Review: The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

Hey all, Dani here.

Today I am here with an ARC review. I was lucky enough to be sent a physical ARC by the publisher since I had reviewed the first book, and since I didn’t know that was happening, I put the request in with NetGalley and they approved me as well. So, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for granting me early access to this book. This act of kindness to a voracious bookworm in no way affected my rating or my opinion in any way.

Summary

The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.

Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

First off, look at that cover. I love the colors used for it, and I think it has nice similarities in design to the first one, while also standing out as its own title.

One of the things I have to say that I loved about this book is that much like The Bear and the Nightingale, this one starts off with someone telling stories during a cold winter’s day/night. I actually like how the folklore storytelling helps to set the atmosphere of the book.

Also, I admit to liking stories where a young woman dresses up as a boy to go on an adventure. It’s always interesting to see how she navigates the world, and also how long she manages to keep her secret.

This trilogy does make me want to learn a bit more about Russian history and folklore. It all seems pretty interesting to me.

And much like the first book, I think this would be a perfect read for a cold winter’s day. Just curl up with a mug of your favorite hot beverage, maybe wrapped up in a nice blanket in your favorite reading place, and just spend some time on an adventure with Vasya.

All in all I enjoyed this read, and I look forward to seeing how the trilogy wraps up with the release of The Winter of the Witch, which is expected to be released in August 2018.

Where to Buy

You can pre-order The Girl in the Tower from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore. This title will be released tomorrow, December 5th.