I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This action-packed fairy tale was an intriguing, and at some points dark, story of a young woman coming into her full potential. Vasilisa (Vasya for short) sets off on a journey and ends up involved in another other-world plot of doom. Along the way she finds her feelings for Morozko, the frost demon, growing unexpectedly. The beginning of this book I found a little hard to delve into. Even after I enjoyed the first book in the trilogy so much, the beginning of this book jumped right back into the story and it took me a minute to remember where we had left off. After I was able to get back with the story though, I couldn't put this down. Once you're able to push past the first approx. 50 pages of the book, it just drags you right into this other world of magic and snow and danger. The narratives in this novel are amazingly descriptive without being overly wordy (in my opinion) and, while at times the story is quite dense, the text includes a wealth of details that really enrich the story line and the world created to transport the reader. The author really brings the magic alive in this book  and creates some heart-pounding action scenes as well. 

I just have to say too, I think this series would move SUCH an AMAZING movie series if it was done correctly. Vasya's vibrancy contrasting with the stark, snowy wilderness and also the bustling metropolis of Moscow would be an amazing picture to see on the big screen. 

I thought this was an amazing book and a great continuation of the story line. I can't wait to see where the author takes us in the conclusion of the trilogy, The Winter of the Witch, coming in August 2018.

The Girl in the Tower is the sequel to the very popular and well regarded book The Bear and the Nightingale; and it does not disappoint. This book is even better than the first one. The story is truly superb and really grasps at you, it is impossible to put down. The character of Vasya has grown so much over the course of the books and you deeply care about her and what happens to her family. I cannot wait to read the final book in the series.

Well, this will probably be the last book I finish in 2017 since there is only 40 minutes left in the year. It took me a long time to read this book. This is not a book you pick up for a quick read. This is meant to be savored. The sequel of The Bear and the Nightingale, you definitely need to read the first book in order to understand the consequences and meaning behind what is going on in this book. If you loved the first book, you will love and be even more invested in the characters in this book. It will be the only thing that gets you through the slower paced middle part of this novel. There is still the suppression of women and the fear of different women or witches. Vasa is still the heroine and unaware of all that is going on in the world and how she affect the world and people around her. I love this story and want to see it to the end.

I received a free advanced copy of this book for review consideration.

Will post review after i publish my review on my blog

I was definitely not disappointed with this book. When I saw that The Girl in the Tower involved Sasha and Olga (two characters who disappeared near the beginning of The Bear and the Nightingale and who I really wanted to get to know), I was so in. The fact that Vasya was dressed as a boy was also a plus, because when would I ever say no to a book with crossdressing women?

In any case, this book played out as a direct continuation of the events in The Bear in the Nightingale. Cast out by her village, Vasya pretty much runs away, finds Morozko, and gets trained by the frost-king to fend for herself. This would have been a problematic scene if not for the fact that not all of the "training" was practical, and some of it ended up being hijinks anyway, which I love, because why wouldn't I love something like a possible romance between a witch's daughter and an immortal death god? (Not that much happens, mind, this is going to be a slow-ass burn romance, isn't it? DAMN YOU, ARDEN.)

It doesn't start with Vasya, though. In fact, it starts with Olga and then Sasha and what they've been up to while the events in Bear took place. At this point, because of the way information traveled in medieval Russia, Olga and Sasha don't find out about their siblings until they encounter Father Konstantin, who's not quite done with causing trouble with his crazy-talk. Olga is a political game-player in her own right, a princess of Moscow, and Sasha is the right hand man (and monk) of Rus' Grand Prince. While Olga is satisfied in her tower, Sasha is dissatisfied with staying in a monastery, and finds himself traveling with the Grand Prince in order to find out what's been burning nearby villages. This is when Sasha meets up with Vasya, only...she's dressed as a boy and that's a scandalous thing. A very scandalous thing!

Like Bear, the book has a fairy tale feel to it, the kind of feel you get when you're sitting near a fireplace--or, in my case, bundled up in a warm blanket and cozying up in bed--and sipping some hot cocoa. It is not meant to be a fast, action-paced read, and for the most part, Arden spends most of her time building up to the climax. When all the pieces are put in play, though, it becomes awesome and I admit I practically squeed a few times when she paid even more homage to Russian fairy tales by adding even more well-known figures in. (I won't mention which ones, because SPOILERS.)

The characters were fun to read, even Father Konstantin had a storyline that gets tied into the narrative. I would love to see more of Midnight's role in the story, and I feel like things are soon going to come to a head with what happens at the end of the story. Winter is waning, and with that said, so are Morozko's powers. This means the Sleeper is waking, and I. Cannot. Wait.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

I read The Bear and The Nightingale more so on a whim. I heard good things and I thought I would give it a try. I was absolutely blown away, by the story, the characters, the setting, etc. I could hardly wait to read the sequel and I must say I was not disappointed. The book starts a little slow, in fact it starts with us catching up with two of our main character Vasya's older siblings, Olga and Sasha, both of whom she hasn't seen since she was a child. Just as you are starting to wonder if Vasya will ever appear, she finally does. Since the events of the last book she has chosen to leave her village and see the world, since staying home would mean she must either marry or go to a convent, neither of which appeals to our headstrong heroine. Although the frost demon, Morozko, (who we realize is keeping a few secrets from Vasya as the book moves along) wishes her to stay in her village, Vasya goes regardless, first hoping to see the aforementioned siblings who now live in Moscow. It does not take long for Vasya to get caught up in the political unrest and invaders that plague Moscow, while also continuing to encounter the fantastical, demons and spirits alike, that few others can see.

This second outing by Katherine Arden most certainly met my high expectations, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Why 4 instead of 5 stars? I take one away because of the setting. One of the things I loved about the first book was the village setting that is Vasya's home. With its surrounding dense woods that are home to Morozko, to her warm house and stables that were home to the spirits she encountered and befriended. It was world that was both full of possibilities and yet restricted due to her village's few expectations of her as a young woman (married or convent). I loved the descriptions and balance of both. Her travels around Moscow were of less interest. The world there has fewer spirits for her to encounter, since many of the people who live there no longer believe in their existence so they have faded away. But don't get me wrong, new spirits do appear, good and bad, which I'll leave it at that (no spoilers!).
The book has some of its best moments when Vasya makes trips into the woods and encounters Morozko. He is one of the best characters that you will read ever, and you will wonder what secrets he has yet to tell. The hints of romance that were present in the first book become a bit more prevalent here, although he may not be in the book as much as some readers would want.

Overall, I definitely recommend. If you are worried it doesn't live up to the first book, don't be. Despite my one star take-away for setting this is still a book I will read many times over, and I am sure many others will too.

Katherine Arden continues the Russian fantastic Russian folktale from The Bear and the Nightengale with The Girl in the Tower. Vasilisa, the sister of Brother Sasha, has paranormal powers and is accused of being a witch. Morozko, wnter demon, to preserve her life teaches her self defense and she and her human speaking horse rescue Russian children and join forces with the prince of Muscovy, Dmitrii. Meanwhile a sorceror conspires against Dmitrii and mayhem results. Wonderful use of Russian folklore.

Even though I live in a time that's among the freest and safest for women there's ever been, I still sometimes find myself longing for the security that seems to exist for men. So it's no wonder that Vasya, heroine of Katherine Arden's The Girl in the Tower finds herself forced into disguise as a man in order to move freely and safely through medieval Russia. The book picks up more or less right where The Bear and the Nightingale left off...Vasya has fled the rural village she grew up in after her father has been killed and she herself has been labeled a witch. Knowing full well what that designation means for her life expectancy, she sets out to explore the world, ignoring the advice of frost demon Morozko who warns her that the world is not kind to young women alone. She discovers very quickly that he is correct, and presents herself thereafter as a boy...it helps that her nickname, Vasya, is short not just for her actual name (Vasilisa), but the man's name Vasily as well.



