Frostblood: The Frostblood Saga Book One (Frostblood Saga, #1)

by Elly Blake

The first in an addictive young adult fantasy trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Elly Blake, perfect for fans of Red Queen and Throne of Glass.

'If there is one epic fantasy series that you pick up next year, make sure it's this one.' - K-BOOKS
'Fast-paced and brimming with magic and intrigue.' - Lori M. Lee, GATES OF THREAD AND STONE

Enter a world where fire and ice are mortal enemies...

Ruby is a Fireblood. In a land ruled by frost, her very existence is a crime. She's spent her whole life in hiding.

Until the day Frostblood soldiers raid her village and kill her mother. The day she swears to avenge her people.

She must travel deep into the heart of the enemy, to the court of the Frost King, with only the mysterious warrior Arcus - a Frostblood rebel - by her side. But with alliances between flame and ice strictly forbidden, is Arcus friend or foe?

Ruby will only have one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who took everything from her. But she has no idea just how hot her fire will burn...

• ISBN10: 1473635179
• ISBN13: 9781473635173
• Publish Date: 12 January 2017 (first published 10 January 2017)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[whisperingchapters]

This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.


I'm so beyond excited I got this book! For one, the cover is amazing! I had wanted to read this before the cover change, so the new cover had me all kinds of excited.

Ruby is a Fireblood in hiding. The king has searched for all Firebloods and then sends them off to face Frostblood challengers, leading them to their deaths. Now, Ruby is possibly the only Fireblood out there and she doesn't even know how to control the fire. When Ruby is discovered, she's taken to a prison, but her stay doesn't last because some Frostbloods rescue her in exchange for her help in taking down the king. With the Frostbloods help among some monks, Ruby starts to train. She even gets a lesson in sword fighting, thanks to Arcus, a handsome young man who for some reason, fears fire and sometimes Ruby herself.

I don't read much Fantasy, usually because it takes me a while to get used to the world-building. Let me tell you that I was hooked right from the start and read this book very quickly! It was so addicting! The characters were what made the story even better. We have Ruby, who has a very sassy attitude that leads her to some trouble, but at the same time, she's strong, brave, feisty, and eager to learn more about her control of fire. I loved that there's a lot of character growth for her. She has quite the temper but along the way, she started to control it and focused her energy on more important things. Ruby really struggled a lot to keep control of her powers, which made her feel real to me.

I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to make sure he was unhurt. I wanted to leave him in the dirt and run away. I wanted him to stop me from leaving.

Let's all swoon over Arcus! Arcus is quiet, grumpy, mysterious and quite the handsome man! Arcus and Ruby first meet when he breaks her out of prison. From the start, these two can't get along. Arcus doesn't trust Ruby because she's a Fireblood and Ruby doesn't like Arcus because he's rude towards her. Along the way, they start spending time together, mostly because Arcus is helping Ruby train, but during these times, Ruby starts to develop feelings for Arcus and vice versa. Their chemistry was so strong, especially with all the banter!

"You don't know the effect your words have on me, Lady Firebrand. It took years to build up this ice. You will melt it and then I will be broken."

I really liked the mythology-like aspect of the story. It had lots of history of the how the Frostbloods and Firebloods came to exist, along with a dark and evil force that makes an appearance later in the book. At times, I would get lost over the history, but it was still quite intriguing and kept me wanting to learn more.

Overall, Frostblood is an addicting and satisfying Fantasy with great characters, quite a few twists that had my mind going crazy, and a fantastic swoon-worthy romance!

I received an eARC from the publisher for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.

[Leah]

Where do I start with my love for Frostblood? Fantasy is still an incredibly new genre to me personally, but it impresses me every single time, the ability authors have to bring you into their imagined worlds is immense. Frostblood is right up there with what I’ve read so far of the Throne of Glass series, it’s addictive, and I finished it feeling immensely satisfied (thank you Elly Blake for not giving us a cliff-hanger ending) but also knowing if someone offered me Fireblood to read RIGHT NOW I would take them up on in immediately. Because I wasn’t done with Ruby, with Arcas, with the world of frostbloods and firebloods. I craved more.

What I liked most about Frostblood was the pace of the book. It zips along at such a fast pace, but it feels entirely natural. You never feel like anything is being rushed, but you’re never bogged down in the details. From Ruby’s mother dying, to her entire village being razed, to her being held prisoner, to her being broken out, it all skips along quick enough to hold your attention and leave you wanting more. The chemistry between Ruby and Arcus is off the charts. They’re enemies right off the bat, with Ruby being a fireblood and Arcus being a frostblood, and they’re mistrustful of each other, but willing to work together to defeat the common enemy: the frostblood king. But as they spar and banter with each other, it just transformed into something more, at the blink of an eye and I was HOOKED. I could feel the tension in the air, and during every interaction, I was sitting, thinking, “KISS DAMN IT KISS KISS KISS KISS KISS.” It made my heart sing, because I love, absolutely love, enemies-turned-friends. It’s intoxicating and written well, it can really get you excited and Elly Blake absolutely nailed it.

I also really liked that the plot wasn’t overly complicated – the mission was simple: Ruby wanted to kill the frostblood king, and with the help of Arcus, and some monks, they would help her do that. It was easy to follow, I could imagine the world in my mind, something I struggle with with fantasy books, and I really, really enjoyed the book. The writing was amazing, the plot was fantastic and leaves a lot open for Fireblood, and the characters blew my mind. The whole idea of pitting frost vs fire was amazing and I genuinely can’t wait to see where book two takes us.

