Review: Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

 Winter's Orbit 

by Everina Maxwell

Paperback pub date Dec 28, 2021

Outer space empires, alien cultures, political strife and machinations. This has been described as a "space opera" and to me it is equal parts Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Dune, and Red White and Royal Blue.

I love how this book starts: with Prince Kiem being informed by the Emperor that he will be participating in an arranged marriage in order to fulfill a treaty promise with another plant of the empire. He's a lesser royal who up until now has been enjoying a carefree lifestyle. Now he must buckle down and do his duty. Which he does, to his credit, with little complaint. 

His new partner is a quiet, reticent man named Jainan who has recently been widowed. Jainan is hesitant to cause any disruption in the prince's life, and Kiem feels bad for Jainan for being forced to remarry so soon after his previous partner's death. So they are both walking on eggshells around one another.

The opening chapters are loaded with interesting worldbuilding. This book has some of the most creative and unique elements I've ever seen in sci-fi. I'm not a regular sci-fi reader so I felt a little out of my depth and a little overwhelmed by all the foundational information being thrown at me so early on (trying to grasp the weird names, the planets, the relationships between them and the Empire, the political atmosphere, etc.) but I eventually got the hang of it. I found the book a little slow up until the halfway point but it takes a while to set the stage for everything that begins to happen in the second part.

I ended up enjoying the way Kiem and Jainan's relationship developed even though I was initially frustrated by it. Because of their mutual hesitance around each other, there's not much going on between them other than attending official functions together and very slowly getting to know one another. I have to say, I love Kiem. He's funny and easygoing and just a lovely dude - especially for someone who could easily have been an entitled privileged douchebag. He definitely enjoys his privilege and is extremely charming and charismatic but uses it in good ways. And there's something about Jainan that makes you want to wrap him in a big soft blanket and give him lots of hugs and hot chocolate.

This book is extremely plot-heavy (treaties! Political intrigue! War! Conspiracies! Corruption! Lies! Deceit!) but has some fantastic character development as well. It is definitely an exciting read with a lovely, tender romance. Definitely pick it up!!