Spellbound!

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The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy #2) by Katherine Arden.  


I was absolutely caught up in the continued harrowing, and poetically nuanced tale of Vasilisia Petrovna (Vasya). A girl who can see creatures straight from Russian folklore. A girl who just might have the will and wherewithal to change history. A girl herself straight out of the pages of Russian fairy tales--Vasilisa the Brave.
Disguised as a boy, riding her beloved stallion Solovey, Vasya begins a harrowing flight from her homeland and the Forest of Lesnaya Zemlya to Moscow (Muscovy) to seek shelter with her sister Olga, the Princess of Serpukhov and her brother and monk, Alexsandr. As her journey unfolds I was caught up in her wildness, her unfeigned delights and her heartfelt sorrows. When Vasya takes up the mantle of a warrior and friend to her cousin and Grand Prince Dmitrii Ivanovitch her fate begins to unravel, or maybe change direction. Vasya comes up against the customs and prejudices of those in the city of Moscow. The conflict between the chyert brothers, Morozko the Frost King, spirit of Death, and Bear the Winter King is woven throughout. The tartars threaten Moscow, the god deceived Father Konstatine lurks in the background. Vasya's deception of Dimitri will have consequences. Vasya takes up a horse race challenge and the plot spirals into breath catching heights and incalculable emotions.
I read on entranced, alarmed and caught in the web of Arden's spellbindingly lush medieval Russian world, always underscored with a haunting grimness, captured by the happenings around Vasya, her family and Frost. Her word pictures have the strength of sight and scent.

 A NetGalley ARC

*****

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