By Christine Yunn-Yu Sun
The North Wind, by American author Alexandria Warwick, is the second work in the romantasy genre that this reviewer has ever read.
It allows this reviewer to avoid being affected by too many other readers whose comments centre on how similar or different this book is to other titles in the genre.
The first book in the Four Winds series, The North Wind is a standalone story “inspired by Beauty and the Beast and the myth of Hades and Persephone” as described by the publisher.
It is interesting that literary tropes like these may serve as points of reference, making it easier for publishers and authors to connect with readers.
But tropes can be and often are the first criterion for assessing a book’s performance.
For example, the story’s first-person narrator Wren is a reminder of Katniss in The Hunger Games, a huntress who volunteers to take her sister’s place.
In this case, Wren is to be sacrificed to the North Wind, also known as the Frost King and bringer of winter.
Her blood will be used to sustain the Shade, the barrier that protects her hometown from the icy Deadlands.
Thanks to the author’s rich and vivid descriptions, the Deadlands is a fascinating place.
The rivers Les and Mnemenos, the brothers Sleep and Death, the judgement of the dead, the City of Gods and the towns of Neumovos and Makarios – not to mention the darkwalkers – these give new meanings to the notion of eternality.
Meanwhile, Boreas is more of a traditional character, like the handsome, arrogant, broody, antisocial, often misunderstood yet ultimately immortalised Mr Darcy that is the favourite of all (female) readers.
With his characterisation entirely done through the eyes of Wren, the author ensures that Boreas captures readers’ hearts in the story’s enemies-to-lovers process.
In contrast, Wren is presented with all of her virtues and flaws, her fervent motives and hidden agendas, and her triumphs and failures.
This allows readers to judge her, and makes one wonder whether her portrayal as a strong female character would be any different if the story were written from Boreas’s or a third person’s perspective.
With that said, Wren is feisty and stubborn, and while she is loyal and fearless, she is also broken and deeply insecure.
Her evolution and redemption is subtly handled, and gives emphasis to other factors that contribute to her relationship with Boreas.
It is a relationship where both parties are able to find their lost selves in their discovery of each other.
The North Wind achieves a healthy balance between romance and fantasy and a refreshing re-imagination of myths and fairy tale. This reviewer looks forward to reading the other books in the series.
