Mina exhaled as much of the building rage inside her as she could There wasn t much she could do about her predicament but she could keep herself from sleeping next to a corpse at the very least You are By far The stupidest and most obnoxious man I have ever met in my entire life Honestly Sebastian s fingers stopped drumming I m just glad to be the most something in anybody s life The Fallow Peaks a frozen wasteland of cruel mountains and bloodthirsty beasts where the veil between the Realm of Mortals and the fae realm where very few adventurers have dared to tread where very few guides are qualified to lead Guides such as Mina unfortunately Isolated by choice Mina finds her solitude interrupted by a sudden request from the Crown of lead their latest band of contractors up the Peaks to finish their quest and deliver their bounty to the capital The overly friendly five some she s contacted to escort seem hell bent on stepping over her every boundary no matter how stern and scornful she acts worst among them their leader Sebastian Windenhofer Will the fire wizard warm Mina s cold heart Or will the reasons behind her icy demeanor turn them all to ice before he gets the chance The Maiden of the Barren RimeI read the entire book within a day I couldn t put it down Mina is such a compelling character there were times I laughed times I cried and DEFINITELY a time I was absolutely shaken to my core I m normally pretty good at catching twists but there is one in here that I never thought would have happened and I now wait in anticipation for the next book. At the time I read this I was at a real low and needed a distraction This was everything I needed and then some If you re looking for a book to suck you in and transport you to another world for even just a little while Sweet s The Maiden of the Barren Rime is the perfect novel for it The Maiden of the Barren Rime This book had me on the edge of my seat times than I could count The main characters especially were compelling and people you desperately wanted to root for though they were flawed as all characters should be Mina had me intrigued with her story the moment I got hold of her and I just kept coming back for bits and pieces of her until I was throughly in love The Maiden of the Barren Rime THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD I will attempt to explain why I loved it so much sans spoilers And there s a chance I won t do it justice as I m trying not to sound unhinged but here we go. On the face of it about two thirds of this fantasy book is about a crew of six people hiking up and through a mountain AND YET It s literally never boring It s so exciting I literally forgot that there s an actual reason they re traversing the mountains in the first place I didn t even care what would happen on the other side I was so engrossed Obviously there s all kinds of trouble they run into as they go wild dangerous beasts climbing through small narrow caves the dark the snow the cold enchantments But simmering under the surface and this is why this book is so good is the mystery surrounding our main protagonist the abrasive cold surly mountain guide Mina Her character is woven with such a deft hand Maybe at first she s not very likable but she is INTERESTING and I was invested in traveling along with her from the jump. And it pays off Character development Top tier Every hint we get every clue laid out pays off because each layer of Mina s character and backstory that gets peeled back is so incredibly satisfying. And it s not just her The plot is so carefully set up that with every new turn it has you going OHHHHHH And this book is 612 pages It s complex but not overly complicated Never once did I lose track or forget about the little clues I noticed along the way which made this such a satisfying read The supporting cast is stellar as well Would I fight the world for our silly fire wizard Sebastian Yes Yes I would It s tough to keep talking without spoiling so I ll leave it here Recommend 10 10 The Maiden of the Barren Rime