The Girl in the Tower

The Girl in the Tower is definitely a worthy follow up to The Bear and the Nightingale and I really enjoyed it, but maybe not quite as much as the first one. I felt this one went more into a mainstream fantasy story line, in the sense that it was a bit on the predictable side, the ‘girl wanting to test the constraints of her time dresses up as a boy' story has been done before and it followed a very straight forward path that didn't really stray from expectation.
Having said that, I still really enjoy Katherine Arden's ‘fairy tale-like' lyrical writing. I also really like the characters she has created, especially main character Vasya, who struggles to find her place in the world and to find her own happiness without also hurting her family. Again I really appreciate how Arden handles family. So many fantasy stories just do away with family and the complications that can create, but Arden has made it an intricate part of her story and part of the challenges that the characters face, which is very refreshing and something that the reader can sympathize with easily.
Overall it was still a very fun, fast-paced story in an interesting Russian influenced world of politics, magic and fairy-tale wrapped in a flurry of snow and I would still highly recommend it if you enjoyed the first book.