The Winter King by C. L Wilson Part 1

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
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Anyway, that's all from me on to today's episode.
It's such a cliche of his like tough, cold, high-seeked steer.
She's the only one that melts it, but she's also like fiery, but also really wounded.

(00:49):
Like it's so fucking cliche, but it's so good.
She's so fiery and also really wounded.
Yeah, I mean the dance floor distress thing is like very good.
It is.
Like I was so, and we'll talk about it in this part, but I was so here for him punishing

(01:10):
her dad.
Oh my God.
Oh, the best who did this to you.
I don't need to ask because he signed his work.
I fucking died.
That was so fucking good.
And that's the thing, like I will go through parts and a lot of my notes are like rage
notes.
I'm like, what the fuck is happening?

(01:30):
What the fuck is here?
I hate this.
I hate his name.
I hate everyone here.
And then I'm like, oh my God, Spoon.
Yeah, the like, the fact that this dude's name is Winter, I can't fucking stand.
Somehow I'm still going to read it again tonight.
I know, literally at like somehow I'm still like, okay, cool.
Can we record this so that I can go read it?

(01:52):
Yeah.
Welcome to Your Safe Space, the podcast your partner, friends, parents, whoever thinks is
dirty.
Don't have time to read books.
Want to understand the jokes in the tixxox?
We got you, fam.
We're the spice traders and we deal in spicy books.
I'm Katie and I need it to make sense.
I'm Liz and I'm hypercritical.

(02:14):
As always, we start every episode with three things.
The first is a generic trigger warning.
You can find specific triggers for this book in our show notes.
So please check those out.
Also we do use foul language and talk a lot about sex.
If you have sensitivity to any of this, please give this episode a skip.
Secondly, we talk about books, the whole book, nothing but the books that helped me
goddess.
If you plan to read this book and don't want something spoiled right now, don't listen

(02:36):
to this episode.
Lastly, we acknowledge that a good book can hit you at the wrong time.
The views expressed in our discussion are our opinion and we absolutely don't want to
diminish the work and the talent of the authors in our community.
That said, we have some notes.

(03:01):
So Liz, what are we talking about today?
Today we're talking about The Winter King by C.L. Wilson.
This is published in 2014 and it is the first in an ongoing series, The Weather Mages of
Mistral series.
There are currently two books out.
This book is 594 pages long and that's a chonker.

(03:24):
Which we'll talk about also.
Also I have to say the chapters are very long.
They're very long.
I don't really understand the breakup of the chapters either.
It feels a little bit arbitrary.
Yeah, it's like she just wrote a book as a stream of consciousness and then just like

(03:45):
split the pages wherever she wanted to split them.
Because as you'll say, we're covering seven chapters today, but this is a chonker.
That's a solid quarter of a book.
So anyway, as usual, we need to talk about the cover.
And this cover, I had to double check the publication year because this is not the cover of a book

(04:11):
that was published in 2014.
I guess girl, but that was ten years ago.
Okay, it's just, alright, this cover is a very modest, modest ripper.
So you have the man in his armor looking longingly at a woman in a very modest Arthurian wedding

(04:38):
dress and it's like snowy in the background.
Yep.
This book just, okay, do you remember in the public library, they had those like spinny
things that had all the bodice ripper paperbacks on them that had really been read a million
times.
This should be on there.
Yeah, that's definitely the vibe that it has.
And it's got like, it's like the mass market paper thing.

(05:01):
It's like a New York Times bestseller and then it's got like some like media review,
just like one liner about it.
It's just very time and place.
And I get what you're saying about like 2014 feels like it should be longer than ten years
ago, but like this feels like a 90s book.
That's what I'm saying.
Like it feels like this is, it shouldn't be in the 2000s.

(05:23):
It feels very 90s, late 80s.
Like it just, it looks so classic bodice ripper with the exception that they're both all clothed.
And that was something in the start of this book too, in her acknowledgments, she says
something like a, like a thank you to the artist for like executing it, like to be modest

(05:48):
or something like that.
But I'm like, but girl, it's full of sex.
Like who are you fooling?
Yeah, who are you fooling?
I think so there's that the just it's heinous cover.
But I think the thing that bothers me more about it, like if you're going to go, you
know, down that path, like it's a very well rendered bodice ripper cover.

(06:10):
It's yes, you know, the art is pretty, right?
It's not weird or anything like that, besides the fact that it just is weird.
You know what I'm saying?
Anyway, the characters don't match their descriptions in the book.
They're both described as being like POCs.
Like these people are white.
These people are super white.
Also she doesn't have the gray shrieks in her hair because of course she has weird fucking

(06:31):
hair.
And his hair isn't long and white.
Yeah.
I mean, it's like blonde adjacent, dirty blonde.
Yeah.
And hers is just black.
I mean, she looks like, is it Mother Goyle from Rapunzel?
She does.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's exactly what she looks like.

(06:52):
And he looks like Christophe from Frozen if we're going on the Disney theme here.
He does look like Christophe.
But I mean, Christophe and the evil mother from Tangos.
But when they're both described in the book, like they're both described as having like
brown skin, not white skin.
Yeah.

(07:13):
No, which did confuse me about him because as we will come to talk about, he is the winter
king.
He is like the king of the north.
Every time they talked about how golden his skin was, I was like, but why?
Yeah.
Well, and which we must be POC.
Exactly.
Well, yeah, but okay, I want to try carefully here because I'm not trying to like be offensive

(07:35):
here or anything, but they're not described as being tanned.
Like I feel like we have books with protagonists who are described as being tanned, but these
people are very distinctly described as having like brown skin.
And like, it's just not, I just don't understand why you would commission art that's just not
in like that's in Congress with how you describe your characters.
Exactly.

(07:56):
And because like I said, there is some acknowledgement in the front where the C.L. Wilson specifically
like calls out the artists.
So like they clearly worked together.
Right.
So why would you not want them to look like your characters?
Right.
And to your point, I mean, even just smaller things like he's described as having long
hair in the book and this guy's got short hair with the hell.

(08:18):
Right.
Like there's just a lot of things missing in here.
Yeah.
So the cover's a choice.
A choice was made.
And that is my note.
I was like, wow, this cover is really something, especially for a publication date of 2014.
Yeah.
Because it just feels wrong to me.
It just feels wrong.

(08:39):
This is definitely not a book that you could read the paperback like on public transportation
and have people not know what you're reading.
No.
Well, I'm comparing it to like Agatar, which we just did, which was also published in the
early 20s, if we're being honest.
And that looks like a game from the 20s.
That's true.
Because I feel like this, because I think this is where I'm lumping it.

(09:02):
And so like I'm looking at Agatar, the Hunger Games, where they're just very like bold like
graphics.
And this is, feels like it's from the early 90s.
Yeah.
I do wonder how much of that has to do with like the publishing industry though, because
like this and the dedication will give us more information on this, but like this was

(09:23):
very clearly like a romance novel.
And I'm not even sure like romance to see was like a hip thing or a category back then.
That's true.
I don't think it was.
So I'm wondering if like this book was almost forced to have that color, that cover.
Just to make it fit in the romance vibe.
Yeah.
You know, I could see that.
We'll talk about the dedication, but it is in line with Christine Feehan's vibe as well.

(09:47):
It is.
Yeah.
So I mean, it's not giving anything away to say that in the dedication, it says for Christine
Feehan.
And it turns out C.L. Wilson and Christine Feehan are like biffs.
And you can definitely tell on the writing.
Yes.
And I did get, I was pretty excited about reading that.
I was too.
Because that was fine.
Because I don't think I've seen a dedication to, I mean, we've read dedication to other

(10:09):
authors, I'm sure, but they weren't authors that like A, I recognize or B that we've also
covered on this podcast because, hey, go check out a dark one.
Dark Prince.
There we go.
It's like dark children.
So fun fact.
I don't know why, but Dark Prince is still one of our most listened to episodes.
And I could not tell you why.

(10:30):
I want to go back and listen to it because that blows my fucking mind.
Well, and okay, it strikes me, especially like in the TikTok crowd, like Christine Feehan
is not talked about at all.
You know, she's never come up on my stream.
I don't know if people just don't know what Dark Prince is.
I don't know.
It's so weird.
But I, Christine Feehan still has like a warm place in my heart.

(10:52):
Like we have to find a book that we like that we can recommend.
I know.
We need to, I do think we should try reading a newer one that's maybe not in that same
series.
Yeah.
But she's got like a backlog of like 50 books.
So we've got to find one.
There's got to be at least one.
Maybe we'll switch one out for something in the, in the new year.
Oh, that's because it wouldn't be a sequel.

(11:12):
So we could do it as a public release.
Yeah.
Because we do have like four holes.
Oh, those are sequels.
But whatever.
We can find more holes to fill.
There's a romance specialty.
I want a tagline.
Fill in your holes.
Okay.
Anyway.
Fill in your holes since 2020.

(11:32):
Whoa.
All right.
All right.
So enough about that.
Katie, kick it off, please.
Okay.

(11:53):
So we covered the dedication, but when I read that I was like, girl, buckle up.
I'm here for it.
This book is on Kindle Unlimited.
So it's worth a shot, even if it is almost 600 pages and as you'll see a little bit me
entering, but I digress.
So this is a chunker.
We're going to divide it up into four parts.

(12:14):
This is part one.
And so part one is going to cover chapters one through seven.
So at the end of part four is when we're going to do our ratings.
So come along with us on this journey, please.
And I, girl, I tried to keep this real short, but I've got 11 pages of notes.
So this might be a little bit of a long one.
Listen, that's, there's a lot, for a book that is so meandering and like really nothing

(12:36):
happening, a lot happens.
This is a study in being contrary.
Contradictions.
Thank you.
I think was juxtaposition.
Contradictions also is a great Jermaine fanfic.
Just is it?
Oh yeah.

(12:57):
Oh yeah.
Light on the plot.
I don't need that.
I'm not what I'm here for.
Yeah.
Look, let's be honest.
Anyway, um, anyway, so we get into the book and we start with a prologue.
So this prologue is kind of long.
So we'll start with the first part of the prologue, which is taking place in a place

(13:18):
called Vera Sola in summer Lee.
And we begin with Cam's and Kuroskate begging her brother Falcon not to leave her.
Falcon is bound to winter Craig to negotiate a treaty, a new treaty.
It's not like they're at war or anything.
They're just, you know, they have an agreement.
They want to update that agreement.
Cam believes that this is special punishment for her sent from her father, King Verdon

(13:40):
the fourth, whom she believes does not love her because her weather gifts are too dangerous
and volatile.
She would be right.
It did take me a minute to figure out what the fuck they were talking about with weather
gifts, but it's like magic that controls the weather.
It's exactly what she's Elsa.

