Review: Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan

Poppy and Winston Lane have been married for many years.  For the entirety of their marriage Poppy has kept her membership to SOS a secret, she has kept her gifts a secret.  But when Winston is attacked by a werewolf all of the supernatural stuff that was previously hidden comes to light.  Winston learns that Poppy has been hiding a whole different life from him and instead of confronting her, he walks away.  He has to come to terms with his attack and with the sense of betrayal he feels when around his wife.

When Poppy receives a note threatening Winston she knows that she must go to him to protect him.  But Winston is not the same man as he was before the attack.  He is stronger, a better fighter and can take care of himself.  Not to mention that it sticks in his craw to rely on his wife to protect him.  For better or worse he is her husband and he will do what he can to protect her.

The threat comes from a familiar source, a demon that Poppy has dealt with several times in her life.  This time she doesn’t know the whole of why he is after her and Winston.  When the truth comes out Poppy and Winston are given a short amount of time to reverse their fate or both of them will suffer greatly from the confrontation with the demon.

I started Winterblaze thinking this would be a book about Poppy and Winston finding their way back to each other.  It ended up being that and so much more.  The plot is so well done and captivating that several times while reading I was shaking my head at the cleverness of the way things played out.  Winterblaze blends perfectly with events from the first two books in the series.  When certain revelations would take place I would almost slap my forehead and wonder why I didn’t see it coming.  But of course I wouldn’t.  Every little detail is weaved together so tightly to allow the reader to only figure out what was happening as our characters figured it out.

Poppy might have annoyed me a bit.  Sometimes she struck me as so cold when it came to her and Winston, and really to all of her relationships.  She goes so far as to admit that she might never have accepted his marriage proposal if certain events hadn’t forced it.  I confess that I wanted to slap her when she admitted that to Winston because Winston…oh Winston, well he was wonderful.  You could say he was unfeeling because he walked away from Poppy but his every action showed different.  All the events that led up to this book were because Winston loved Poppy with a single-minded passion, one that would not be shoved away no matter what the cost.  Sadly, I am not sure I ever saw that level of devotion returned by Poppy.  But that is ok, Winston can be the star.  I don’t mind. 

The reader is shown two stories at once, one the present time and another the beginning of Poppy and Winston.  From the first two books we knew that Poppy and Winston had an amazing connection but the way this one is written we are able to follow their relationship from the start to this current time.  The love scenes are far apart but they are extremely sensual and sexy.  They came at the perfect time when we really needed to see their connection.

I wondered where this series would go since Poppy is the last of the three sisters.  I should have known Ms. Callihan would not let me down though.  I love how certain secondary characters stepped forward and made themselves possibles for upcoming books.  We even had some new characters introduced that might show up again.  Considering this is one of the most well written and exciting historical romance series out there I am pretty excited to see these new characters.  It would be such a shame for this series to not continue on for a long time.

While I think Archer and his serious angst will forever be my favorite of the series, Winterblaze most definitely lives up to its predecessors.  This is one series that continues to go strong and I cannot wait to read Jack and Mary’s book.  Jack just might out angst Archer if he keeps this pace up.    Final grade- A-

Favorite Quote:

Archer once said he’d made up songs and sung them in his head to get him past the fury.

“Songs?” Winston has repeated, incredulous. “Such as ‘Row Your Boat’ and the like?”

Archer had given him a tight smile that acknowledged Winston’s goading for the easy shot it had been.  “More like, ‘Fuck you, fuck you, and your miserable mother too.”

Rating: A-
Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan
February 26th 2013 by Grand Central Publishing
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