Winter’s Orbit

E-ARC, 432 Pages
Adult books/ LGBT/ Romance
By: Everina Maxwell
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

Winter’s Orbit theoretically is something I would love, I mean from the amazing cover to the settings and the fact that it is published by Orbit aka my favorite publisher. And I am saying theoretically because it ended up being a lit underwhelming. You should take this review with a grain of salt though because I know it will be successful and the majority of readers will love it.

The story follows prince Kiem who finds himself facing an arranged marriage with his cousin’s widower Jainan. The cosuin’s -Prince Taam- death is suspicious and the new pair finds themselves entangled in a political situation complicated by the fact that Taam’s death may not have been an accident.

The two characters are kind of stereotypical for stories of this kind, Kiem is the goofy extrovert and Jainan is an introverted ball on anxiety. They are kind of opposites and I think opposites attract each other?!
The problem is that up to 60% the dynamic between them was meh and could have been improved by a little more conversation and then suddenly they talk and they fall head over heels for each other. The secondary characters are not memorable for me except maybe for one character.

The writing is not bad, it is light-hearted, and easy to follow but I don’t think it goes to the degree of being quotable! There was something strange and I don’t know how to explain it, it kind of reminded me of fanfiction which I don’t read a lot of (I used to read using Wattpad back in the day) and when I finished it I did find out that it actually started as one and don’t get me wrong here because I don’t think fan fiction is bad bit I think there is a certain format to it that I kind of touched upon here.

The other thing is that it is a sci-fi story but I did not feel that, it was just a minor part of the story. I actually don’t read much sci-fi and I am more of a fantasy reader so I had to prepare myself and get in the mood for this genre and then I felt it was not really sci-fi. The world-building is very simple and we are not given much, it then takes the course of a contemporary story with sci-fi in the background!

Summary: I think Orbit’s Winter is a good story but I kind of had different expectations which affected my enjoyment of the story. The characters and settings could have been better in my opinion but I can still see it as a successful book among readers which is what matters at the end of the day!