In pursuit of a mysterious group of bandits that has been stealing children, Vasya finds herself unexpectedly reunited with her brother Sasha and the Crown Prince of Moscow to whom he is sworn in service, Dmitrii. When she gets back to Moscow with them, she's also reconnected with her older sister Olga, now the wife of an important nobleman, and meets Olga's daughter, Marya, who seems to share Vasya's unusual talent for seeing things beyond the ordinary. Vasya's trying to keep her masculine identity intact until she can get on her way while also enjoying the way it allows her to express her naturally bold personality...and then, of course, disaster strikes and the family finds themselves fighting supernatural forces to stay alive.



The Bear and the Nightingale was one of my favorite reads of 2017, and this sequel (the second in a trilogy) did not disappoint. I will say that I'd recommend reading it shortly after the first book, or while it's still relatively fresh in your mind...there's very little of the kind of "catching the reader up" exposition that many sequels have, and I wish I'd known that going in because I'd read the first nearly a year prior so the details were a little fuzzy. But the magic is still there! Arden's prose and storytelling remain deft, she expands further into the realm of Slavic folklore, and I love how she grows the seeds of romance she planted in TBTN between Vasya and Morozko. You find yourself rooting for them even though Arden never lets you forget the inherent power imbalance between an immortal creature and a teenage girl. It's refreshing in a young adult novel with a romantic element to see a young woman who won't apologize for her desire to finish becoming herself.



While there are many books I read that I enjoy, it's pretty rare that something really grabs me and keeps me up late at night and makes me want to buy extra copies to give to people and force them to read it (honestly, I have a really hard time recommending books to people in real life because so much about whether a person will enjoy a book depends on taste). This series makes it into that group, for me. They're just flat-out great storytelling. I can't wait to get my hands on the final book in the trilogy, and I'd highly recommend the Winternight books to all readers!

For a fantasy junkie like me, this book was a solid 3 stars. While I liked the first book in the trilogy, The Bear and the Nightingale, I'm of the unpopular opinion that it was a bit plodding in pacing. I had the same issue with this book. It may just be that I like my fantasy to fly, to grab me from page one and force me to continue, forgoing useless things like eating and sleeping, to arrive at the conclusion, but this series is not for me. While beautiful in prose and place, it just moves at a pace that has me constantly distracted or putting it down to pick up something else.

Thanks to NetGalley, Katherine Arden, and Random House/Ballentine for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Author dazzles with second historical fantasy novel
By SANDY MAHAFFEY FOR THE FREE LANCE–STAR Dec 23, 2017

When I found my house looking like that of a book hoarder, I realized that I couldn’t save every book. I purged my collection, keeping only books I had not yet read, reference books and, most importantly, the books I truly treasure—those which transported me to new worlds when I read them and which I hated to see end. One of the treasures on my shelf is Katherine Arden’s “The Bear and the Nightingale.”

Joining it now is her new release, “The Girl in the Tower.” Arden masterfully blends fantasy, folk legend and history in the first two books of her Winternight Trilogy.

The new book picks up shortly after the reviewer saw Vasya disappearing into the icy Russian woods, barely escaping a witch hunt. Vasya is still considered to be a witch in her home village in medieval Muscovy. Even if she were not, the choices for a young woman in 14th century Russia were the convent or marriage and confinement in a tower. Neither appeals to her. She is determined to see the world on her own, even though Morozko, the Frost demon, advises against it.

Vasya has matured somewhat, and is a bit wiser, but remains rebellious, brave and impetuous. I couldn’t help but love her. Relationships are strengthened and broken and wonderful characters met in the first book are developed and new ones introduced. If possible, Morozko is even more intriguing.

