Review--Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan

Once blissfully in love . . .

Poppy Lane is keeping secrets. Her powerful gift has earned her membership in the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals, but she must keep both her ability and her alliance with the Society from her husband, Winston. Yet when Winston is brutally attacked by a werewolf, Poppy's secrets are revealed, leaving Winston's trust in her as broken as his body. Now Poppy will do anything to win back his affections . . .

Their relationship is now put to the ultimate test.

Winston Lane soon regains his physical strength but his face and heart still bear the scars of the vicious attack. Drawn into the darkest depths of London, Winston must fight an evil demon that wants to take away the last hope of reconciliation with his wife. As a former police inspector, Winston has intelligence and logic on his side. But it will take the strength of Poppy's love for him to defeat the forces that threaten to tear them apart.

Kristen Callihan's Winterblaze finally lets us get to know Poppy, the oldest of the Ellis sisters. She's been keeping many secrets from her husband Winston over the years. Even her sisters did not know of her role in the SOS, a society set to protect London from all things evil basically. But when her world collides with Winston one night and he's attacked by a werewolf, all the secrets are revealed and a great strain has been put upon the once happy couple.

We start things off with Poppy and Win separated. Win's kept his distance from her as he was hurt that she had kept so much from him over their 14 year marriage. Poppy is sick at heart over losing Win like she did, but she is determined to get him back...somehow. After a twist of fate, the two end up working together. A particular demon has come to collect Win's soul. There was a moment in his past when Win made a deal with a demon, although his memory had been cleared of it, and now the demon has come to collect since Win cheated death by surviving the werewolf attack. Not ready to give in, a new deal is struck. Win is to find an item that was stolen from the demon years ago. Moria Darling holds the key to this mystery, so Win must find her and Poppy agrees as well.

This was quite different from Kristen's previous reads where a romance has to build and then set on fire! Here there was romance, but it was broken by events and has to be rekindled. And rekindle it does! The two both obviously care for one another, as we see from their points of view--the story is told in multiple third person point of view--but there is always something that holds one or the other back from taking the first step. But there's still lots of tension between the two. It's hard to keep up the hate when they are constantly around one another.

Joining them in their adventure is Mary Chase and Jack Talent--our starcrossed lovers in the next book. It was fun to see the GIM and shifter interact. Although at times, things got a tad confusing--can't say why, too spoilery--but I am definitely looking forward to the next book for sure!

Also told a little differently from the previous books, this one had excerpts from Win and Poppy's past. Basically when they first met and lots of other firsts for them. It was endearing to see how their relationship got started and watched it grow. It made you just want to knock one or both upside the head in the present and tell them to say what they mean. 

Winterblaze was quite a long read, but was very well paced! There was action, mystery, romance, suspense...everything one could want in a paranormal read! And while the paranormal factors are a bit small, they are still ingrained enough to make this the perfect read for the historical paranormal romance fan or any such genre! (That's a mouthful, isn't it?!)


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars