I was able to read this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lisel is a young girl who loves music and is constantly looking after her family. But one day when the barrier between the worlds is thin, the Goblin King comes and steals her younger sister for his bride. Lisel plunges into a quest to save her sister even if it means giving up her own life to live as the Goblin King's bride herself.

Okay right off I want to say this was not the book for me. I thought it was gonna be something else and it wasn't and we just aren't a fit.

There will be spoilers.

I've seen people saying at least the writing was good, but no. Like I can't even get on board with that. I'm so frustrated by this entire thing. The GOOD I can say is that this was written, someone sat down with a story in mind and put in the effort and time and worked and worked at this until they got it published and out into the world and that is amazing. It's a huge accomplishment and I'm so happy that someone out there got to live through one of their dreams.

That aside, o h m y g o s h
I'm almost at a loss of where to start. Well, the writing. At first I was okay with it, there were a lot of interesting phrasing and vivid imagery. It gave the right feel, you could tell the author had done their research on the time period and, if not a musician, on music. But my problem was how repetitive it all got. We were constantly told the same things about the same people. Like 'austere young man' '____,entire' 'pretty lie/ugly truth' and ohmygosh LiselLiselLisel if I never have to hear about how plain and closed off and futureless she is again that would be amazing. It is just the same things constantly said, we are always told which goblin girl is the good one and which is the bad, always told how mismatched the Goblin King's eyes are, how angelic Josef is, how womanly Kathe is. It was painful. How many times can one book describe wanting sex with your husband as 'sinful'?

And the worst for me was everything was overly modified. I think it's a legit writing practice in the right context. But okay, I was reading a chapter and midway through, MIDWAY THROUGH, started counting the times it was used. 29 times. No joke.

""Woman like Constanze and me were relegated to the footnotes, to the background, nameless and unimportant.' 'And so, Der Erlkonig has ever stood between us and them, between the world of the living and the dead, the ordinary and the uncanny.' 'I turned from the klavier, from the room, from home' 'I wanted to shy away from their scrutiny, from their judging eyes, from the sense that they were measuring me against some invisible mark.' 'she looked like a painting, a portrait, a porcelain doll.' 'I thought I would find her and we would run back home, back to the inn, back to safety.'"

I could go on, but I won't. This sort of writing slows the story down. If this was cut back on, if the repeated descriptions were cut back on, this book would be a more manageable length for the story it's telling. On top of that it just had weird imagery? Like Lisel trying to press closer to the sound of the violin music but then she's choking on dirt, like... was she trying to eat her way through the wall? I'm just... excuse me?

A few small things. I was not fond of how the German was used, it felt a bit like how I did it in my writing when I was thirteen. I've recently read some books by Anna-Marie McLemore who adds in language so beautifully, it really stands out to me now. The other thing that is probably not a big deal but with Fransicos whenever Lisel was thinking something about him she would refer to him as 'the black boy' like I got that he was black when they first met him. But he's an amazing piano player? And for someone who breathes music I would think Lisel would think of him as that first. I don't know, it was weird.

This review is jumbled but okay, next point. Characterization and world building were way off. From chapter to chapter I had no idea who these characters would be. One minute Lisel is fine with something, the next she's freaking out about... I don't even know what? Or like the Goblin King kisses one of his male attendants in front of Lisel when they're married and she's like 'hmph' and they never mention it again? Everyone was all over the place.

As for world building.... what world? I don't understand the goblin's realm. The walls are made of dirt. But they have building. There are no doors. And somehow the smoke from the constant fire light doesn't choke them. I just don't get what the whole separation of the two groups was or how the goblins function, what they do outside of balls and serving the Goblin King? Who is actually a prisoner to his crown? But could just trick someone into taking it from him? And also the Goblin Queen can control him, but he's so powerful and everyone does what he says? It's like, oh the seasons are because of the Goblin King, but uh we never hear that he actually did anything. Apparently he doesn't NEED a wife to do the season thing soooo?

It just felt in a big part that there was this idea the author had and they sort of just let it get away from them without having a clear point A and point Z.

