Seasonal Fears

By Seanan McGuire

Seasonal Fears, the sequel to Middlegame, takes you on a journey through another parallel world where the seasons are much more than they seem. Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my review.

Melanie is a cheerleader, her boyfriend is on the football team and besides her failing heart her life seems pretty great. Harry loves her, and would do anything to protect her, and he might just get the chance sooner than he thought. Without warning they are thrust into a new world full of violence and unexplainable magic that has their heads spinning.

The intricacies of this world are beyond anything I could ever come up with. This is the complex world in Middlegame on steroids. There are familiar concepts including alchemy, but there is also an entirely new direction, each layer being peeled away to reveal more complexities.

The side characters became just as important, if not more important, than the main characters because they are the ones explaining everything to us. Without their detail we would surely be lost. I can see how that may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I love detail in a book.

The book felt a little slow throughout and then the ending rushed by so quick I felt cheated. I would have preferred less in the middle and a more drawn out ending as that was what the entire book was building up to. That being said I look forward to more from this world and I’m curious to see which direction the next one takes.

SYNOPSIS

The king of winter and the queen of summer are dead. The fight for their crowns begins!

Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul.

Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world.

So, when a new road is laid out in front of them―a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together―walking down it seems to be the only option.

But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts.

It looks like Destiny has a plan for them, after all….

“One must maintain a little bit of summer even in the middle of winter.” ―Thoreau

Seasonal Fears comes out May 3rd, 2022.

Happy reading,

Xoxo Tricia