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The blood of the north flows through his veins...

From bestselling LitRPG author Carrie Summers comes a new saga about survival on a wind-swept coast.

Jace, a backcountry ranger assigned to patrol the wilderness of North America, was hiking when abruptly he was somewhere...else. Wind battered his thinly-clothed body, and the salt air from crashing waves immediately soaked him to the skin. Nothing looked familiar. And then the strange game messages started appearing in his vision.

With no explanation for how he arrived here, Jace must nonetheless learn to survive in a merciless environment, crafting everything with his own hands. He must learn the art of combat and how to control the powerful abilities that surface in his body. Northblood, they'll call him. A blessing and a curse.

On the bright side, he's totally buff. And there's this hot redheaded game tester who was pulled from her old life and shoved into his.

Things could definitely be worse.

Tales of a Northblood: Winter's Breath starts a brand new adventure.

329 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 4, 2020

496 people are currently reading
257 people want to read

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Carrie Summers

27 books276 followers

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5 stars
271 (43%)
4 stars
219 (35%)
3 stars
97 (15%)
2 stars
28 (4%)
1 star
7 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
123 reviews3 followers
April 30, 2020
Does everything, badly

This book should have been great it had everything it needed to succeed except it spread itself too thin. It was a neat survival in a rpg book, until it wasn’t. Then it was a neat settlement builder rpg, until it wasn’t. Then it was a rpg that conveys plot solely through quests and combat. If it had stuck to doing one thing well instead of trying to hit the Litrpg bingo this book could have been good.
Profile Image for Johnny.
2,174 reviews82 followers
April 14, 2020
Book one

Mistakes: I didn’t find any mistakes in this book.

Plot: People find themselves transported to a magical world with no idea how they got there.
The basic story was okay up until the attack on the mercenary camp and the slaver camp, then it got so ridiculous that it was hard to read. The diversion fire was obviously added to try and help with the mercenary camp, but the entire thing was just cheesy. The attack on the slaver camp didn’t add up either as the heroes are completely out numbered but easily take the camp even though they are out numbered and out leveled. The boss also went down way to easy for being almost twice anyone’s level. The mercenary camp seems to have disappeared for the return trip as well.

Characters: The Mc puts on stupid amounts of muscle for being such a low level. Nobody else does that even though everyone is the same level. The relationship between two of the characters towards the end of the book is just cheesy as well.
I did like the skulk that was so easily killed in the boss fight.
Found it strange that the Mc wasn’t more bothered by the fact that he killed a member of his party.
5/10
Profile Image for Troy Osgood.
Author 48 books105 followers
February 8, 2020
I'm a huge Stonehaven League fan, one of my favorite litRPG, so knew I would like this series.

Didn't know how much I would love it.

Great stuff. Probably moved up above Stonehaven League in my top litRPG rankings.
Profile Image for The Mysterious Reader.
3,588 reviews66 followers
February 9, 2020
Ok, IRL (in real life) I am a lifelong gamer, starting with D&D as a wee lass (I still have my original, now pretty astoundingly powerful Elf mage-warrior, sadly too strong for most campaigns). I even married a gamer (best DM in my college gaming group) and raised two gamer-kids. Having said that, there’s no way I’d ever want to actually, you know, have to live the life of any of my PCs (player characters) with all the dangerous adventures and tough living conditions they go through. Luckily, Jace, the star of Carrie Summers’ fantastic Tales of a Northblood, the first in her new Winter's Breath series, already has the knowledge base of a career outback Ranger when he suddenly finds himself in exactly this predicament. Teamed up with Mac, a brainy beauty of a game tester, they’re a force to desk with in the virtual reality of a game world gone wrong. This is the start of a truly great LitRPG Saga, folks. If you are a gamer and/or fan of LitRPG, I guarantee you will vastly enjoy this book and get totally hooked. If you are a newcomer and har no idea what LitRPG is, and wouldn’t have known what a PC is or the meaning of IRL if I hadn’t defined them, don’t worry. You need not know any of that stuff to find this book to be a fantastic fantasy adventure. No surprise really, as this author’s Stonehaven series books (separately reviewed) are probably the best LitRPG there is. As for this book, it’s easy to (more than) highly recommend - and I’m already addictively waiting for book 2.
39 reviews
February 14, 2021
Too Campy for me.

