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The Winter Souls
Carols and Spies
Carols and Spies is a collection of novellas that take place in the world of The Winter Souls Series by Jennifer Kropf. Complete with six stories of Winter legends, this prequel weaves together the origin tale of the underground cathedral in the Red Kingdom and the spark that brought the Carriers of Truth into existence.
Synopsis for A Blend of Harmonies (Novella, The First) in Carols and Spies :
Red versus Green. It has always been this way since the beginning of the war.
Charlie and Cora are from different kingdoms. Charlie is a son of the woods, the pines, and the deep earth-shaking drums of celebration and war–a true Green Kingdom citizen.
Cora is as Red as its gets; a daughter of crimson dresses and scarlet stained-glass, living among the royals in the Red Kingdom palace with all its luxuries and twisted games. But when they’re brought together by a mysterious power who calls himself Elowin for a reason neither can seem to figure out, they learn they each carry a weight on their shoulders placed there by their own kingdoms. And if they want to be free, they’ll have to figure out who exactly Elowin is, what he's doing, and why his plan involves them both before Charlie is caught in Red Kingdom territory where he will have to face the wrath of the Red royals.
In Carols and Spies (Collection, The First) , meet a keyholding spy, a magic singer, a Prince of the Pines, a pair of elite hunters, an Ink Whipper, a Savior, and a young, wicked witch called Mara Rouge who aims to take them all down.
*You do not have to have read The Winter Souls Series to enjoy this book. But you may want to read it after!
Synopsis for A Blend of Harmonies (Novella, The First) in Carols and Spies :
Red versus Green. It has always been this way since the beginning of the war.
Charlie and Cora are from different kingdoms. Charlie is a son of the woods, the pines, and the deep earth-shaking drums of celebration and war–a true Green Kingdom citizen.
Cora is as Red as its gets; a daughter of crimson dresses and scarlet stained-glass, living among the royals in the Red Kingdom palace with all its luxuries and twisted games. But when they’re brought together by a mysterious power who calls himself Elowin for a reason neither can seem to figure out, they learn they each carry a weight on their shoulders placed there by their own kingdoms. And if they want to be free, they’ll have to figure out who exactly Elowin is, what he's doing, and why his plan involves them both before Charlie is caught in Red Kingdom territory where he will have to face the wrath of the Red royals.
In Carols and Spies (Collection, The First) , meet a keyholding spy, a magic singer, a Prince of the Pines, a pair of elite hunters, an Ink Whipper, a Savior, and a young, wicked witch called Mara Rouge who aims to take them all down.
*You do not have to have read The Winter Souls Series to enjoy this book. But you may want to read it after!
300 pages, Paperback
First published June 6, 2023
45 people are currently reading
764 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Kropf
14 books971 followersJennifer Kropf spent her college years bored to death (nearly) in marketing and advertising classes, and graduated only to discover once and for all that her true passion is telling stories. She lives amidst lush Ontario farmland with her husband and three kids, reads obsessively, and writes even more obsessively. She thinks tea is gross and coffee is great and secretly wishes Peter Pan will show up on some cool summer evening and ask if she wants to visit Neverland.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 21, 2025
Rating/reviewing each of the five novellas as I read!
Novella, The First: A Blend of Harmonies
Rating: 3 ⭐️
Honestly, I didn't love this novella. It was fun to read the backstory stuff, but it felt kind of... all over the place? I don't know. I just wasn't very interested in what was happening.
I still liked it though, and hopefully I'll like the rest of the novellas better?
Novella, The Second: The Fountain of Wishes
Rating: 3.25 ⭐️
I liked this a little bit better than the first one, but I still didn't love it. It kinda reminded me of Prince Caspian (the book, not the character) tho, with there being a prince and him having a professor and the professor telling him to run away and whatnot. And the ending definitely has me excited to see what's coming in the other novellas!
Novella, The Third: The Ink Whipper
Rating: 4 ⭐️
I actually really liked this one! Mikal's backstory was really interesting, and I loved the ending as well. But of course the novella I enjoyed the most so far had to be the shortest one of the book...
Novella, The Fourth: The Cord of a Dozen Strands
Rating: 4 ⭐️
This one was really good as well! I liked that it was written from multiple different perspectives (4 or 5 different ones I think?), it made this story feel much faster-paced than the other ones, even though this one was the longest. I think this one was also the most exciting so far, which makes sense since it's the longest I guess?
Novella, The Fifth: A Blast of Harmonies
Rating: 4 ⭐️
THAT ENDINGGGGG 😭😭😭 I fear I shed a tear or three 🥲
I also really liked this story as well, I once again liked that it was written from multiple perspectives. This one also seemed to have the most Christian allegories in it, which I liked. It was a really good and sweet conclusion to this book :)
Overall review:
If you read and enjoyed the Winter Souls series, I definitely recommend this!! It explains so much about the history of Winter, and it made me want to reread the series now that I know the backstory of all these things.
