“It was strange, how much like Winter Death could be.”
Doesn’t that line send a chill up your spine. It did mine. Pun intended. (Punny and unashamed!)
That’s just one of the epic lines you’ll find in Shannon Dittemore’s debut novel Winter White and Wicked.
A mash up of fairytale and machine, this novel gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “winter is coming”.
It’s hard to know where to begin my review of this stellar new read from Abram’s Books.
Perhaps it’s best to start at the beginning.
I signed up for Winter’s book tour not actually expecting to be chosen. So, imagine my squeal of glee when I was!
I received an e-book arc and my marching orders. I wouldn’t be posting till October 15th.
Of course, I couldn’t wait. I ended up finishing the book long before the selected date. (I’ve been anticipating this book since I first heard about it last year. You guys can’t really blame me. Can you?)
I was hooked from line one.
Winter White and Wicked manages to capture the darkly toned whimsy of my favorite classic fairytales while offering up a brand new world of magic and intrigue.
There is so much about this book that I want to say. Shannon does such a great job wielding so many writing techniques but to go into them, I’d have to share spoilers and part of the tour rules say I can’t.
So, I’ll just share a few of my favorite elements, trying to stay as far away from spoilers as possible. Deal?
One: The main characters’ voices jump off the page. Actually, all of the characters seemed to jump out at me. I felt fully enmeshed in their struggles. (Well, one character was a little hard to get behind. But she only got a small amount of screen time at the end so maybe Shannon will make her a bit more relatable in the next book.)
The characters are compelling. And the danger they face feels very, very real.
Two: The dialogue was on point. A lot of times authors (even me) feel as if it’s necessary to explain every emotion a character is feeling in dialogue tags or physical movement. But Shannon just let the characters react to each others emotions, letting them explain it to the reader. And it really worked!
Writers can learn a lot about constructing intriguing dialogue from this book.
Three: The world building is phenomenal. It really felt like I’d stepped onto another world, one where magic and a wintery grave are just expected everyday occurrences.
My favorite aspect of the world building was how Shannon created, or seemed to create, several languages (including things like slang and curse words) for each people group to use.
Four: This book has one of the most complex magic systems I’ve seen in a long time. But Shannon didn’t overburden me with unnecessary details about that system.
She let the story carry the magic and reveal the magic system.
Readers and writers will find a lot to love in Winter White and Wicked, now available at the retailers listed below! Snag your copy today!
Here is the official synopsis and publishing information for Winter White and Wicked.
Shannon Dittemore author of Winter White and Wicked
Book Info: Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publishing Date: October 13, 2020Synopsis: Mad Max: Fury Road meets Frozen in this striking YA fantasy about a rig driver’s journey to save her friend.
Twice-orphaned Sylvi has chipped out a niche for herself on Layce, an island cursed by eternal winter.
Alone in her truck, she takes comfort in two things: the solitude of the roads and the favor of Winter, an icy spirit who has protected her since she wasa child.
Sylvi likes the road, where no one asks who her parents were or what she thinks of the rebels in the north. But when her best friend, Lenore, runs off with the rebels, Sylvi must make a haul too late in the season for a smuggler she wouldn’t normally work with, the infamous Mars Dresden. Alongside his team—Hyla, a giant warrior woman and Kyn, a boy with skin like stone—Sylvi will do whatever it takes to save her friend.
But when the time comes, she’ll have to choose: safety, anonymity, and the favor of Winter—or the future of the island that she calls home.Book Links:
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Book Depository:
Indigo:About the Author: Shannon Dittemore is a young adult author, conference speaker, and mentor. Her books include the Angel Eyes novels (Thomas Nelson Fiction) and the forthcoming Winter, White and Wicked, to be published by Abrams Books in the fall of 2020. Since 2013, Shannon has taught mentoring tracks at a local school where she provides junior high and high school students with an introduction to writing and the publishing industry. She writes weekly for Go Teen Writers, a blog recognized by Writer’s Digest three years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection. Shannon’s stories often feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. In many ways, she’s writing her own life story.
Author Links:
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Facebook:Tour Schedule: TBR and Beyond Tours (There are many more stops to this tour so be sure to check them out!)
As you can probably tell, this book gets 5 Stars from me!
Thank you for joining me for this review! Since I can’t quite put the rest of the awesomeness I am feeling into words I’ll leave you with this quote from the author that I feel sums up my my experience reading Winter White and Wicked perfectly:
“I hope that as you climb into the Sylver Dragon, you’ll let yourself feel the journey. Every bend in the road. Every victory. Every heartbreak. And every hair raising stunt.
My only advice to you, dear reader, is this:
Buckle up.”