Snow Like Ashes #3

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication Date: September 20th, 2016

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Gifted ARC

Pages: 496

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Angra is alive, his Decay is spreading—and no one is safe.

Meira will do anything to save her world. With Angra trying to break through her mental defenses, she desperately needs to learn to control her own magic—so when the leader of a mysterious Order from Paisly offers to teach her, she jumps at the chance. But the true solution to stopping the Decay lies in a labyrinth deep beneath the Season Kingdoms. To defeat Angra, Meira will have to enter the labyrinth, destroy the very magic she’s learning to control—and make the biggest sacrifice of all.

Mather will do anything to save his queen. He needs to rally the Children of the Thaw, find Meira—and finally tell her how he really feels. But with a plan of attack that leaves no kingdom unscathed and a major betrayal within their ranks, winning the war—and protecting Meira—slips farther and farther out of reach.

Ceridwen will do anything to save her people. Angra had her brother killed, stole her kingdom, and made her a prisoner. But when she’s freed by an unexpected ally who reveals a shocking truth behind Summer’s slave trade, Ceridwen must take action to save her true love and her kingdom, even if it costs her what little she has left.

As Angra unleashes the Decay on the world, Meira, Mather, and Ceridwen must bring the kingdoms of Primoria together…or lose everything.

Frost Like Night picks up right were Ice Like Fire left off. Meira and her gang are in the Ventrallan dungeons. She needs to head to Paisley with Rares to learn to control her magic and Mather and his Children of the Thaw are charged with saving the Ventrallan king from his wife who is now working with Angra and is infused with the Decay.

Meira has to learn to control her magic before she will be able to face off with Angra and to destroy all magic in Primoria. She will face a lot of hardships between the beginning of this book and the end where she will have to make a pretty big sacrifice for the greater good. But she does it with grace while leading her people to a brighter future.

This book has betrayal, sacrifice, romance, heartbreak, death, and a little bit of everything in between. This series had a bit of a love triangle in the beginning, but it's definitely not anymore. The romance is sweet and the relationship between Meira and the other guy is nice. I liked the way this was resolved and even though I would have been happy either way, I think that this way was probably for the best. 

This book is told from three points of view Meira in the first person and then Mather and Ceridwen in the third person. If I had to choose anything to complain about in this book, it would be the fact that Meira's training in Paisley felt too conveniently fast. She seemed to struggle with her magic quite a bit before, but she gets everything down so fast, it almost felt pointless to even have her go to Paisley to train.

Also, I thought that we were supposed to get a deeper look into Autumn and Paisley in this book. You DO get a bit of a look into things in Autumn. You see how Autumn weddings and funerals are done, but that's about it. And you really don't learn much of anything about Paisley except some stuff about their magic.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I quite liked this series and this was a satisfying ending. I wish I would have reread the first two before reading this one to have a clearer picture in my head of what was going on, but I think I'll binge read all three when I get a hardcover of this one. I don't think my review really does this book justice, but sometimes I find series finales really hard to review without just spouting all of the events of the book out at you so I hope you get from this that I really enjoyed it!

Have you read Snow Like Ashes or Ice Like Fire? Are you looking forward to this book? What did you think of the first two?

Review: Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch

Snow Like Ashes #2

Publisher: Balzer and Bray

Publication Date: October 13, 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: ARC acquired as a gift

Summary (from the back of the book): “It’s been three months since Winter was freed and Spring’s king, Angra, disappeared. 

Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth Primoria’s powerful — and possibly dangerous — lost chasm of magic. The last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay — so when the king of Cordell orders Meira and Theron on a trip across Primoria to learn the chasm’s secrets, Meira plans to use the trip to get support to keep the chasm shut. But can she do so without endangering the people she loves?

Mather just wants to be free. The horrors inflicted on the Winterians hang fresh and raw in Jannuari — leaving Winter vulnerable to Cordell’s oppression. When Meira leaves to search for allies, he decides to take Winter’s security into his own hands. Can he rebuild his broken kingdom and protect them from new threats?

As the web of power and deception is woven tighter, Theron fights for magic, Mather fights for freedom — and Meira starts to wonder if she should be fighting not just for Winter but for the world.”

I thought that this was a really good sequel. It was a little bit slow, but not in a bad way. Meira is forced to reopen Winter's mines to repay Cordell for their part in freeing Winter, and also to search for the lost chasm of magic which is quickly found. King Noam then forces Meira and Theron to go search for a way to open it. Theron wants to use the trip as a way to create peace between all the kingdoms and Meira wants to gain allies for Winter. 

This book is told in two points of view, Meira and Mather. I was firmly team Theron in Snow Like Ashes, but I think I've switched teams after hearing Mather's point of view. He's not such a bad dude.

I like Meira. She is trying really hard to do what she feels is best for Winter. She's trying to hold herself to the highest standards of queens that she can (if that makes any sense? I couldn't think of a better way to word that). She doesn't think that she can be both Queen Meira and Meira the orphaned soldier girl. She's struggling to find a balance between who she was and who she needs to be.

I quite liked Mather in this book as well. He seems to be struggling to find his new place in Winter now that he is no longer the king. Also, he seems to struggle to accept his parents and his feelings of betrayal after they made him believe he was the orphaned king of Winter for his whole life. He tries to help in little ways that no one really notices. When Theron and Meira leave on their journey, he stays behind and kind of does his own thing to help Winter against the orders of Cordell.

Now for Theron... I don't know. You can't really help but kinda like him because he seems like he's probably just totally adorable and he's so optimistic, but for most of this book I really just wanted to punch him in the throat. He kind of acts like he thinks his cause is more important than Meira's. He kind of uses Meira's search for allies to help his cause without consulting with her and it kind of undermines what she's trying to do for Winter and what he's doing doesn't really leave the impression that she would like with the kingdoms they are visiting... If that makes any sense either... He's just basically a pain in the butt.

I also thought that it was really interesting that you get to see so much of some of the other kingdoms. I feel like this is where the book felt the slowest. You get to meet Summer, Yakim, and Ventralli and learn about their conduits, rulers, ways, and other people of interest within the kingdoms. So after going through that three times, it did get kind of slow, but no less interesting. 

The ending isn't really a cliffhanger, but it leaves you NEEDING to know what happens next! I certainly was not expecting the betrayal and twist at the end!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I would definitely recommend it. And I plan on purchasing this book when it comes out in October (I have had it pre-ordered FOREVER)!