If you like fantasy books, you’ll love Frostblood, I promise. It’s fresh and exciting, the chemistry between the characters is off the charts (if you like that kind of thing, which I do – I lap it up!) and the plot was fantastic. I raced through the book in just one sitting and I can see this being a massive release of 2017 and the sequel cannot come soon enough (and thankfully I only have to wait until September – phew!).

[tweetybugshouse]

For a fantasy novel this novel tends to shy away from the typical first book where it doesn't really spend a whole lot of time setting up the world that the story takes place in which for this one really worked out well for it. You are thrown right into the action and you quickly get to learn bits about the history of firebloods and frostbloods. I really did think that bit of romance that was thrown in was very sweet. This book moves along at very fast pace and do feel that we will get more of glimpse of this world as it begins to take a whole new look then how it started in book one. As enemies are vanquished and king takes the throne what will that mean for these two kinds of powers in a world that been dominated by frost.

[Cocktails and Books]

I've been on a fantasy kick lately and I have to say, FROSTBLOOD was one that surprised me. I was intrigued by Ruby, a Fireblood, who was hidden in a small village and told to keep her gift a secret. As her story unfolded, I wondered how this young girl, who'd lost everything, was going to grow enough to help the brothers and sisters at the monastery in their quest to unseat the king. I should have had more faith in Ruby, because she proved to be the best kind of heroine.

Arcus, the hooded mystery man who rescues Ruby from prison and trains her, kept me guessing. Was he a good guy? Would he be Ruby's downfall. In the end, he was exactly what Ruby needed and someone she had to learn to trust. I'm hoping as we move to book 2, that trust was well placed.

I loved this story and can't wait to see what comes next.

[Chelsea]

** I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This impacts my review in no way at all. **

What I Loved

I had high expectations for this book only because a lot of fantasies have been letting me down lately. A lot of them are blending together and aren’t as memorable as I want them to be. This book exceeded all my expectations and I loved every minute of it! Think along the lines of Throne of Glass mixed with Snow Like Ashes only not as disappointing or predictable. Sure some parts I totally saw coming but most of the book was a happy surprise. It’s a series where I’ll be waiting desperately for the next book.

My favourite part about this book was how all the of characters were described as imperfect. Normally we get the beautiful heroine who can do no wrong and the gorgeous love interest. That’s not the case here. Our main character Ruby, while described as beautiful, has lots of personality flaws. She has a temper and lacks focus but we continue to see her grow as a character throughout the whole book. She learns to (try to) control her temper and she starts to figure out what she’s fighting for. Our love interest (while perfect in my eyes) is a young man with a horribly disfigured face which I loved about him. While it partially fuels his revenge he also doesn’t let it stop him from doing what he knows is the right thing. I have tons of respect for both characters and I’m looking forward to what happens in the next books.

What I Didn't Love

The plot could be a little bit predictable at times though I didn't expect what happened near the end. It also felt like there was some insta-love because it did happen in just a few pages but it was actually months that were going by, it just didn't feel like it. I think I'm ok with that though. It was by no means a perfect book, it was just that the entertainment outweighed a lot of the flaws in this case.

Who I'd Recommend To

I’d recommend this to lovers of young adult fantasy that are looking for something new and refreshing. I personally am getting a little tired of seeing the same characters and plot everywhere so this was a really great book for me to finish. I have hope now for some of the debut authors of 2017. Don't let me down!

[Ashley]

2.5 stars, I guess. Not really sure. I'm so painfully indifferent about it and it upsets me. -.-

Ultimately I just didn't care.

I think my biggest problem was with how the world was explained. The entire plot is built on this story about the gods. But this story was dumped on us in one sitting when the MC stumbled upon a woman telling the story to her kids (as like a bedtime story). The whole thing was just dumped in our laps.

- I couldn't absorb it.
- It was too much info at once.
- We were dealing with like four gods' names and kings names and I just couldn't remember any of them.

... but then they all became important later.

And although we were dumped with too much information about the gods and that history, we weren't really given enough information about the CURRENT stuff. It took me a long time to fully piece together what the king was all about and the CURRENT state of the kingdom. I don't feel like the whole world building was unravelled very well. The pacing didn't work, and we either got too much at once or not enough.

My second big problem was the romance. I started out totally rooting for it. You can still see my status update at 13%:

"Please fall in love."

I was ALL FOR IT!

But then I lost my love for the MC. I decided she was too whiny and I stopped liking her.

Then I lost my love for the love interest. I was excited about him at first, but then his personality just... never developed? He was so... boring? There was just nothing about him that excited me.

Also the blind hated in this book just didn't do it for me. I'm not necessarily blaming the book for this since this kind of stuff totally happens in real life. So yes, it was realistic. But that doesn't mean I have to like reading about it.

Basically there are "frostbloods" who can wield ice/frost/coldness/whatevs.
Then there are "firebloods" who can wield fire/heat.

They're both exactly the same, just different elements. They're both potentially useful and potentially dangerous.

And yet EVERYONE in this whole damn book worships frostbloods because they are apparently awesome, but hates the MC on sight because she's a "disgusting dangerous fireblood". They literally call for her death because they assume she's all evil and horrible.

I just thought it was ridiculous how you have two kinds of people who are exactly the same except for which element they can wield, and yet the entire kingdom blindly loves one of them and hates the other.

Yeah this totally exists in real life with racism, but as I said.. It just kind of made me hate everyone for being so judgemental and I think that affected my overall enjoyment.

=================

Writing this review out makes it look like I hated the book, but I didn't. In the end I actually feel quite indifferent. There are things I didn't like, yeah. But ultimately I just don't really care strongly one way or another.

Honestly there are interesting elements to this story in theory. Something about it just didn't click with me and instead of enjoying all those pieces that I feel like I shouldn't have liked, I just couldn't bring myself to really get invested at all.