(14:01):
No, the winter King is Elsa.
She's you're right.
Something else.
She's Elsa with the cold.
You're right.
You're right.
My first.
So my initial two notes after the cover was and I hate her name and cool.
So she's Elsa.
I hate her.
I hate her.
I do.
Winter is also, but I will say a note.

(14:22):
I mean, this didn't transfer because I took a screenshot, but I was curious about her
name because her name is Camson, which I thought was stupid, but her name actually means something.
Camson is a word.
Did you know that?
I did not know that it works for her.
Camson is actually a noun for an oppressive hot, southerly or southeasterly wind blowing
in Egypt in spring, specifically in Egypt.

(14:46):
Okay.
And in spring.
Okay.
Well, that makes it better, I guess, but it doesn't though, because she's like a storm
wielder.
Okay.
But I have a question about that.
Like her, her magic manifests as storms now, but is that just because she can't control
it?

(15:06):
Because we'll see later, which you haven't read places where her powers manifest differently
if she thinks about it.
So interesting.
Interesting.
Actually, I like, we will see some of that in part one.
So I'll call it out when we do.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
So because her father hates her, he's locked her away in her own corner of the royal palace

(15:27):
and she has no friends.
Got no friends.
She's team no friends.
Got no friends.
Falcon suits Camson by saying that he'll write and that she'll have the company of her nurse
maid till de vera green leaf or till the end.
Of course, her older sisters, the seasons spring, summer and autumn.
I read that and I was like, fuck that.

(15:48):
I know I hated that so much.
And those are not their given names.
Those are their gift names.
Yeah.
We don't actually ever get their real names.
No, because it doesn't fucking matter.
Not in this book at least.
But I have to tell you every time the seasons were mentioned, every fucking time, even after
we've met the winter king for whom this book is named, I was like, why is there not a winter?

(16:12):
Oh, wow, you just made that connection for me.
I did not get that before.
I did have the thought of like, why are there only three seasons instead of four?
But I didn't make the like literally microscopic step toward, oh, because it's the winter
king.
But that's why in my head when I first read this and we didn't really know about her powers,

(16:36):
she was Elsa to me.
So it's like, oh, she's the fourth sister.
She's the fourth season.
Yeah.
I mean, kind of, right?
She's going to marry the winter king.
But she's not.
Yeah, that's true.
She is the winter queen.
This just like the idea of the seasons and like the three perfect sisters, like just

(16:56):
reminded me of like every like step sister adjacent bullshit.
I guess the only like savings grace here is that they are insufferable, but they're not
mean.
They're just useless.
Yeah, they're just useless because they're very sweet actually.
Yeah.
And they love their sister.

(17:19):
So Falcon says, you know, you'll have these people and she complains they aren't you.
To which he says this thing that I just fucking hate.
He says, quote, now there's a pretty compliment.
Careful, my lady.
You'll turn my head.
It's your brother.
It's your.
Gross.

(17:40):
That's so gross.
Also, what the fuck are you talking about, Falcon?
I will admit freely.
I have no siblings and so I don't know how they work, but it strikes me that that seems
very incestuous and just wildly inappropriate to say.
It's nothing I would say to my brother.
Nope.
Can you imagine?

(18:02):
Nope.
Yeah.
So it's very incestuous, but also their relationship feels kind of incestuous because
like he's the only one she likes.
I don't know.
It's weird.
But also then maybe later, he ceases to exist.
Like a wolf.
Yeah, for a very good reason, but he does show up later in the book.

(18:23):
So I guess.
I don't do that.
But okay.
The other thing about this is that I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, I'm like 80 percent sure this is happening within four to five years of the events of
the book, which means that Cam's in is at youngest 15.

(18:45):
So for her to be like whining like this, yeah, grosser.
Yeah.
I solidly thought that she was still like 17 for most of this book until we get her age.
And I was like, Oh, because she feels younger.
She does feel younger.
The way she acts is younger for sure, but she's solidly 20.
So anyway, this makes Cam's and relent saying that while Falcons away, at least he'll be

(19:07):
able to look for blazing the famous sword of the old king, Roland sold guess the hero of
summer Lee from legend.
But Falcon tells her that he had, he doesn't have time for fairy tales.
How stupid.
Oh my gosh.
And Cam's is like, well, that's odd because you've been so adamant before in the past
that you were the one that's going to find the sword for many years, but she doesn't

(19:28):
say anything out loud and she just kind of lets it go.
So over to Gildenheim in winter, Craig.
I hate it.
We see the king, a man named winter and his brother, Garrick, who are carving ice sculptures
and discussing Elka, Winters betrothed.
Garrick is trying to convince his brother that Elka is more ambitious than she is in

(19:50):
love with winter, but winter will hear none of it.
Garrick tries once more to point out how much Elka flirts with Falcon, who has, we assume,
arrived in Gildheim to do his work.
And Garrick suspects that Elka might help Falcon get the Book of Riddles, which supposedly
has the answer to where the sword blazing is hidden.

(20:12):
But eventually he has to drop it because winter won't be moved.
So this prologue did a thing that I was very worried that the whole book would do and thank
God it didn't.
And I don't know, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, but it did this
thing where like it would show you a conversation, right?
Like the conversation that Falcon is having with Camson.

(20:34):
And then it does that page break.
And now it's like, it references itself where it's like it was two weeks ago that Falcon
had talked to Camson and I'm like, I just saw that.
I know.
I was there.
And it does that in the prologue like two or three times where we have this like weird
time shift, but then immediately reference itself.

(20:56):
And it just felt really unnatural and I hated it every time.
Yeah.
And I think it was an effort in like orienting you in the fact that time is passing, but
I wish it had just like not done that because we could infer that like, okay, Falcon said
he was going to go to winter Craig.
Now he is in winter Craig.
Time has passed.
There you go.
Yeah.
And I was trying to think of like in my notes how to articulate it because I've read books

(21:21):
or where you could have it in our monologue character where it's like it was two weeks
since that conversation or whatever, but it's just the way that it's like written in the
pros is very jarring where it's literally like it was two weeks ago that Camson told
him that he was going to find the sword and now we see her finding this and I'm just like,
yeah, I know.
I just read that like it's on the same page girl.

(21:44):
I know.
Yeah.
It was five seconds ago.
Also, can we talk about how annoying the sword name blazing is?
I hate why is it not just blaze?
I don't know.
And also, whatever sword name that winter has, I didn't like that name either because
I thought it was a person every time.
I fully didn't write it down because I was like, okay, I'm over these swords that have

(22:07):
names like, oh my God, because they don't need names.
You don't need names.
Anyway, we're still in the prologue and next we see that Elka has indeed procured the book
of riddles for Falcon and they have fled.
It's fucking jarring.
It's so weird.
We don't see that.
We're just told it.
And again, it's like it was six months ago that Garrick warned me about this thing and

(22:29):
now it's happened.
Yeah.
It's so like just give me bullet points.
Yeah.
Just give me the lore that I need to know in bullet points.
That's great.
So remember Elka was engaged to winter, so she's left her fiance with this foreigner.
This they have used a village to distract everybody from the fact that they're fleeing.

(22:54):
Quote, the summerlanders had raped and murdered dozens of villagers, then locked the rest
in a meeting hall and burned them alive.
And also reminder, these countries were not at war.
Right.
It seems like kind of a lot.
You could have just run away in the dead of night.
Like, yeah.

(23:15):
Yeah.
And also, but also somehow, Winter, Greg are the bad guys.
Let's be clear.
Yeah.
Oh, I have, I have thoughts about that when we get there.
Anyway, capital T H capital T H.
So Garrick has gone after them and now winter intends to go as well with his right hand man,

(23:39):
Valak.
So as he and Valak are chasing after Garrick, who are who is chasing after Elka and Falcon,
Winter calls to wolves with his magic and uses his weather gift to summon a storm to
slow Falcon's flight.
But midway, he finds the body of his brother, Garrick, and the friend's Garrett took with
him to pursue Falcon.

(23:59):
This ends their immediate chase because winter is in shock and in grief.
Winter holds a vigil back at the palace for his brother's funeral pyre.
When that's done, he goes to the temple the book was stolen from and intends to ask the
goddess of Wern for special help to avenge his brother and his people.

(24:20):
Whatever the task is, he must complete it naked and alone and there's a high probability
that he will die.
And that's the end of the prologue.
So fuck, that's a lot.
This prologue was really long to the point that I kind of forgot it was a prologue and
I thought we were in the story and so the fact that we didn't see this task, I was like,
where is this book going?

(24:41):
It's really a shame that we don't have anybody on this podcast that doesn't read the prologue
anymore because this would have been really wild for them to not have read.
Oh my god, I didn't even think about that, but that, you would truly be lost.
Yeah, you'd be like, excuse me, what?
And this book doesn't really fill in a lot of those blanks, like for as weird as the time

(25:01):
jumping in around here, it's as prologues are.
It's implied that you've read the prologue and now you know what's happening.
It doesn't tell you again.
But I almost wish we hadn't gotten that much information about this because there are so
many moments later in the story and I'll try to point them out if I remember to do so as

(25:21):
they come up that feel like they would have been a much more powerful gotcha or reveal
if we didn't get all of this upfront information.
And I feel like not knowing would have made us more sympathetic to what some of the characters
are acting like in the beginning of the book.
Yeah, much better.
Or much more sympathetic.

(25:42):
It would have been much better is what I mean.
Yeah, specifically Camzin and her loyalty to her brother, but we'll get there.
Fast forward three years later and we see Winter arriving in Verasola in summerly to
deliver the terms of the summerlander surrender.
A bloody and brutal war has been waged between the two kingdoms over the past three years
as a result of Falcons actions and Winter has used his power to plunge summerland into

(26:07):
basically a never ending winter starving them until the country was defeated.
This power that Winter has is kind of a magnification of his winter weather gifts and it's not giving
away anything here because we learned pretty soon that he's swallowed something called
the ice heart and we'll get more information about what this is later, but it makes him

(26:30):
like really powerful, like almost godlike.
So Camzin's nursemaid Tildy goes to tell Cam about Winter's arrival and finds her battling
imaginary foes with her sword, which would be fine if we ever came back to her using
a sword in a meaningful way again, but we don't.
And so this scene just makes her appear simple in my opinion.

(26:51):
It also makes her feel younger, right?
Like this is a child.
Right.
This is a child.
Despite the fact that she's 20.
Fully 20.
I'm like, oh, cool.
This is a seven year old.
Yeah.
Because she's like in her third person limited internal monologue, she's like the protagonist
of a fairy tale like battling dragons or whatever.

