The Blurb:
The Iskat Empire rules its vassal planets through a system of treaties – so when Prince Taam, key figure in a political alliance, is killed, a replacement must be found. His widower, Jainan, is rushed into an arranged marriage with the disreputable aristocrat Kiem, in a bid to keep rising hostilities between two worlds under control. But Prince Taam’s death may not have been an accident, and when Jainan himself is a suspect, he and Kiem must navigate the perils of the Iskat court, solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war . . .
The Review:
Winter’s Orbit is a romantic space opera that gives you pretty much exactly what it said on the tin.
What we have here is an arranged political marriage between an outgoing talks-a-mile-a-minute prince named Kiem, and a by-the-book count named Jainan. The latter has very recently become a widow following the death of Kiem’s cousin — Prince Taam — and so these men must be marry so that their planets can enter into a peace treaty before an approaching deadline.
This romance is of the “very very dumb about their feelings” variety. Both men find the other attractive from the moment they meet. Both are afraid of assuming any intimacy in case it hurts the others feelings. This back and forth goes on for… some time. It’s cute, and I caught myself smiling several times, but I did think that this aspect dragged on a little too long for my tastes. This was somewhat mediated by the fact that this book is a very quick read, and so should be accessible for a larger number of readers.
In the background of this romance, however, is a murder mystery. Kiem assumes that Jainan is mourning the loss of his late husband, and Jainan has had several privileges revoked due to his death. Including the right to speak to his family. The couple find themselves sucked into the mystery surrounding Taam’s death, and Jainan’s past relationship comes under the microscope as a result. Without spoiling too much, there’s an abusive aspect here, and as such this book is perhaps a bit less “fluffy” than you might expect from the marketing. But with that said, the resultant healing process was probably the most smile-inducing part of the book for me. Even if it broke my heart a little bit.
So, yeah. There is a lot here that a lot of readers are going to love. But I have to admit that for all the focus on the relationship between Kiem and Jainan, I wish there was a bit more… something in the world around them. The worldbuilding felt very much set up to cater to the needs of the characters’ stories. I thought that the world outside their relationship felt a little fuzzy and ill-defined, until the moment came for some name-dropped quirk of the worldbuilding to be useful.
For all that this story involves the future of entire planets, I never really got the sense that there were many people outside of the main couple’s social group living their lives in the background. Some of the side-characters seemed to live fascinating lives. I wanted to know more about them, spend more time with them, but they just sort of existed on the periphery until they became relevant to Kiem and Jainan’s situation.
But having said that, this book is laser-focused on those two for a reason. It’s a romance set in space. It features all sorts of familiar and much-loved tropes that have been re-tailored for a sci-fi world. I wish that it could have been more of a mix of romance and space-opera, with the world and the other characters given more of a chance to shine. I wish we could have ventured outside of “high society” more and seen how the ordinary people lived. But that’s just… not the kind of book that Winter’s Orbit is.
Winter’s Orbit is a book about two idiot space-aristocrats falling in love. If you’re looking for a romance with space opera trappings, there’s a high chance you will love this. If you’re looking for an exciting space opera with a romantic plotline, then this might not be space opera enough for you.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you to Orbit UK for the review copy!
