Winter's Heart, by Robert Jordan

I flew through Winter's Heart; audio books make it easy to read anywhere hands-free, regardless of the weather. I know a lot of people are dissatisfied with this book, as they are with most of the books in the Wheel of Time series after the first three to five, but I liked it. Robert Jordan is a master story-teller; he may not tell a clean, tight story, but he tells a fascinating one. Things are heating up in the Wheel of Time series, and I called my partner a few times with exclamations about what happened in this book. Mat finally returns to the story with a lot of space in the book, some mysterious characters are revealed for who they really are, and things I've been waiting for for books finally happened. The slowness that bogged down the last few books doesn't touch this one, and it ends with a bang.

I'm excited to read the rest of the series, but I want to take a short break to read Brom's The Child Thief. I love Brom, and I've been excited about reading this book since it came out. Also, this Peter Pan-inspired story will fit nicely into the fairy tale requirement for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.