Overall rating: 3.75 ⭐️
Novella, The First: A Blend of Harmonies
Rating: 3 ⭐️
Honestly, I didn't love this novella. It was fun to read the backstory stuff, but it felt kind of... all over the place? I don't know. I just wasn't very interested in what was happening.
I still liked it though, and hopefully I'll like the rest of the novellas better?
Novella, The Second: The Fountain of Wishes
Rating: 3.25 ⭐️
I liked this a little bit better than the first one, but I still didn't love it. It kinda reminded me of Prince Caspian (the book, not the character) tho, with there being a prince and him having a professor and the professor telling him to run away and whatnot. And the ending definitely has me excited to see what's coming in the other novellas!
Novella, The Third: The Ink Whipper
Rating: 4 ⭐️
I actually really liked this one! Mikal's backstory was really interesting, and I loved the ending as well. But of course the novella I enjoyed the most so far had to be the shortest one of the book...
Novella, The Fourth: The Cord of a Dozen Strands
Rating: 4 ⭐️
This one was really good as well! I liked that it was written from multiple different perspectives (4 or 5 different ones I think?), it made this story feel much faster-paced than the other ones, even though this one was the longest. I think this one was also the most exciting so far, which makes sense since it's the longest I guess?
Novella, The Fifth: A Blast of Harmonies
Rating: 4 ⭐️
THAT ENDINGGGGG 😭😭😭 I fear I shed a tear or three 🥲
I also really liked this story as well, I once again liked that it was written from multiple perspectives. This one also seemed to have the most Christian allegories in it, which I liked. It was a really good and sweet conclusion to this book :)
Overall review:
If you read and enjoyed the Winter Souls series, I definitely recommend this!! It explains so much about the history of Winter, and it made me want to reread the series now that I know the backstory of all these things.
Overall rating: 3.75 ⭐️
December 22, 2025
My first book by Kropf was Welcome to Fae Cafe, and, while it was cute, it wasn’t my jam. I had “meh” expectations going into the Winter Souls series, but was blown away by the whimsical, allegorical, and poignant writing. While I didn’t love the romance, I loved just about everything else about that series.
This book is five Winter Soul prequel novellas, and I loved it.🥰 I am not typically drawn to short stories, but I loved the background this book gave to the characters and the foundation it revealed for the Winter Souls series. There were so many biblical allusions, and many of them left me with chills for how beautifully they were written and how well they fit into the world Kropf created.
Highly recommended, especially at Christmas time.🎄😍
This book is five Winter Soul prequel novellas, and I loved it.🥰 I am not typically drawn to short stories, but I loved the background this book gave to the characters and the foundation it revealed for the Winter Souls series. There were so many biblical allusions, and many of them left me with chills for how beautifully they were written and how well they fit into the world Kropf created.
Highly recommended, especially at Christmas time.🎄😍
July 12, 2023
“Every grain and flake of creation told a story.”
I didn’t know how much I needed this book right now. I am consumed by a world of winter and frost. This book is absolutely magical and heart wrenching. In so many good ways.
Even a pop of appearance by one of my all time favorites. 🥁
If you know you know.
I didn’t know how much I needed this book right now. I am consumed by a world of winter and frost. This book is absolutely magical and heart wrenching. In so many good ways.
Even a pop of appearance by one of my all time favorites. 🥁
If you know you know.
July 23, 2023
I never want books about Winter to end. Carols and Spies is the perfect compliment to the Winter Souls Series. It starts of filled with stories laced with whimsy, and ends as the last book of the series did, with a shout of triumph and tears. I loved it. And yeah I absolutely cried.
January 10, 2026
It was so good!!! I am so sad it's over.😭 Such a wonderful, cozy winter read. I love the whole Winter Soul series and this was such a good way to tie it all together especially since it tells us what Ragnashuck means.
January 6, 2025
My first read of the year and an absolute masterpiece.
This is a prequel novella collection to the Winter Souls series. I loved each novella and the layout, if you will, of how each novella was about a character or two but the last was a culmination. Each character had a special message and theme carried with them.
As always with this series, the allegory is one of my favorites. It is so easily comparable to Narnia, but modern and original.
This is easily one of my favorite series of all time because of the relationships, the allegory, the world, the magic, the retelling etc.
I would pick a favorite character, but it would be all of them. I would recommend reading this after binging the main series.
Content: minor nondescriptive violence, silent magic related to an allegory, a character’s beauty is used (but not described how and nothing happens, brief and in passing)
This is a prequel novella collection to the Winter Souls series. I loved each novella and the layout, if you will, of how each novella was about a character or two but the last was a culmination. Each character had a special message and theme carried with them.
