Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes Trilogy, #1)

by Sara Raasch

[Kait ✨]

I was feeling very blah about this until the plot swerved in a direction I wasn’t anticipating about halfway through. There’s also kind of a huge twist at the end that was pretty cool.

It checks all the boxes as far as YA fantasy goes (great worldbuilding, interesting plot, etc.) and while it felt pretty predictable early on, I LOVED what happened later on when the characters travel to a new location. There’s also a love interest who’s pretty awesome although the love triangle situation felt a bit juvenile.

Also WINTER. I loved that setting. It’s so unique and I love how they had expressions like “By the snow!” etc.

Ultimately though I didn’t really connect with Meira so I found it dragging a bit at times. It didn’t really feel like the same calibre as [b:Throne of Glass|7896527|Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1335819760s/7896527.jpg|11138426], [b:Shadow and Bone|10194157|Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1339533695s/10194157.jpg|15093325], [b:The Girl of Fire and Thorns|10429092|The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns, #1)|Rae Carson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1323448113s/10429092.jpg|13282366], [b:Grave Mercy|9565548|Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1)|Robin LaFevers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320269319s/9565548.jpg|14452295], [b:The Queen of the Tearling|18712886|The Queen of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling, #1)|Erika Johansen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417685148s/18712886.jpg|24267689], and other current YA fantasy series. If you like YA fantasy I would definitely give this a try, but be patient if it feels like it’s being really predictable. Raasch does stir things up pretty nicely but I’m not sure this series will be as compelling.