One of the other races was translated like Bill and Ted. "Yo Dude and Dudettes..."
I'm sure many people would find this hilarious but I found it broke immersion and was jarring. The main guy character was weak and didn't seem to know much about living in the wilderness even after working as a park ranger for years. The main female character was much more believable as a gaming expert. Had to stop.
Profile Image for Clint Young.
849 reviews
February 10, 2020
Alert

I hate trying to write reviews because there are really only pass/fail results for me. Did I make it all the way through? Yes? 5 stars. No? There would be nothing here to read. In all fairness, if an author holds my attention from page one to the end, they’ve done their job. Anything less than 5 stars is petty criticism from someone incapable of even doing the job let alone doing a better one.

So in respect for the author and their work, I am going to start pasting this along with a generic review I found somewhere. “This was a fun book. I am glad that I read it. You should try it too.”

Now, since I have to keep explaining myself to people who don't like my reviews, I guess some clarification is in order.

1. I am 100% against criticism for works of art. Art is subjective, meaning reviews are irrelevant. The observer's opinion is only relevant to the observer. It is my belief that regardless of what others might say, I have to experience the art for myself.

2. I read upwards of 20 books a month. The $10/month I spend on Kindle Unlimited, feels like I am cheating the authors. But since I can't afford 50 books a month if I were to purchase them directly, all I can offer is a positive review. That leads us to the final point.

3. If I get to the end of a book, then it was worth my time. I give those books 5 stars because it helps the author get exposure on Amazon. That is the only reason I write reviews at all.

I understand that people are people and they are going to do what they do regardless of my stance. I know the way that I review books upsets some people. I am sorry they feel that way but as many have said, they will just ignore my review going forward. In fact, if you made it this far through my review, you should definitely read the book and completely ignore all of the reviews here. You are a much better judge of what you will like than anyone here.

Cheers
Profile Image for Dan.
87 reviews
October 27, 2024
There wasn’t anything I didn’t like, but there was also nothing I particularly liked. This felt rather boring. There is a bit of exploration and leveling and fighting and camp building and romance, but nothing that stood out. Not even the characters got me invested. The Mc is the big barbarian, but doesn’t seem very sharp and frankly a bit bland - a nice guy. Mac, the fml, seems somewhat interesting, but misses the moments and abilities to shine. Seth is unlikeable for two thirds of the story, then gets and easy redemption, which at this points is too late too little, as you don’t really want to like the character anymore. We’ve got healer girl, whose name I forgot, even tho I just finished the novel 2 min ago. And we’ve got „Dude“, who was so damn annoying that I was actually glad when he died and disappointed when it supposedly wasn’t final. The romance towards the end was nice, but started in a very anticlimactic way, with a weird reverence or joke I didn’t recognize. And while there were litRPG elements I don’t feel like stats and levels mattered a lot in the end. Also I generally dislike respawns.
World building is missing. We know its a fantasy world from a video game with giants, dwarves and dudes, but the fantastic feeling from exploring a new world doesn’t last very long and as background we only hear from two other places, which will apparently the locations for book 2. A bit of wasted potential here. North mythology has sooo many interesting myths and ideas that could have been used as inspiration, but well….All in all, it didn’t have a huge blunder, that made me turn away halfway through, but neither do I feel like reading the second book or remembering this in a view week.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Lana.
2,772 reviews59 followers
February 4, 2020
Carrie Summers has once again given us the first book in another LitRPG series which looks to be terrific. Jace a ranger in real life, ends up on the windswept coast of God knows where, starts seeing game stats in front of his eyes and has no clue how he ended up there. Mac, a gaming tester, also ends up a bit away from where Jace had turned up, and when they meet they decide to work together in order to survive. The terrain is rough and brutal, and the dangers which threaten their lives are enormous. They encounter slavers, winter-touched timber wolves and later on many other winter-touched beasts. However they also meet up with two more starborn and a few more NPC's who decide to settle in the same camp. Somehow the game chooses Jace as the leader maybe because his abilities IRL helped him to survive in the wild, whilst pairing with the game savvy Mac and her abilities, seemed to compliment one another and it looked like they might even make this work! They had a lot of challenges ahead of them yet were hopeful. My only problem was with how easily they sort of accepted the fact that they had been kidnapped by a game from their real life and just sort of adapted. I don't think this is very realistic but otherwise I Love the action, the teamwork and the surprises as they all choose their roles in game, and I am looking forward to seeing how the settlement continues to develop and grow, maybe get to see a romance blossom, and who else joins our group of heroic starborn in Ironstead.
Profile Image for Saundra Wright.
2,887 reviews13 followers
February 5, 2020
I always start a new series by Carrie Summers with great expectation. This one delivers, as all the others have before it. Set in the same game world as her Relic Online series, the two are none the less totally independent. LitRPG along the lines of Jumanji, follow four people who find themselves suddenly thrust bodily into the game world.

