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Friday, April 15, 2016

Ice Like Fire (Snow Like Ashes #2)

                Hello happy readers.  Another wonderful Friday!  This is my weekend off and despite the tons of things I need to accomplish to be a productive human being I don’t want to do much more than watch some shows, sleep, and read.  Hopefully, I’ll get some good reading time in because I have a million things to read and never enough time.  Today though I wanted to share my thoughts and feels on Ice Like Fire, book two in the Snow Like Ashes trilogy by Sara Raasch which I reviewed here.  There will be spoilers to the first book in this review.

Rating:  5 Stars

                We last left Meira, soldier turned queen of Winter, as she with the help of Cordell’s army freed her people from Spring and defeated their oppressor.  Or so they hope.  Because having learned things about magic no one else had learned, that she didn’t need a conduit but instead IS the conduit, destroying the Spring conduit might have created the same of Angra, though his disappearance is cause for hope that he was defeated.  Still while Winter might be free of chains from Spring she is not yet free.  Winter owes a debt to Cordell, and continues to incur debt as they start to rebuild their lost land.  Meira isn’t happy with the king of Cordell, Noam, and his constant press for more of her land than she wants to give.  He didn’t help out of the goodness of his heart, or because his son Theron cares for it’s queen, but because he wants access to their mines to try and locate the lost chasm of magic.  When the chasm found but secured sets Meira and Theron on a journey of opposing purposes and force Meira to make some tough decisions.

                We get a dual POV in this one both from Meira and Mather.  This is great because we get to see so much more of Mather and what he feels given that the last story one of his short comings in the romance department is he was too good at hiding his emotions but being in his head you see it all.  This also allowed us to see a different part of the new Winter now that Meira is the queen and expected to handle the political aspects, wheeling and dealing as it were, and Mather is down in the grit of it.  They’ve swapped roles in a way.  Also nice seeing the contrast in how she adapts to being a simple soldier to the queen and him from king to simple lord.  The dynamic was interesting to see.  Meira struggling to hold in her impulsive act first talk later kick ass self at bay and be more queenly was interesting.  She isn't used to thinking in terms of politics and her strategies had always been more of the physical kick butt kind.

                We also got a ton of new characters and traveled to different kingdoms.  We had the chance to see into Summer (not a fan), Yakim, and Ventralli as well as seeing Winter which we only saw in glimpses and at the end of the last book.  Ceridwen was a favorite new addition for sure, she is sassy and determined which I admire.  She reminded me a bit of the old Meira before she had such responsibilities edging in on her.  William in this took a bit of a turn for me, while I wasn't always his biggest fan I always respected his choices or the reasons behind them anyways.  He went a little weak to me in this and it was very sad to see, especially the relationship between him and his son. 

                Another character who lost some points for me in this one is Theron.  Now at the end of book one I was undecided on which ship I wanted to ship.  I liked Mather and their past history for sure but I had some issues with how some things were handled.  Then meeting Theron he seemed too good to be true and I genuinely liked him and was almost shipping for him after he came to rescue her.  In the end I wasn’t sold 100% on picking a ship though I swayed more towards Theron.  This book and having Mathers POV among other things swayed me to declare Team Mather!  Still Theron while I respect his hope and optimism he starts out the back irking me almost reverting on everything I loved about him before.  He's pushy and determined to have things his way and doesn't treat Meira as an equal which now technically she out ranked him.  Some things can be explained but the overall items that got to me seemed more in line with his true nature.

                The story was intriguing and while there wasn't as much action, or at least it didn't feel like there was as much, there was so much happening plot wise that it moved along nicely for me.  Trying to figure out the best options alone with Meira while making a list of characters I wouldn't mind seeing killed.  Hey they list got kind of wrong.  There's one quote which kind of sums up so much.
 

                I finished this book excited and ready to go onto the next one but sadly I have to wait.  I'm itching to get my hands on Frost Like Night ASAP because the end of this one is definitely a cliffhanger and so much new stuff has come to light and others we have yet to scratch the surface of.  I wasn't sure where this book was going to go when the last one ended on freeing Winter but it has surpassed my expectations.  I'd love to hear your thoughts and feels down below.  What guy do you think is best for Meira?  Tell me in the comments below. 


                Until next time…

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