Dangerous Ways (The Books of Winter) - Fantasy Adventure Novel for Teens & Adults - Perfect for Winter Reading & Book Club Discussions

Why do we read?Do we do it for simple entertainment? Do we do it to escape the stress of our lives? Do we do it to learn something about ourselves, about the world in which we live? Or perhaps we do it for all of the above reasons.Whatever the reason, when we are transfixed by a phenomenal tale, one so well crafted that it grabs us and transports us to an entirely different world, it's a magical thing. Dangerous Ways, the first book in R.R. Virdi's The Books of Winter series, is one such experience -- as vibrant and evocative and intense as the myriad of gateways leading to other worlds.This book takes place in the same universe as Virdi's Grave Report series, and there are satisfying callbacks, but this tome is a being all its own. Its a massive one -- not quite troll massive, but close -- and yet Virdi's quick-witted first-person style is so free-flowing that you'll push your way through hundreds of pages without truly realizing it.Where the Grave novels are gritty, street-level thrillers with a healthy dose of the freakish, Dangerous Ways is grand, bordering on high fantasy. The numerous worlds are fantastical and well-developed; for all of Virdi's skill at weaving through the English language, he is equally adept and creating entire worlds -- and something tells me he's only scratched the surface.Of course, none of that matters if the characters fall flat. But they don't; Jonathan Hawthorne and Cassidy Winters are a joy to be around; despite the fact that they're constantly threatened with certain death, you can't help but be with them step for step. They're individual characteristics -- bravery, determination, sarcasm, wit, and smarts, just to name a few -- make them easy to root for, and the supporting cast is equally delightful in its own right.As much as I'm eager for the next Grave Report book, I'm just as excited at the prospect of the next Book of Winter. There is no cliffhanger here, but there are enough threads to fill several more volumes... and with writing this clean, this crisp, I can definitely see myself devouring more of this genre.Fantasy fans -- urban, high, and everything in between -- should definitely add Dangerous Ways to their collection. This is a fun, engrossing, entertaining read -- and I would argue, the best book I've read in all of 2016.