'The Winter King' Weathermages of Mystral #1 by C.L. Wilson

From the BLURB:

Wynter Atrialan, the Winter King, once lived in peace with his southern, Summerlander neighbors, but when the prince of Summerlea steals Wynter’s bride and murders his young brother, Wynter calls upon a dangerous Wintercraig magic called the Ice Heart and marches against Summerlea.

After three bitter years of battle, a victorious Wynter arrives at Summerlea’s royal palace to issue his terms of surrender. The prince of Summerlea stole Wynter’s bride and slew Wynter’s Heir. He wants the loss replaced. The Ice Heart is consuming him. Wynter hopes holding his own child in his arms will rekindle the warmth in his heart before he becomes the monster of Wintercraig legend, the Ice King.

The Summer King has three very precious daughters whom he loves dearly. Wynter will take one of them to wife. She will have one year to provide him with an Heir. If she fails, he will send her to face the mercy of the mountains and claim another princess for his wife. And so it will continue until Wynter has his Heir or the Summer King is out of daughters.

The plan is perfect—except for one small detail. The Summer King has a fourth daughter. One of whom he is not so fond. And she is a fiercely passionate creature, with a temper as volatile as the forces of her weathergift, the power of storms.

‘The Winter King’ is the first book in a new fantasy romance series from C.L. Wilson, called ‘Weathermages of Mystral’. This is a completely new series, separate from her wildly popular ‘Tairen Soul’.

So, I did read the ‘Tairen Soul’ series on the strength of multiple bloggers whom I respect a great deal raving about it. But I wasn't as in love with them as many of my fellow-bloggers, and can honestly barely remember the basic gist of the story even now. But, to be fair, at the time of reading I really wasn’t a fantasy fan. I’d just ventured into paranormal romance and was still tentatively stepping into those reading waters, but found fantasy too ‘out-there’ for me. It would take Melina Marchetta’s Lumatere Chronicles series to turn the tide on fantasy for me, and I’m sure if I revisited ‘Tairen Soul’ I’d have a very different experience. But it’s because I don’t count myself among the legion of ‘Tairen Soul’ fans that I’m sort of surprised by how much I enjoyed (even loved) ‘The Winter King’.

In this first book of a new series, C.L. Wilson presents a Helen of Troy-esque story of young King Wynter Atrialan, whose betrothed was stolen away from him by a Prince of the neighbouring Summerlea territory, who also murdered Wynter’s young brother during his escape with the would-be Queen … cut to three years and a devastating war later, King Wynter is the victor and as part of a peace treaty he is to marry and beget an heir with one of the three famous Summerlea Princesses.

What Wynter doesn’t expect is to find himself wed to a fourth Princess – Khamsin is a weathermage like Wynter, but she has spent her young life hidden away in a castle tower, the ire of her mad King father who blames her for the death of his beloved wife.

The book covers Kham and Wynter’s troublesome first meeting, wedding and the first year of her marriage to the powerful King and her sworn enemy – a year spent as an outsider queen, hated and regarded with great suspicion by all in her new Kingdom, including her husband.

As well as the Helen of Tory initial trigger, the book also reminded me a little of Elizabeth Vaughan’s ‘Chronicles of the Warlands’ for the story of a claimed royal bride having to fit into her husband’s conquering nation, and even start to sympathise with what both sides of the war have gone through.

C.L. Wilson book is still very fantasy – there’s a major story thread about Wynter succumbing to something called his Ice Heart, a complicated magic that I’m going to admit was sometimes over my head (particularly towards the end of the book, when everything comes to a climax). But I really enjoyed ‘The Winter King’ because of the romance aspect in Wilson’s book.

Wynter and Kham were such an interesting pairing, and while they do have a heady dose of love at first sight – it’s cloaked and complicated by their respective political alliances and a marriage seemingly fuelled by diplomacy. They have a lot to cut through until they can start to realise how much of their marriage is built on more than just strategic alliances and peace treaties.