(27:14):
And I'm just like, oh boy.
Yeah.
Like, and specifically, I think Roland is like her that that hero of the blazing sword.
Stupid.
I hate it.
I just also the thing I wanted to say is that even though the prologue gives us a lot of

(27:35):
information is also kind of delivered in like a weird way.
Like I think here it's reiterated, but her inner monologue says something like she had
her brother's love to until he'd run off with the Winter King's bride.
And I was like, I'm sorry.
What?
Yeah.
Like we don't put in a weird comparison.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(27:55):
And I'm like, oh, Camzin, what the fuck is happening?
Like what?
I think you're confused about what a sibling should be.
I know.
Yeah.
So Cam finishes her sword battle or whatever and runs up to the abandoned part of the castle
to view the proceedings.
We learn that she wasn't invited to attend the Winter King's arrival in person with
the rest of her family because her father actually does hate her.

(28:18):
So she must watch from the closed up part of the quarters of the castle that used to
belong to her dead mother.
As she watches the procession, she and Winter make eye contact from like 100 yards away
or some shit.
And he uses a power called the gaze on her thinking that she's a would be assassin.
The gaze essentially freezes people from the inside out, but because Cam is a child of

(28:38):
the sun, her weather gifts help her survive for much longer than anyone else would.
And the King releases her believing her just to be an ordinary servant girl.
The King is described thusly, quote, square jaw, cheekbones high and shapely skin a surprisingly
golden hue, the color of brown butter.
She'd always thought the folk of Winter Craig would be snowy pale, but they weren't.

(29:01):
At least he wasn't, which only made his wealth of long gleaming white hair and startling
pale eyes seem all the more vivid.
He was handsome beyond handsome.
Also he is over seven feet tall.
He's a giant.
It's not in this description, but it I think I highlighted it.

(29:22):
I did not make that up.
Okay, here's the thing.
He is over seven feet tall.
I have no idea how tall everybody else is because though this book commits that cardinal
sin of him being a fucking giant, we don't get imagery at least in the first part of
the book of Cam's and being like petite or like, you know, her head coming up to his

(29:46):
crotch when they stand or something ridiculous, you know, that's true.
If you look at the cover, she is probably if he's seven feet tall, she's like six,
five, at least.
Yeah.
So that's true.
And so that does help the carnal sin not feel weird if they're all giants.
Yeah.
But why, why call it out then, you know, I couldn't find the line.

(30:08):
I thought I highlighted it, but why call it out?
Why make him seven feet tall?
Yeah, it just seems like a weird choice.
Yeah.
So this is also a good description because like he's described as having the complexion
of brown butter, which if you want to make the argument that that's tanned rather than
brown fine, I guess we brown butter differently, but it very clearly says long gleaming white

(30:30):
hair.
Yes.
And I do, I do think that it is an interesting description because so often we get the icy
blonde villain with the striking blue eyes who is pale, a la Draco Malfoy.
And I do like that he is dark skinned or darker skinned because it does make for a very interesting
character.
It does.

(30:50):
And he's also not like the tall, dark and handsome type, right?
I feel like it's one or the other usually.
Yeah.
And he's kind of got both.
Right.
And then so it's here that we get the indication of how the rest of the book will unfold specifically
that it will be third person limited with depictions from both Cam and Winter.
So that's how the book kind of alternates back and forth.

(31:12):
And as we mentioned, like this part one covers chapters one through seven, but the chapters
are very arbitrarily drawn, right?
Like you get multiple switchbacks between perspectives within a chapter and the chapters
are long, like at least 30, 40 pages sometimes.
Yeah, which is really hard because I tend to, I like to finish chapters before I like

(31:32):
put a book down when I can.
And I couldn't do that.
I also wanted to reward myself with fanfic by finishing chapters.
And I was like, well, by the time I finished the chapter, I had to do something else.
We didn't have time to read.
Right.
It's also worth noting that there is like kind of a space break between those perspective
shifts, which I appreciated, but at least on the Kindle version, it didn't always translate

(31:56):
very well.
So like sometimes you would like turn the page and that would eat up that space.
And so you wouldn't necessarily realize that you had switched perspectives until like halfway
down the next page.
Yeah, there were a couple of times that I had to like flip back a page to be like, wait,
who's talking and see that?
I like, because space breaks in a physical book are fine, but I like when there's like

(32:17):
the three little asterisks or something to like denote that more clearly.
So you always see it in the digital form.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So in this yield perspective shift, we see Winter assessing the royal family.
He has no use for the king of summerland who he sees as a fat and useless sack of shit.
His daughters though, the three seasons are all lovely and winter remarks internally that

(32:38):
any of them will do.
For what?
You can probably guess, but we'll get there more explicitly later.
Yep.
So Winter announces that the king will quarter Winter and his men and that he wants to stay
in the abandoned part of the catch castle, which puts the king of summerland on the back
foot since that part is in literal ruins.
Winter also demands a daughter accompany his dinner tonight, essentially to act as a guard

(33:00):
against poison, food and drink.
Now the castle snaps to that decision.
Winter takes a tour of the city, essentially giving them like six hours to have his quarters
ready to go.
They've just been abandoned.
Right.
It's also some insult to injury because the quarters that are abandoned are the queen's
quarters or were the queens, the deceased queen's quarters.
So it's also kind of like clear your shit out.

(33:24):
But they were also going to put him in like Falcons old quarters and I just like nobody
thought that through.
I know, and I think, I don't know if that's in Campsons in our monologue, but that is
like noted by someone that's like, that seems insulting.
Yeah.
Also, it's a palace.
You don't have quarters that are like designated for guests.
For visiting emissaries, I guess.

(33:45):
Right.
I have weird.
So back to Cam.
She's horrified that her mother's private place will be so defiled by the presence of
a conquering hero.
Starting with Tildy, Cam rails against the injustice, but is chastised by Tildy, who's
like, don't be an idiot.
He could have us all killed.
Cam determines that she has to go and get the treasures that remain from her mother

(34:06):
before they are discarded.
Tildy asks her to not be a blindfold and obstruct the path of peace that the king brings with
him.
Cam promises her, quote, I will not obstruct, but I won't help either.
Even though she can be like really childish, I do like Campson.
I do too.

(34:26):
I like her more as the book goes on.
She's very straightforward.
She doesn't.
Yeah.
There's no subterfuge.
She couldn't lie if her life depended on it and it often does.
She's just very pure of heart, I would say.
Yeah, but she's all sort of like blunted up front, which I like.

(34:49):
She's not pretending to be anyone she isn't, except for when she does do that.
But she's like, I guess that's the part that could come off a little bit simple, because
she's not the kind of person who suffers fools and strikes me she wouldn't get sarcasm
if that was the thing in this book, that kind of thing.
Yeah.

(35:09):
Yeah.
We read another character that was similar to this, where I'm like, are you just very
to the point or is there a simpleness about you?
And I can't remember what character it is, but yeah, I can't either.
But it's also like she's quick to action and she's got a very strong like what's right
and wrong sense and she can come off as like impulsive almost.

(35:33):
Yes.
So as Cam's and leaves, Tildy Chasin said, don't fight so hard against the things you
can't change, child.
You'll batter yourself to death.
Learn to change what you can and accept what you can't.
Be the palm that bends into the wind to withstand the gale.
And I think that's a very interesting thing to say to Cam, because as she even remarks

(35:54):
internally, she is not the palm.
She's more like a granite piece of stone.
Like she does not bend.
No, she does not bend.
She would rather break.
Correct.
So Cam looks out a window when she's alone and someone's a storm to test and warn winter
that not all of the summerlanders are as easily broken.
As the rainstorm strengthens, winter looks up and feels her power.

(36:18):
He turns the storm into ice and dissipates it.
He and his right hand, Valak, suspect that the person who's doing this is a princess
since the weather major abilities only pass through the royal line.
Back with Cam, the interaction and test of wills with winter sent her physically reeling
back against the stone wall where she cracks her head.
As she hurries to get her mother's things after this, she muses, quote, for once she

(36:40):
was actually glad her father hadn't summoned her to join the family.
No doubt the winter king would be dining with them tonight and after two run-ins with him,
she would happily spend the rest of her life avoiding a third.
I've seen foreshadowing before.
I've seen foreshadowing.
Also, it's not explicitly stated, but like through her whole like not being called to
the family, she's always like isolated.

(37:01):
And it's confirmed later, but you do get the sense that no one knows that she's a princess
or not that no one knows, but it's it's not widely known that there are four daughters.
I believe there are only three daughters.
And I will say that this bugged me for a long time because it gave me big fourth wing vibes
where I'm like, why does he hate her so much?

(37:22):
Why does he hate her?
And we do get an answer to that, which I think is a little bit of weak sauce, but I a couple
times I'm like, there's got to be a reason he's hiding her from the public.
I need answers.
Why does he hate her?
Why does he hate her so fucking much?
It is interesting too, because like in part two, we'll get into this question of like
fidelity.

(37:43):
And I don't think it's giving anything away here to say that fidelity in the summer league
court is like very rare.
So yeah, it's a weird thing.
The reason that her father hates her is kind of a weird thing for a king in that country.
Yeah, it is weird.
And I don't I still don't really feel like it's the full story.

(38:06):
Yeah, I don't either.
Anyway, so Cam disguises herself as a maid and goes to the abandoned high tower, but
she finds that it's already been turned over with new furniture and flooring and curtains
and everything.
There's like a bunch of people milling around.
So panic, she asks one of these people where the old things have gone and she tries to
play it off as being like a new maid for one of the seasons who asked for her mother's

(38:27):
things.
She learns that everything worth keeping was pushed into this other like solar room.
So when she gets to that door, she finds it locked.
So she determines to get the spare key from Tildy and return later on her way out.
She feels the eyes of Maude Newt, the mistress of servants on her and prays that she hasn't
been found out as she knows that that would greatly displease her father.

(38:48):
Okay, so this is point number one about this book that editing could have gone a long way.
She does that thing, the Cardinal sin of going back to places multiple times and we see it.
Just tell me once girl.
Yes, it's a lot.
That bothered me.
The other thing that or the question I had kind of going back to her like being a secret

(39:10):
is I wish I had a clear understanding of who knew who she who I wish I had a clear understanding
of who knew who she was and who doesn't because the other servants don't know who she is.
I mean, she's in a disguise, but that's also confusing because she's got whack hair and
I just I never really I never bought that just hiding your hair would like hide who

(39:32):
you were from like doesn't it?
It doesn't.
Clark Kent with just like glasses like come on dude.
Yeah.
Well, and and it's it's clear that at least like Maude knows who she is and like could
pick her out of a crowd.
So like who who does know who she is because at that point you're talking about a conspiracy
of people trying to keep her from the public knowledge and I just don't believe that that's

(39:53):
a thing.
No, because I don't understand why anyone else would be convinced to do that.
Well, and I just don't understand I don't believe that if that was the case that more
than five people of the staff know that would become gossip gossip would be reported eventually
through spies to Winters regime, right?
And then like they would at least have to address the possibility that there might be

(40:15):
a secret daughter running around, right?
Like that that's just I just don't believe that that wouldn't be a complete unknown.
No, but the only other option also doesn't make sense is the fact that they all know
and they just all know that the King hates her.
But then winter would know too that there's a hated daughter.
Right, exactly.
But but now I have more questions, right?

