Blog Tour: Winter, White and Wicked

I am so excited to be participating in my first blog tour with TBR and Beyond Tours! Today is the first day of the tour, so I will link the schedule here so you can follow along!

This book was such a unique fantasy, I’ve never read anything like it! And based off the ending, I have a feeling I’m going to love book 2!

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Mad Max: Fury Road meets Frozen in this striking YA fantasy about a rig driver’s journey to save her friend

Twice-orphaned Sylvi has chipped out a niche for herself on Layce, an island cursed by eternal winter. Alone in her truck, she takes comfort in two things: the solitude of the roads and the favor of Winter, an icy spirit who has protected her since she was a child.

Sylvi likes the road, where no one asks who her parents were or what she thinks of the rebels in the north. But when her best friend, Lenore, runs off with the rebels, Sylvi must make a haul too late in the season for a smuggler she wouldn’t normally work with, the infamous Mars Dresden. Alongside his team—Hyla, a giant warrior woman and Kyn, a boy with skin like stone—Sylvi will do whatever it takes to save her friend.

But when the time comes, she’ll have to choose: safety, anonymity, and the favor of Winter—or the future of the island that she calls home.

Review

I rounded up, but my review sits at 3.75 // 5

This one is hard to put into words because there was a lot about this book I liked, but there was also a lot that I didn’t like. I enjoyed the magic system and history of this world, especially with the Winter entity. I thought the history was portrayed well and we get a good idea of how the different cultures view their creation. I liked how the characters had different interpretations of the events that happened in the past and the ones happening in front of them. It added depth to our story besides “Winter is an evil spirit” and “Winter is a blessed one”.

What I didn’t like so much was all the information about trucks/cars/rigs that I had no idea what was going on. The premise is that she’s hauling something across the country to the rebels as her best friend left her to go be with them. The second the book started talking about the rig or anything related to her rig, I was absolutely lost. I know nothing about it and I got a little bored reading these scenes because besides crashing into something, I had no idea what was going on.

Besides my ignorance to transportation, the fantasy element was really cool and I’m interested in what happens next! I think this could be a really cool fantasy series, but I want to see more moments of our characters fighting Winter rather than being used/using her.

Either way, I like this book and I think even with my ignorance to how a rig works – this was a solid fantasy book. I can’t wait for the next one!

About the Author

Shannon Dittemore is a young adult author, conference speaker, and mentor. Her books include the Angel Eyes novels (Thomas Nelson Fiction) and the forthcoming Winter, White and Wicked, to be published by Abrams Books in the fall of 2020. Since 2013, Shannon has taught mentoring tracks at a local school where she provides junior high and high school students with an introduction to writing and the publishing industry. She writes weekly for Go Teen Writers, a blog recognized by Writer’s Digest three years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection. Shannon’s stories often feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. In many ways, she’s writing her own life story.

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