Lexa Hillyer's writing is beautiful, her imagery poetic, evocative, resonant, magical. Winter Glass is the conclusion of the events set in motion in Spindle Fire. That first book was utterly fantastic. I think the sequel is even better.

Isabelle is an amazing hero, my favorite character of the books. Sightless, resolute, brave. Absolutely loved her character arc. Her sister Aurora is equally compelling, resourceful, self-sacrificing. These two women are vivid, vibrant characters. The supporting characters, the world, the descriptions of battle, the faeries, the tithing, the magic: with these Hillyer has created, in this duology, remarkable, memorable stories to savor, to treasure, to re-read, then re-read again. ( )

** spoiler alert ** This book unwinds everything that was done in Spindle Fire, and not in a good way. It felt like decisions were made purely for shock factor or to break certain tropes without regard to what would be best for the characters.

The writing is only mediocre, and I had a hard time getting into the story and connecting with the characters. This made it especially difficult when the characters had a sudden change, like a switch was flipped, without going through the experiences and emotional growth needed to accompany such changes.

I felt like this book was lacking in so much depth that could have made it really good. When Aurora is captured and being trained by Malfleur, there is so much we miss that would have built great character if it was included. There are so many moments like this where the action is skipped over, and we get brief retellings instead.

Isbe was confusing to me. She finally agrees to marry William, and after she does, she starts questioning her decision. I began to wonder if she’d decide to be alone for the rest of her life—a decision I could see and was totally on board with before William came along—but these moments of doubt seemed to come out of the blue and were never addressed. They added false tension in place of real conflict. Also, William’s character fell really flat in this book compared to the first.

The romantic tension between all the pairings was really lacking, and I’m not quite happy with who the characters ended up with. I thought Isbe had more tension with Gil than William, and their story never got finished. And Wren came out of the blue for Aurora. She had feelings for Heath, and then she decided against it. Heath was then killed off, and his death was brushed over. I think this was done to avoid dealing with the ramifications of him still being alive.

One of the things I’m most disappointed with is the build up to Malfleur’s death. It was so lackluster, almost comical how easy it was to defeat this ancient, magical being. What was the point in stressing her ability of transference? The ending just came to a screeching halt, and the wrap up still left me feeling like the book wasn’t done.

This book only scratched the surface of what it could have done with these characters, and I’m really mad about that. It also ruined everything it did in Spindle Fire, and I wish I would have just left it at that. ( )