Relic Online is a totally immersive experience. But playing the game is very different from living there, especially if you were never a gamer. Jace was a back country ranger who spent most of his time alone on the trails. Mackenzie was a game problem solver who literally made her living from gaming. River, a young woman raised to communal life, has never played an online game! Seth, a sullen teen, knows gaming, but never expected to be transported inside one.

These four displaced people find each other and try to make sense of their new reality together. Not always the smoothest of relationships, they will need to learn to work together if they are to survive their dangerous new environment.

Can people from modern society make a go of it in a wilderness game? Is there a way for them to get back to their real lives?

Kindle Unlimited edition
Profile Image for David.
63 reviews4 followers
March 8, 2020
Great new series from a professional author

Love LitRPG, but find the the Trapped in the Game thing played out, and the "real world" stuff a bore compared to the fantasy? Well lucky for you, veteran fantasy and LitRPG author and game industry insider Carrie Summers has turned her talent to Portal /Isekai fantasy, dropping a forest service ranger, and a game QA manager into a fantasy NW coast, and letting them build a new life (and town) without the hindrance of VR pods or a "real world" plot to interfere.

Plotting, characters, editing are all top notch, and none of the cringy stuff do common in the genre. It's a little light on numbers and "crunch" for LitRPG, but that is a matter of taste.

Highly recommend!
Profile Image for Jeff Sabean.
Author 9 books4 followers
March 3, 2020
Amazing start of a new-ish series!

I have read all the Stonehaven League books to date, and so naturally picked up this one because I really enjoy the author’s style of writing and the sarcastic AI comments to the “players.” I figured it would be something completely new, and as some of the game messages seemed similar I just assumed it was because it was the same author. The first NPC to make a Veia reference had me geeking out a bit, and the way the two series are tying together so far was done really well! I can’t wait for the next book to hopefully try to figure out how a game that used to be voluntary became a forced new life for the “players”!
Profile Image for Vincent Archer.
443 reviews22 followers
March 22, 2020
Weird twist on a standard Isekai story.

Spoiler alert. The story starts as a kind of isekai, without the usual death scenarios. People in their normal activity suddenly dropped in a world with a rpg system. The system and the snarky notifications tickled my sense, and for a while, I simply wrote it off as a basic style.



This, alone, promotes me to "consider me intrigued" and warrants an extra star rating.
996 reviews13 followers
February 6, 2020
This should be fun

So This book starts weird in that the MC s(?) Don't know how it why the are in this new world (I speculate death in IRL). This of course leads to a lot of fumbling with the game mechanics as they learn the system. Fun. Though the scope of the first book is narrow I enjoyed what little crafting they did and it seems city building is in the works. I enjoy the other series of the author and the tie in should be fun as well as the explanations for the mysterious arrival. I look forward to the next book hope the wait is short.
Profile Image for David Chubrick.
22 reviews
February 7, 2020
A nice start with possibilities for a good series...

Carrie Summers starts a new series laying out the foundation for an interesting series. As the first book, it move a little slow containing a little action, a little building, and a moderate amount of growth. That's not necessarily a bad thing as she tried to balance things out while setting up Tye series. There's a lot alluded at, directly and indirectly that only time will tell if she can pull together a good news series.

It's not great LitRPG, but there's still a quite good story to be drawn altogether here...
42 reviews1 follower
February 5, 2020
Been waiting on this

This is the book I've been waiting for. Once again Carrie manages to take a simple concept and twist it around to get a new outlook.
A portal fantasy litrpg...
Set in the game world of her standard litrpg...
But with the characters not knowing how or why they are there.
A new set of characters to fall in love with fantastic beginning to what will surely be another amazing series.
Profile Image for Lyndie C..
Author 5 books5 followers
February 5, 2020
Love the flow of the new characters and how they’re trying to figure things out as they go. This series is a whole new adventure, with a whole new set of problems and adventures from stonehaven. Jace is a well rounded leader who is coming into the roll by chance and is learning what it takes to get things going for his group. Excluding spoilers they have a great plan to do thing! Can’t wait for book two to see how this plan pans out!!
32 reviews
February 11, 2020
Started off strong