Can I also talk about how WEIRD it was that Lisel kept comparing the Goblin King and her brother in sexual ways. Like it was really, really weird.

My last thing. Please stop sexualizing C chords. Like ohmygosh I told my friend about this and she was like 'the author's wet dream coming true' AND YEAH IT READ LIKE THAT TOO. It was just ahhhhh so uncomfortable. She plays a note, A NOTE, and he's all trembling and stuff. And just all the musical things that were actually sex things, like pls no.

That too though, Lisel was so creepy about having sex with the Goblin King. Like okay switch the roles. If he was groping her when she said NO and STOP several times, wouldn't that be creepy? Wouldn't it be not cool if he got mad at her and sulked for not sleeping with him? Broke her things? Threw a giant fit? And then tried to guilt her into sleeping with him? Cos that's what happens in reverse. And when they do the first time he's still asking to stop and saying no and then It Happens and he's laying there crying and she's like YEP I'M A WOMAN NOW. It was gross. Like yeah I know he was attracted and wanted to sleep with her but he still said no and she said who cares.

Honestly, this book was a pain to get through and I cannot imagine wasting my time on the second one. I'm really sorry to be so angry about it, I know there are people that really liked it and a lot of work went into it, but I just can't get on board.

Unfortunately, this book bored me after 30% mark. The beginning was sort of interesting. I had to figure out that its not set in modern times, but the writing felt cold after the 30% mark. I didnt feel the relationship between the goblin king and Liesl that I wanted to. This book is a dark fairytale that felt like a Grimm fairytale story in that way that it way written. I think something was missing from this story.

This book gets three stars on the strength of its first half. I enjoyed the (Austrian?) setting in the 18th century. The book begins by introducing us to Liesl and her younger sister Kathe. Liesl is the dark, not-so-pretty (at least so she thinks) responsible sister, who writes music for her talented younger brother to play. Kathe is blond, pretty, and careless, in love with fine things and fun. The younger brother, Josef, has been deemed the talented one in the family by the often-drunk father, an ex-court musician who now fritters his time away in a small village while his wife, formerly an acclaimed singer, holds the family inn together with Liesl. Constanz, the grandmother, is a bitter old woman given to vague warnings and stern disapproval.
Not a bad start for a fairy tale family, especially after the two girls go to a market fair and run across some rather strange fruit vendors. There's a theme in the book about creativity and performance and how self-doubt can sabotage a person. I enjoyed the exploration of music creation and composition, which is done knowledgeably and in more detail than you'd usually find in a book like this. Liesl both needs her brother and resents him a bit, because she knows that she has talent but in this world she must operate behind the scenes, trusting him to interpret her music and go into the world to make it known. These shadings make the characters more than cardboard cutouts. I found Kathe particularly interesting. Liesl has no use for her younger sister, but Kathe is actually trying to marry advantageously in order to help her family materially. She is more than Liesl sees her to be, and I would have liked to have seen more of her.
However, the Goblin King intervenes and Liesl ends up having to seek her sister in the underworld of the supernatural. This quest takes up the first half of the book, which I thought was by far the stronger half.
If the entire book could have remained this quality, this would easily have been a four star book. But the last half turns into a turgid melodramatic mess, which barely earns two stars from me. Liesl ends up marrying the Goblin King in order to save her sister, and possibly the Goblin King as well. And then: Liesl is willing to join with the Goblin King on their wedding night, but her turns her down, saying her "wants her entire". This felt so much like needless drama- she's willing, they're married, why not? Because deep down, underneath the mantle of the Goblin King, the man who has taken on this role is kind of a prig. It was never clear to me exactly what he wanted, but it seemed to have something to do with music. The entire last half of the book is Liesl wandering the underworld, deciding whether she should escape to be with her family or stay because she kind of wants to and because her energy is supposed to keep the entire goblin world alive or something. Over and over again we get scenes of the Goblin King and his wife in their rooms, either sniping at each other or playing music together. The conversation never evolves and neither does the storyline. The Goblin King insists on calling Liesl Elisabeth, even though she asks him to call her Liesl, because "Liesl is a girl's name, and you are a woman". Way to honor your wife's wishes in what she'd like to called, King. He himself does not have a name, and Liesl's attempts to figure out what his name once was results in retorts like "Don't you dare, Elisabeth!" Why shouldn't she dare? We never find out.
The last half of the book is some sort of fevered mess of the worst sort of fan fic of what would happen in Labyrinth if Sarah and the Goblin King got together, dramatic flouncings, melodramatic lines, and no cohesive story line. After reading reviews of the second book in the series, I'm going to leave things here and not read further. It's sort of a shame, because the author had set up some interesting relationships, but then discarded them in order to write the sort of romance that I don't want to read or experience.

