Dead of Winter by @KresleyCole {Review & Giveaway}

Dead of Winter by Kresley Cole
(The Arcana Chronicles, #3)
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; 336 pages
Rating:

Can Evie convince her rival loves to work together? Their survival depends on it in this third book of #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole's Arcana Chronicles, a nonstop action tale of rescue, redemption, and a revenge most wicked.

Heartbreaking decisions
Evie was almost seduced by the life of comfort that Death offered her, until Jack was threatened by two of the most horrific Arcana, The Lovers. She will do anything to save him, even escape Death's uncanny prison, full of beautiful objects, material comforts and stolen glances from a former love.

Uncertain victory
Despite leaving a part of her heart behind with Death, Evie sets out into a frozen and perilous post-apocalyptic wasteland to meet up with her allies and launch an attack on The Lovers and the vast army they command. Such formidable enemies require a battle plan, and the only way to kill them once and for all may mean Evie, Jack, and Death allying. Evie doesn't know what will prove more impossible: surviving slavers, plague, Bagmen and other Arcana or convincing Jack and Death to work together.

Two heroes returned
There's a thin line between love and hate, and Evie just doesn't know where she stands with either Jack or Death. Will this unlikely trio be able to defeat The Lovers without killing one another first?

I have an extra copy of the second book, Endless Knight, that I'd love to give away to one luck winner. For my review for Endless Knight, I gave away Poison Princess to get y'all ready for the second installment now, I'm getting you ready for an amazing third installment. This giveaway is open US residents, only.

And, because it's right before the holidays and I'm in the giving spirit, I am also offering a pre-order of Dead of Winter to one lucky winner. THIS giveaway will be open internationally (if book depository ships to you free of charge, you can enter).

Giveaway ends December 24, 2014 at 11:59 PM EST. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you have NOT read Poison Princess & Endless Knight please read with caution. There are some spoilers that were unavoidable. Proceed with caution . . .

I don't even know where to begin. I can't begin with how torn I am about the ending or how my emotions have been all over the place since I finished this book at 5:30 in the morning or even how I cried and how my heart broke. I can't because I should start in the beginning, me?

Just like Endless Knight, this starts off right where the second book ended - well, mostly. Maybe a little ahead but we back track and we get the spots where were left out.

I guess I should say that I fell in love with Jack in the first book; he was awesome and gorgeous and just . . .unique. Then we met Aric and it was all like Jack who? I stand by my love for Aric and I don't think I could ever be persuaded to go back to Jack's side. It's just not possible. *highlight to view spoiler* I'm not sure how much this is really a spoiler but I believe there is love and there is lust. I believe what Evie feels toward one is love and toward another is lust. To me, it's clear which is which but who knows, maybe not? *end spoiler*

I never thought I'd get so much joy out of an adventure with Jack, Aric and Evie but OH MY GOSH, I had a blast. I laughed, a lot, and just cherished all the moments between them. They're both after Evie's heart but yet, they start bonding and it's amazing. The respect I believe they have for each other (though they'd never truly admit it) is adorable. There's really no other way to describe it, really. I know, you never thought anyone would ever describe anything about Death as adorable but I just did.

There are many moments where Evie gets on my nerves and I just want to bash her head against the wall to get her to wake up. *highlight to view spoiler* She makes a promise to Aric about not doing anything, if you will, with Jack until a decision has been made. Honestly, she doesn't keep it. She makes out with him and it gets pretty steamy but when the opportunity arises for her to make out with Aric, she reminds him she won't do anything with either. I was pissed because that was a lie. I was furious, actually. *end spoiler* I get her position is difficult and eventually, she needs to make a decision about one or the other but ugh. I can't even.

The Lovers are disturbing. There are no other way to describe them. So many times, they literally made me cringe for the way they torture people and they say it's out of love. I was reading this, imagining if this were a movie or TV show how just . . . vile those scenes would be. Picturing it in my head was bad enough and Kresley Cole doesn't shy away from the gory details.

The end. It broke my heart. In many ways. There's really not much more I can say about that. But I cried. I wanted to throw my kindle but then I realized, I'd rather not have a broken kindle so I resisted. Had I been reading a physical book, it would've gone flying, no doubt about it. I may have even gone to pick it up only to throw it again. Then I lay in a ball trying to calm my emotions down as my heart continued breaking. I just can't take it. Now I have to wait. I don't want to wait.

While I really, really loved this book, to me, it wasn't anything nearly as great as Endless Knight. To me, that blew most books out of the water and I hold that up on an extremely high pedestal. Extremely high expectations from me.

Thank you so so soooooo much to Kresley Cole & her assistant, Brooke, for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. I seriously cannot thank you enough.