4 Star Book Review | Dead of Winter by Kresley Cole

DEAD OF WINTER (The Arcana Chronicles #3)
by Kresley Cole
Published: January 6th, 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Borrowed from the Library
Purchase: Amazon

Can Evie convince her rival loves to work together? Their survival depends on it in this third book of #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole’s Arcana Chronicles, a nonstop action tale of rescue, redemption, and a revenge most wicked.

Heartbreaking decisions

Evie was almost seduced by the life of comfort that Death offered her—until Jack was threatened by two of the most horrific Arcana, the Lovers. She will do anything to save him, even escape Death’s uncanny prison, full of beautiful objects, material comforts…and stolen glances from a former love.

Uncertain victory

Despite leaving a part of her heart behind with Death, Evie sets out into a perilous post-apocalyptic wasteland to meet up with her allies and launch an attack on the Lovers. Such formidable enemies require a battle plan, and the only way to kill them may mean Evie, Jack, and Death allying. Evie doesn’t know what will prove more impossible: surviving slavers, plague, Bagmen and other Arcana—or convincing Jack and Death to work together.

Two heroes returned

There’s a thin line between love and hate, and Evie just doesn’t know where she stands with either Jack or Death. Will this unlikely trio be able to defeat The Lovers without killing one another first...?

Cover Review:

The Dead of Winter cover  shows a barren Winter landscape with a dark overcast sky. It sets the mood for the book really well and the tagline, "Not everyone will make it out alive," makes it even more ominous.

If I'm going to be completely honest, I'm not a huge fan of the new cover designs for this series. I like covers that have people in them because it's more personal, but they did make up for it on the back cover with having Death, Evie, and Jack there. I'm just disappointed that the cover designs have been changed. They were so beautiful before.

I also think it would have been cool if the title of this book had stayed with the titles the Arcana hold like the previous books did. For example, Evie is the Poison Princess and Death is the Endless Knight. Since this book focuses a lot on the Lovers, I think the title should have showed that. I honestly don't understand why this book is titled Dead of Winter, when Winter doesn't start until the very end of this book.

Book Review:

In Dead of Winter, Evie races back to her group in an effort to save Jack from the Lovers who have captured him. When they believe that they have defeated the Lovers, it is learned that they only killed their Carnates and that the real Lovers are hidden away somewhere. The camp is in an uproar when Death arrives to bring Evie home and no one can understand why Evie is protecting him. Selena is kidnapped by the Lovers and it's up to Evie, Jack, and Death to rescue her, but they'll need to put their differences aside if they want to succeed.

The first book in this series, Poison Princess, focused on Evie as the Empress. The second book, Eternal Knight, focused on Aric as Death. And this book, focuses on Vincent and Violet, the Lovers. They are known as the Duke and Duchess Most Perverse and we really see that in this book. They are a freaky and sick pair. They use all these torture devices and techniques all in the name of love. I often wondered while reading if they were always this way or if their past with the Empress influenced them into what they are now. They are determined to get revenge against Evie, the Empress, for what she did to them in the past. They want to take her and the one she loves and love them in their own sick way. That is why they took Jack and they are even more determined when they learn that her heart is divided and that she also cares for Aric (Death). These two really made my skin crawl while I was reading.

My favorite past of this book, and also the part that I was dreading, was the time that Evie, Jack, and Aric spent together travelling to rescue Selena. It was my favorite part because I love seeing Evie with Aric (sorry Jack!) together, so I loved seeing more with them together. And I also liked the interactions between Aric and Jack. They are constantly at each other and trying to one-up each other. The reason I dreaded this part was because they finally tell Evie that she needs to make a decision between the two of them. As the journey came closer and closer to its conclusion, the time for Evie to make a decision came closer. As you can probably tell, I'm on Team Aric so I really wanted her to pick him. But I'm not saying who she chooses, you have to find out by reading the book.

The part of this book that surprised me the most is when the Emporer makes his appearance at the end of the book. I'm not going to lie, it was a heartbreaking cliffhanger that this book ended with. The question I was left with was whether the Priestess, who Evie met earlier in the book, is on the Emporer's side or not. So with this kind of ending, I'm really looking forward to the next book.

Rating:

I gave Dead of Winter a 4 STAR rating. This book has some really freaky and scary stuff going on with the Lovers, we see the love triangle between Jack, Evie, and Aric in action and her final choice between them, and a new Arcana makes his presence known is the worst possible way. This series just gets better and better.


Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Kresley Cole is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the electrifying Immortals After Dark paranormal series, the young adult Arcana Chronicles series, the erotic Gamemakers series, and five award-winning historical romances.

A master’s grad and former athlete, she has traveled over much of the world and draws from those experiences to create her memorable characters and settings.

Her IAD books have been translated into twenty foreign languages, garnered three RITA awards, and consistently appear on the bestseller lists, in the U.S. and abroad.

Cole lives in Florida with her family and “far too many animals.” You can learn more about Kresley at www.kresleycole.com.