Traitor of Redwinter: The Redwinter Chronicles Book Two

Product Information

The second in Ed McDonald’s Chronicles of Redwinter, full of shady politics, militant monks, ancient powers... and a young woman navigating a world in which no one is quite what they seem. There’s so many secrets, secrets everywhere mixed with betrayals and more betrayals, it’s hard to know who to trust. Theres also some focus on family and it was interesting to learn more about this relatively unique magic system It wasn’t war. Not yet, anyway, but it was the fronting of war, the way that two drunks square up to one another outside a bar that should have closed hours ago, that moment of posturing before the blows start to fall.

There were some pacing issues especially in the middle of the book when I began to get a bit bored. Sadly, the e book of the ARC is badly formatted with random numbers inserted into the text as well as a lot of very random line breaks which broke up the sense of the writing and made it hard to focus on what was happening. The characters are what really makes this book stand out though. Raine is a flawed heroine but she is magnificent. Brave, loyal, impulsive and stubborn – she makes some appalling decisions during the course of the book but also some absolutely heroic ones. Her character arc through the course of this story is amazing and I was rooting for her every bit of the way. Esher, Sanvaunt and Liara are all as brilliant as they were in the previous book and the character of Ovitus just went from bad to worse, but in a completely believable way. The minor characters were all brilliant too. One of my favourite sections was when Raine raised up the grandmaster’s sister, Alianna. I thought it was all going to end really badly and instead it was one of the most light-hearted scenes in the novel. Sanvaunt continued to shine as an exceptional supporting character, just as he did in the first book. The same can be said for Esher and Liara, who added depth and richness to the story. While I had reservations about Ovitus in Daughter of Redwinter, my dislike for him deepened exponentially in Traitor of Redwinter, leaving me with an intense loathing for his character. lol! I am itching to into details but alas spoilers…. The development of the relationship between Esher and Raine was both heartwarming and heart-wrenching, filled with tender moments that touched my soul. Similarly, the dynamic between Sanvaunt and Raine evoked bittersweet emotions, tugging at my heartstrings. I would like to thank Netgalley, Tor Books, and Ed McDonald for an advanced copy of Traitor of Redwinter. All opinions are my own. Where the first book was a journey, this was about the politics of the world. I enjoyed this aspect greatly and as written the worldbuilding made sense and was nicely detailed. Instead of introducing new characters and making them the plot (aka 'monster of the week'), we have the side characters from the first book doing most of the work of the storyline. It made the book much more grounded and solid as a result.

Those that see the dead are stoned, those that meddle with them are hanged, and those that seek to learn the forbidden Sarathi lore met the pyre. Raine is guilty of all. Yet she still wishes to train to become a Draoihn, part of something bigger than her.

I don’t know that I’ve thought about being happy in a long while. Like it’s something that skipped away from me and got forgotten.'

Customer reviews

The first 60% of this book is character development and world building, which is nice to have the world fleshed out a little and I think will come good in book 3 for sure.