Often, I finish the first book in a series and go months before reading the sequel, but I put The Girl in the Tower on hold within minutes of finishing The Bear and the Nightingale. It didn't disappoint, either. Neatly dodging middle-book slump, the second installment in the Winternight trilogy sent Vasya hurtling back into high-stakes adventure.

Following the events of the previous novel, Vasya's story shifts from her home in the countryside to the intrigue-filled city of Moscow. On the way she encounters strangers and familiar faces; both pose their own hazards to a woman traveling alone, unaware that rumors of witchcraft have arrived in Moscow ahead of her.

As in The Bear and the Nightingale, this story begins at a slow pace and builds to a tense, crescendoing finish. Well-timed narrative shifts allow readers more insight than the main character into the grand scheme of events, giving the second and third acts a sense of foreboding that dovetails with the dark, wintery themes of the book. The Girl in the Tower is a tale of Vasya discovering herself in the context of her family and the magical world. However, the other characters are developed so well that every interwoven point of view has impact and depth.

As before, the book ended on a satisfying conclusion that still left me wanting more of the overarching plot and more of these characters' individual stories. Luckily, the series conclusion comes out on Jan. 8, 2019 and I have an ARC that I'm starting tonight.

I (strongly) recommend this book to anyone who loved The Bear and the Nightingale and also to anyone who enjoys fairy tales reimagined but is tired of reading the same handful over and over.