Moving on to the 2nd book of the trilogy immediately after finishing the 1st volume was a no-brainer and from the very first pages, I knew that this would prove to be an exciting journey. Well, ‘’exciting’’ is an understatement actually. In my opinion, this was a rollercoaster of images, of characters and emotions. It was better than that the 1st part of the Winternight series and its atmosphere was more ‘’Russian’’, more faithful to the original legend, more authentic. One of the most amazing things i loved about the bear and the nightingale - its darkness. Without a doubt the book was a visibly darker interpretation of Russian folklore, which made the story alive with images of night creatures crawling in the cold northern winter, growing, even more, colder, if possible, with every nightmare coming alive in the darkness. The other thing that made the first book memorable for me is the cast of characters. None of them was a hero; they had struggles on their paths and it was clear book 2 would continue with the question: what will become of Vasya, Morozko, Konstantin, Sasha and Olga? I was extremely curious about this question as well.