Format: E-Galley, 327 pages
Release Date: August 7, 2018
Publisher: Rebel Base Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy / Paranormal
Kara, as a ward with no parentage and no future, has been raised knowing nothing outside her lady’s chambers. Until Royce Capello, a visiting nobleman, is struck by her ice-pale looks, and demands her as payment for the land the family needs.
With barely time to protest, Kara is sold and packed off for a life as a concubine—until a raiding party descends on Royce’s company and she’s kidnapped for the second time in as many days.
Whatever happens, Kara will be alone in the world, inexperienced and fearing even the vast unfamiliar sky. But one raider gives her a choice—and a magic mirror appears to show her where each path will lead…
Her fates twist and turn to affect far more than she could have guessed, tangling the bitter with the sweet—and Kara must choose which consequences she can live with…
A Girl of White Winter, by author Barb Hendee, is the third installment in the authors Dark Glass series. This is a series that began with the story of a witch who was killed, and found herself trapped in a 3-way mirror. As we have learned, the 3-way mirror seeks out those facing difficult decisions. The mirror gives the chosen 3 paths. They each live out their 3 paths, and then must make a choice between the 3. There are no do overs. Once the choice is made, it can't be undone.
This is the story of Kara, a young woman who is basically an orphan who has been kept hidden by Lady Giselle. She is small, slender, pale skinned, with blonde/silver hair and crystalline blue eyes. Soon after the story begins, Kara is sold to Royce Capellos even though he is already married. However, before Royce's caravan can arrive safely at home, Kara is taken by masked men who ambushed by a man named Caine and brought to a place called the settlement. There she is given a choice, and her is where the mirror makes its first appearance.
Kara finds herself being told by a 3-way mirror that she is at the crossroads of her life, and she is here to offer 3 different paths.
~She can leave with her protector Raven and journey with his performing troupe, competing for his mercurial affections.
~She can flee the raiders’ settlement, and return to Royce’s manor, chattel among devious nobility.
~She can flee the raiders’ settlement, and return to Royce’s manor, chattel among devious nobility.
~Or she can stay in the settlement, bound to firm, silent Caine, who is as gentle as he is staid and inscrutable.
Unfortunately, I have to say that A Girl in White Winter was probably the most disappointing story of the three books that have been released so far. Kara is pretty much a nobody who has been sheltered as a lady's companion for all of her life. She is cannon fodder to a noble who wants to purchase land, and ends up being sent away to live in a world she knows absolutely nothing about. Even after she makes her final choice, it seems as though she clearly made a huge mistake since she found a connection to a stranger which nobody can understand.
I didn't like the second choice Kara was given. It was wrong in so many ways that I can't even talk about for fear of spoiling something. One could say the third choice was also the most distressing because of how Kara is made to feel in the settlement. No, I won't spoil the choice she made. Of all the options she's given, only one really made any sense, and it wasn't the one she choose. One could honestly say that the first and third choices grant Kara the opportunity to actually explore who she is. Kara falls clearly into the category of men everywhere want to have her, while women everywhere want to get rid of her quickly for they fear she may intrude into their little cliches.
The positive of reading this series is that each book is a standalone with a beginning and an ending. You don't actually have to read the first 2 books in order to understand what is happening in this story. Let's hope the fourth book excels where this went lacked.
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