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book with the survival angle, but then it went went a bit too suddenly into village building and management and ended up slowing down the pace and started to become predictable. I feel like the story never really recovered after that, the MC motivations seemed muddled and the excitement just wasn't there anymore. I won't be continuing this series.
99 reviews
April 7, 2020
A little shorter than I would have liked, but a wonderful LitRPG story that I instantly fell in love with. The world building and character development have made an interesting LitRPG setting and all without the use of huge table for data dumps! The romance element that blossoms through the book feels tasteful and natural, not feeling forced into the story for the sake of it.

All in all, this is a four star that I was [i]not[/i] expecting to come across and I am eagerly awaiting book 2 now!
37 reviews
May 22, 2020
Good story but

I found the story was good, but not amazing, the lead protagonist doesn't seam to think things through, and is unable to lead in any way.
THATS NOT THE PROBLEM WITH THE BOOK.
Gritzwee, is a character met early in the story, and even though he has an OK backstory the way he is portrayed as having this hippy,surfer way of talking ruins the story pace and makes it difficult to read.
128 reviews3 followers
September 21, 2020
Game world is awesome!

I really liked how you spread out all the stats and skills in this world but with the system off beat comments I wish someone would recognize that maybe the system is possibly Veia or the groups benefactor due to how natural the system sounds like an intelligent being conversing rather than a AI logic system. Also think Mac could get a magic power boost or new spirits in the next book or be able upgrade her spirits.
266 reviews3 followers
February 4, 2020
Great series start!

Pretty solid book! Would love to see some of those skill trees that they talk about seeing. Even in a appendix would be fine. Good mix of lit with rpg, great relatable characters. Love the mystery of the world and hope to find out more. Map? Can’t wait for book 2!
106 reviews2 followers
February 5, 2020
Fun great book

A really interesting and fun book with lots of action and adventure and a unique organization of a litrpg series that I found very entertaining and definitely a highly recommended or even a must-read but foremost litrpg fans that like action adventure in a well-rounded fantasy
1 review
February 10, 2020
Nice new series start. I find it interesting (and yet irritating) to discover the system mechanics alongside the characters. I do appreciate that the growth does not explode (Level 0 to 10 in 3 days) but requires time and effort by the characters. Character personalities develop as well which seems to be a Carrie Summers hallmark.
Profile Image for Cameron.
283 reviews9 followers
February 15, 2020
Great start to new series

I love this new series, and the subtle ties to the previous / other series.

It sets itself as a different story very early on, but it is very much a strong story without the connection to the Stonehaven series- but it is a neat component that there is a subtle connection
89 reviews1 follower
February 17, 2020
While this was a fun, well-written story, it didn't quite reach five stars for me. I didn't really connect with any of the characters the way I did with the Stonehaven series. Perhaps it's because this is more of a group story.

I also got a bit tired of people smirking. Every few pages, "smirked" popped up again.
1 review
March 3, 2020
Litrpg is my new love!

The stonehaven series was my first litrpg was time reading this genre of books, and I was hooked instantly! So when I got the notification about this book I preordered it without a second thought and wasn't disappointed.

I've always loved fantasy fiction and have been a game for a long time, so I lose myself in these types of books.
217 reviews25 followers
March 22, 2020
Love it so far...

Was a pretty great story so far but book one ended and not much has happened. Clean story, little splash of romance, and at least 1 good Princess Bride reference (only 1 was good...the others...meh). All in all a fun read in a semi-familiar setting if you have read her other series (highly recommended but also a little slow in the plot progression imho)
Profile Image for Antoine Robert.
Author 8 books9 followers
March 28, 2020
Solid!

Same world as Stonehaven league, but at another point in the story of the universe as well as another location.

Good world building, as usual, nice story line, nice touches with the different dialects spoken by different people (love the skulks dialect!).

The romance story was a bit heavy handed but nothing serious. Looking forward to installment 2.
Profile Image for Drew.
185 reviews3 followers
May 5, 2020
First timer and I enjoyed it

This was a great read and I look forward to more adventures in due course. The book is well paced and I really enjoyed the mix of MC progression and settlement building.

The MCs are interesting and the other characters add to the story so all in all it’s well worth a look and I think you’ll enjoy it.

😁
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews

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