Ice Like Fire (Snow Like Ashes Trilogy, #2)

by Sara Raasch

[readingwithwrin]

"Horrible things have happened to us, are still happening to us, will happen every day for the rest of our lives, probably. What defines us is not our ability to never let them break us--what defines us is not letting them own us. We are the Thaw, and we will not be defeated by memories or evil men."

See reviews first on my blog

The winterians are home at last! But with a whole kingdom to rebuild and very little protection or supplies, they have to accept the help from Cordell in order to survive. Accepting Cordell's help though also made Theron and his father have access to winter, and Theron's fathers ultimate goal to find the Magic Chasm.
The story really starts to take off though in Meira's point-of-view when her and Theron go off on the search to find out how to open the Chasm and in order to form an alliance with the other Kingdoms.
From Mather's point-of-view everything really starts to go downhill when his father accepts an order that is done by Theron's father that Meira doesn't know has happened. This is when Mather decides to take things into his own hands and creates the Thaw (a group of soldiers who continue to fight).

“The Winter we know has always been one of our own creation, a kingdom built on dreams. So you’re right, Feige. We’re all Children of the Thaw. Our own hybrid of the past and the future.”

Overall I really liked this book. Meira ended up growing so much in this book. She realized what she wanted to do and how she was going wrong with so many things. She admitted to her flaws, and was willing to do almost anything to save her people and the rest of the world as well.
We also get to see things from Mather's point-of-view throughout this book. We get to see whats happening in winter, and how things go from okay to horrible all without Meira knowing anything is happening. Because of this I felt like we also get to see more of the world inside winter which we didn't get in the first book.
As for Theron, well he's still the same in my opinion. He wants to do what he thinks is right in order to save the world, all while going behind his fathers back. What ends up happening at the end though I never thought he would be capable of.
Besides the characters we knew story lines we also get to meet multiple news ones as well. We get to see the Summer and Autumn kingdoms and what has been happening in them/ how they're government kind of works. I don't want to say anything more about these because I don't want to spoil anything because that is what really helped make the story for me.
The love triangle that started in snow like ashes, really seemed to end in this one as well at least for me it did. I feel like the choice between the two guys has been made and she might not even end up with either of them. (Wouldn't that be nice for a change.)