At the beginning I started enjoying the dark and misterious vibe that the narration was giving. In this story fairies are not pink and good, but vicious, threaty and feared. The main character, Elizabeth (or Liesl) has lived under the shadow of her talented younger brother and her beautiful sister, as well as obliged to fulfill her duty as the "not so pretty" first child and hide her true desires.
So, when the Gobling King threats to take away her sister, she believes that she has nothing more to lose and start an ordeal to protect her. In the middle of her adventure, she is shown by the Goblin King himself (whom happens to be an old friend) that she has an option to do what she always wanted: compose music.
So we have list of very good elements in this story:
- The misterious and dreadful Gobling King which might have a kinder and lovable side.
- The dark Underwold, where terrible and vicous creatures live.
- A female character with serious self esteem problems, but with great potential.
- And the touch of music, classical music, which is magical itself.

However, somehow those elements did not work that well for me at the end.

I am a digger for drama and pational romance, and I thought for a moment this is the road the story would take. But ended up being confusing.
The rules of the Underworld were confusing as well.
I couldn't understand completely what was the Goblin King. Why did he changed of attitude so quickly, so many times.
The need of Elizabeth for something or someone else to feel worth was annoying and also (again) confusing. Like, she had the chance to do what she always wanted to do, but then "no thanks, this is too much for me". What?
And even though she got what she wanted (not minding other people feelings) she is not satisfied and start being so dramatic I wanted to slap her.

The goings and comings of this story started not making sense for me from the half of it. The consequences where not clear, plot twists made no sense or where too obvious to be called a plot twist. And the ending was dull.

I feel like for trying to be poetic the narrative turned queasy and for trying to be misterius things that we needed to know to better understand the plot were hidden.

Well, life got away from me and it's taken me approximately a fafillion years since I downloaded this to actually read it. I'm really glad that I finally did, because although it had some stumbles, it was a book I always wanted to read that I never knew I needed in my life.

Nineteen-year-old Liesl has always been in the background of her own family. Her prodigy violin player younger brother is the pride and joy, and her younger sister Kathe is the beauty. Liesl's musician father is also an alcoholic and a gambler, and Liesl's mother is something of an enabler. Rounding out the family is Liesl's grandmother, who is superstitious, constantly warning the family about The Goblin King. Though Liesl is an incredibly talented composer in her own right, she keeps this part of herself secret from her family (all except her brother) because she's afraid of how they, and the world, will react. Over a series of a couple of days, a prominent teacher comes to scope out her younger brother, her sister Kathe is taken by The Goblin King, and Liesl's life is changed forever.

So, this book was reminiscent of so many things that I love. There was some Labyrinth, there was some Beauty and the Beast, there was some Phantom of the Opera, there was some good old Greek mythology feelings with shades of Persephone and Hades. I LOVE ALL OF THESE THINGS. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in those things as well, WITH the caveat that you be prepared for some of the things I mention below.

The language that Jae-Jones uses when discussing music is poetic and lyrical and beautiful, as you might expect it to be when discussing music. I didn't understand quite a lot of it, but I imagine a music nerd would love this as much as I love it for the callbacks to the things I mentioned above.

