I’m back on another blog tour with the Fantastic Flying Book Club, and I’ll admit, this one was really fun. I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, since I’ve had a lot of trouble with demon-y books in the past, and don’t even get me started with necromancy. Not for me! But this book wasn’t that, as it may have seemed from the beginning. This book was so much more! And I’m so happy I got to be part of the blog tour!
In Shadow Frost, Princess Asterin Faelenhart sets out on a mission with a group of companions to hunt and kill the demon that was recently released into the realm. She is able to wield magic like few have ever successfully had the ability to do, and she vows to use her powers to bring down the demon, even though no one has ever returned from such a mission. Her friends are all in it with her, and they set out on a journey throughout the realm together… and both fun and mayhem are had before the big finish.
I seriously had trouble summing this book up because there’s SO MUCH GOING ON but I didn’t want to give away too much. But there’s also lots of snarky conversation between friends, swordfighting, young women defying their roles in powerful ways, wholesome queer rep, and the kind of friendship I LOVE reading about.
This book is so fun, but you’ve got to stick with it, because parts are a little slow while the story builds and it’s a bit long for the first in a series. Worth it though!
3 Things I Loved
- Asterin. She’s pithy and defiant and powerful, but not arrogant about it. She has a super relatable crush on her mentor/guardian that he doesn’t reciprocate. Her best friend is one of her ladies-in-waiting, even though her mother hates it. And she has trouble controlling her temper around people she dislikes, and avoids crowds. (She’s me, but powerful, essentially.) I loved her.
- Orion. Oh Orion. Strong, hard outside shell but gooey, soft teddy bear on the inside. His friendship with Asterin is lovely, and he can tell she has a crush on him but is really nice about it. And he teaches her to be a crazy good swordfighter to boot, among other things. I really liked that he was the first character we met aside from Asterin and loved his characterization in general.
- The crew! I love books with adventuring crews like this. It was reminiscent of Six of Crows in that way, although the missions were vastly different. I’m really excited to read the rest of the series after this first installment!
Dislikes/Problematic Content
As a whole, the book had really good rep, so I don’t have any complaints there. I think the only thing I have to say is the pacing was off sometimes. It started REALLY slow, but then built, and then got slow again toward the end of the middle, and then built up to the end. I’ve seen online that some people weren’t able to push through that slow-down in the middle, which makes me sad, but I totally get. That’s really my only complaint – when you have an adventure fantasy like this, you have to find a balance between character development and pacing. And parts of this book were a little off.
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
I have tons of excitement for this book, as you can see, but upon reflecting on the pacing issues, I’m probably not going to be able to give this book the absolute highest ratings. If people are DNF-ing because of the slowness in the middle, it’s enough to be noticeable, and I’ll admit this book took me more than a week to read. So, taking my excitement and the pacing issues into account, I’m going to give Shadow Frost a GREEN rating. Really good, and if you can push through the slow parts, totally worth it!
Thank you VERY MUCH to the Fantastic Flying Book Club, the publisher, and Edelweiss for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I had tons of fun reading it!
Giveaway and Preorder Campaign!
Prize:
Win (1) of (2) Shadow Frost bundles:
- 1 Hardcover copy of Shadow Frost
- 1 Signed bookplate
- Shadow Frost swag (bookmark and button)
Giveaway dates: October 1-15, 2019
Enter here: a Rafflecopter giveaway
Preorder Campaign: Blackstone Publishing is giving away (1) signed bookplate, (1) Shadow Frost bookmark, (1) Shadow Frost button, and (1) Blackstone Publishing tote bag to the first 150 people pre-ordering SHADOW FROST (Before October 1st). Find more information here: Blackstone Publishing.
Happy reading!
Snark & Squee 