She sets off to see the world dressed as a boy on her faithful steed. This frozen world is still full of spirits good and evil, magical horses, mythical and fantastical creatures and great danger, but she would prefer to freeze to death in that world than end up in a covent or marriage.

Arden uses her knowledge of Russian history, infusing the story with conflicts between Christianity and paganism, the pillaging of villages, capturing of young girls, and struggles between the Khan of Mogul and the royal family of Moscow. She seamlessly blends history with the fantastical.


The story is driven by choices made—both right and wrong. Vasya struggles with her decisions, realizing how wise this advise was: “Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.”

The book is nearly impossible to put down. The writing is vividly beautiful—you might even find yourself reaching for a blanket to survive the Rus’s frozen kingdom as it envelops you.

“The Girl in the Tower” is dark, magical and extraordinary.

I do suggest that anyone who has not read the first, do so before reading her new release, since it picks right up where she left off. Don’t hesitate to use the glossary at the end. Arden is quite a wordbuilder.

Sandy Mahaffey is former Books editor at The Free Lance–Star.

THE GIRL IN THE TOWER
By Katherine Arden
(Del Rey, $27, 352 pp.)

Publication: Dec. 5

I guess this is technically a twofer review as I did not realize this was a 2nd in a series when I opened it. I had to put it down to go find the first as I was lost with out it. This is most sincerly NOT a good stand alone book

If you have read the first one however.


After being branded a witch (Very Salem Witch trial vibes) Vasya is given the choice of living in a convent for the rest of her life or getting married. Of course as our headstrong independant heroine she decides screw that and runs for the hills disquised as a boy. In her adventures she finds herself tied up in a web of lies and decet cause whats a good run away adventure with out some underlying plots to be found?

Really I found this to be full of epic adventure, history, and overall amazing details.

Characters - 5 They were really thought out and well put together

Plot - 5 OMG YASSS there is a reason why I did not give away too much seriously you need to read this

Addictiveness - 5--- after I went and found the first one so I could catch up

Despite how much I loved the Bear and the Nightingale, I dragged my feet on starting this one when it was given to me for review this summer. Bogged down with library books, I didn’t get to it until now, after it’s release date. After waiting so long to begin, I’m sorry it’s over so soon.

I hadn’t expected to love the Bear and the Nightingale as much as I did, nor was I expecting a sequel. But the pair of these are some of the best fantasy-fairytale stories I’ve read and I cannot wait for the conclusion. I can’t even begin to pick apart the complexities.. religion, faith, feminism, choices, expectations, love, family, magic, etc. but they are so much more than I’ve come to expect from this genre. They’ve set the bar pretty high and I’ll read anything else Katherine Arden comes up with.

A most excellent addition to Arden's series. I love her world building so much and her characters. Her knowledge and love for Russian folklore is evident in her writing and is what makes reading her work special and magical. I loved it and would highly recommend purchasing for pleasure or for a library.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but once Vasya appeared on the pages I could not put it down. I think I liked it even more than the first one in the series. The author does a great job, completely transporting the reader into this world. The setting is magical, thoroughly realized, and very important to the story. I felt like all the characters grew in this book--which does not always happen in the "middle" book of a trilogy--and the author advanced the overarching plot very well. I don't know how I will wait for the next book to come out!

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden is almost as perfect as The Bear and The Nightengale. We return to medieval Russia at a time when the old gods are fading to find a few are not going to go willingly. Lush and beautiful The Girl in the Tower avoids one of the main pitfalls in second books, it never once feels as though it is standing in for the final act, the story stands on its own.

Vasya is back in this follow up to The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. The Girl in the Tower is the second book in the Winternight trilogy.

The first part of the book is mostly about Sasha and Olga. They are Vasya’s siblings. At the close of part one, Sasha and Vasya have just met up for the first time in years.

The second part of the book is told mostly about Vasya and what is happening in her life after the close of The Bear and the Nightingale. Vasya feels that her life is in danger if she stayed in the small village she was raised in. She goes to Morozko, the frost demon, and asks for help. She wants some of the dowry he promised to her so that she can go out and find her place in the world. Adventures ensue.