The book was REALLY strong through the entire first half. The storytelling, the slow build of the back story between Liesl and her family, and Liesl and The Goblin King, was phenomenal. As I got to about the midpoint, things started to slow down a bit. There was a bit of meandering, it got a bit repetitive in parts, and there were some pieces where it felt like she lost the trail of the story altogether or was just vamping for time/space. It's also definitely a melodrama, teen soap opera style piece. Which is exactly the kind of shit I like, so it was right up my alley.

I fully acknowledge that there are definitely some problematic things about this fave. (As there are with the problematic faves I listed above.) The Stockholm Syndrome aspect is no joke, and starting a "relationship," especially a romantic one, based on a what is essentially a bribe, borderline kidnapping, is not a solid foundation. But because I AM a sucker for stories like this, and have been since I was a young teenager, I'm willing to let this be a fave that is problematic. I feel it's also important to acknowledge that, unlike Labyrinth and even Beauty and the Beast, Liesl is an older teenager at 19, and turns 20 while living in the Underground. Not that it makes it SO much better, but a little bit more development that has happened in those several years.

One of the things that I did really appreciate was the consent during the sexy times. As far as I remember, all of the times that they are about to get it on, The Goblin King waits for a very clear "yes" from Liesl before really going for it. So maybe he's a kidnapper but at least he's not a sexual assaulter...?

The sequel to the book, Shadowsong, was just released in February, so I'm definitely going to check that one out. This one didn't QUITE end on a cliffhanger, but it did leave some questions and I want them answered.

This was heart wrenching, and I loved every moment of it. Not without faults, but breathtaking all the same.

Wintersong is an interesting read about the world of the goblin king. I must admit I didn't connect with the main character, Liesl as well as I had hoped, but the writing is truly lyrical and it was a concept, indeed a world I had not yet seen in fantasy before.

I was ok with this book. It felt very detailed and the music part was so beautiful. It was interesting to see the bad side of a fairy tale and I love dark fairy tales but it just didn’t click for me. I really wanted to love this but it wasn’t for me.

So much cool stuff. Great characters. Amazing use of music. Loved it until she went into the underground to save her sister. Then nothing made sense it became a mess of plot poetry. Stopped reading at 41%. Couldn't take any more. Thanks for the free copy, Netgalley.

Liked the setting and the descriptions, but am not going to finish it. Just not a big fan of Young Adult, and if I read historical fantasy Young Adult, I'm extremely picky.

For a book set in 1700s Germany, it surely didn't try too hard to be accurate. Actually, it could have been set pretty much in any European country before 21st century.

However, if these types of things don't botter it, give it a chance!

The book is as beautiful as its title. The prose is lovely, lyrical, giving the reader the feeling of being surrounded in the story. Beware, this book will definitely drag you into it. You read so long, your eyes start to cross but you will refuse to put it down. .

Wintersong takes places in historically set Bavaria (19th century, maybe). Elisabeth and Liesl, are our our main characters. They are Inkeeper’s daughters. Elisabeth is the beautiful one, getting married to Liesl’s crush. Her brother is the talented one, training to becoming a master violinist. Elisabeth has a gift as well, the gift of composition, but because she’s a girl, her father scolds her for spending time on such stuff as musical creations. Instead, she is to be responsible and help with the care and running of their inn. He wants her to be a Martha, (Handmaids Tale reference.)

Elisabeth’s grandmother is rather superstitious and warns the girls about the Goblin King, which causes twinges of childhood memories to surface in Elisabeth’s mind. As the curtain between the Underground and the human world pulls away, Elisabeth’s sister is kidnapped by the Goblin King to be his bride. Elisabeth is tasked with trying to save her, but will she be powerless going up against the Goblin King?

Yet, I must warn you, there is a sequel but reader, you are in luck, as it was published in February of 2018. So cliffhanging won’t be your sport for long. It is entitled, Shadowsong, Wintersong #2

I love the story behind this, and the richness of the world built. But I just couldn't get into it. It kept grabbing me and then losing me. The characters felt like I was being repeatedly told who they were instead of showed, and finally I just had to put it down without finishing. Part of this as well could be the fact that I'm just a casual music type of person, a lot of the terms and comparisons were outside of my realm of vocabulary.