(40:39):
Because I mean this is kind of skipping ahead, but Tildy has knows more and has shared more
than she should.
And so therefore why didn't she tell the Winter King any of this?
Well, I think Tildy didn't tell the Winter King any of this because the Winter King was
trying to do a twofer with like marrying a daughter, so getting a queen and then also
removing a treasure.

(40:59):
And if he knew that there was a hated daughter, he would have said and not that daughter you
hate.
Oh, yeah, that's true.
That's true.
Okay.
Anyway, she's just doing all sorts of stuff.
Anyway, right.
Speaking out of turn.
So just as Cam's in gets back to her chambers and changes out of the servants garb, another
guardsman summons her to her father's study.
When she gets there, it becomes clear that her father knew that she summoned the storm

(41:23):
and reprimands her with a slap to the face.
Her other sisters are there having been summoned to watch her punishment as they usually were.
But this time they stand up for her sister and mollify their father.
Her father warns her though that if she steps one hair out of line again, he will be extremely
wroth and she will regret it.
I feel like this is another Cardinal Sin where she has the same conversation with the same

(41:46):
people multiple times.
Yes.
So I was going to say, is this the first time he threatens her with death or banishment?
It is the first time, yes.
But it's not the last time.
No.
Well, and it's...
The other Cardinal Sin is making characters very one note.

(42:10):
So the reason that I don't care to read about her sisters, and we know that the series follows
her sisters, is that they stand here and watch her be abused and it's not the first time.
We're very clear about that.
It's also not the first time that we read about and they do nothing.
Like no.
They're just like, oh sister, they're there and I'm like, okay.

(42:32):
And they're kind of like, father, don't.
Don't do that.
That's not cool, man.
Right.
And then when she gets beaten to within an inch of their life and they find that out,
they're like, he would never do that.
I'm like, you know he would do that.
You've seen him do that.
Right.
Okay.
Okay guys.

(42:52):
And they're like, a curse will befall the kingdom.
And I'm like, what are you talking about?
Okay.
Like, I almost wish that they had been mean sisters.
Yeah.
Instead they're just, they're a lane.
They're a lane.
Yeah.
Simple.
Simple in a lot of ways.
Yep.

(43:13):
They're useless.
So anyway, back to winter, who has finished touring the city and placing his guards at
specific locations to discourage any rebelliousness.
He arrives in the newly refurbished tower and begrudgingly finds it immaculately restored.
He and Valak commiserate that they can't find fault.
Valak goes on to try to dissuade winter of his plans for the terms of peace, but winter

(43:37):
won't be moved.
As winter bathes alone before dinner, we learn something of what he intends.
He says, quote, summerly had robbed him of both his queen and his heir.
He planned to return the favor.
I do find it interesting that his brother was noted as his heir and not the child he
was going to have with Elka.

(43:58):
Yeah.
Well, I think it was probably like a stand in thing and that if he ever had a child
or had been that child, which by her running away, then yeah.
But it is interesting to me that he never even, like, acknowledges a potential child
with Elka.
Yeah.

(44:18):
So when dinner arrives, not one princess, but all three seasons accompany it and share
a meal with winter.
He finds all three of them lovely and compliant despite flashes of defiance in their eyes
as he taunts them by treating them more like servants rather than royal company.
He remarks inwardly that truly any of them would do, which makes things considerably
easier for him.

(44:39):
I will say that C.L. Wilson does an interesting job of creating him as a character because
he's terrible.
He's the fucking worst.
But then I really like him in a couple of chapters.
Yeah.
Well, it feels like he's very much the begrudging aggressor.
Like, like, we'll talk about this more later on in the book, but it's like, you know, you

(45:05):
could make the argument that he started the war and prolonged it for so long, but he was
like very validly provoked into this and had to like defend himself and he doesn't like
being that person.
But here we are.
Yeah.
And then we'll learn more about his ice heart, which probably also makes him legitimately
colder.
Yes.
And affect some of his emotions.

(45:28):
So when winter meets with the summer king later, King Burden, he dismisses Burden's
advisors from the hearing of the terms of the treaty.
When the last remaining general tries to get smart about this, winter uses his gaze to
cow the man.
Eventually Burden asks his men to leave peacefully before the general can be frozen dead.
Winter remarks inwardly that summerlanders were all the same.

(45:51):
Sheep, fatted and dull-witted by decades of self-indulgence easily herded to the slaughter.
He compares that to Roland, the hero Cam and her brother were so fond of, whom he describes
as a lion of a man who sacrificed everything so that summer league could live free.
Winter goes on to tell Burden that the price of peace is quote a queen, a treasure and

(46:12):
an heir and quote.
Essentially, he requires one of verdant's daughters as a bride and she will have a
year to bear him an heir.
Otherwise he'll kill her and come back for another one.
Winter's intent is to double dip on the queen and treasure part since verdant dotes on
his seasons.
You just explained that to me because I literally was like cool so he's got a queen and he's

(46:33):
going to get an heir but what's the treasure?
Dude as I was making my notes I was like what is the treasure?
What am I missing?
Oh, got it.
Oh, the child is the treasure.
The child bride is the treasure.
No I think the daughter is the child bride.
It's the daughter, that's right, the child of the king.
Yes.
The child bride.
No, she's not a child.
She's like 25.
Following a consenting adult, it's fine.

(46:59):
But I was waiting for there to be like a treasure.
I know me too, like give me your crown jewels literally.
Yeah, or like some other book of riddles, I don't know.
Give me the blazing, I know you have it.
I know you have it.
So back to Cam who is sneaking into the tower with the key to the solar or whatever.

(47:21):
So okay, we're back to this place and I wish we had just missed the first scene entirely.
Just tell me she's there.
Yeah, tell me she's already inside.
Yeah, tell me, have her think about the first time she showed up and glad that she's now
here and no one's there and there's a key and she's got plenty of time to look for her
shit, done.
That's easily eliminated like 20 pages that I didn't care to read the first time around.

(47:42):
Because that's the thing, you are very succinct at driving these but reminder this book is
almost 600 pages long.
To get this far, we've covered like 60 pages.
Yeah, it really did not need to be this long.
That's one of my primary sources of critique for it.
Yes.

(48:03):
So once inside the solar, Cam finds what she's looking for but as she goes to leave Winter
and Valak come back earlier than she expected.
She thinks that she hears Valak leave in Winter going to the bathroom to bathe again so she
uses the opportunity to try and bolt.
But of course she's caught, Winter initially thinks her an assassin again and even remarks

(48:23):
outwardly that she's far too pretty for such an ugly profession.
But when she doesn't have the hand-to-hand combat skills of an assassin nor the smooth
cover stories for why she's in his chambers, he begins to doubt his initial appraisal.
I do like getting his perspective of that and kind of clocking like because she looks
around for an exit and he's like, huh, if she was an assassin she would already have

(48:43):
that mapped out.
Also, she can't lie for shit.
Yeah.
And it's kind of like going through that process.
He's like, why are you here?
She's like, I put linens in your bath and he's like, you didn't come from my bath.
My bathroom is over there.
It's over there.
She's like, ah.
He's like, oh boy.

(49:06):
Okay.
Clearly not an assassin.
Got it.
Sweet summer child, literally.
Literally.
So he orders Valak to search her and when he gets to her pockets, he has to hold his
sword at her throat to keep her compliant.
Finding the treasures of her mother, Winter thinks her a common thief.

(49:28):
But Cam spits fact that even if she were a thief, it would be better than being a cold,
merciless killer like Winter.
As Valak and Winter kind of let their guard down a little, realizing that she's just a
thief and not anything more than that, Cam makes a break for it.
But Winter catches her and pushes her against the wall.
When he does this, the cap that she's wearing falls off and he recognizes her as the servant

(49:49):
girl he almost froze to death when he arrived.
Whoops.
Because again, she's got weird fucking hair.
If they don't have purple eyes, they have weird fucking hair.
Purple eyes, weird hair all over the place.
Oh, but her eyes aren't purple.
She's got silver eyes.
Of course she does.
So this close to her, Winter begins to feel a draw toward Cam.

(50:11):
His blood heaps and he realizes that he wants to get to know her.
Biblically.
But then he goes on to fondle her and can tell that she's feeling similar despite her
protests to the contrary.
Even Valak is like, wow, this is wildly inappropriate.
Winter, can you stop, please?
You're like this bro stop groping her.

(50:32):
Yeah, this is not cool.
But Winter just growls at him, shocking just about everyone in the room.
Poor Valak.
But this just escalates things because Winter then kisses Cam really hard and this causes
Cam to summon weather magic to break the windows in the room causing enough of a distraction

(50:54):
that Winter lets her go to defend himself against would-be attackers.
And like just my god, what a scene.
I...
Why?
Like, is there a faded maids thing in here?
What is happening?

(51:17):
And I do, I did, okay, we'll talk about this when we get to the only sex scene in this
part.
I appreciate that we get both perspectives where even later we'll get Cam and Cam is
like, there is something about him.
It wasn't all rapey, but in Winter's monologue, in her monologue, he's like, I'm not a rapist
and then he proceeds to be real rapey.

(51:37):
Yeah, and he even remarks he's like, if her mouth was as compliant as her body seemed
to be, I would probably just fuck her right now.
And I'm like, okay, buddy.
And I feel like Valak is just like, bro, what the fuck are you doing?
So I don't think it's giving anything away here to say that like, Winter is part of a

(52:01):
wolf clan and he has like wolf-like attributes, like he has heightened ability to like smell
and see and things like that.
Later on, he will admit that the reason that he has this like attraction to her is because
his wolf-like spirit person inside of him recognizes her as his mate.
So it is like kind of a faded maids thing.

(52:23):
But that's his experience.
She feels the same way and I have no idea why.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's good to know.
I was, because I did know about the wolf-like attributes, so that's interesting.
But yeah, I don't know why she also has this like hunger for him.
Yeah, because it's electric.

(52:43):
And I think to your point, like getting both of those perspectives is necessary to make
me okay with what's going to happen in this first part.
Yeah, because I was getting real concern-acus.
And even in this scene, I was like, I don't want anywhere that this is going.
No, I do not want.

(53:04):
That's not okay.
Thank you.
But then almost immediately we get camps and she's like, who is that?
Yeah.
So Cam is like running from these guys and she's distracted because she's like horny
as fuck.
Yeah, she's a hot bother.
Because she's like really into it.

(53:28):
And I think she even says something in the effect of like the only reason she was saying
no is because she was very aware of who he is and who she is and how much trouble that
would be for her.
Yeah.
Kind of like the principle of the thing.
Like I'm going to say no, but like she wouldn't want to say no.
Yeah, if it was literally anybody else, she would have been like, okay, let's go.

