The Girl in the Tower

The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.

Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not sure what it is, but I just can’t seem to love Arden’s books the way other people do. I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Bear and the Nightingale but I still hoped the sequel would win me over.

In this book, Vasya heads off to Moscow to avoid going to the convent or being set up for marriage. I appreciate how she fights for the life she wants to live and commend her for it, but her headstrong personality often does more harm than good for herself and those around her. I love that Vasya challenges the system but there are times when her actions are so selfishly done that it becomes ridiculously reckless. I want to care about Vasya and everything she believes in but I just… don’t, and this connection is what makes it so difficult for me to care about her story.

There’s no question about how well Arden writes fantasy and historical fiction together. The amount of research she’s done about the time period is one of the biggest strengths of the book. I’m just not a big fan of mid 14th century Russia and find it very disconcerting to read about men’s treatment of women, misguided religious fanatics, and women’s treatment of women. I understand this is what life was like back then, but I’m making the choice not to live it through the book.

I think fans of The Bear and the Nightingale will still enjoy this sequel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for me and I’m probably not going to continue with the series.