My review of Frostblood

Frostblood (Frostblood Saga #1) by Elly Blake
Release Date: January 12, 2017
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In a land governed by the cruel Frostblood ruling class, seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has spent most of her life hiding her ability to manipulate heat and light - until the day the soldiers come to raid her village and kill her mother. Ruby vows revenge on the tyrannous Frost King responsible for the massacre of her people.


But Ruby's powers are unpredictable...and so are the feelings she has for Arcus, the scarred, mysterious Frostblood warrior who shares her goal to kill the Frost King, albeit for his own reasons. When Ruby is captured by the Frost King's men, she's taken right into the heart of the enemy. Now she only has one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who took everything from her - and in doing so, she must unleash the powers she's spent her whole life withholding.

Frostblood is a fantasy tale filled with magic, danger, and a twist around every turn. Blake has created an exciting world that is just at the tipping point of a war narrated by a fiery and strong-willed female protagonist. 

The war brewing in this story is between the Firebloods, those who have power to wield fire, and Frostbloods, those who can control ice. The main character of the book is a Fireblood, one of the only ones left because they have gradually been wiped out by Frostbloods. So immediately we're thrust into a world where our hero, Ruby, is in danger and this had me stressed OUT. 

What I thought to myself was why does everyone have to be in danger? But of course it wouldn't be a gripping book if there wasn't a something to hook you in right at the beginning. Ruby is not the easiest character to like at first, she's stubborn, hot-headed and I did find her quite annoying. But as she learns to harness her gift and develop it with the help of some monks and a mysterious and tortured boy named Arcus, I also learned to love her as well. 

In Frostblood, there is fantasy but there's also a lot of action and a twinge of romance which is what I enjoyed as well. This book reminded me of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, so if you enjoyed those series I'd recommend you try this one out even though the fantasy in Frostblood doesn't feel as rich, but the story line is just as interesting. The romance for me at first was a bit rocky, I didn't know how I felt about Arcus as he was the brooding and rude male interest that you know you'll fall in love by the end but just not sure about at the beginning. Arcus is a Frostblood, therefore seeing him and Ruby get over their hatred for each other and slowly fall in love was really nice. This book definitely has what I'd call a cute romance. I'm hoping that it'll spice up in the second book though, I loved scenes with the both of them in because they have great chemistry and really made my heart happy.

This didn't feel like the most groundbreaking fantasy story to me and the premise of "a war between two worlds with a prophecy saying that could it be stopped by a person born with extraordinary powers" has been used quite a lot in the young adult genre. However, I'm not deterred by this and as this is the first book out of three I do feel like the story has a lot of potential and a lot of exciting and innovative directions it could go in. I did really get hooked into this story and the wonderful world that it offered an escape into as the writing was just brilliant. Blake really brought this world to life for me and I couldn't put the book down, but I do realise that many people might want to be completely knocked off their boat by a crazy, wild and original young adult story and may not want to read a story that kind of has the same premise as a few books already out there. Therefore in that respect this one might not be for you. But if you're willing to let the world suck you in and fall in love with the characters then I do think you will enjoy this book as much as I did. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Frostblood. I would definitely recommend it to those wanting a world that's similar to Throne of Glass or Shadow and Bone. And I'll also recommend this to those of you that may have watched and loved the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender, I think that show describes this book quite well. 

I'm really looking forward to reading the second instalment which will be released in September 2017, so there's plenty of time to pick up a copy and fill yourself in before the sequel is released. I'm hoping Blake will take this into a completely unpredictable direction just as she did towards the end of Frostblood.

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