(Frostblood Saga #1)
Publication
Date: January 17, 2017
Hardcover, 384 pages, Little, Brown Books
Genres:
YA, Fantasy
Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a
fireblood who must hide her powers of heat and flame from the cruel frostblood
ruling class that wants to destroy all that are left of her kind. So when her
mother is killed for protecting her and rebel frostbloods demand her help to
kill their rampaging king, she agrees. But Ruby's powers are unpredictable, and
she's not sure she's willing to let the rebels and an infuriating (yet
irresistible) young man called Arcus use her as their weapon. All she wants is
revenge, but before they can take action, Ruby is captured and forced to take
part in the king's tournaments that pit fireblood prisoners against frostblood
champions. Now she has only one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who has
taken everything from her and from the icy young man she has come to love.
Fast-paced and compelling, Frostblood is the first in a page-turning new young
adult three-book series about a world where flame and ice are mortal
enemies—but together create a power that could change everything.
My Review
Another fantasy book has been released upon the young adult
world, and, unsurprisingly, it’s a good one!
Okay, so before I begin, I do have to admit that there are
similarities between this book and other popular fantasy books, but this is
completely okay. The similarities aren’t blatantly obvious and the major
differences are rather huge. However, I would say, for the popular YA fantasy
fans, Frostblood is kind of a cross
between Red Queen and Ruined by Amy Tintera. It’s fast-paced,
full of action, and rife with powered people.
Ruby is one of those powered people. She’s a fireblood,
perhaps the only fireblood now that the king’s wiped them out. While Ruby doesn’t
seem to have a very unique personality, she’s strong-willed, and her fiery temper
that comes about as a result of her powers is rather amusing at times,
especially around Arcus. Arcus is the frostblood who saves Ruby from a group of
the king’s soldiers. He’s also mysterious, emotionally and physically scarred,
and a frostblood. I very much enjoyed him. Although, I’m hoping he gets some
more character development in book two.
As for the plot of this particular story, I managed to
thoroughly appreciate the first half. While the prologue kind of made Ruby’s
imprisonment seem less dire once the actual book began, everything did flow
naturally after that. I felt Ruby’s pain and suffering, and I wanted her to
become a stronger version of herself through her various trials.
However, after the first half, things weren’t as focused.
There’s a bigger emphasis on everyone’s powers, but no limitations are set up
in regards to these powers, so it was a little confusing at times watching Ruby
go from “I can’t throw fire at a bush,” to “I’m spouting out walls of flame
towards this enemy.” Also, the gods aspect along with the magic voodoo going on
kind of threw me off. I was expecting this story to be solely about two races
of powered people, but there ended up being more magic involved. Sometimes, I
was okay with this, other times, it seemed strange.
None of these minor issues really took away from my
enjoyment. It’s a fun book that uses some regularly seen fantasy tropes and shapes
them into a unique storyline. I just hope book two sets up an even bigger world
with even greater stakes. Oh, and there also needs to be a map in the finished
copy. A map would be very helpful.
*Note: I received
an ARC of this book to review from the publisher via Netgalley. This in no way
affected my opinion/review.
I really enjoyed this one, too! I actually liked the second part of the book more than the first because I found it a bit more exciting. I do hope to see some more of Arcus in the next book. I would like to learn more about him. Great review!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it! Did you hear about book two, Fireblood? It already has a cover, and apparently, it's being released in 2017. :)
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