YA Review: Wintercraft by Jenna Burtenshaw

Wintercraft by Jenna Burtenshaw (Wintercraft #1)

Published: May 13th, 2010 by Headline

Genre: YA Fantasy

Binding: ARC

Page Count: 278 in my copy, but the hardcover might have more

Part of a series? Yeppers. I think the second one is coming out in... April! (Wow. This review is LATE. I'm sorry!!)

Amazon link. 

(Also called Shadowcry.)

Summary (from goodreads): Ten years ago Kate Winters' parents were taken by the High Council's wardens to help with the country's war effort. Now the wardens are back...and prisoners, including Kate's uncle Artemis, are taken south on the terrifying Night Train. Kate and her friend Edgar are hunted by a far more dangerous enemy.

Silas Dane -- the High Council's most feared man -- recognises Kate as one of the Skilled; a rare group of people able to see through the veil between the living and the dead. His spirit was damaged by the High Council's experiments into the veil, and he's convinced that Kate can undo the damage and allow him to find peace. The knowledge Kate needs lies within Wintercraft -- a book thought to be hidden deep beneath the graveyard city of Fume.

But the Night of Souls, when the veil between life and death is at its thinnest, is just days away and the High Council have their own sinister plans for Kate and Wintercraft. To help Artemis, Edgar and herself, Kate must honour her pact with a murderer and come face to face with the true nature of death.

Review: I was so excited about Wintercraft. I WoWed it, and I couldn't have been happier when I got an email saying a copy was on its way to me. (Which... is kinda awesome, isn't it?) Well... I wasn't as amazed as I wanted to be, but I did enjoy it. I'm looking forward to the second book and hoping that some of the issues I had with this one are resolved.

Plot: There's war and kidnapping and magic and a whole heckka lot packed into 278 pages and MAN I hate writing about plot.

Characters: I liked Kate. I thought she was clever and gutsy, but I wished that more of her voice had come through. The third person narration wasn't as deep as it could have been, or as I'm used to it being, and at times it felt a bit removed. Sometimes I just wished I knew a little bit more WHY she made some of the choices she made. But Kate was ballsy and I like ballsy characters.

This is a little strange, but I really liked Silas. Well, you know, not liked him exactly seeing as he was sort of evil and all, but I found him very interesting. The narration from his POV was great, too.

Cons, complaints, bad stuff, etc.: I had some issues, like I said before, with the third person not being as deep as it could have been. I didn't always like Edgar, even though he was a good character. If we'd had moe scenes from his POV earlier, it would have helped, but I like him more towards th end of the book.

PG-13 stuff: No language, but ya know, war and stuff. No particularly graphic violence, even.

Cover comments: Well, my ARC didn't have the final cover, so I haven't seen it in real life, but I like how the cover looks on the screen. It's pretty and suiting for the genre.

Conclusion: All in all, I liked Wintercraft. I had a problems with a few things, but I definitely want to read the second book. I'm hoping that, like CDs, if I like the first one, I'll like the second one even more. I'd recommend Wintercraft to fans of Patrick Carman's Land of Elyon series who are maybe looking for something a little older, along with general fantasy fans, of course. Three and a half roses.

Other notes:

- "I just got ice cream on my nose." I was eating an ice cream sandwich. That's talent.
- "I like books about cities in walls."
- "BUGS."
- "Lots of world-building." <-- This was a legitimate pro, but I couldn't seem to make it fit in the review.

Peace and cookies,
Laina