“I hadn't thought you such a faithless coward. You are a princess of the Summer Throne, wedded Queen of the Craig, and my wife. You swore an oath, before a priest and your father's court, to accept my counsel and my care. You swore to offer me all the fruits of your life. And now, you would deny me that which you swore to offer? Do you have so little honor?"
The accusation stole the silver from her eyes, leaving them pure, plain gray filled with shock and dismay.
"I...No! Of course not! I'm no oathbreaker."
"Then come to your bath. Accept my care, as you swore you would. Offer me the fruits of your life, that I may dine once more on peace instead of war.”

There were a few niggling little things that stopped me from giving this book five stars – a seemingly repeated storyline of ‘Kham is sick/injured and needs to have Wynter sit by her bedside’ became somewhat tiresome in the beginning. But I’ll forgive a lot because Kham was actually a very fiery and fierce female protagonist. And even if a lot of the book’s ending got into very complicated (for me) fantasy territory, it carried me all the way through and left me keen for the next ‘Weathermages of Mystral’ book (set for 2015, supposedly about The Sea Lord).

I really – surprisingly – enjoyed this fantasy romance of a conquered Princess finding her way and love in the Kingdom of her victorious husband King. C.L. Wilson ensured I’d be coming back to the world of ‘Weathermages of Mystral’ having enchanted me with this sexy, thoughtful fantasy romance instalment.

4/5

'Lady of Light & Shadows' by C.L. Wilson

From the BLURB:

Ellysetta Baristani and her betrothed Fey lord, returning hero Rain Tairen Soul, are days away from their wedding, but the wicked Eld lords are drawing ever closer to locating Ellysetta, whose magic they hope to use for their own ends. As the intrigues of the Eld plot ripple throughout the court, Ellysetta wrestles with personal demons and the mysterious power within her. Meanwhile, tensions on the country's borders mount as the specter of war draws nearer.

‘Lady of Light and Shadows’ is the second book in C.L. Wilson’s ‘Tairen Soul’ series. This book picks up right where ‘Lord of the Fading Lands’ left off, the timelines are literally side-by-side.

When Wilson left off in ‘Lord of the fading lands’, she hinted at dire things to come for Rain and his truemate, Ellysetta. I can’t give anything away without spoiling a huge plotline – but in this book much is revealed about Ellie’s origins. There was a huge build-up to this ‘big reveal’ concerning Ellie’s birthright, and I personally don’t think Wilson delivered a big enough pay-off.

When the truth about Ellie’s origins is revealed, as readers we expect there to be a huge tumult – and there is, initially – but everything is smoothed over and forgotten pretty quickly. Considering the fact that Ellie has been pretty blessed so far in this series (woodcarver’s daughter turned Fey Queen – ultimate rags to riches) I would have appreciated it if Ellie went through a period of real struggle and doubt, just to shake her up. That being said, Ellie does go through a lot in this book as she learns about her bloodline and growing powers – as well as dealing with her ever-evolving relationship with Rain.

He was her hero, the magic prince she’d dreamed of all her life, a legend larger than life. She was just a twenty-four-year-old woodcarver’s daughter, a nobody. She should not have the power to make a legend tremble, and yet she did. She didn’t want that power. She could not bear to see Rain humbled, especially not by her hand.

I must admit, this ‘Tairen Soul’ series is very romantic. Wilson certainly knows how to write a captivating romance with just the right amount of sizzle – and considering the fact that in this book Rain and Ellie still aren’t officially married, Wilson does an admirable job of writing some very hot scenes that make up for the lack of outright sex.

I really liked the fleshing out of secondary characters in this book. Bel is one of Ellie’s guards; he has the weight of death on his soul, but feels lightened because of Ellie’s powerful healing magic. I really love him and his rough exterior, and I hope he finds his own truemate in books to come. I also loved the introduction of a character called Gaelen, who was previously mentioned in passing as a sort of Tairen ‘boogeyman’, but comes to life in this second book. He is a fantastic secondary character – funny and charming with Ellie, bull-headed with her other guards. I can definitely see the potential for great things with Bel and Gaelen’s storylines.

Even though I firmly believe Wilson could have done a lot more with the reveal of Ellie’s origins, the series as a whole is progressing nicely; enough that I am looking forward to reading the 3rd book. The plot is thickening and Wilson’s villains are taking shape and showing themselves to be very disturbing and macabre bad guys – among the best villains I have ever read. I’m also enjoying the rough progress of Rain & Ellie’s romance (and in this book the romance heats up!)