(53:48):
Yeah.
But so she doesn't make it very far before running smack into Mod Newt, who knows exactly
who she is.
And when Winter comes running out after Cam, it's clear to Mod that something untoward
had happened between the two because they're both like kind of disheveled and like they
have the swollen lip thing going on and they're both breathing hard, that kind of thing.
And he had buttoned like most of her top.

(54:10):
Yes.
It talks about how her top is like unbuttoned to like below her boobs.
Yeah.
So Winter asks who Cam is, but Mod doesn't give him a straight answer.
Instead, she just hauls Cam off to her father immediately.
So before we see Cam's fate, we see Winter and Valakty briefing on what the fuck just
happened.
Yeah, you horn dog.

(54:32):
Yeah.
Valak's like brother.
That is not okay.
He's like fucking pants, right?
It's not.
Winter admits that he's never felt that way about anyone before.
He describes it as feeling quote driven, possessive, enchanted almost like there was a fire in
his soul when he touched Cam.
Valak suggests that maybe the season spikes his drink with a drug called Aris, which is
a powerful and infamous aphrodisiac known to the region, but they both dismiss this.

(54:57):
Winter is ashamed that he couldn't master himself with Cam and asks Valak whether he
thinks the Aris heart has already consumed him, but Valak assures him that it has not.
So back to Cam.
Mod is dismissed after telling Verden what Cam was up to.
Verden is irate because he thinks that Cam has sought to undermine their peace in some
way.
Cam admits that she was going after her mother's things after her father pushes her.

(55:20):
The two remaining items that she has, her father takes from her and burns them in his
hands.
He tells her that she had no right to defile her mother's things.
He backhands her across the face, leaving her rose imprinted on her cheek from his
signet ring.
He tells Cam quote, she was the one thing I loved most in this world and you took her
from me, you and your cursed gifts.
Cam protests that she was a child and her father counters that she was a mistake.

(55:43):
He tells her that he has suffered her for 20 years, but he will suffer no longer.
He gives her a choice, death or banishment.
He takes her to a windowless stone room deep in the castle and canes her until she agrees
to marry the Winter King.
So she's so strong-willed, it took her father and others completely ruining her back until
she was bloody and defeated for her to agree.
It's dark in here.

(56:07):
So dark in here.
Also, if your queen was a thing you loved most in the world, why would you burn her
portrait and her journal?
Wouldn't she want those?
Yeah.
So, like I said, like Fidelity as we learn later is kind of an oddity in Summerly and

(56:28):
so it's weird that he has such like a powerful attachment to her mother when that's like
not culturally a thing.
The second thing is like it's weird that he doesn't spend time in the mother's private
quarters.
Like it would be another thing if like he kept them pristine and didn't know that Cam
spent time there and like felt betrayed in that way somehow.

(56:51):
Yeah.
But for him to just like shut it up and out and just let that thing, those stuff go to
waste like that, I don't know, it just seems like kind of a juxtaposition.
Yeah, it doesn't really make, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
But that's the reason that we have for now.
So Cam is dragged back to her room where Tildy is sick about her condition.

(57:13):
The guards who brought her there ask for forgiveness but Cam waits them off saying it's not their
fault.
As Tildy cleans her back she feels the restorative power of the sun finally reaching her, speeding
along her healing.
Tildy declares that Verdon has called a curse upon his house for what he did to Cam, his
own flesh and blood.
So it's something to be called out here.

(57:34):
Cam is some kind of magical thing, like I know you and I were texting about this before
but like when we first started reading this book it's not clear if these people are just
like straight up human or like some kind of fey.
But their magic definitely is tied to the weather patterns and like when Cam is in direct
sunlight and in contact with like lightning she heals like way faster.

(57:57):
I have a lot of questions about their magic.
It is, I think it is pretty well handled.
I just have more questions about it.
Yeah, I do too.
Like I just wish we got some, really the reason that I have so many questions is because I'm
trying to put it into a category of things and I wish that it had just been like explicitly
said like their witches, right?

(58:18):
Or their fey or whatever.
Yeah, yeah.
And they kind of, they call her like a weather witch and they kind of call her a witch but
not framed in the way that we understand witches in other books.
Yeah.
So even though she's closer to the sun and the healing is sped up she's still like not
going to be ready to do anything for several weeks and as she's kind of realizing how much

(58:42):
of a bad way she's in Cam is resigned to having deserved the beating for killing her mother.
We learned that when she was young she summoned a storm that caused a widowmaker to fall on
her mother and kill her.
But Tildi tells Cam that before she was even conceived doctors told her mother in Vernon
that they shouldn't have more kids but they both decided to ignore that advice.

(59:03):
Cam tells her that it doesn't matter anyway because she's leaving.
Her father wants her wed and gone within two days.
I had the note that this is why we need birth control because Tildi says something like
it's not you, he hates, he hates himself because he couldn't stay away from your mother.
I was like well if we had birth control in this world they could, or family planning

(59:25):
of any kind.
Yeah, then they could bone all they want because the answer shouldn't be like oh I
can never touch my wife.
Like what?
Right.
Like brother just pull out.
I mean I know that's not the best birth control.
You know what I mean.
But there's options.
There are things you can do.
Instead it was like don't have more kids and he's like okay I'm going to go stick my dick
in her.

(59:50):
So back to Winter who's been informed that Verdon has accepted the terms of surrender
with the condition that Winter will consummate the marriage the night of the wedding and
leave the next day.
Gross.
Yeah, very gross.
Winter tells Vallick that he accepts and that he's ready for them to be home.
Vallick protests that he should stay and lead the occupying force in Verasola but Winter

(01:00:10):
denies him that, opting to keep Vallick close and leave the occupation work to a man named
Chief Lieutenant Lyric.
Vallick sees this as somewhat of an insult before Winter tells him that it's because
he cares too much about him to leave him behind.
This is only friend.
Before Vallick leaves to implement Winter's word Winter asks about the maid but Vallick
hasn't found anything more about her and tells Winter to push her from his mind.

(01:00:32):
Despite this Winter can't keep his mind away from Cam.
Because he wants this little servant girl.
Yes.
The next day the marriage contract is drawn up and signed separately.
Winter sees the name for his betrothed for the first time.
Quote her royal highness Angelica Mariposa Rosalind Camson Gianna Coruscate.

(01:00:54):
Which means nothing to him.
No, he only knows the seasons by their seasonal names.
Exactly.
So he asks which season that is but Verdan just retorts does it matter?
It's really does it.
And Winter's pride won't let him push the matter further so he doesn't know.
So she impersonates Autumn.

(01:01:18):
Does he just assume it's Autumn at one point?
She's never like introduced as Autumn is she?
Or just because it's only spring and summer are there.
So she's the one missing.
Right.
Process of elimination.
Process of elimination and there's not a fourth daughter.
So they lead him to believe that it is Autumn.
Gross.
Yeah.
Very gross.
I love her.

(01:01:41):
I do really like, I don't like Verdan, I like Valic.
But I like the retort of like does it matter which one?
Yeah.
Does it really matter?
Yeah.
As Winter gets ready for the ceremony Valic can tell that Winter is still thinking about
the servant girl Cam and cautious him to put him from her mind.
He tells him that it will be easier to do this once he spends a few hours with his new

(01:02:03):
bride that evening.
Gross.
Then we see Tildy arguing with Verdan who is not happy that Cam isn't better healed by
now.
Tildy says that she's a healer not a miracle worker and she's trying to undo all of the
damage that she reminds Verdan he did.
They're both afraid that Cam won't even be able to stand through the ceremony and so

(01:02:24):
they concoct a plan to have one of her sisters stand in for her heavily veiled and then swap
Cam in for the consummation bit.
But Cam won't have that.
This is her choice now and she will honor it.
They desperately want to get this deal done before Winter realizes he's not getting a
season but a discarded unloved daughter instead.
Tildy asks how Verdan can be so heartless against his own daughter and he tells her

(01:02:44):
quote she murdered my Rose.
I don't just hate her.
I loathe the very air she breathes.
But daddy I love him.
But daddy I love him.
No one loves you.
Oof.
It's dark.
So as Tildy gets Cam ready for the wedding Tildy impresses upon her the direness of her

(01:03:06):
situation fooling a conquering king.
There's a chance that once Winter finds out that he was duped he will kill Cam on the
spot.
Well Tildy tells Cam that if that doesn't happen Winter Greg is the safest place for
Cam to be until Falcon returns because she will be away from the wrath of her father.
So okay fine but this threat that Winter would kill Cam on the spot never really felt like

(01:03:30):
a valid threat because we know that he's already obsessed with her.
Right I know I was never worried about that either and then later when they're traveling
and we get the like he's gonna kill you I'm like no he's fucking not.
Yeah like I just it's tough because I appreciate books that happen from both perspectives but
on the other hand it's almost like you're giving me too much information and like you're

(01:03:52):
undermining some of your own plot points there because this angst is just like unfounded
in my opinion.
Exactly exactly and I mean like I guess it's kind of where that miscommunication comes
in because like Cam doesn't know how obsessed he is but we do.
Yeah exactly and that's I mean so you're kind of double dipping on like the mutual pining
at that point because they're both just like I wish that they loved me but they don't so

(01:04:16):
I must never show my feelings and it's just like oh boy oh boy but like just now kids
now kids yeah but they also have zero chill so like no they have zero chill and it's like
after they have zero chill like both of them are thinking like maybe like they feel about
that way they feel that way about me outside of the bedroom and then like they'll have

(01:04:40):
a bad day and they'll be like no they just hate me like everyone else and it's like
god damn it.
They're deeply wounded people.
Truly like everyone else.
So Tildy goes on to tell Cam that Falcon is looking for blazing and that's the prizes
Cam but it also makes a couple things click into place for her like why Falcon was sent

(01:05:02):
to Winter Craig in the first place she realizes her father must be in on this plot for blazing
etc.
She also realizes that Elka had to have had helped Falcon steal the book of riddles.
She tells us quote like everyone else when told the story of Falcons falling in love
and eloping with the Winter King's bride she'd accepted it without question.
But also like I have a huge question about this because how do people just accept that

(01:05:25):
at face value when it resulted in a war?
Right because like yeah it's one thing to lose your betrothed to run away but like
a three year war when you were in like peace negotiations like that seems kind of petty
to me like there's come on guys.

(01:05:46):
Yeah well and I just like even even if the story that you're told at face value is like
Falcon fell in love and eloped with the Winter King's bride like if I'm Cam I'd be like
bro you know better like what the fuck were you thinking.
Yeah like there's gotta be more to this.

(01:06:06):
And especially since Falcon just fucked off and like was not a part of this war at all
like I would be mad at that.
And that's suspicious to me because like where did you go.
Why would you go.
Why would you not return the conquering hero or whatever.
Why would you not come back and help us defend our lands and now we're like being subjugated
by this dude that you wronged like we're totally cleaning up your messes and it sucks.

