While the Dark Remains

The Winter Dark, Book 1

By: Joanna Ruth Meyer

Narrated by: Kimberly Woods

In an icebound palace of magic and menace, a young woman plots to outwit a cruel king in a bracing fantasy about love, found family, and immeasurable revenge.

Brynja spent her childhood as a captive performer in Tenebris, the imposing mountain palace of King Kallias. Every night she risked death for the king’s entertainment until his rebellious son, Prince Ballast, helped her escape. Now twenty, Brynja has never forgotten the brutal king. Or forgiven him. Under the cloak of a three-month-long Winter Dark, Brynja is returning to Tenebris for revenge.

Accompanied by a rival court, including the alluring Prince Vil, Brynja poses as diplomatic royalty to barter peace between nations. No one is better equipped to infiltrate the palace than Brynja—she remembers every hidden passage like a bad dream. But her quest to destroy Kallias is complicated by her feelings for Prince Ballast, whom she isn’t sure she can still trust. And Kallias’s own quest to mine a catastrophic weapon of war buried in the mountain’s heart will threaten them all, and force Brynja to face the darkest parts of herself.

The lives of everyone she loves depend on the choices she must make. So, too, does the fate of the world.

©2025 by Joanna Ruth Meyer. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

YA Romantasy with good world-building

Sort of a YA fantasy/romance/fairy tale with magic and gods and mystery and deceit and betrayal and battles and...well, you get the picture! It was a fun listen, nicely read, easy to follow, with a few surprises.

If I had any complaints at all, it's a little lengthy--memories are played out as if they are videos in the character's head, in complete detail instead of a reminder to the reader, so that you are kind of rereading the same scene. I kept thinking, wow, this could use a little editing. But at that time, I hadn't realized it was actually a YA novel, and when that dawned on me, it was clear that tactic was done purposely for a less mature reader. That'll teach me to look more closely at a book description when I buy it! Not that it will dissuade me from reading the sequel, lol.

3.5 stars rounded up

An tale of hidden agendas and secret identities

I enjoyed this audiobook very much. The story develops nicely by taking you between the present and the past with the timeline switches stated clearly at the beginning of each chapter. The main characters are fleshed out well and I appreciate how you experience Brynja's opinions of people as she feels them. So when she learns something new, so do you. There is a GREAT twist towards the end that I did not see coming. That by itself earned a whole other star from me as a reader. The world building is unique but not hard to understand or visualize. The villain is just the right level of evil without being overdone. I will definitely be checking out book two when it comes out. The narration is superb *chef's kiss*!

Clean fantasy with Identity theme

This is a plot driven, clean fantasy. Brynja, our FMC, goes through so much… trauma and becomes our heroine. She is constantly being asked to put herself into situations that others would break. The main theme of this book, I would say, is the sense of self - of identity. There is a bit of a love triangle but I was team Ballast all the way!

Personal opinion time: Vil and Saga are both bitches! About halfway through the book, I just kept saying that out loud. I hate how they treat Brynja! Especially when we hit a pinnacle moment about Brynja’s identity. Bitches!

Light vs. Dark

Beautiful story telling about light vs. dark and themes of what is wrong and right.

Surprising

This was great! Plot twist was unexpected and it kept me coming back. Looking forward to returning to this world!