Book Review: Winter's Light (Winter Saga #2) by M.J. Hearle

Winter's Light (Winter Saga #2)
By M.J. Hearle
Release Date: May 1st, 2012
Number of Pages: 432
Format: Paperback
Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ 1/2 - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


Blurb from Goodreads:
Blake is gone.

He sacrificed himself to save Winter, leaving her alone, unprotected... hunted.

An ancient enemy is rising, but Winter is no longer the innocent girl who was fated to die at Pilgrim's Lament. She will not wait to be saved. She will do what she must to survive, even accept an unsavoury alliance with those who destroyed her love.

In the gathering darkness, the enemy of an enemy is not always a friend, and Winter must find the strength to stand alone and fight for the one she loves. For she is the key to unlocking the secrets beyond the veil of shadows.

And she is Blake's only hope.

My Review:
I was really excited for the sequel to Winter's Shadow and was expecting lots of action and excitement. But somehow, the story fell short for me. The beginning was slow going and I found myself putting it down quite often.

It only got me excited and glued to it when Sedoris and Benedict made their appearances. After that, it was up and down for me. Winter's performance was lacklustre this time around.

I was expecting more maturity and growth on her part but she was mostly depending on Sam and the Bane. She only started to show some steel and strength in the last few chapters. But I forgive her flaws as she was determined and confident of their love.

Blake's absence throughout the book was very apparent. It was pretty depressing. When Winter freed the prisoner and his real identity was revealed, it was utterly devastating.

Winter's Light was more like a setup and a bridge for the final book. I really hope to get lots of Blake and Winter moments in the next one. There just wasn't enough.

Book Review: Winter's Shadow (Winter Saga #1) by M.J. Hearle

Winter's Shadow (Winter Saga #1)

By M.J. Hearle

Release Date: June 1st, 2011 

Number of Pages: 424

Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


Blurb from Goodreads:
Blake Duchamp...

He's all that Winter Adams can think of. Ever since their fateful meeting at Pilgrim's Lament. Ever since he looked at her with those emerald eyes. Ever since he saved her life.

But Blake isn't all that he seems. There is a strangeness about him, something dark and otherworldly. Something dangerous. In his attic is a secret he would kill to defend, but Winter seems to have a special ability to make him forget his duty. And he is her only protection against the gathering darkness.

The only problem is, to protect Winter, Blake must risk exposing her to an even greater danger. Himself.

My Review:

“Why would you ever choose to die?’ 
‘Because a life with no end loses meaning. Death defines life. 
One day, I hope to find a good reason to die.” 

Reviewed on September 19th, 2011:
How can you love a book so much and hate it so much as well with the same passion all the same time? That's what Winter's Shadow did to me and that means that it was that awesome. I got hooked from start to finish and could hardly put it down. My good friend had to pry me away from it. I won't go into all the details but just what I thought. The premise and plot were great; it was different and nothing that I had expected. I couldn't put my finger on what exactly Blake was. That was pretty good because the blurb on the cover didn't give anything away. I'm not going to compare it with Twilight or any other books out there either. It's irritating that every YA Paranormal Romances simply had to be compared alongside Twilight. C'mon, Twilight had its glorious moments. Move aside and make way for the new!

Back to review. The story had enough of mystery, creepiness and eeriness to arouse the solid and avid bookworm in me. There were many books that do not grip me from the beginning and after a few chapters in, I would simply cast them aside until the time comes when I would pick it up again. Winter's Shadow wasn't one of them. Congratulations, you are enlisted in my Book of Fame. I'm pretty generous with my reviews. *ahem*

Winter is a really beautiful name. I like Winter enough. She's a pretty strong character and nothing at all like Bella. Why would people say that she's like Bella, I have no effing idea. Bella is Bella. Winter is Winter. But, demerit points for her when she ditched Jasmine. Love is the greatest after all. Who can blame her. Blake is swoonworthy and NOT similar to Edward Cullen for pete's sake! There are two different characters. If people keep similarizing (if that's even a word!) beautiful, mysterious, self proclaimed dangerous male leads to Edward "Sparkling" Cullen, I think I would have already given up reading YA Paranormals. As Mr. Hearle has pointed in one of his blog post, all these similarizing traits and relationship angle thingies are simply frameworks with empty canvases. They are foundations and basic tools authors use to start painting the sceneries and transforming them into something of their very own. So, quit comparing this and other books to Twilight.

As much as I loved the story and the characters - bonus points for no hate-table characters -, I could fairly predict certain things (can't think of another word for "thing" at the moment) in the novel. I will not hint or reveal what they are here as I do not want to spoil the story for those haven't read it yet. Another thing that bothered me slightly was Winter and Blake's relationship. I felt that their time spent getting to know each other was not long enough to fully convince me (even Winter herself said so. See?). Maybe I should adjust my logicality mode into paranormal mode. Nothing is normal in books. They are supposed to be unearthly after all. That's what books are for - to me at least. But Mr. Hearle seems to know what I was thinking because I found a passage in the book that summed up perfectly what I was questioning:

"I don’t think time matters. You might have known each other for a hundred years or a minute and it wouldn’t have changed a thing about the way he felt about you. People go their whole life without finding something that special."

Other than that, I have no more complaints about Winter's Shadow. It is a tender, poignant and touching story that succeeded in invoking painful emotions within me. The ending tore at my heart and I felt like I could literally feel Winter's heartbreak. And that is why I hate this book so much. I hate the ending because I love the story too much to want it to end that way. It is so cruel to leave readers hanging like that. Very cruel indeed Mr. Hearle. *pouts*

I'm craving for the sequel, Winter's Light, but have to wait at least a whole freaking year for it to be released. If only I have some tiny hints to what is awaiting me in Winter's Light, I might be a tad comforted over my frustrations on the ending. I just refuse to accept what became of *him*. Arghh!!

And thus, I end my review and ramblings.

P/S: I've already pre-ordered Winter's Light and can't wait to hold it in my hands!!!