(01:06:31):
And what makes me so curious so like she has the assumption that her father is on the plot
but her father never mentions Falcon so like is there a bigger plot or is Falcon just greedy
and has his own plans.
Yeah I wonder about that too and like fully being 75% of the way through the book I can't
tell you.
I don't know.

(01:06:51):
I really hope we find out and that's not just like a weird plot device that we never come
back to.
Yeah same.
So Tildy goes on to say that she suspects that Winters honor will prevent him from killing
Cam once he uncovers her true identity.
She knows this because she has been feeding the Wintercourt information as a turncoat for

(01:07:11):
the past six months.
Whoop.
There it is.
Specifically she's the one that suggested that the Winter King could end the war in
a different way than other annihilation and she's also the one that told them about the
abandoned quarters that belonged to the late Queen.
She's been plotting this whole time to get Cam away from her father to relative safety.
Cam is shocked and horrified but is blinded by her loyalty to her country.

(01:07:35):
She accuses Tildy quote, you're the one who convinced King Verdon that I should be the
Winter King's bride.
You're the reason he took me into the mountain and beat me until I agreed to this marriage.
Why am I a really such a monster all these years I thought you loved me.
Has that been a lie too?
But Tildy says that she has no idea that her father would do that to Cam.
Why?

(01:07:56):
And that she did everything for love of Cam and her mother.
Okay so like I believe the rest of what Tildy says that she was genuinely trying to help
Tildy, that she was genuinely trying to help.
I do believe what Tildy is saying that she was genuinely trying to help Cam and that
she did have like her best interests.
But just like her sisters I don't know how any of them could be like I didn't know he

(01:08:19):
was gonna hit you.
Yeah and like they're, so I think Tildy is trying to walk that line of like I didn't
think that he would go that far but like I just, it's clear that he hates her like I
just don't understand how you would take that chance you know.
There had to have been a better way.
Well and even Tildy says like you have to go because he will kill you so like you're

(01:08:42):
fully acknowledging that he's going to kill her.
Well yeah and after because Tildy like the Winter King's like staff has not been discreet
about asking about the servant girl.
So it's, I don't believe that Tildy doesn't know that like Cam made an impression on the
Winter King.
I think she says something to that effect like oh I had to make sure that you two would

(01:09:03):
be like good together because like that was the whole point to get Cam sent into the quarters
of that whole thing.
But yeah she could have just said Winter King come here I'm your spy this is the person
you're marrying can we like speed this along because she's in a lot of pain.
Like you could have just ended that.
Yeah I don't know why it goes on for so long especially with the whole like well the Winter

(01:09:26):
King might just kill you on the spot for deceit and I'm like but he won't.
But he won't though and even if it was like okay so take the whole deceit like out of
it or okay take his affection for Cam out of it.
I don't think he would have killed one of the princesses I think he always would have
taken it out on Verden and like that's not a problem.

(01:09:46):
Yeah exactly.
But I don't see him just like slaughtering his new bride because she lied.
Well and they try to make this a thing later but it's like you know Cam was complicit in
the lie and I'm like Cam was trying to survive so yeah it was either be complicit or die
but they're like oh but you're a liar blah blah and it's like okay.

(01:10:08):
There was literally no other choice but cool yeah blame me.
Blame the victim.
Yeah great black and white right blame the victim awesome love that for me.
Love that for me thank you so much.
So it does bother me in books like this where there's just like no appreciation of like
gray area.

(01:10:28):
Yeah.
So after this conversation it's clear that Tildy and Cam's relationship is damaged potentially
beyond repair and Cam tells her to veil her heavily so that she can attend her own wedding.
She says quote the only thing I require from you is your herbalist skills to mix up a fresh
appointment for my back you will find a way to block out the worst of the pain and I'll
find a way to make it through this farce end quote.

(01:10:51):
Other than that get the fuck out.
Right and as far as I know that's the last conversation that she and Tildy have.
I think so because then Tildy just sort of like packs up and leaves which was interesting
because I thought Tildy would go back to wintercrag with them.
I thought she would too but it seems like this conversation kind of made that choice
for her because it was clear that Cam was like not down with what Tildy did but it's

(01:11:13):
weird to me that she just disappears.
Yeah because then where does she go?
Yeah.
And she seems kind of like a loose cannon.
Kind of a bad loose end to have yeah especially if the king of Verden didn't ever find out
who the spy was in his midst because in one of the conversations he has with Cam he accuses
her of being the traitor that he knows about so he knows that he's got a leak somewhere.

(01:11:36):
Yeah.
It's interesting.
Anyway I'll be interested to see if Tildy comes back because she still is she does figure
in Cam's internal monologue at the very least but she doesn't actually make an appearance.
Interesting.
At least 75% of the way through.
So next we see Winter waiting for his bride who is 30 minutes late to their wedding but

(01:11:56):
just as he's about to do something about it she appears.
She's dressed and perfumed like her sister Autumn and so that's who Winter thinks she
is.
When she reaches him at the altar he reaches for the veil but is reminded that she doesn't
want to be embarrassed by the readiness of her cheeks at her wedding.
The story being that she's cried so much about having to marry him.

(01:12:16):
Winter tells his bride quote, willingly or not Autumn you have consented to be my wife.
I will have what I want from you but this marriage doesn't have to be a battle unless
you make it so.
Remember that.
Which seems to be advice that Cam gets a lot.
Yeah right.
Don't make it harder than it needs to be girl.
Right.
Though she's trembling from the pain of her injuries she whispers that she understands

(01:12:40):
and as the ceremony begins it's clear to Winter that his bride to be is unwell and he asks
her about it.
But she tells him, look I'm just dizzy I haven't eaten all day.
And so Winter kind of gives the priest the high sign to hurry up and surprises Cam because
she's like aww he likes me or at least is considerate of me which the bar is in hell.

(01:13:01):
Bar is in hell.
Like Jesus girl.
When the priest gets to the part where he asks who gives Cam and marriage her father
steps forward and says quote I, Verdon Korskit, king of Summerly give this woman her royal
highness Angelica Mariposa Rosalind Cam's and Gianna Korskit a princess of Summerly
and an heir to the Summerthrone by grant of patrimony end quote.

(01:13:26):
And this is important because it's the first time in her entire life that Cam's father
officially recognized her as his daughter.
She and Winter exchange vows and reveal the birthmarks they both have on their wrists
that mark them as true heirs to their respective thrones.
As they press their hands and wrists together rather than a kiss energy erupts from them
causing thunder and lightning to blow out the candles in the room and break some of the

(01:13:47):
windows.
Oops.
Whoops.
In this exchange Cam falls to the ground and Winter attends to her with seemingly genuine
concern and Cam is grateful but wary.
He helps her back up and then escorts her to their celebratory dinner.
So there is something in her that also recognizes and responds to him?

(01:14:11):
Yeah, it's clear because whenever they touch there's like a jolt of electricity, there's
like a warming in the stomach, there's like butterflies, there's like this draw to each
other.
And it's kind of annoying because Cam just doesn't ask a goddamn follow up question.
She's like, that's weird anyway.
She doesn't.

(01:14:31):
I mean, neither does he but no, not really.
I mean, he does more than her where he's like, this is very strange because he clocks it
later which will get to you when he like runs into the real autumn and he's like, where's
the electricity?
Right.
And Cam really thinks about it more from just like a man I wish I could think straight

(01:14:54):
when I'm near him.
Yeah.
And it's kind of all chaos and maloans.
Right.
Which I could kind of get like her because if she's like truly been so like isolated
her entire life, maybe she just doesn't know that that's unreal.
Yeah, that's true.
And we don't get any background of her having any relations with anyone else ever.

(01:15:18):
Right.
Well, she is a virgin on her wedding night.
So yeah, that's important.
That is important.
So at dinner, Winter commands Cam to eat so she lifts her veil just enough to do so,
though she eats very little because the pain suppressants that she's taken have turned
her stomach.
Winter finds that he has no taste for the way that Summerlander celebrates and he just

(01:15:39):
wants the whole thing to be over so he announces that he and his bride will retire.
But before they leave, Verdon says it's customary for them to share a drink.
Wary of his motives, Winter makes Verdon drink him up first and when he's fine, seemingly,
Winter and Cam both drink the rest.
Then Cam goes with her sisters to prepare to be bedded.

(01:15:59):
They go to Autumn's room, which has been heavily perfumed and Autumn herself has worn Cam's
nightclothes and rolled around in the bed to make the ruse more convincing.
But as they prepare her, Cam finds that her pain is almost gone.
Whatever was in the wine seems to be working well.
She feels warm, sweaty even.
And ready to like run a mile.
Yeah.

(01:16:20):
She's like, whoa, I have so much energy.
Let's go.
Let's go.
Verdon, I haven't dazed.
Yeah.
As her sisters dress her and put ointment on her back, they see the horror their father
inflicted upon her for the first time.
Her sisters say she can't possibly go through with sex in her condition, but Cam is like,
old news, move on, let's go, I've got a cocktail ride.
And her sisters weep as they continue and apologize.

(01:16:43):
But Cam tells them she doesn't blame any of them and not worry about her.
What I mean here that it kind of gave me the ick is that I understand they're trying to
make the room smell like autumn, but autumn is wearing her like wedding lingerie essentially
and then Cam puts it on and that just kind of grossed me out.

(01:17:06):
This whole thing gives me the ick.
Like I just, I don't like the idea of like my sisters helping me.
Like I don't know.
I don't have siblings.
So maybe this is a different thing, but no, I think I mean, I don't have sisters, but
it seems weird.
Very intimate.
And then if I was autumn, this poor girl, they're going to be fucking in her bed all
night.
Like this is her room, like her actual room.

(01:17:29):
Yeah.
The one that she has to live in after this.
After they fucking her bed.
Well, so, okay, the other thing that gives me the ick is like, this is one of the times
when her sisters are like, Oh my God, I can't believe her father did this.
And I'm like, really girl.
But also they're in on the fact that Cam and winter have been drugged with Aerosleaf, which
is that aphrodisiac.
And so they look at her back and they all look at each other.

(01:17:51):
They're like, fuck, she's just been drugged and she's going to get railed tonight, but
she's like very injured.
Just leave her there.
The whole thing is fucking wild.
Like, yeah.
Just terrible.
They're terrible.
Great looking out for your sister, I guess.

