Title: Snow Like Ashes
Author: Sara Raasch
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Page Count: 422
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.
1/5 stars
Non-spoilery Review:
It has been quite a while since I read this book, and to be honest the only reason I even finished it was because I was reading it for a book club, so I don't remember everything I liked and didn't like.
Since I'm about to rip into this book (Obviously. I gave it one star.) let's just first mention that I absolutely adored the title, cover, and synopsis. So, let's all the take a moment to appreciate it's beauty.......and good.
I wish this was one of those kind of books that sits on your shelf looking pretty that you say "I'm going to read that soon, I swear" and never get to. But alas, I opened it up and read it, and it was all downhill from there.
I never liked Meira. She seemed whiny, immature, and annoying, and it felt as if the character was being crammed into a "badass female heroine" cookie cutter. Neither of her love interests, Mather and what's-his-face from that northern kingdom, really impressed me either. Every single character followed stereotypical roles in the story, so I became quickly annoyed with the book.
The plot had real potential. After reading the synopsis I was practically jumping up and down in my seat; I couldn't wait to read this book. However, the story was awkwardly paced. Large gaps of time were skipped over just to get to more "exciting" parts that usually left me disappointed.
Oh the romance. I don't hate all love triangles. I probably actually like more than I don't, but I could not stand this one. I had felt a plot twist coming and then when it came I wasn't surprised, just exasperated.
The world building to me was cheap and done solely through info dumps. My main problem with it was that it didn't seem believable at all, and if anything, it was kind of cliche.
What I hated most about this book though was the villain. I forgot his name because I've simply been thinking of him as "Random Evil Bad Guy". He had no rhyme or reason to any of his actions, or at least any that were explained. He just seemed to have one single character trait: "mean". It's cool if a villain is evil all the way through, but I want to know if they are cunning, or manipulative, or greedy, or vengeful, or anything that could possibly make him seem at all realistic
All in all, I was extremely disappointed by this book and will not be reading the sequels.
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(short) Spoilery review:
Obviously, I was so not a fan of this book, and it's been like, 2 or 3 months since I read this, so there's not much spoilery stuff I want to talk about. But that ending though.
The end was just kind of confusing. "Random Evil Bad Guy"'s death felt like it was supposed to be a cliff hanger, but I certainly didn't feel like I was anxious to find of what would happen next. The fact that they returned to Winter seemed too easy, like they hadn't really done all that much, which just made me think that this should have been accomplished long ago.
I don't know, this got kind of nuts and I'm sorry if you loved the book but it really just wasn't my cup of tea.
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