Frostblood by Elly Blake
Frostblood by Elly Blake
My Rating: 5/10
Would I reread this: No
I really wanted to love this book, but I couldn't. It has such an interesting premise: in a land where people have ice or firepower (or none), frost rules and anyone with fire abilities is killed. The main character, who is a fireblood, is going to train her ability to destroy the frost throne and bring freedom to everyone. Sounds good right? Well not so much, and here's why.
Elly Blake makes everything seem way too coincidental, but the main thing I have a problem with are the characters who are as flat as Texas.
Ruby, our main character, is revealed as a fireblood to her town when a boy she occasionally kissed outed her because his family wanted an excuse for their baby dying. Ruby's mother is killed in the kerfuffle and Ruby is sent off to prison for five months until two amazing frostbloods rescue her because they have a plot to destroy the throne! They take her to a monastery to teach her some magic... Oh no there's a monk who hates her and starts a fire to blame it on her but omg she saves a nun who hated her and now they're buddies. The monk sulks and nothing is heard about him until he goes off two months later to tell the king where Ruby is. And in those two months that passed where Ruby was training we get barely anything. We find out Arcus has burns on his face and somehow he and Ruby hate each other then suddenly they're making out. I felt no connection between the two and yet I somehow think this romance is suppose to be important.
Normally I want to root for the burgeoning romance but there was no time because it was so sudden. If that's not feeling forced to you then I don't know what will. Maybe more context would show you how little connection the characters really had but I'm not going to quote a few chapters. But wait! The king's guard are coming and capture Ruby and she's taken prisoner to the frost castle.
Now let's move on to how amazingly powerful Ruby is. Once captured by the Frost King they pit her against one of his favorite monsters that's never been beaten to test her power. This is all we get of how she defeats it:
It explodes, she wins. What? Seriously, they expect this beast to kill her and her simple random ant not even premeditated act kills it in an instant! Ruby even starts bragging about how she had "beaten incredible odds" and now felt invincible.
Blake's writing style feels very young YA and I might have looked past it when I was younger, but now it just feels like something I could have written that I still think needs more work. For example, what does this even mean?
Which yes, the door was supposed to be invisible but that makes it sound as if it were plainly visible.
The ending was a little lackluster too. Ruby's sort of ally in the castle tells her Arcus is dead just so she can get the anger to not give up and be killed when her opponent in the arena is in fact Arcus who wouldn't even kill her anyways. The whole Minax possession thing is weird too and not even properly explained then we have some back and forth of it going between her and the Frost King. With the help of Arcus and making frostfire they destroy the throne,the Minax, now free kills the Frost King who is also Arcus' brother so now he's king, yay! ... :| Seriously, this book is so full of tropes and coincidences that I was just not entertained anymore.
I can only hope the writing for the sequel improves because I can definitely tell this is a debut author who hasn't quite enough writing experience but does have good ideas. The ideas just aren't executed well enough.
On a final note, I'm now questioning the trust I have in someone's book opinion because they gave this 5 stars on Goodreads...
My Rating: 5/10
Would I reread this: No
I really wanted to love this book, but I couldn't. It has such an interesting premise: in a land where people have ice or firepower (or none), frost rules and anyone with fire abilities is killed. The main character, who is a fireblood, is going to train her ability to destroy the frost throne and bring freedom to everyone. Sounds good right? Well not so much, and here's why.
Elly Blake makes everything seem way too coincidental, but the main thing I have a problem with are the characters who are as flat as Texas.
Ruby, our main character, is revealed as a fireblood to her town when a boy she occasionally kissed outed her because his family wanted an excuse for their baby dying. Ruby's mother is killed in the kerfuffle and Ruby is sent off to prison for five months until two amazing frostbloods rescue her because they have a plot to destroy the throne! They take her to a monastery to teach her some magic... Oh no there's a monk who hates her and starts a fire to blame it on her but omg she saves a nun who hated her and now they're buddies. The monk sulks and nothing is heard about him until he goes off two months later to tell the king where Ruby is. And in those two months that passed where Ruby was training we get barely anything. We find out Arcus has burns on his face and somehow he and Ruby hate each other then suddenly they're making out. I felt no connection between the two and yet I somehow think this romance is suppose to be important.
"I promised you a secret," he finally said, his eyes glittering in the candlelight, "and I can't think of any way to tell you plainer than this."
He took two strides toward me, fell to his knees, and turned my face up to his.
His lips moved over min, the scar on his upper lip feeling pleasantly rough. His touch was tentative, but a shock of pure, toe-curling excitement shot into me. I returned he pressure eagerly.
Normally I want to root for the burgeoning romance but there was no time because it was so sudden. If that's not feeling forced to you then I don't know what will. Maybe more context would show you how little connection the characters really had but I'm not going to quote a few chapters. But wait! The king's guard are coming and capture Ruby and she's taken prisoner to the frost castle.
Now let's move on to how amazingly powerful Ruby is. Once captured by the Frost King they pit her against one of his favorite monsters that's never been beaten to test her power. This is all we get of how she defeats it:
"Without thinking, I pulled my arms free and threw fire into the creature's mouth."
Blake's writing style feels very young YA and I might have looked past it when I was younger, but now it just feels like something I could have written that I still think needs more work. For example, what does this even mean?
"...when a door that was all but invisible in the wall opened."
The ending was a little lackluster too. Ruby's sort of ally in the castle tells her Arcus is dead just so she can get the anger to not give up and be killed when her opponent in the arena is in fact Arcus who wouldn't even kill her anyways. The whole Minax possession thing is weird too and not even properly explained then we have some back and forth of it going between her and the Frost King. With the help of Arcus and making frostfire they destroy the throne,the Minax, now free kills the Frost King who is also Arcus' brother so now he's king, yay! ... :| Seriously, this book is so full of tropes and coincidences that I was just not entertained anymore.
I can only hope the writing for the sequel improves because I can definitely tell this is a debut author who hasn't quite enough writing experience but does have good ideas. The ideas just aren't executed well enough.
On a final note, I'm now questioning the trust I have in someone's book opinion because they gave this 5 stars on Goodreads...
" but omg she saves a nun who hated her and now they're buddies." hahaha, that was so left-field. Great review!
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