Some books feel like a place you can return to, no matter how much time has passed. The Girl in the Tower is one of those books for me. Reading it a second time felt like stepping back into a world that is as fierce and cold as the Russian winter, but also full of warmth, love, and magic.

Vasya’s journey in this book is one of growing up, of learning how to stand on her own when there is no one left to save her. She makes her own choices—not easy ones, not perfect ones, but hers. And that’s what I love most about her. She is not just a hero; she is a person, filled with contradictions. “Doom and blessing both,” as Sasha says. She makes mistakes, she faces consequences, and yet she keeps moving forward, refusing to let the world decide her fate.

One of my favorite things about this book is how it shows that everything in life has two sides. Love can heal, but it can also hurt. Protection can be both a gift and a prison. A person can be good and still do terrible things. Arden doesn’t tell us which is which—she lets us feel it, see it, experience it through the story.

And the atmosphere—oh, the atmosphere. The way the snow feels like a living thing, the way the fire crackles in the hearth, the way you can almost taste the meat pies they eat in Dmitrii's hall. The writing is so vivid, so alive, that it pulls you in completely. Even something as simple as winter is given a voice:

“In winter it is almost impossible to be still. Even sitting by the fire, one is watching the coals, stirring the soup, fighting—always fighting—the eager frost.”

And then there’s love. It isn’t a grand declaration, it's impossible, and yet inevitable. Just there, in the glances and warnings and sacrifices. Morozko, my eternal winter obsession lol

The ending gives you closure but leaves wanting more, knowing the story isn’t over yet.

“Winter is over,” she said. “And we are all alive.”