Wicked in Winter by Jennifer BernardMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved Jennifer Bernard's "Wicked in Winter," a funny, sweet, charming story featuring likeable characters and an engaging plot. While it is the fourth book of the Lost Harbor, Alaska series, it reads as a total standalone, so anyone who has not yet read the earlier installments will not feel lost at all by starting here. That said, I have loved each and every one of the past stories and would highly recommend picking them up in addition to this one.
The main characters of "Wicked in Winter," Gretel Morrison and Zander Ross, seemed like complete opposites at first. On paper, a relationship between them never should have worked, but in reality, they managed to bring out the best in each other. They challenged each other to do things they wouldn't normally do, and their banter as they did so was quite amusing. I particularly loved their bet on whether Gretel would be able to make it through the winter in Alaska. As it turned out, she was a lot more capable than Zander (or anyone else) gave her credit for being!
When the story began, Zander was very strict with his younger brothers and had a unique way of imposing order on the household, but it worked for them for a long time because they all needed structure and routine to get through the immediate aftermath of their parents' death. As his brothers got older, however, Zander needed to learn to deal with them in a different way, and Gretel was very helpful in convincing Zander to loosen up and try new ways of interacting with Jason and Petey. Gretel's big heart and fun-loving nature had a tremendous impact on all three of the Ross brothers, and ended up bringing them closer together as a family.
Overall, "Wicked in Winter" was a great story just as all of the previous books in this series have been, and I really hope that Ms. Bernard plans to write more books set in Lost Harbor. Police chief Maya Badger, fire chief Darius Boone, and neurosurgeon Ian Finnegan all need stories of their own, plus I am still wondering what happened to S.G., the runaway who was featured in book #3 ("Seduced by Snowfall"). Regardless of whether it's set in Lost Harbor, I look forward to reading whatever Ms. Bernard writes next!
*ARC provided by the author. All opinions expressed are my own.
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