Mistress of the Wind by Michelle Diener

Mistress of the Wind by Michelle Diener
Series: N/A
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: December 19, 2013

Bjorn needs to find a very special woman . . . 

The fate of his people, and his own life, depends on it. But when he does find her, she is nothing like he imagined, and may just harbor more secrets than he does himself.

Astrid has never taken well to commands. No matter who issues them . . . 

She's clashed her whole life with her father, and now her lover, the mysterious man who comes to her bedroom in darkness and disappears to guard his mountain by day as a bear, is finding it out the hard way. And when he's taken by his enemies, no one is prepared for Astrid's response.

It is never wise to anger the mistress of the wind . . . 

A captivating and magical adult retelling of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

I'm going to start out by saying that I really don't have very many thoughts on Mistress of the Wind. Since I haven't read the fairytale that this is based on, I went in completely blind! I had no idea how it might end, or even if the original was good at all. And while I liked Mistress of the Wind, I didn't love it.

To me, it felt like a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, to tell you the truth. I liked the way that it was told - kind of like an old historical book, with a dash of mysterious allies and strange happenings. I'd say the biggest thing that kept me from loving this one was simply the amount of time that it took me to read! I couldn't get into it enough to just sit down and read it for long stretches of time - I believe I averaged about forty pages per reading.

I liked the story, but I didn't really know what to think of it. There were lots of twists that I anticipated, and while it really was interesting... I just came out at a point where I have no idea what to think. Astrid was an interesting main character, and I liked how she learned to use her newfound abilities... but I can't help but think that she was a bit of a contradiction.

In the beginning, she seemed very strong and sure of herself, but as the novel progressed, she became less and less sure of what she wanted. That disappointed me, because I liked how self-aware and awesome she was in the beginning. All of the tests and such that she participated in just proved to me how much she'd kind of just... lost it.

And the love interest, Bjorn... I wish I could have liked him more, but my only thoughts about him are kind of "meh". All in all, Mistress of the Wind wasn't a love for me. I liked it, but I didn't connect with either of the characters.