(01:18:13):
So they leave and Cam realizes that that's why she feels amazing.
It's because of the Aerosleaf.
And then we switch back to winter and he knows it too because he's got a raging heart on
for no reason.
When he gives to Autumn's room, he dismisses his guard and sloppily goes to his bride.
It's dark and so he can't properly see her and they're both much more concerned with

(01:18:34):
getting off thanks to the Aerosleaf than they are about like inspecting each other's
faces and identities.
As they couple, their weather major abilities start to manifest and, quote, lightning seared
the sky.
Thunder shook the earth with a tremendous booming crash just as it had at the wedding
a wild, stormy rush of air swept through the open windows, snuffing every candle and pledging

(01:18:55):
the room into darkness, end quote.
I'm really glad we didn't get a lot of detail in this scene because they were both drugged
and I didn't want to read about that.
They're both drugged and it was like the deception of it didn't feel good, especially
since it was like Cannes' first time and like they're both into it.
They both have this magnetic attraction, whatever, but like they're not in control of themselves.

(01:19:19):
He doesn't even know who he's fucking, right?
He thinks she's someone else.
Like this just, the situation is gray at best.
Yeah, and I am glad that we get the, before, during and after, we get the comments that
even outside of the Aerosleaf they were just into it because of that magnetic attraction,

(01:19:39):
but I didn't want to read details.
I'm glad we didn't get a lot of details.
Yeah, we do get some details about like, you know, him touching her chest and kissing her
and that kind of thing, but that's as far as it goes.
Yeah.
So, in the wee hours of the morning, Cannes' sister speared her away to prolong the ruse
even further.
They take her back to her rooms and agree to stand watch to help her back heal as much

(01:20:02):
as possible before she leaves.
So, okay, and then this is wild because they set up what are essentially described as heat
lamps to speed the process along, which is kind of a wild detail because like what fucking
century are we in?
The only way that this was like, because it's fucking weird, and they call them growing
lamps, which was also wild to me.

(01:20:24):
The only way that I was able to like wrap my head around this is that if she gets her
power from the sun, these had to be like UV lamps and it's like sunlight.
Right, but they don't have cars and shit.
How do they have UV lamps?
No, and everything else is lit by candles.
So what do these lights run on?
But they don't run on like electricity, right?

(01:20:47):
Because later they use these lamps like in the tents.
So yeah, I don't know.
I don't know what these are.
Do they run on magic?
Do they run on some weird battery pack that we're just not going to talk about?
Well, and it's like the only bit of advanced technology we ever see.

(01:21:07):
And so it's just like, I would prefer that they just set a sheath on her balcony and like
stuck her in the sun.
Like, it's a plant, right?
And she's a plant.
And she like travels with these lamps.
So like they keep coming up.
And every time they're brought up, I'm just like, what if we harness the power of this

(01:21:28):
technology to do other things?
Right?
How is that not crossed anybody's mind?
Because also twice in one evening, all of the candles have blown out and left them in
darkness.
We don't think to use the lamps for like, no, no, no, God forbid.

(01:21:48):
Right.
Yeah.
And it just seems unnecessary, like, because then if she gets her power from the sun and
if they all get their power from the sun, why don't they just carry around like flashlights?
Girl.
Yeah.
It is a wild detail.
And I had to just blow pass it because the more I think about it, the more it bugs me.

(01:22:09):
I had to ignore it.
It was it's a prime example of you're giving me far too much information that I don't need.
That's just leaving.
It's just I'm hung up on this thing now.
It's weird to you because like we also get a lot of detail on like the salves and like
the potions, so to speak, and those things.
So like, I didn't need this.
She's already being treated.

(01:22:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just anyway.
I don't know.
So back with winter.
He's awake and irritated because he's alone.
Even more so after the drugged stupor of their night, he remarks, quote, he would not tolerate

(01:22:51):
arrogance.
He would not tolerate defiance and he would definitely not tolerate rejection from his
bride.
She would come when he called and stay until he bit her go end quote.
Okay.
But also, I don't know why they didn't think the fact that sneaking around the middle of
the night would piss him off.
They were so worried about him slaughtering her that like, you didn't think this is going
to make him mad?

(01:23:13):
I just don't understand what the difference is between him slaughtering her in the castle
and slaughtering her in like the carriage like 50 miles away from the castle would be.
Like either way, he's still close enough to make your life miserable.
So like just rip the band-aid off in my opinion.
Well, and even Kampson says that where she's like, I'm hoping he doesn't find out until
we're beyond the gates or whatever.
And I'm like, you think she's not going to turn around?

(01:23:36):
Like he's going to be too inconvenienced to go back.
He makes storms.
I know.
He made summerly winter for three years.
God forbid he turned around in three days.
Like, yeah, just examine that thought process a little bit more, please.

(01:23:56):
It doesn't like the morning after should have been the reveal.
I understand the deception leading up to it, but like, or from the get go, you should have
been honest and like, oh, you want my prize child.
She's the one that I keep out of public light because she's so valuable.
Right.
But don't look at her until you get home because I beat the shit out of her.

(01:24:21):
You can't know.
I only beat the things I love.
Right.
That would be more convincing, right?
Right.
But like this is especially heinous because this book, I to its credit does the damsel
in distress thing really well and it fucking had me by the balls.

(01:24:42):
But this entire first part is damsel in distress and I just wanted the who hurt you moment
so bad and I wanted it to be that morning and then they speared her away and I'm like,
God damn it, guys.
I know because it would have been perfect that morning and like we're getting to it.
It's a very slow roll into the who hurts you and I do kind of like the cookie crumbs

(01:25:03):
we get of him like building his like concern and rage and all these things about it.
But I wanted it to be a lot.
It's a lot.
I know.
I wanted it to be now.
Give it to me now.
So he rises from bed and he realizes that there's like a lot of dried blood on the bed
like more than just like you took somebody's hymen apart with your dick.

(01:25:27):
And he sees with the horror that not only did he potentially not service his bride
appropriately, but he hurt her like badly like his fault like a doctor.
Yeah.
And so he's determined to find his bride find out if he hurt her and make amends if he did.

(01:25:48):
So he finds autumn in a remote part of the palace and she seems fine and also horrified
to see him.
She's not wearing her wedding ring, which sets winter off.
But he asks if he hurt her and she says that he didn't that she has a wound on her back
and he asks not a follow up question.
He's like, cool, not me.
He then leans in to kiss her and she turns her cheek and that's when he smells her.

(01:26:11):
He realizes that he doesn't smell himself on her, which he finds offensive and odd,
but there's also something odd about the way that she smells.
It doesn't quite match the way that she quote unquote smelled the night before.
So annoyed and enraged that she is seemingly denied him so soon after their marriage.
He tells her that they leave within the hour and to get her ass ready.

(01:26:32):
One thing I don't like that winter does repeatedly is he leaves.
He just leaves.
He frequently says a thing and fucking leaves.
That doesn't go away.
Sorry.
It's so annoying to me like we're getting to it.
He doesn't hear.
He does it in the carriage like, no, I'm not riding with you.

(01:26:53):
And he does it in the tent.
We just like, I'm gonna get food.
And they're sharing for bed.
He's like, I'm gonna go.
I'm just like, just stay.
Just like, I'm gonna go.
You're so right.
He doesn't all the time.
It's his default.
He's like, I don't know what to do.
So I'm just going to go.
It's my NPC default.

(01:27:14):
Thank you so much.
So after this interaction, Autumn goes to Cam and tells her that Cam's got to get the
fuck out of this marriage because winter is like not a cool dude.
He's a brute.
When she tells Cam that winter tried to kiss her, Cam feels jealousy that she doesn't understand.
It's hot under her skin.

(01:27:34):
So much so that she burns an imprint of her hand into the brush that she's holding with
her magical abilities.
So it's not just storms.
Correct.
Autumn goes on to say that winter was making sure that he didn't hurt her and also to make
sure that he was good to her the night before.
And Cam feels shitty about this because in her words, quote, he'd worried that he'd
wounded her.

(01:27:55):
He'd set her on fire, showered her with gifts after senseless gift of pleasure, shattered
and remade her time and time again in a crucible of devastating ecstasy.
And he worried that he'd been too rough.
She deceived him, was deceiving him still, and he, the supposedly heartless ice man from
the north, had come to make sure he had neither harmed nor disappointed her on their wedding
night.
Because he's a teddy bear.

(01:28:17):
Because he's a teddy bear.
I do.
I love his concern that and he tells the true Autumn that too.
You're like, not only do you want to make sure he didn't hurt her, but you wanted to
make sure she was fulfilled.
And that endured him to me a lot.
Yeah.
He's like, it was good for you, right?
Right.
It was good for your life, right?
I did that thing for you.

(01:28:38):
And then Cam is like, yeah, you fucking rocked my world.
Rocked my socks.
That was amazing.
Seems like a generous lover.
Very generous and giving lover with a lot of stamina.
Oh yeah.
So Autumn bemoans that it should have been her, that she should have willingly wed Winter.

(01:29:01):
And I'm like, yeah, girl, because you knew what your dad was fine.
You know what?
You could have volunteered.
You suck of shit.
You could have.
Spare your sister any hardship.
But no, okay, it's fine.
But Cam tells her that it was her choice, that she's always dreamed of being like Roland,
who saved Summerly.
Cam points out that Roland died.

(01:29:21):
Cam is like, well, maybe that was not the best example.
Shut the fuck up, Autumn.
Yeah, you're not helping, okay?
Also, why are you walking around?
You should be sequestered somewhere.
Truly.
Like, what if you just run into your supposed, I mean, come on, that's exactly what happens.

(01:29:42):
Like, she should have been kept somewhere.
Yeah, why are you out and about?
So in the courtyard of the palace, Winter and Cam prepare to leave.
Vernon is there to see them off and embraces a heavily veiled Cam.
He whispers to her, quote, enjoy your life.
What's left of it?
And I'm like, dude, just leave it alone.

(01:30:03):
Right, move on.
Winter is clearly peeved that Cam has veiled again, but please, that she wears his ring.
He takes her hand and a familiar flash of energy that was distinctly absent with Autumn
earlier sparks between them.
He notices as well the small bruises on Cam's wrists from the night before, something that
was also absent with Autumn.

(01:30:25):
He brings her hand to his mouth to kiss it and smells her.
And when he does, he realizes that something is amiss and snatches the veil from her head.
Recognizing her as a serving girl who's been driving him nuts and giving him the bluest
of balls, he grabs her by the throat and pulls her close, demanding to know who she
is.
But she just tells him that she is Princess Camzin and his wife.

(01:30:46):
Damn.
Yeah.
So obviously the departure is delayed while they debrief in Vernon's office.
Winter accuses Vernon of deception, but Vernon tells Winter that he did not specify which
of his daughters he was to wed.
Winter accuses Cam of being a bastard, but Vernon remarks that he wishes that she had
been because if that were the case, his wife would still be alive.

(01:31:07):
Oh, buddy.
Dude, I know.
Let it fucking go.
Cam elaborates by saying, quote, he blames me, you see, for my mother's death.
He couldn't banish me outright, so instead he kept me confined to a remote part of the
palace away from the court and away from him.
Then you came.
And I read that I was like, yeah, he did.

