Siavahda's Reviews > The Winter Knight

Absolutely loved this! Rtc

REVIEW

HIGHLIGHTS
~there’s a kelpie in the lobby
~that office is a FLAGRANT health-code violation
~a most unconventional means of storing swords
~FOLLOW THAT FOX
~masquerade etiquette
~unexpected Arthurian OT3: I ship it
~MEGA POINTS for knowing the correct term for a unicorn horn!

Here’s the thing: I don’t like detective stories and I don’t really care for Arthurian legend.

But I freaking loved THIS.

This? Is going straight onto my Best of 2023 list.

Her notes indicated that it had been about love, not magic, though they were so often the same.

Investigative urban fantasy is a pretty big and well-established genre, but despite its premise, The Winter Knight doesn’t fit the template. It doesn’t have the breakneck pacing of something like the Kate Daniels series, nor the blunt-and-punchy, action-story prose you might expect. The slower pace allows Battis’ debut to be more introspective and descriptive than is typical for murder-mystery urban fantasy; it’s richer, deeper, and more thoughtful.

Which very much means that you’re going to be disappointed if you pick this up looking for a fast, easy, high-thrills read. But I think readers who approach it knowing what to expect are likely to enjoy the hell out of it.

Because this book is honestly beautiful. I was not expecting something so…soft? But not soft like cosy, or low-stakes, or gentle. The Winter Knight is soft like the fur of the Questing Beast – softness that has hard, powerful muscle underneath it; softness that comes with teeth. Softness you want to rub your cheek against, but which could drag you down and pull you under and might just be the last thing you ever see.

If you froze that moment, it would throb with happiness and pain, like a bloody knee.

…I’m not making sense, am I? Let me start again.

Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!