# TheWinterRiddle #Sam Hooker #Netgally

“Will it bring an end to the world as we know it?” This is the most basic test to distinguish a good idea from a bad one.

Bad ideas have a way of wrecking solitude, and that’s all she wants. When the Winter Witch can’t get a moment’s peace in the North Pole, she’ll try anything: swearing at the top of her lungs to convince people to leave her alone, or casting a spell to become nearly invisible; or, if those don’t do the trick, she’ll forge an alliance with Santa (a retired warrior who’s anything but jolly) and save the world from a riddle devised by the daftest pair of libertines ever to have lived.

Hopefully, the swearing works. She knows some good swear words she’s been dying to try out.

Will the Vikings of Midgard take up arms against the rising darkness? Will the White Queen see through the treachery of an evil necromancer? Can reindeer be made to fly, and can everyone who isn’t the Winter Witch please stop meddling with dark forces beyond mortal comprehension for a bit?

Publication Date: 1 October 2018
Page count (According to Goodreads): 338
Publisher: Black Spot Books

The Winter Riddle is the second novel by Sam Hooker. I first heard, or rather, read about after my first few months of joining Netgally. There was a book that interested me with its short description. I decided to try the “Request book” button and a week later I got an email congratulating me on “winning an E-ARC”, yeah ok, it wasn’t winning, but I felt like a winner non the less. since then I have reviewed said novel Here. I would like to say thanks to NG and Black Spot Books for granting me a copy of the arc. This in no way influenced my review.

I might have gone into this book with some expectations of  the same feelings I had with Peril, I will not say that I was disappointed. The setting was completely different, the humor was (felt like it was) a bit toned down, yet at the same time still tongue in cheek. I will not be giving away what happens in the book. The Goodreads description pretty much sums it all up already…

Winter Riddle took me some time to get into, but eventually it set a course for smooth sailing. Chapter wise it was a good length. The plot was a bit all over the place at times. With each passing chapter I was getting more worried that it would all be just too rushed at the end. This was not the case. The description also talks about the protagonist knowing a lot of swear words. This should not put people of too much because I can honestly say there were none in it. It was more a case of “…so and so said a swear word, it felt great…” scenario. This worked well but at times you would think, “awe-full lot of swearing going on hey?” and at the same time wonder if this was done just to rake up the page count…

I would not say Winter Riddle was the perfect book for that Christmas feeling it would make a perfect gift tho. It would also work great if you read it while it was cold outside. It gives one a certain sense of relation to the characters and what they might be going through. I like what Sam did with all the different characters and people involved in this story and certainly love the mystery behind Santa.

All in all I gave The Winter Riddle a 4 out of 5 on GR. There are two ways of looking at this. You could easily give it less points if you hated it, or you could give it more with certain ideas of, say, reading this to kids someday. I would like to do that someday, this was the mindset behind my score. More about the book I do not want to say as I am a hater of things that spoil it for others. If you are a Pratchett fan, you will like this. I had a very familiar feel to the Winter Witch.

Hope you all have a great day.