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White Stag (Permafrost #1)
by
Kara Barbieri
368 pages
Published
January 8th 2019
by Wednesday Books
ISBN: 1250149584
(ISBN13: 9781250149589)
Edition Language: English
BLURB: As the last child in a
family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the
male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was
taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to
the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the
malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.
Janneke’s
survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her
connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites
an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her
to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every
action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a
little humanity isn’t bad—especially when it comes to those you care
about.
My rating: 2.6 iced stars
Trigger warning: rape and PTSD. Tons of angst.
Janneke was abducted by a goblin, Lydian, at age 17, and was brutalized, raped and tortured, by him. Then, and no one explain the reason, she was delivered as a slave to his nephew, Soren. One hundred years later, the Erlking dies and the ritual hunt of the White Stag begins.
I have a question: how can they say that this is Y.A. when the protagonist is the youngest with 118 years of age? Yes. That's what I thought. Soren is about eight hundred years old btw. Of course, they all look young.
Goblins stole humans for work the Permafrost wouldn’t let them do themselves. So many of the things they had — their clothing, their agriculture, their buildings were because humans lived among the monsters doing the skills they couldn’t. Humans created, goblins destroyed. It was known.
The Barbieri's Goblins are more Fae than the subterranean sort, they are beautiful and cruel - more similar to the Malediction Trilogy than the Tolkien kind. They live in the magical land of Permafrost of the eternal winter where when you kill something you absorb therir power.(think of the Quickening in Highlander the series)
Soren, in the other hand, is super comprehensive and patient. And has lilac eyes...hehe.(I know!)