3.5/5

'Lord of the Fading Lands' by C.L. Wilson

From the BLURB:

Faerie king Rain Tairen Soul, a man tormented by age-old grief: a thousand years ago, the woman he loved was slain in battle, and in his rage he laid waste to half the world. Now his people are dying out and the evil mages of Eld are rising again. When Rain hears the call of his lost soul mate, Ellysetta, he journeys to the neighboring kingdom to find her; when he claims a woodcarver's daughter as his mate, he scandalizes the nobility of her country and rouses the interest of Eld's wicked wizards, who come seeking her in order to get at Rain.

I don’t normally read fantasy, unless the word ‘urban’ is in front of it. I don’t have a whole lot of patience for mythological creatures that aren’t vampires and werewolves – and I tend to get frustrated with made-up fantasy worlds, languages and creatures etc. But Mandi of ‘Smexy Books’ fame recommended C.L. Wilson’s ‘Tairen Soul’ series, so I thought I would put my prejudice aside and give it a try… and I’m glad I did.

C.L. Wilson’s series is fantasy – but it’s more fantasy romance. The plot trigger in ‘Lord of the Fading Lands’ is Faerie King Rain Tairen Soul finding his ‘truemate’ after living a thousand years believing he would always be alone. Rain is a ‘tairen’ which is some sort of panther/bird hybrid (to be honest I wouldn’t have known that much if it wasn’t for the book cover’s depiction of Rain’s tairen). Rain is among the last of his kind, and the fey have always believed that tairen’s had no ‘truemate’ – but they are proven wrong when Ellysetta ‘Ellie’ Baristani calls to Rain’s soul.

It’s a very romantic premise – and feels like a fantastical spin on the ‘Cinderella’ fairy tale, as a woodcarvers’ daughter falls for a Faerie King.

The romance is pretty hot and heavy – but it’s also frustrating to read. There’s three weeks until Ellie and Rain’s wedding, and Rain has promised Ellie’s father that there won’t be any coupling until the wedding night. It does get a little bit tedious to keep reading about how much Rain’s tairen beast wants to claim his mate, and how both he and Ellie have to reign in their lust.

He gave a low, deep-chested growl, the warning purr of a stalking tairen, and invisible hands, hot and hard, cupped her through her dress. Invisible lips, firm and silky, tracked a burning path down her neck.

At times it also feels as though Ellie and Rain’s romance comes a little bit too easily. Much is made of the fact that Rain lost his wife a thousand years ago during the Mage Wars, and when he first learns that Ellie is his truemate Rain feels as though he is betraying the memory of his first wife by taking Ellie as his truemate. But that remorse is pretty quickly brushed aside – as is Ellie’s acceptance of the fact that Rain *loved* his first wife, but has no choice in taking Ellie as his truemate.

To begin with I thought the romance had a little too much smooth-sailing – but by books end it becomes pretty clear that in upcoming novels Rain and Ellie will have quite a few hurdles to overcome in their mateship. Because there is a hint at turmoil to come for these two, I was willing to forgive Wilson’s initially glossing over their relationship in this first book.

C.L Wilson is a beautiful writer. It’s a testament to her skill that even though ‘Tairen Soul’ is a series firmly grounded in fantasy, she writes her characters so vividly and makes their inner turmoil so intriguing that the human struggles balance out the heavy fantasy writing.

Battered and bruised, but still fighting for dominance, his was not the selfish, petty pride that made bullies of lesser men, but rather the quiet, determined dignity that turned men into heroes and made heroes crawl back to their feet from the bitter dust of defeat and stand tall once more.

Even when I thought Ellie and Rain’s romance was a tad false, Wilson’s writing was so captivating, and the plot so fascinating that I could forgive that small hiccup in favour of her master storytelling.

I really liked ‘Lord of the Fading Lands’, and fully intend to stick with this ‘Tairen Soul’ series – I have the feeling it’s going to be epic.

Thanks to Mandi for recommending!

4/5