Dead of Winter (The Arcana Chronicles #3)
by Kresley Cole
Summary: Can Evie convince her rival loves to work together? Their survival depends on it in this third book of #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole’s Arcana Chronicles, a nonstop action tale of rescue, redemption, and a revenge most wicked.
Heartbreaking decisions
Evie was almost seduced by the life of comfort that Death offered her—until Jack was threatened by two of the most horrific Arcana, the Lovers. She will do anything to save him, even escape Death’s uncanny prison, full of beautiful objects, material comforts…and stolen glances from a former love.
Uncertain victory
Despite leaving a part of her heart behind with Death, Evie sets out into a perilous post-apocalyptic wasteland to meet up with her allies and launch an attack on the Lovers. Such formidable enemies require a battle plan, and the only way to kill them may mean Evie, Jack, and Death allying. Evie doesn’t know what will prove more impossible: surviving slavers, plague, Bagmen and other Arcana—or convincing Jack and Death to work together.
Two heroes returned
There’s a thin line between love and hate, and Evie just doesn’t know where she stands with either Jack or Death. Will this unlikely trio be able to defeat The Lovers without killing one another first...?
Source: I purchased a Kindle copy
Add to Goodreads
Review:
Dead of Winter was great. It was a little less action packed than the other two, but Evie had a really tough choice to make and there was a lot of push and pull emotionally regarding that. Kresley Cole certainly knows how to create tension. I was getting so emotionally invested in the story the entire time because of the angst.
In many ways, Dead of Winter was much darker than the previous books in the series. The Lovers were the main villains and the next Arcana who had to be destroyed. The things they did to people… it was horrifying and twisted and the whole idea that it was because of love was so sick.
The biggest ongoing conflict aside from the Lovers was the love triangle dilemma. Jack or Death? I think I fell off of the Jack bandwagon the moment Death stepped into the ring and we got to know him slightly. Honestly, as soon as he touched Evie, I was sold. Dead of Winter only made me like him more. He had the intellect that I appreciate, where Jack was all fists and chaos. But Jack became quite the runner up in Dead of Winter because he was leading people and making important decisions. He was admirable in ways that I never would have imagined.
It’s going to be a long wait for the next installment. I love that it’s more than a trilogy, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed in knowing there’d be no conclusion to the story yet. I hate long waits and I had to reread the series because I couldn’t remember if I ever liked Jack and I knew I’d need to refresh my memory. Even giving Jack another shot couldn’t make me switch back to his side, though! Kresley Cole created so much tension in this series and I love that she can take a relatively overused tool like a love triangle and make all of us want more and crave the moments when one of them decided to take the lead.
I definitely recommend the series. It’s such a unique concept in a dark world. I never know what will happen next and there are many aspects I still haven't quite figured out. I can’t decipher Matthew’s advice. I have some predictions about the next book, but I’ll probably end up being wrong! Even though the series is YA, it contains some mature themes. It’s basically full of violence, death, gore, a tiny bit of sex, and loads of sexual tension.
Labels: Fantasy, paranormal romance, Post Apocalyptic, Review, YA
