"The Girl in the Tower" is the second book in the Winternight trilogy, following the brilliant "The Bear and the Nightingale." Picking up the plot thread of the previous boo right where it was left off, it is an exciting, adventurous and dangerous tale of a Russian girl determined to carve her own way.

Vasya cannot stay in her village, pronounced a witch, so she decides to become a traveler and see the world. After a tense visit to Morozko who again tries to convince her to stay home and live out her life as "women should", she sets out on her journey. She poses as a boy, naming herself Vasilii Petrovich, in order to pass by more inconspicuously. Still, it is Vasya and her curiosity and restless spirit have to read their head.

On the other side of the story we have Olya, Vasya's sister, the Princess of Serpukhov, a mother of two, pregnant with her third child and a  mistress of her own estate. Her young daughter Masha has nightmares about seeing a ghost and she is trying to console the child as best she can amid her other duties. There's also Sasha, Brother Aleksandr Peresvet, Vasya's older brother who left Lesnaya Zemlya to become a monk. He is the Grand Prince's advisor and has been spying on the Tartars in a secret mission in Sarai.

A chase after a group of bandits who burn villages and kidnap young girls unites the characters and the storyline, resolving some issues while creating a whole new set of other, ones that might be even more dangerous. Caught in Vasys'a lie about her gender and name, Sasha and Olya are helpless for they cannot expose her, nor can they let her go on pretending to be someone she's not. 

Another danger lurks in the shadows... Vasya is warned multiple times by the cheryeti that they will all be watching, but she ignores their warning and prophecies. Yet, why does she feel this strange fear whenever she is in the presence of Kasyan Lutovich? A boyar whom no one knows, but who came to ask Dmitrii Ivanovich for help with the bandit problem, he seems to be everywhere and you soon get the feeling that something is not right, even though, for all intents and purposes he seems to do the right things and say the right words.

In this book, alliances are tested, the battle between the old and the new gods is still going on, the new friends Vasya met are in danger of disappearing. The old character are here, too. Morozko is still helping out Vasya, despite is disapproval and the promises that it won't happen again. I was pleasantly surprised by some kisses the pair exchanged, even though at the end it all seems desolate. I love how he actually knows she won't listen to him, that she will go her won way and then tries to be there for her as much as he can. Neither of them are perfect but it feels like they accept each other.

So, I loved the book. Absolutely adored it. The storytelling was superb, the writing magnificent and once again, I felt transported into the settings. The one gripe I have, and it's really only a personal preference, is Vasya's recklessness. I understand that it is in her nature, that's she's always been fearless, that she longs to be free, but somehow, as I was reading what she was doing and saying while impersonating Vasilii the Brave, I wanted to step into the story and slap her. She constantly ignores any counsel from people who mean her well, lets herself be manipulated because of her competitive nature, endangers her family with her recklessness and has several tantrums that don't make too much sense to me. But - she is a teenager, and this is a story of growing up, so I accepted these choices, though I was really irritated by her behavior. Again, this has nothing to do with the quality of the story, I simply wanted to point out that there were times when I slammed the book shut and wanted to throw it across the room. (I didn't. It's too pretty and too good to just throw around.)

Anyway, that is kind of the thing about this book. I loved it, but just as you are annoyed by certain traits of the people you love, I had my issues with Vasya. I accept her as she is but I don't approve of all her actions. The story itself is brilliant, the universe is expanding, the stakes are getting higher and the author writes about the medieval world of Rus' so poignantly that it feels as if you're right there with the characters. Everything feels real, even though there's magic and mythical creatures abound. Be sure to pick up this book and follow Vasya on the continuation of her journey. As for me, I'm getting right into the third book.

Still, it's a cute book, and a quick read for winter - especially with the descriptions of the Denmark cabin and landscape Those are my favorite chapters, to be honest and I felt like much more of the book should have been about that journey to discovery Bo undertakes in Aslbrog.

Marina and Pyotr have four children - a daughter, Olga, and three sons: Nikolai, Aleksandr and Alyosha. But soon Marina feels a quickening in her womb and feels that somehow this is the child she has been waiting for. This is the child she wants for herself, the one she must have, a daughter that will take after her mother.

Vasilisa Petrovna, Vasya, comes into the world just as her mother leaves it. She is an ugly child, with eyes too large, arms and legs too long, feet too big, all around too much. She is a headstrong girl, not afraid to look anyone in the eye, with no shyness that is expected of women, no qualms about doing what he wants at the bewilderment and censorship from the whole village.

Her father, Pyotr, soon realizes that he should get married again because someone needs to take care of the child. Her older sister is to be married and Dunya, the elderly caretaker is getting too old to care for a young, roguish child. So he goes to that capital and brings back Anna Ivanovna.

Anna is... strange. She wanted to go to the monastery because the church is the only place where she doesn't see "the devils". But when she is reluctantly married off ("to be some lord's breeding sow") and comes to the icy north where the old legends and the old gods are still revered she goes crazy. The fact that little Vasya seems to also see these creatures and is talking to them makes her even more irritable.

Convinced that Vasya will bring doom to them all, she urges Pyotr to marry her off, just get her away from their village. When the new priest, the lethally handsome Konstantin, comes to the village Vasya is vilified even more. Her refusal of behaving like a girl "should" chafes the young priest who is used to people venerating him, who is used to having people's attention, their love and fear. But Vasya will have none of it.

On the other side of the human struggles, there is a whole magical world. The old gods who have guarded the people against evil for centuries are now in peril of dying out because the priest has made people afraid, has made them worship the Christian god and abandon their long-time protectors. It is these little creatures that Vasya and Anna can see, thought they have utterly different reactions to them.

Being the one that sees them, and doesn't fear them, Vasya takes care of the spirits, talks to them and learns from their wisdom. She is entangled in a fight for the survival of he whole nation and it is exactly the things that made her an outcast that help her then. She is willing to see beyond what is expected and her courage and defiance help her see her goal through.

An element that I noticed throughout the story is the vilification of women. Whenever anything goes wrong, it must be a woman's fault. She is accused of being a witch and is ostracized or sentenced to death. In this story Vasya is given the option of becoming a nun or dying in the cold forest ("I must be a man's servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god.") These are the patterns we still see, throwing all the blame on women, somehow always making them the source of evil, even in the most banal cases. A woman's place is in the home, with a husband and kids, and nothing else will fulfill her, right? Even in our modern society where women can have careers, the ones who do not seek to have traditional female roles in their private lives are somehow the reason for the apocalypse. And it is so nice to a see a woman, even in a book, not caring about any of it, simply following her path and pressing on until she realizes her full potential.

Anyway, read this book, don't you dare skip it. I will be reading the two sequels this month as well, so look out for that too. And, go - read.