Tannat

Series: Winternight Trilogy #1

Alright, so it's not that I disliked this book. It's just that I found it to be pretty average. It's basically a mediaeval fantasy based in Russia, so some of the folklore is a bit different (and neat, I'll grant you), but it boils down to tensions between the traditional folklore and Christianity, where the Christians view the household spirits as demons.

The storytelling is also very linear, and the book starts right at the start of Vasya's history, just before her birth. There was a point about a third of the way through (or maybe a bit later but before the halfway mark) where I realized that I was going to have to wade through a lot of text just to get where the book was going, and I almost felt discouraged enough to put it down. Things did ramp up when Vasya was battling the upyry but then the story meandered again in Death's house...

Overall it was just a very traditional fantasy story since it even included the obsession with female virginity and how it relates to the ability to do magic.

I was really looking forward to reading this since it sounded cool, but although I don't regret reading it by any means, I don't think I'll be seeking out the rest of the trilogy either. Maybe I'll check out other things by the author if she continues to write, however. The book is written well, and maybe I'd get drawn into another of her stories better.