As always with this series, the allegory is one of my favorites. It is so easily comparable to Narnia, but modern and original.
This is easily one of my favorite series of all time because of the relationships, the allegory, the world, the magic, the retelling etc.
I would pick a favorite character, but it would be all of them. I would recommend reading this after binging the main series.
Content: minor nondescriptive violence, silent magic related to an allegory, a character’s beauty is used (but not described how and nothing happens, brief and in passing)
August 23, 2023
This is a collection of five delicious short stories, each created and layered perfectly upon the other with careful and delicate precision. By book’s end, I finally realise who Mara Rouge was and where she began.
The stories take the reader on a journey back to the beginning. And of course, at the beginning we meet old favourites, Charlie Little and Cora Thimble, two of the stories’ melodies that lift into the snow-laden treetops and frosty white skies. It’s a cold world, made up of two opposing kingdoms: the Evergreen and the Red, both soaked in a long, bitter war against the other.
But that is about to change as the two protagonists meet a very unlikely person tucked inside a labyrinth of shelves, one with eyes like ‘lush forest greens, sparkling silvers, and deep ocean-purples in his irises’, in ‘a room smelling of gardens and old paper, warm icing and hot cinnamon-sprinkled apples’. He is someone who gives both of them an assignment of immeasurable importance which they accept, plunging them into a multitude of perils and fluttering heart situations. Readers are fortunate to meet brilliant new characters with chalky missions of their own who, thankfully, turn around and follow the light at the end.
This is another morsal of sugar and moondust from this masterful author, threaded with warm music to chase off those winter chills. It is a tale of good and evil, each fighting for the mastery of souls, written for the Church as a comfort and encouragement here at the end of days.
The stories take the reader on a journey back to the beginning. And of course, at the beginning we meet old favourites, Charlie Little and Cora Thimble, two of the stories’ melodies that lift into the snow-laden treetops and frosty white skies. It’s a cold world, made up of two opposing kingdoms: the Evergreen and the Red, both soaked in a long, bitter war against the other.
But that is about to change as the two protagonists meet a very unlikely person tucked inside a labyrinth of shelves, one with eyes like ‘lush forest greens, sparkling silvers, and deep ocean-purples in his irises’, in ‘a room smelling of gardens and old paper, warm icing and hot cinnamon-sprinkled apples’. He is someone who gives both of them an assignment of immeasurable importance which they accept, plunging them into a multitude of perils and fluttering heart situations. Readers are fortunate to meet brilliant new characters with chalky missions of their own who, thankfully, turn around and follow the light at the end.
This is another morsal of sugar and moondust from this masterful author, threaded with warm music to chase off those winter chills. It is a tale of good and evil, each fighting for the mastery of souls, written for the Church as a comfort and encouragement here at the end of days.
November 13, 2024
Oh my goodness. The stories in this were so good. I am literally obsessed with this series!!!!
February 14, 2025
I loved going back into Winter after reading the series! Amazing story and I love the truth that’s presented within the pages.
December 29, 2025
Temporary Pause until next Christmas season! (Plan to read the entire series after Thanksgiving!)
But love it so far!!
But love it so far!!
July 10, 2023
Grab a cup of something refreshing to drink and settle in for a lovely time of visiting the world of Winter. The stories themselves are not all happy and lighthearted, but learning some of the early bits on the heroes and villains timestrings was worth the time invested in Carols and Spies. Kropf has enough uniqueness in her writing voice that it makes one want to sit and really listen to absorb the tales she sets out to spin.
And does she spin! Winter is once again portrayed in all its myriad of color, scent, cold, and song. I loved the latest installment in this series and absolutely cannot wait for the next book. Darkness and Light are contrasted throughout the six novellas and some of the "I wonder..." questions get answered in a most entertaining way.
I received an ARC; this is my honest review.
And does she spin! Winter is once again portrayed in all its myriad of color, scent, cold, and song. I loved the latest installment in this series and absolutely cannot wait for the next book. Darkness and Light are contrasted throughout the six novellas and some of the "I wonder..." questions get answered in a most entertaining way.
I received an ARC; this is my honest review.
January 1, 2025
Wonderful series.
If you love the Chronicles of Narnia, or snything by C.S. Lewis, I urge you to read this series. It rivals his books in story telling andvin the message of Hope.
The writing itself is captivating. One can feel the cold as if onecwas actually outside in the snow. And Jennifer Kropf does an excellent job with her physical description of the two kingdoms, such as clothing, the way the light looks through windows, and so on.
I have read the entire series and have found it to be uplifting in a time when I have needed to be uplifted.
If you love the Chronicles of Narnia, or snything by C.S. Lewis, I urge you to read this series. It rivals his books in story telling andvin the message of Hope.
