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…
