Almost, but not quite, as good as its most excellent predecessor, The Bear and the Nightingale. A wonderful fairytale set in medieval Russia, filled with cultural tidbits so foreign to us in the West. I also recommend reading both books in the cold months, since Winter himself is a character in them.
[Audiobook note: The enjoyable reader, Kathleen Gati, may be especially appreciated by those with no background in pronouncing the Russian words which are sprinkled liberally throughout the book.] ( )

In The Girl in the Tower, Vasilisa faces an impossible choice. Driven from her home by frightened villagers, she has only two options left: marriage or the convent. She cannot bring herself to accept either fate and instead chooses adventure, dressing herself as a boy and setting off astride her magnificent stallion Solovey.

But after she prevails in a skirmish with bandits, everything changes. The Grand Prince of Moscow anoints her a hero for her exploits, and she is reunited with her beloved sister and brother, who are now part of the Grand Prince’s inner circle. She dares not reveal to the court that she is a girl, for if her deception were discovered it would have terrible consequences for herself and her family. Before she can untangle herself from Moscow’s intrigues—and as Frost provides counsel that may or may not be trustworthy—she will also confront an even graver threat lying in wait for all of Moscow itself.

This book picks up right where The Bear and the Nightingale left off. Vasya is leaving her hometown to explore the world and find adventure, much to the chagrin of Morozko, the Winter King. The opening beautifully illustrates what made the first book so unique as Arden effortlessly blends the real world with the fae one. However, after Vasya leaves the safety of the forest, the book takes on a very different tone. Vasya travels through cities and towns and becomes more acquainted with mankind. This knowledge challenges everything she thought she knew, and it makes for an intriguing read.

While in the first book, we focused more on Pyotr and Aloysha, here we reunite Vasya's sister Olga and warrior-monk brother Sasha, and Vasya must reconcile the new reality with what she remembered of her siblings. Sasha is a very bad monk in that he's never in the monastery but always at their cousin Dmitri's side, providing counsel and traveling over the whole country while avoiding home. Meanwhile, Olga's world is confined to her tower and the towers of the other married women in Moscow. With Olga and her daughter Marya - who also sees the chyerti like Vasya - readers see how limiting it is to be a woman. The options are so few, the paths so narrow. Both Vasya and Marya struggle with the restraints, and they form a kinship. Having grown up in the country, Vasya makes mistake after mistake as she fails to realize that there are consequences for women who step out of line. She makes several enemies in the term - the women's rooms - because she doesn't stop to think how her actions affect them.

It's refreshing to see a protagonist make mistakes. I wouldn't say she exactly learns from them so much as she gets better at not getting caught circumventing the rules. For the majority of the book, she disguises herself as a boy so that she can rescue kidnapped girls, hunt down Tatars, and race Solovey around Moscow. While Vasya realizes just how much more freeing it is to be a boy, she fails to grasp that being a boy also comes with obligations. She makes promises to Dmitri - the Grand Prince of Moscow - without realizing their import. She is naive to the extreme, and sees the world in black and white. It's aggravating to her poor siblings who are continually cleaning up after her messes while not understanding their younger sister. Readers can see that Sasha and Olga are trying to help their family, so you sympathize with them. The tension between their rigid world and Vasya's fluid one is palpable throughout the story, made even more intense when Father Konstantin returns.

Because Vasya spends more time in cities this book, the story is more grounded in reality. The conflicts are more earthly: the patriarchy, the demands of state, and balancing power among the boyars. There's not as much about the chyerti until the climax. The climax and ending are more in the vein of the first book, and it is the most gripping part of the novel. It's perfectly horrifying and dark, and I loved it.

Admittedly, I found all of the horse races to be a bit tedious, and I found the whole "oh, what will we do with Vasya? She must be a proper girl" to be a bit overdone, seeing as that was the whole theme of the first book. On the whole, this sequel is still amazing, and everything is set up beautifully. Just like the previous book, The Girl in the Tower is a complete story but with the promise of a bigger reveal to come, which will have me racing to finish the third book. ( )

Sorcerers, magic, court intrigue, deception, death and betrayal all combine to create a magical mesmerizing read.

A wicked Fairytale with teeth!

Usually, books in a series don’t get much better than the first book, but to my surprise I think this is a much better book than the first one.

If you didn’t read the first one, you can pick this one up and still understand what is happening. However, I strongly recommend reading this first book, The Bear and the Nightingale.

This book picks up from where the first one left off. Following Vasya, her family and Morozko the king of Winter – Death himself!

Unable to except her place in life, to either marry or become a nun, and amongst fear of whispers of those in her village denouncing Vasya a witch, she decides to take control of her own life and destiny.
Dressed as a boy, she takes her horse, Solovey, given to her by Death, and heads out into the world to live the life of a Traveler.
Along the way, she learns that the evil that plagued her village has spread to other parts of the countryside, bandits are roaming the villages burning them down and kidnapping the young women.
With a dazzling display of courage Vasya manages to rescue a group of children from the clutches of the evil bandits and her actions soon catch the eye of the Grand Prince of Moscow.

The court of the Grand Prince of Moscow is also plagued by power struggles and rumours of unrest so the Prince and his trusted companion set out to defeat the raiders and try to bring peace back to the land. It is on their journey that they come across a young man known throughout Moscow as Vasilii the Brave and his magnificent horse.
Only Sasha, a priest with a warrior’s training, recognises this ‘boy’ as his younger sister, thought to be dead or a witch by her village. But when Vasya proves herself in battle, riding with remarkable skill and inexplicable power, Sasha realises he must keep her secret as she may be the only way to save the city from threats both human and fantastical…
Reaching Moscow, Vasya is reunited with her brother Sasha and her sister Olga. There she also meets her cousin Dmitrii, The Grand Prince of Moscow.

The priest who was determined to burn Vasya as a witch is also in Moscow. As soon as he discover’s the witch is in Moscow, he continue’s his desire to see her burned as a witch and he will tell everyone and anyone that Vasya consorts with demons.

The tension mounts as her siblings try to keep her true identity hidden and it falls to Vasya, along with the Grand Prince of Moscow and her own brother, Sasha, to try to rid the land of the forces of evil that are threatening to overtake all of Moscow.

I love Vasya’s character and the fairy tale mixed with realism and we get to learn more of Vasilisa’s siblings and their lives as well as her Vasys’s fate after the events of The Bear and the Nightingale.

There’s a lot more action and adventure in this book, the plot moves at a faster pace than in the first book as this story takes place over weeks rather than years.

I can’t wait to see what happens in the last book, which is where I see the problem with reading advanced copies – an even bigger wait between books!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing for my advance copy to review.

Highly recommended 5 star read!

This book will be released on 5th December ’17 ( )

I seldom read books of the fantasy, science fiction genre and I have enjoyed the few that I have read. I was impressed with the first book of this series, The Bear and the Nightingale, and have been intending to finish the series. I can’t help but to be amazed by Vasya and her beloved Solovey. Her travels are both intimidating and fascinating. Sometimes I recognize my body is tensing while I’m reading about her courageous adventures. I’m grateful for the opportunity to explore other worlds and ancient time periods. ( )