The writing itself is captivating. One can feel the cold as if onecwas actually outside in the snow. And Jennifer Kropf does an excellent job with her physical description of the two kingdoms, such as clothing, the way the light looks through windows, and so on.
I have read the entire series and have found it to be uplifting in a time when I have needed to be uplifted.
October 29, 2023
I loved this book! The first couple of chapters it took me awhile to get into and I was so nervous that I wasn't going to like it. But then it started to get intense and I was so into it! I love how its a back story and leading up to the first of the Winter Soul Series (which i absolutley loved) . Absolutley can't wait to see if there are more!
December 29, 2024
Wow! This entire series and now this Novella, are absolutely beautifully written! What a magical and spiritual journey it’s been! So sad it’s over but Elowin will always be with us and in our hearts! Thank you Jennifer Kropf for this spiritual reading journey, can’t wait to read more of your stories to come!!!
July 13, 2023
OH MY GOODNESS. I loved this one as much as the original four. I wrote a full review on my blog - but if you haven't snagged this - DO! It is SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I hope she keeps writing in this series because I LOVE the winter soul series!!!!!!
December 14, 2023
I can tell you that, whatever this author writes about winter, I will read instantly. I love these books wholeheartedly. I really liked this one to fill in the gaps of things I didn’t know from the others.
December 19, 2023
So so good. Not as good as the winter soul books but I loved this book. It was really fun to learn about the history of Winter. Tho I wasn’t expecting it to be in 3rd person POV and this is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed reading this style of writing I normally hate it lol.
February 4, 2024
Nice collection of stories in the Winter Soul Series World. A little too heavy on the parallels to Jesus’s life for my taste and bible themes in general. While to actual books in this series show some parallels to Christmas and Holidays traditions this book took it a bit too far.
December 2, 2025
love this collection to round out the Winter series
A great series of novellas that further explores the history of Winter. So nice to get the past-wish I’d have read this one first.
A great series of novellas that further explores the history of Winter. So nice to get the past-wish I’d have read this one first.
December 28, 2023
The perfect Christmas read!
Read
January 18, 2025DNF @ 5%
The writing didn't catch my interest as it seemed more telling than showing and the pace was slow. Might not have been in the mood for this book.
The writing didn't catch my interest as it seemed more telling than showing and the pace was slow. Might not have been in the mood for this book.
August 6, 2023
This was so fun! I loved returning the land of Winter. This was just as good as the Winter series and left me wanting more of each of their (Edward, Charlie, Cora, Mikal) stories.
February 1, 2024
I found it hard to put this book down, it’s a great compliment to the Winter Souls. I loved reading this prequel and I hope there are more volumes to come
August 17, 2023
I had the privilege of reading this as an ARC.
Life got in the way and only now I managed to finish it and write a review.
I normally don’t get too excited for prequels, but… Mikal Migraithe, that’s all I have to say.
Joking, the characters in these short stories are as lovely as the characters in the Winter Souls Series, and I loved reading about how the patrolman and the carriers were created.
We also get to read more about Elowin and how he prepared Winter for the final battle against darkness.
All in all, this was a 5 star read for me, and I will never get tired of readying Winter stories 💜
Life got in the way and only now I managed to finish it and write a review.
I normally don’t get too excited for prequels, but… Mikal Migraithe, that’s all I have to say.
Joking, the characters in these short stories are as lovely as the characters in the Winter Souls Series, and I loved reading about how the patrolman and the carriers were created.
We also get to read more about Elowin and how he prepared Winter for the final battle against darkness.
All in all, this was a 5 star read for me, and I will never get tired of readying Winter stories 💜
October 20, 2025
UGH. What a perfect way to wrap up this
series
I'm such an emotional mess over these books. I love everything about this series and I think Jennifer Kropf is amazingly talented and creative. The last line had me tearing up.
I've never read a prequel that I actually really enjoyed like this. I loved seeing all the tie ins and where Ragnashuck came from?? That's HILARIOUS. This book had me giggling and crying all at once and I love it for that. And I loved getting to read about the sputtlepuns in black and white and just how everything
came to be in general. So cool to see all the information Helen wasn't able to experience. I LOVE THIS SERIES
series
I'm such an emotional mess over these books. I love everything about this series and I think Jennifer Kropf is amazingly talented and creative. The last line had me tearing up.
I've never read a prequel that I actually really enjoyed like this. I loved seeing all the tie ins and where Ragnashuck came from?? That's HILARIOUS. This book had me giggling and crying all at once and I love it for that. And I loved getting to read about the sputtlepuns in black and white and just how everything
came to be in general. So cool to see all the information Helen wasn't able to experience. I LOVE THIS SERIES
January 12, 2026
This prequel made me want to read the whole Winter Soul Series again. It was so well done, and I can't wait for more about the world of winter!
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews