Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Have you ever had the feeling that you've lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar, even though you've never been there before, or felt that you know someone well, even though you are meeting them for the first time? It happens. In 2073 on the remote and secretive island of Blessed, where rumor has it that no one ages and no children are born, a visiting journalist, Eric Seven, and a young local woman known as Merle are ritually slain. Their deaths echo a moment ten centuries before, when, in the dark of the moon, a king was slain, tragically torn from his queen. Their souls search to be reunited, and as mother and son, artist and child, forbidden lovers, victims of a vampire they come close to finding what they've lost. In a novel comprising seven parts, each influenced by a moon - the flower moon, the harvest moon, the hunter's moon, the blood moon - this is the story of Eric and Merle whose souls have been searching for each other since their untimely parting.

Goodreads Summary

A king and queen that have found true love together are cruelly ripped apart and their lives change forever. This book is about the rekindling of love between the King and Queen as told in seven stories. Their goal is to find one another in each life and live happily ever after.

First off, this is NOT a teen book. It’s definitely in the category New Adult (I finally get to use that term, yay!) If you don’t know what New Adult is – I sure didn’t until The New York Times – New Adult are books that fall between the ages of teen to adulthood… so 18-25ish (for readers). It’s mature enough to be away from the Young Adult, but not quite Adult yet. This book fits in that category. At first, I was really confused and that annoyed me. I kept saying to myself “Okay, that was a good story, but what does that have to do with anything?” Finally, I could see a distinct pattern around the fourth short story. They both meet each other with different, but similar names (like if someone is named Karen they will be called Carol in the third life, Elizabeth to Bethany, ect.) and after I figured that out, it was smooth sailing.

Midwinterblood is Goth-themed, which was great because I never get to read those types of books. Sedgwick writes every story in detail… it’s very riveting and I enjoyed reading the stories. The plot was a tad slow in a few parts, but the reader will get over that feeling quickly. All-around, it was a great tragic romance and I recommend this book if the reader appreciates gothic, fantasy, romance, and tragic books all wrapped up in one book.

4/5 stars

*Reviewed by Rachel*

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