La Princesa de Invierno (Hielo y Traición Book I) – Paula Gallego
La Princesa de Invierno (Hielo y Traición Book I) – Paula Gallego
Synopsis
After his latest conquest, the young King Soren of Runáh has made many enemies. To get closer to the people and give them hope, he decides to call a tournament to which any man or woman can participate. The winner will have seven days to win the heart of the sovereign and reign at his side.
Princess Elara is part of a family of powerful women in Larisia. Her grandmother is a great reader of stars who is loved by the people and one of her mothers won the right to govern when she was young, just as she did later.
When Elara discovers that there may be a way to once again be the queen her people need, she will not hesitate to enter the tournament. However, the king already knows her, since they faced each other in a duel to the death that fate, luck or betrayal wanted to annul. Therefore, in order not to be discovered, she will have to hide her identity.
Soren will try to keep his head, and also his heart, in a court that is increasingly dangerous since the princess is nearby. Elara will fight to regain the crown taken from her, even if it means joining the traitor who dethroned her mother.
Review
Hello people! Storytime because I haven’t written a review in ages and because I want to tell my story with this book. If you don’t want to know my story, you can scroll down to the review, where the rose color ends.
My story with Paula Gallego begins a couple of years ago. With the pandemic I completely lost my ability to notice the progress of time, so it could have been 2 years ago or 10 years ago.
It turns out that my boyfriend was looking for a gift for me, I think it was for my birthday, and he bought me a book: “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss, about which I have heard great things and which I really wanted to read, until I found out that the trilogy is not finished… (and may never be 🥺).
Returning to the topic, my favorite author for about 15 years has been Laura Gallego García. After giving me the gift, my boyfriend tells me that he saw a book by Laura in the bookstore that I didn’t have.
The thing is, obviously, I started looking for this book. The problem is that he only remembered that the cover was red 🤦♀️.
I think it was more than a year that we kept looking for this book, but we never found it. Until one day in the bookstore…
Ladies and gentlemen, apparently it was never from Laura Gallego, it was from Paula Gallego, whom I did not know until that moment.
The truth is that I didn’t consider reading her books until quite some time later.
After that discovery of the mysterious book, it kept appearing to me everywhere. Until I discovered the book “La Princesa de Invierno”
The cover… Yeah, yeah, don’t judge a book by its cover, yada yada. I don’t care. This book is beautiful and I wanted it.
That’s how, one day, I came across some offers and, since I have zero self-control, I ended up with this bilogy and the “Suspiro Negro” bilogy (the one with the famous red cover).
Now, my review.
This book begins by telling us the story of Princess Elara of Larisia. Her kingdom is about to be the last in the conquests of King Soren of Runáh, who already ruled 4 of the 5 kingdoms.
But Elara is not willing to accept it, and decides to challenge the king in a duel to the death, to decide the fate of Larisia. However, the duel ends unexpectedly and war becomes inevitable, after which Soren manages to become the ruler of the 5 kingdoms.
Although Soren was now king of the 5 kingdoms, he made many enemies to achieve this. To calm the atmosphere, he decides to get married, and choose her fiancé with a competition, in which anyone who wanted could participate, regardless of their kingdom of origin.
Unwilling to give up, Elara finds a perfect opportunity in the competition to become Soren’s wife. But this means that she must win the competition, and also marry her worst enemy.
Why do I tell you that feelings start to get confused? It shouted enemies to lovers everywhere.
I greatly enjoyed this book from the beginning. It scared me a little when I saw the map and the characters on the first pages, because it seemed impossible to follow. However, as the story progresses, everything becomes very clear.
It caught me quite quickly, and made me very happy, because it has been a long time since I read a book with so much pleasure and feeling so within my comfort zone.
While there are quite a few battles, which are a little bit bloody, I didn’t feel like it crossed my limit. The descriptions make the story quite vivid, and the snowy landscapes look beautiful, at least in my head. Although I must say that with a constant feeling of cold haha.
At first I thought that this book would be another one based entirely on the competition, however, the competition itself is quite short-lived and the story focuses on the kingdoms and how Elara and Soren manage their relationship as “colleagues”. We also have high doses of magic, or at least fantasy, hanging around the story. Even a dance. I swear it makes me laugh when there is a dance in a book that already has me enchanted, it’s like the finishing touch to make it clear that it is my style of book.
The secondary characters, especially the friends of our kings, also have their chapters dedicated to them, and their stories are excellent.
I must say that I have a particular interest in Gray, although after Elnath (which comes after Soren, sorry not sorry).
And I still haven’t mentioned very important details, which although they have become more common, should not fail to be highlighted, such as the fact that Elara is… in short? A goddess. She is a powerful, independent woman, an excellent warrior. Loved by her entire kingdom, thanks to her level of concern for others. Besides her beauty.
There is also the fact that heterosexual or homosexual relationships are considered exactly the same in the book, to the point that more than once I was confused with the sex of a character due to the fact that I’m more used to male-female couples.
Soren is also a wonderful character. Simple despite being a king. And also incredibly beautiful haha.
As expected, I fell in love with him. But I’m very scared because the second book is called “Príncipe de la Traición” (Prince of Betrayal) and I’m dying because I really don’t want Soren to be a traitor :’).
This is the first Paula book I’ve read, but it definitely won’t be the last. In fact, I already bought her latest book “Todas las Criaturas Oscuras” (which is going to my infinite pile of books to read, but at least I already have it haha).
Bye bye 💕
Autor
Paula Gallego was born in San Sebastián, in 1995.
She is a philologist and graduated in Early Childhood Education with a minor in Special Education. She also has a master’s degree in Literary Creation.
She lives near San Sebastián with her boyfriend and their three cats. She likes plants, although they all die, the sea and bookstores with endless shelves, villains and the literary cliché enemies to lovers.
Amazon Link
*I read this book in Spanish, so some things are translated by me and may not be identical to the English version.*
* When I did this review there was no English version *
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