Stay with me – this is actually a review for the Blood that Burns the Winter Snow!

My name is Matthew, and I’m a chocoholic. I eat chocolate almost everyday and can easily deal to a Whittakers Creamy Milk Generous Block in a sitting. Sometimes, however, indulging in chocolatey gluttony is just not possible. Sometimes (like when I’m sitting at my desk at work at 3pm) you can only indulge in a sneaky chocolate hit to take the edge off the day. For those times I have a stack of mini-sized bars in my top drawer. That 3pm hit isn’t as satisfying as a full on choccy binge, but it’s tasty and sweet and it keeps me going through that moving-through-molasses slow part of the day.

The Blood that Burns the Winter Snow is a mini-sized “The Bound and the Broken” fix that, while it won’t give you that volume 4 full sized book that you’re definitely craving if you’ve read the rest of the series, is tasty and sweet and will remind you about everything you love about Ryan Cahill’s writing.

While waiting for the next volumes of my favourite series (this one, Stormlight, Dresden, Will of the Many etc) I’ve been reading a lot of self-published LitRPG and Progression Fantasy. There’s a lot fun stuff out there and it keeps me going but within the first page, this story smacked me in the face with the difference between fast food and fine dining (so many food analogies! I must be hungry!)

If you haven’t read the series before (and if you haven’t you’re really missing out) you could still read this first as a prologue that is great representation of what you can expect from the series. Relatable characters, visceral action, beautiful writing while just hinting at the wonderfully realised world that the story inhabits.

The shadowy backstory of Calen’s dad, Vars is one of the biggest mysteries of the series, and this short story casts just enough light to intensify our desire to know more and I’m just crossing my fingers that Ryan gives us more of this in the future.

It’s very short (I read it during an afternoon tea break at work), but very good.

My name is Matthew, and I’m a Cahill-olic

(In the interests of full disclosure I should add that I am an Advance Reader for this series and received an early copy of the story. For me this is like having a connection in the chocolate factory who lets me try the new flavours before everyone else!)