The third part of the book is mostly about Vasya and Sasha and their cousin Dimitri. There is also a little about Olga. Vasya must keep up the charade that she is a boy. Not only does her life depend on it, but her sister’s and brother’s lives are deeply affected by this as well. There are more adventures and conflict. I don’t want to give away spoilers.

Vasya continues to have her bond to the supernatural throughout the book. She can see the spirits of the bathhouse and the hearth as well as others. This puts her at both an advantage and disadvantage. They can be helpful at times, but she can’t tell anyone that they are there or else she will be marked as crazy and perhaps a witch as well. Only her young niece can also see them and has been warned by her mother, Olga, not to mention this to other people.

The story is well written. This is a crucial time period for the spirits as many of them are disappearing or losing power as the Christian God gains followers. Medieval Russia is an interesting backdrop for the story. The pace of the story is good as well. There are ups and downs throughout, but by about 50% on my Kindle, the story is becoming very dangerous for Vasya and her siblings. The tension continues to mount for the rest of the book until the ending.

My favorite characters in the book are Vasya, her horse Solovey, and Morozko, the frost demon. It was hard sometimes watching Vasya’s missteps. But they were necessary for character building and plot advancement.

Overall, I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. It’s well written. The character of Vasya grows and develops as the book progresses. The adventures are interesting. And the book is well-paced. I can’t recommend this series enough. And, I can’t wait for the third book in the trilogy. The Girl in the Tower was published December 5, 2017 by Del Rey.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions herein are my own and freely given.

An excellent 2nd novel in the Winternight Trilogy. In Girl in the Tower we see Vasya come into her own, even if she must mask herself as a boy. She doesn’t fit the mold of maiden or nun, so her brother and sister are unsure of what to do with her. As the Prince’s thrown is challenged, Vasya fights to save them all.

I can’t wait to see how Ms. Arden finishes the trilogy!

The Girl in the Tower is the second book in Katherine Arden’s ongoing series set in 14th Century Russia, following up on the events of The Bear and the Nightingale. While I found the first book to be a good read, I didn’t react quite as favorably as many other readers/critics did. The Girl in the Tower, however, won me over from the opening paragraph, kept me enraptured all the way through to its powerful close, and — thanks to some diabolically teasing lines — left me eager for the next installment.

At the close of the first book (so yes, there will be some spoilers for that book here), Vasya had been forced from her home (partly due to outside forces, partly due to her own desire to escape her proscribed life and see the world). With some help from the frost-demon/Winter King/Death God Morozko and her smarter-than-your average-horse Solovey, Vasya barely survives the harsh Russian winter and an encounter with fearsome bandits who have been burning villages and abducting the young girls. Soon she ends up reunited with her brother Sasha, dashing warrior-monk and best friend/advisor to the Grand Prince Dmitri, who has left Moscow to hunt down the bandits at the behest of Kasyan, a mysterious hinterlands lord whose peasants have suffered great losses. Unfortunately, she meets them as a boy (her travel disguise), and is forced to play that role on their return trip to the big city, embroiling first her brother, and then her sister Olya (a princess in Moscow) in her dangerous lie.

I absolutely love what Arden has created with the character of Vasya. Her fiery, independent nature would make her likable enough, and many authors would have stopped there, with that independent streak breaking all the social boundaries of the time through sheer spunk. But Vasya’s independence is complicated by a realistically heavy dose of inexperience in terms of romance, social mores, and politics. And Arden makes for a richer, more bittersweet story with again, a more realistic portrayal of Vasya’s battle to be herself in a world dead set against any such thing: whether it be the prevailing attitude toward “witchery” or toward women and their place in society. Vasya is faced time and again with a choice-that-is-no-choice with regard to being herself or stifling her true nature, and while the modern reader is naturally predisposed to root for the “wild and free” Vasya, the choices are never so clear-cut, and the consequences are grave and heart-breaking. And in Olga, Vasya’s sister, Arden presents us a woman who has adhered to society’s strictures, but who is also strong in her own right.

