.
He was the key, as was she. What it was she hadnt known yet, there was much she still had to learn. Had she known was it was like to die underground, better yet did she understand what living was?

A must read, I can't wait for book 2, even more so now!!

Wintersong sounded like a book I'd like. I do think my younger self would have liked it a lot. My grown-up self became bored quickly. I stuck with it until about halfway when I realized that I didn't care what happened to any of the characters (or the world, for that matter). I think a lot of my issues result from the fact that I'm not a big fan of the "ordinary" girl who spends a lot of time marveling that someone would want her even though she's "ordinary" when she's not ordinary, she's just extremely lacking in self-esteem.

This was a beautifully written book but with a pretty boring plot and an MC I didn’t like. I just DNFed it after a certain point because I couldn’t get any further. My rating is specifically for the lyrical and flower writing style which I enjoyed for the first half of the book.

I had heard mixed reviews going into Wintersong so I put off reading it a little longer than necessary. I am so upset that I did.

Jae-Jones has brought us a strong, brave female lead that is selfless and full of love. The Goblin King holds my heart as well as Elisabeth’s. The two of them together ignite so many feelings in my heart. Their passion, love, guilt, anger, all of it, we feel it right along with them. Jae-Jones portrays them and their emotions perfectly.

This is one book that I did NOT want to put down whilst reading and that I did NOT want to end, period. I recommend it to anyone looking for a heart wrenching love story for the ages.

Wintersong is a sumptuous book filled with haunting imagery, passion, longing and music. It is a beautifully written book and hard to put down. What is real and what is an illusion? Is the illusion better than the reality? Would you rather keep your eyes open? These to me are central questions to the story.

Thank goodness there is a second book to read immediately because this story is begging for a conclusion. But will it be a happy ending? What is a happy ending anyway?

Hearing Wintersong being pitched as The Goblin King, and me who's a huge fan thought I'd love this book. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. But that's just me, because a lot of my blogger friends loved it. I guess I just set the bar too high, or I compared it too much to the film or to Mark of Truth by Graceley Knox (both I absolutely loved). Hopefully I'll like the sequel better.

Unsure how to review this book beyond saying that it was beautifully written. I know nothing about music, composing, or anything. But this was written in a way that felt like I was listening to a symphony.

This was a beautiful and sad romantic, and tragic, fairytale. The pacing was a little slow, but while reading this I was so swept into the story that I didn't really notice that I had been reading for 2 hours.