Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes #1)
Author: Sara Raasch
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: Paperback
Summary
A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.
Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.
Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.
So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.
Review
I tried really hard to like this book. From the summary, I thought I would really enjoy it. There are eight kingdoms, four Seasons and four Rhythms. Angra, the King of Spring, is determined to destroy Winter. Meira is an orphaned Winterian, one of only eight to escape Spring’s enslavement after the fall of Winter. Raised by Sir alongside Winter’s King, Mather, Meira wants to be a warrior and restore Winter. Sure this plot line is very familiar, and I really thought I would like it, but I just could not get into it.
Meira is strong; she is certainly not the best warrior out there—Mather can easily best her in a fight—but she is determined to restore Winter. All she wants is to be given the opportunity to fight, and she is disgruntled as Sir forces her to stay safe and not go on missions while Winter’s King, Mather, risks his life. (And although the reason for this is the big reveal at the end of the book, by chapter two it was already obvious. No surprises here unfortunately.) While Meira is a likable character despite her occasional bouts of selfishness as one would expect from a heroine in a YA novel, I just couldn’t connect with her, which was odd because the entire story is told from her point of view.
From the very beginning, Meira is in love with Mather, although she knows that because he will someday be king and she is just an orphan, there is no future for them. The few Winterian refugees travel to Cordell, one of the Rhythms, to seek an alliance, and in return for Cordell’s aid to restore Winter Meira must marry Theron, King Noam’s son and heir. (By this point it should be really obvious that Meira is not just an orphan.) Enter love triangle. I’m not a fan of them, but this one was not too awful. Both Mather and Theron are likable, well developed characters, and the most exciting part of the book for me was when the two had a spat, presumably over Meira—though the motivation on Theron’s part in the disagreement is unclear.
One of the weakest parts of the book was all the excessive info dump. While this is expected to an extent in fantasy, there was quite a few history and culture lessons that seemed unnecessary to the book, and they appeared in almost every chapter. A quick summary of the excessive info dump is that the Kingdoms rely on magic, which each kingdom’s monarch is able to access through a conduit and an object. The problem: the Decay is taking over and threatening to destroy the kingdoms by taking over the monarchs and making them do evil things. Winter is a matriarchy and following the previous Queen’s death, Winter is unable to access its magic as Mather, the King, is male and only the Queens have access. Thus, Mather’s only useful purpose of king is to father the next queen of Winter, a gender role reversal that was quite refreshing. Even worse is that Winter’s object, a locket, was broken into parts and taken by Angra. Winter’s King must also have both parts of the locket restored before Winter has a chance of accessing its power again.
Although the plot was nothing I haven’t seen before and very predictable, I enjoyed the writing. It felt a bit flowery and repetitive at times, and the book could have easily cut down to be a bit shorter because of it, but it was overall well written. This was not a bad book, but it was not good either. I simply could not get into the storyline.
Cover: 5/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters/character development: 4/5
Writing style: 4/5
Overall: 3.8/5
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