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

by Sara Raasch

[ladygrey]

So the beginning of this book is pretty heavy on world building and description and repetition (wait, did you say there’s eight kingdoms? eight, really? male and female magic bloodlines? oh I missed that the first FOUR times you said it in fifty pages). But once the story gets going (just past the 100 page mark) it’s pretty decent. Note to other authors—action does not replace story. You can throw in a couple of battle scenes all you want but that doesn’t make up for the fact that your story isn’t happening yet.

And the reason the story gets going isn’t the big political conflict of the book, it’s the personal, emotional conflict Theron creates when he shows up. All the tension and dancing and garden confrontations and questions and training ground fights and confronting each other with what’s going on and the truth of everything is the fun part.

Then there’s the revelations which, aren’t actually that surprising. To her credit, Raasch layers them in along the way enough that they’re believable but also enough to tip her hand, which isn’t the end of the world. I mean, this is a YA novel so around page five I was wondering when the main girl would start showing her power .

The whole refuge storyline felt a lot like Finnikan of the Rock. Which is either a very high compliment (though it pales in gravitas by comparison) or it served as inspiration which is less impressive and it’s not just the plight of the exiled kingdom—the false ruler and guardian guy and small band of warrior exiles are all a little too reminiscent of a deeper, more emotional book.

I liked the seasons and the different cultures of each. And the Rhythms and Seasons. I wonder if we’ll see more of the kingdoms in future books. Though I can’t believe Meira didn’t guess why Angra hated Winter so much. I mean, Raasch layers that in pretty heavily too so it should be fairly obvious. And I like the characters. It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of Mather and Meira and Theron in the next book.