(01:31:29):
Yeah, he did.
Sorry.
That's great.
I love that actually.
Then we came.
So Winter summons Cam to his side to get a better look at her.
She smells the herbs on her again and he cuts the dress off her back to reveal her wounds.
When he's looked enough, he turns her back to face him and says, quote, I will not ask

(01:31:51):
who beat you.
As he signed his work, there is no need, which I think is the best who hurt you I've ever
read in my entire fucking life.
It hands down is I squealed audibly.
Yeah.
And a lot of what I hated was immediately forgiven.

(01:32:14):
Yeah.
Same.
And it holds up.
And holy shit, it's so good.
It's so good.
Yeah.
Like, I think that's why he signed his work.
I think that's why this book is such a contradiction because there's so much about it that like

(01:32:35):
on its own, I would just be like hard pass like DNF.
But then there's things like this where I'm just like reading at the top of my lungs to
like eat it up.
Like I'm just here for it.
Yeah.
Oh, and this whole scene, like I wanted it to happen in the morning in bed, but like
it's so well executed and like everything happens next is so well executed.

(01:32:56):
This is better.
I'm glad we waited.
It was a painful process to get here, but it's way better.
It's so good.
And I, there was so much focus on her back that I'd honestly forgotten about like the
rose burn on her face.
Yeah.
That like to bring that back around like, oh, so good.
So good.

(01:33:17):
So before he sends her to get into more comfortable clothes for their journey, he asks her under
his breath was marriage to me such a terrible fate that this was the better option.
Well, you'll make it up to me in bed, right?
But Kamsen doesn't get to answer.

(01:33:40):
She's just taken away by her sisters to get a more comfortable clothes for the journey.
So when winter is alone with Verden, he tells Verden that he made a mistake because now
Cam is winter's wife.
And because of his culture, he must seek justice for crimes committed against her.
So he can't kill Verden outright.

(01:34:01):
So instead he takes Verden's hand with the signet on it and freezes it off with his ice powers.
His whole arm.
Yeah.
Which was pretty badass.
Um, better yet.
So he meets Cam outside and she asks if her father's still alive and he's like, oh yeah,
he's alive, but he's never going to raise his hand to anyone again.

(01:34:24):
Or at all.
Because he doesn't have it anymore.
It was metal as fuck because we get like a very clear description of like watching his
arm turn to ice.
And the screaming and the screaming, the paining and all of it, which is so great.
And he even does it like cold ruthless like killer thing where he's like because she lives,

(01:34:46):
you get to live, but I'm still going to do this like eye for an eye.
So you lose the hand that you use to hurt her.
Oh, yes.
Oh, it's lapsed.
Oh, it's so good.
It's so good.
I did so good.
So Cam says her goodbyes to her sisters and they are off.
Cam travels with a new maid named Bella and she's a little deflated that she won't be

(01:35:09):
riding with winter.
She'll be in a carriage and winter will be on a horse.
She thought perhaps that the passion that they shared the night before would gain her
some kind of warmth from winter, but pushes that thought away immediately reminding herself
that this is a political marriage and nothing more.
Yeah, okay.
Each hour as they travel, Bella applies to Salve to Cam's back for her wounds.

(01:35:30):
It's grueling and Cam is made sick by the movement of the carriage.
She's annoyed by the incessant chattering of Bella and she realizes just how bleak the
situation is when they make a rest stop and she's faced with the reality that there will
be no in for their host to stay at along the way and it will take them a fortnight to get
to their destination.
Gildonime in Winters, Greg.

(01:35:53):
So I okay, a few things.
One I was worried here because I was like, okay, is this book one big fucking travel
montage because like I don't want to read about that.
But two, there's a continuity error that I must point out because it very much bothered
me.
So please, they stop here for this rest and what's the name Valic?

(01:36:18):
Yeah.
She, Bella says like, oh, if you want privacy, like you should go out in the fields because
all the men are like going to piss that way, apparently.
And Cam is like, no, I'll just wait till we get to an end and Valic is like, yeah, we're
not going to stop at an end.
So if you're going to do the thing, do the thing.

(01:36:39):
So she's talking to Valic and we get this description of him that says his blue eyes
darker than Winters, but just as piercing.
Cool.
So then in the same chapter, 10 pages later, we're talking to Valic again and it says his
eyes were a pale blue, but nowhere near as icy as the Winter Kings.

(01:37:00):
Are they dark or are they pale?
Oh, I missed that completely.
Good call out though.
Darker than Winters, pale blue, but not icy.
So like, I guess they could still be pale, but like don't use the word dark and pale
to describe the same man's eyes.
Right.
They could compare him to the same other man.
Yeah.

(01:37:20):
So I was just like, oh, I didn't like that.
And I just looked back to make sure she was talking about the same person.
She is.
Yeah.
The other thing that I want to point out about this specific scene is I call out them
stopping once.
They actually stopped like, I think a couple of times before the night and I'm just like,
do we have to watch every single one of them?

(01:37:41):
Because like up until this point, we've been seeing the days unfold as the day goes by,
which is another Cardinal sin.
And we eventually do get away from that a little bit.
But this book, like, we could have spent so much little time experiencing this.
And I would have been fine with it.
Because we could have just fast forwarded to them stopping for the night.

(01:38:03):
And then I just get the information that like the ride was grueling.
She got car sick, carriage sick.
Like you could have given me all that without showing me that because I think they stop
like two or three times.
So the first time she's like, no, I'm not going to pee.
I'll wait.
I'm too proud.
And then the next time she has to pee and throw up and then they stop like another time.
Right.
And each time they're like, oh, I think my shit pile is just like right over there.

(01:38:25):
We didn't move very far.
Right.
And it's just like, okay, we could have.
This doesn't have to be an entire chapter to itself because nothing really happens.
Like even the conversation that we're about to talk about with Bella, like I could have
gotten that any other time.
I get they're traveling for a fortnight and that's where I was like, you're going to
show me two weeks every single fucking day of this.

(01:38:46):
And winter's not there.
So you're not building.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're not building any like angst.
There's even parts of this that I left out completely.
Like there's some gifts from her sisters and like one of her sisters gave her birds and
she like feeds those birds and those birds end up dying because it's too fucking cold.
And it's just like, I don't care.
I don't care.
Oh my God.
I don't care.
It also made her sisters seem so simple again and even winter acknowledges that like these

(01:39:09):
are all going to fucking die.
Like what dumb girls.
Yeah.
Like for people who are supposed to be very highly educated, they don't act like it.
No, they're dumb dummies.
So along this way, it's clear that Bella dislikes winter men and she holds pretty particular
prejudicial views about them despite Cam pointing out that they just look like men to her.

(01:39:33):
Bella is like, they're barbarians.
You'll see as soon as we cross the border, they'll rip their clothes off and in subject
ads naked.
Yeah.
That's weird.
Right.
So then Bella divulges to Cam that she overheard that winter intends to kill Cam within a year
if she doesn't produce him an heir.
Specifically, he'll send her to the mercy of the mountains.
Whatever that means.
Cam wrestles with this new information because it seems so at odds with the man that she's

(01:39:56):
encountered so far.
One who is concerned with her pleasure in bed, one whom Tildy was convinced was an honorable
man at heart.
She forces herself to stop spiraling though because she can't make sense of it.
She doesn't have enough information.
So because the weather is poor and mostly because Cam has been well, winter halts the
progression earlier than intended.
They've barely made it out of eyesight from Varysola.

(01:40:17):
And that's not great.
Everybody realizes that this is not an ideal outcome.
Cam is shown into her in winter's tent in a surprise to find it opulent and cozy.
When she is joined by winter, he forces her to eat though her stomach lurches at the thought,
she forces down her soup.
He tells her that the center of her magic is familiar and knows that it was her who
challenged him on the first day that he arrived.

(01:40:40):
They finish the meal in silence and Cam finds that the more she watches winter, the hornier
she gets.
Though he can smell it on her, she tells him that the only thing she needs is a good night's
rest on a bed that isn't moving.
Undisturbed.
No rocking.
So Bella is summoned to ready her for bed while winter goes to check on the men or some

(01:41:02):
shit.
He just leaves again.
He just leaves.
And when they are alone, Bella applies salve to Cam's back.
Cam resolves to herself then and there, quote, because no matter what it took, Camzin had
no intention of letting any man, husband, king, or the sun god himself, stake her out
on a glacier and leave her to die, end quote.

(01:41:23):
And I have to say, that was a really strong way to end the chapter.
Except in the beginning of the next chapter, which will start part two, it is immediately
undermined.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Don't be fooled, gentle reader.

(01:41:45):
But that is where we're going to stop for part two.
Sorry, part one.
We're in part one.
This is we're stopping part one here.
Yep.
And we'll pick right back up in part two, starting with chapter eight.
But yeah, it is a it's wild.
If you think to yourself, where's the plot girl, you're not going to find her for a

(01:42:06):
while.
If maybe at all, because we're not sure.
Maybe at all.
Yeah.
The plot is the angst between those two, I think.
I think so too, which is fine.
And I think I'm here for it.
I think what bothers me is that why are we taking so long to get here then?
If that's the whole plot, why are we giving me all this?

(01:42:28):
Because then why do I have the whole thing about Falcon and Elka and Roland like and
blazing and all that shit?
Because what you're telling me is that this is a series, but it doesn't follow her anymore.
So all that shit better come true in this book.
Unless that that whole Falcon blazing thing is the running thread through the whole series

(01:42:49):
and I'm not here for that.
Yeah.
I mean, it might be the case where, you know, she pulls she pulls a Sarah J. Mass and she
fits like a whole ton of information and stuff into the last quarter of the book.
But I kind of doubt it.
I mean, we'll see, I guess.
We'll see.
Well, it's giving me and this is just because of what it's fresh in my house.

(01:43:11):
We just talked about it, but it's giving me big like Sarah J. Mass vibes with the whole
thing of like a jury and those other two fuckers that don't give a shit about that.
Like you're telling me, but like I don't know why they matter.
Yeah.
Very much that.
Like we started here.
I don't know.
I don't see how it's going to come back into play and you are telling me that you're 75%

(01:43:32):
through and it still hasn't really come back into play.
No, I will say that like I'm still having a great time because the dance in distress
fights continue and you're like, how many different ways can she be a dance in distress?
Like you'd be surprised.
It's a good time.
It's just a little meandering and it doesn't need to be 600 pages, but.

(01:43:54):
600 pages is a lot, but a lot, but a lot.
So we'll end part one there.
Thank you for joining us on this journey.
We hope that you join us for part two in two weeks.
Let us know what you think about this book and about our coverage on it.
You can find us on the socials at SpiceTruidersPod, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Goodreads.
And hey, if you like our podcast and want more, consider becoming a patron wherever

(01:44:16):
you release Patreon exclusive episodes on our off weeks.
And if you really, really like us, consider dropping us a review wherever you listen.
Until next time, we'll see you.
Bye.
Bye.

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