I loved that the story was unique, I loved that the music was interwoven in the story and even if I didn't know that much about music, it was easy to follow along. The storytelling was poetic and flowed smoothly, the author did such a fantastic job of weaving this story into pure magic.

I started reading this book. I was very captivating for most of it, but then it became repetitive. I stopped reading at 60%. I have stopped reading it, I don't know if I will pick it back up.

I saw this book go around on quite a few booktubers' haul's and TBR lists, however when I picked it up, I was not that impressed. The characters were not relate-able, nor did they make me cheer for them or wish them happy endings. The start of the story dragged out, the descriptions were confusing, and I made it about half way through this book before I stopped reading.

So beautiful! Labyrinth was one of my favorite movies growing up, so reading a story just as lovely (and knowing it will have a sequel!) was great!

The first third of the book seemed shaky and unsure, but once things ventured into the “Underground” you could tell this was what Jae-Jones had really wanted to write about. The plot of the story was good and reasonably well structured. I LOVED that there was such a heavy influence of music and music composition worked into this story. I have only studied music leisurely in my life so while I understood some of the references and terminology, some of it was a little over my head. I could see someone with a heavy background in music really enjoying this though. I wouldn’t be surprised to find the Jae-Jones has some education in music. I also enjoyed the underlying current of foreboding and darkness surrounding the plot, it made it very intriguing.

The two main characters – The Goblin King and Elisabeth – were well developed and enjoyable. (Yes, even the perceived “bad guy” was an enjoyable part of the story.) The remainder of the characters were sadly less developed. I think her sister Kathe and the two goblin girls that attend to Elisabeth were okay, but they could have used more depth. But the one character I had a hard time connecting to was the one character that Elisabeth seemed most connected to – her brother, Joseph. Elisabeth laments a lot about her siblings in this story, but I had a hard time feeling that connection and connecting with her feelings about them. I often forgot about their impact on the story because of this.

The writing was only okay in the beginning, and got better towards the end. Not the best, but definitely not the worst I’ve read. In the beginning there were a few too many cliche descriptions for my taste. (For example, “I could say the stranger was beautiful, but to describe him thus was to call Mozart ‘just a musician’. His beauty was that of an ice storm, lovely and deadly” *gagging noises*) As if she wasn’t sure what she was doing in the beginning….it got better towards the end, which helped improve my opinion quite a bit. What started as cliches turned into something more closely related to beautiful prose. So basically, you wont want to pull you hair out once you get past the first third of the book.

Mild spoilers ahead….

The only other thing I really had an issue with was the physical/carnal relationship between Elisabeth and the Goblin King….I wont go into detail so that I don’t completely ruin it for anyone else, but it was super confusing to me. Which upon reflection is weird because at one point I wondered if I had stumbled into some mild erotica and yet their physical relationship baffled me. How can you write scenes that make me wonder if I’m reading erotica and then confuse me on what exactly is going on with the physical relationship these two characters have?? Odd. I’m hoping for clarity in the next book….

End of mild spoilers.

All in all, I really did enjoy this book and I’m definitely looking forward to the next one. If you’re looking for a fantasy based change of pace, this may be a good one to pick up if you like music, fairy tales, and foreboding.

This book was very slow at getting to plot. I barley finished.

Wintersong is the first book in the Wintersong series. This can be read as a standalone. There are some sexual scenes. While I was really looking forward to reading this book, I was somewhat disappointed. I expected something more than what the author delivered. The book isn't bad but I found it just average. I'm not sure if I care enough about the characters to read the next book or not. Time will tell.

This breaks my heart more than anything, but I just couldn't get into it or finish it. I made it a good chunk of the way through; however, I found myself not wanting to read it and just not invested into the story. I think I went in with too high of expectations after hearing that it was loosely a Labyrinth retelling. The more I read the more I wasn't really connected to the story. I wanted to see more of the relationship with the Goblin King and Lisle, but I found those moments were lacking.