I also like the way that Vasya’s situation— caught between being a child and being a young woman, caught between innocence and desire, caught between staying and leaving — is mirrored by other characters and by the larger setting. Dimitri, as Great Prince, is on the cusp himself of young adulthood and adulthood and is caught between his desire to avoid a destructive war and forge a national identity for his people. Sasha is caught between his own two sides: dashing warrior and trusted political advisor and more introspective/reflective priest, as well has between his love for his sister and his social upbringing. Russia is on the cusp of nationhood and being a vassal state to the Tatars. And the country’s religious background is on the cusp of Christian dominance, with the old gods/spirits fading away into the background literally and figuratively, but not entirely disappearing (Christianity, in Russia as elsewhere, may have become the dominant religion, but reports of the older beliefs’ demise were often greatly exaggerated).

The Slavic background is a nice change of pace from the same old same old, both in terms of geographic setting and its folkloric background (fans of Stravinsky’s Firebird — the ballet or suite — might find themselves humming the music in various segments). Both worlds come fully alive even in such a brief novel, with economical asides about the state of a character’s teeth, the construction of a hut, or the mode of travel in winter. Economy of language, though, doesn’t translate into pedestrian prose, with the descriptive passages especially lyrical, as with this early paragraph:

Moscow, just past midwinter, and the haze of ten thousand fires rose to meet a smothering sky. To the west a little light lingered, but in the east the clouds mounded up, bruise-colored in the livid dusk, buckling with unfallen snow. . . . [Moscow’s] squat white walls enclosed a jumble of hovels and churches, her palaces’ ice-streaked towers splayed like desperate fingers against the sky.

I had only a few small quibbles with The Girl in the Tower. The romance sometimes tiptoed the edge of melodrama, though I’d say Arden successfully pulls back each time and overall the romance plot is wonderfully handled. And a few things are a bit telegraphed and perhaps should have been more readily seen by the characters. But as noted, these were minor quibbles. The Girl in the Tower was overall a wonderfully engrossing read, and I’ve already checked out the release date for book three (too far in the future for my liking)

I loved THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE so much, and wasn't expecting THE GIRL IN THE TOWER to live up to my lovely remembrances of the first book, mainly because I felt that the story in THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE had been wrapped up. What more could possibly happen? Luckily, Arden managed to pull a story out of thin air and the reader gets to enjoy a whole new adventure with Vasya.

When I first picked up THE GIRL IN THE TOWER, it was a bit difficult for me to really dig into it. The mythology and numerous character names (sometimes multiple different names/nicknames for the same character) made it hard to just jump back into the world. One thing that helped was this recap of the first book. But, once I did get more into the book (pro-tip, there's a glossary at the back) I was able to disappear into the story. Vasya's world is all-encompassing, with fantasy elements that fit right in with the seemingly everyday politics and drama.

THE GIRL IN THE TOWER felt darker to me than the first book in the trilogy, but the darkness is what kept me reading. The pull to find out what is going to happen to Vasya kept me on the edge of my seat. I'll admit, there were times when I hated the book for making me feel so many emotions - but to me that's the mark of a well-written story, if I am invested enough to really feel the same things as the characters. The stress that Sasha felt at keeping his sister's secret, the heart-pounding fear and exhilaration Vasya experienced as she escaped from bandits, and the budding love Morosko discovers in his immortal heart all felt as real to me as if they were my own emotions.

THE GIRL IN THE TOWER is a story of secrets and impossible love and (somehow) gender politics in historical Russia, written with a mastery of the material and wonderful skill. It is everything I had hoped for, and more, and I can't wait for the final book in the trilogy to find out what happens to Vasya.