[Review] Wintersong by S. Jae-Song

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

Series: Wintersong #1

Rating: 4 stars

Published: February 7th 2017

Goodreads Synopsis:

The last night of the year. Now the days of winter begin and the Goblin King rides abroad, searching for his bride....
All her life, Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, dangerous Goblin King. They've enraptured her mind and spirit and inspired her musical compositions. Now eighteen and helping to run her family’s inn, Liesel can't help but feel that her musical dreams and childhood fantasies are slipping away.
But when her own sister is taken by the Goblin King, Liesl has no choice but to journey to the Underground to save her. Drawn to the strange, captivating world she finds--and the mysterious man who rules it--she soon faces an impossible decision. With time and the old laws working against her, Liesl must discover who she truly is before her fate is sealed.

This Labyrinth-esque book was amazing! And beautiful. I loved it to pieces (I must say that a lot, I imagine).

Liesl's sister has gone missing and she must journey through the Underground to bargain for her life with the Goblin King. This story is split into two acts - Liesl's quest through the Underground, and then her eventual acceptance to become the Goblin King's wife.


I just love how poetically it was written. I'm not a music person but I was enraptured by Liesl's utter fixation upon her craft, creating the best music possible.

Humans were not meant for isolation. We were not meant for loneliness. I glanced back at the ghosts of my family sitting with me in my bedchamber, invisible to the eye, but visible to my heart. I was dead to the world above, but I could not help but reach for comfort and companionship, the way a flower yearns for sunshine in the dark. - p. 294 - 295

Also the lore behind the Goblin King and her family was one twist after another. The Underground was so cleverly tied to the land and to nature since the beginning of time. They reminded of the fae.

Plus the romance between Liesl and the Goblin King was perfect. I just adore competitive slow-burns, in which one person tries to best the other. I just wish that we didn't have to hear time and time again how plain Liesl was, how different she was, in comparison to everyone else. That just turns her into a special snowflake.

"I wanted you because you are queer and strange and unlovely. Because a man could spend an age - and believe me, I have - with an endless line of beautiful brides, their names and faces blurring before him. Because you - queer, unlovely you - I would remember." - p. 346

Regardless. this was a page-turner and a poetic journey - I would want to see it to its conclusion!