Daughter of Winter (Fairy Queens #3) by Amber Argyle

Bargains. Only the truly desperate make them. Only the truly desperate need them. And always, the desperate pay.

The silence and never-ending dark of winter are all Elice has ever known, for she is the daughter of the Winter Queen. Isolated in a northern queendom with only the seals for company, she dreams of color and music and life. So when a whaling ship crashes just offshore, she doesn't hesitate to rescue the lone survivor, Adar, who quickly becomes her friend. She must keep him hidden from her mother at all costs, for if the Winter Queen discovers him trespassing, she'll kill him.

When her mother reveals just how dark her soul has become, Elice realizes she is as much a prisoner as Adar. To ever know true freedom—to ever become the woman she was meant to be—she must flee with him. But in their flight, she begins to see hints of something more nefarious. The darkness that has taken hold of her mother is spreading, staining the world with its influence.

Unbeknownst to Elice, a bargain was made long ago. A bargain she was born to fulfill.

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This book swept me away to a far off place of ice and cold where light and warmth rarely come.  <shiver>  Poor Elice knows nothing other than the cold world her mother, the Winter Queen has created.  Elice has such a soft and gentle heart that longs and dreams for more than the harsh world she lives in every day.  The only source of love and gentleness for Elice comes from her grandfather and one of the fairies.

I love how Elice saves animals and reads books.  She loves to dream and create things.  These things make her instantly likable and easy to connect with.  Even her mother's cruelty cannot suffocate the goodness in Elice.

This book was so vivid in nature.  I could easily picture the ice world and it's cold inhabitants.  A sense of foreboding is always there- throughout the whole book.  Dangerous things are alluded to, but never come to complete fruition in this book.  This book feels like the set up for the big bang that is still to come.  It kind of leaves you hanging at the end.  Well, not kind of.  It does.  

The pacing is good although not quite as fast as the previous books.  I felt like the intensity and violence, although still there, were taken down a notch compared to the previous books in this series.  That isn't a bad thing, just something I noticed.  I enjoyed this book and I'll be looking for the next book.  I can only imagine the awful things coming for Elice.

This series always has the prettiest covers.  I love this one.  It perfectly represents what is contained inside.

Content:  Some violence but otherwise clean

My thanks to the author for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.