A Taste of Winter (Lakeside #2)

Laila
Blake
Genre: 
Paranormal

Moira, a half-Fae, is on the run with her rugged shifter, Owain. Brody, a Fae spy, has evil plans for an unsuspecting noble couple while he manipulates Moria’s sister, Iris, to push ahead his plot. Maeve, Moria’s mother, has hard decisions to make while Devali and Niamh, Maeve’s mother, try to lure her daughter home. 

Four definitive plots unfold within “A Taste of Winter”, most of them bleak. Suffering, tragedy and duplicity:  there’s no happy here. Within the first few pages, Maeve does the unthinkable and many romantics may be shocked. Depression and sadness hang heavy, as does the pace. Moira and Owain stumble through the forest in brutal conditions for two-thirds of the story. Hatred and disapproval greet the couple wherever they roam. For a warrior, Owain is taken down a little too easily during a surprise attack, and then is seriously injured, enabling Moira to grow from a protected noble to a woman fighting to survive. Suspense surrounds Brody and Iris in the castle. Rising tension and characterization shifts and keeps the reader guessing. Ms. Blake writes complex characters with depth and differences. The story threads eventually braid together near the end of this second book in the “Lakeside” series, but there’s no closure - just a bittersweet pause.

“A Taste of Winter” encompasses a chilly feel warmed at times by the sizzling but complex love affair between Moria and Owain. 

Natasza Waters