The Winter Charlatan by Victoria McCombs

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The Winter Charlatan by Victoria McCombs
Storyteller's Series #3
Published by Self-Published on December 7, 2021
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Retellings, Young Adult
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Author

A Queen raised in the shadows, and a Fraud Prince who needs her help.

The sole heir to the kingdom is destined to sleep for a hundred years. To hide this liability, the queen left her cursed daughter in the care of a trusted lord, while taking his son as her own. Rowan grew up hating the boy who had her crown and vowed to one day reclaim her place as queen.

But when a neighboring king threatens a war they won’t survive, Rowan must work with the fraud prince to save Elenvérs. She pledges herself as his spy in the enemy court and lives in the heart of danger. If she can’t save her kingdom before the curse hits, there may be nothing left to wake up to.

Book Three in the Storyteller's Series. Each book is set in the same world with a few overlaying character, but is a unique plot.

A copy of the book was provided for review purposes - thank you! Receiving a copy does not guarantee a positive review and therefore does not affect the opinion or content of the review.

Where do I even begin?

The Winter Charlatan is the third book in Victoria McCombs’s Storyteller’s series, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and if Woods of Silver and Light was any indication, the story is set north of the first two books in the kingdom of Elenvérs, where the heir is destined to sleep for a hundred years.

This is, by far, my favorite book out of the Storyteller’s series and not because Sleeping Beauty was my favorite fairy tale for the mere fact of sleep. (I was definitely that kid who liked naps but didn’t actually nap.) There’s a lot of growth to McCombs’s writing from the first two books – as we travel across the freezing northern kingdom, the writing was immersive and descriptive and the pacing was far better balanced from the previous novels. Although the book definitely takes a page from the previous novels in starting out slow, it gradually builds up to the very end rather than ending abruptly, and perhaps that may be because this book and the next are connected together with the same main character and can’t be read out of order like the first two.

The Winter Charlatan follows Rowan, the heir to Elenvérs who is destined to sleep for a hundred years and be woken by a stranger’s kiss (and supposedly fall in love with said stranger). As a child, she gets switched out with the son of a close family friend, so while she grows up with a loving family, she doesn’t grow up with her family. And she definitely has some bitter feelings about the close family friend’s son being raised to take over the crown that she wants while she watches from the sidelines.

Rowan is such a well-written and interesting character – I loved seeing her character development over the course of the book as she learns in her own way what it means if she does break the curse successfully and achieves her goal of claiming her rightful place as the heir. As one character says to her at one point very early on as she’s trying to find a way to break her curse, “I’m very curious how your story will play out,” and that’s exactly how I felt reading The Winter Charlatan the entire time.

As much as the book does have slow moments and is a gradual buildup, I enjoyed not just Rowan’s character growth and world-building, but the court politics and relationship dynamics between the characters. Rowan isn’t walking into her place as the heir with complete peace – not with threats of war from Elenvérs’s neighbor, ThornHigh. Despite her hatred toward Cassian (the one she got switched with), the two of them work together in the better and common interest of putting their kingdom first, with Rowan acting as his spy in the ThornHigh court while acting as an emissary. I loved seeing the two try to work out their differences with each other, and Rowan’s sisterly relationship with Elis. With everything going on, it was hard to tell if Rowan would end up as an antiheroine and who could be trusted, at least initially. There were some moments where things started to feel predictable, but in the grand scheme of things, that didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the story overall.

I think my favorite part of The Winter Charlatan was the symbolism, and I honestly can’t say more without giving away major spoilers. This was overall a lot of fun to read, and I’m excited for the next part of Rowan’s story and the finale of the series.