A Touch of Stone and Snow by Milla Vane

A Touch of Stone and Snow (Gathering of Dragons, #2)

by Milla Vane

Milla Vane returns to a world of kings, magic, and passion in her exhilarating A Gathering of Dragons series, as a great alliance forms to stand against an evil warlord intent on their destruction.

Danger lurks in the western realms. The Destroyer’s imminent return has sent the realms into turmoil as desperate citizens seek refuge—but there’s no safety to be found when demons and wraiths crawl out from the shadows. Even Koth, a northern island kingdom left untouched by the Destroyer a generation past, is besieged by terrors spawned from corrupt magics.

When Lizzan leads the Kothan army against these terrors, only to see her soldiers massacred and to emerge as the only survivor, she is called a coward and a deserter. Shunned from her home, Lizzan now wanders in solitude as a mercenary for hire, until she encounters a group of warriors seeking new alliances with the northern kingdoms—a group that includes Aerax, the bastard prince of Koth, and the man who sent her into exile.

Though they were childhood friends, Aerax cannot allow himself to be close to the only woman who might thwart his treacherous plan to save their island realm. But when a goddess's demand binds them together, Lizzan and Aerax must find a way to overcome their painful pasts. Or there will be no future for the western realms...

Reviewed by EBookObsessed on

5 of 5 stars

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A Gathering of Dragons is an epic adventure which gets more addictive with each story.

A Touch of Stone and Snow features Lizzan who  wanted nothing more than to be a soldier. Even when she was a girl and her family wanted her to be a healer, Lizzan knew she wanted nothing more than to protect people, and with the help of a feral prince, she trained and trained until she was accepted into the royal army.  That's what makes the fact that Lizzan was shunned as a coward by her kingdom and her name striken from the Book all the harder.  Lizzan would never abandon her people or her fellow soldiers.   She has no idea why she was the only survivor and no one believes that there were wraiths on an island protected by the blessing of a god.     If it is not bad enough to be shunned by her own people, the battle left her with scars upon her face which resemble the curse that the moon goddess Vela gives to her Chosen who request a quest and fail.  Now every village she travels to shoos her away fearing Vela's wrath.

Tired of fighting everyone's contempt simply for existing, Lizzan decides that she will go to the Vela's temple and request an actual quest.  Problem is that Lizzan was quite drunk when she went into the temple and while she knows that the goddess herself spoke with her, she can't remember if she was given an actual quest or was it just a task but Lizzan does know that when her quest...task?...quest? is fulfilled, her reward will be to die in glorious battle, like in all the great tales, and her family name will be cleared.   She only needs to protect the first person she sees after leaving the temple.  Unfortunately, that person turns out to be the man who ripped out her heart. Then it must be a quest since all quests subject the questor to suffer pain beyond enduring.

Aerax is the bastard prince of Koth.  As a bastard, for years he wasn't even given a name, let along one written in the Book.   He spent most of his life shunned,  The only person who ever said his name was Lizzan.  She treated him not only as a person but as a friend and eventually as something more.  It was just after they were promised to each other, that a plague ripped through Koth, killing most of the royal family and suddenly Aerax's royal blood, bastard or not, was needed and he was taken away to the castle.  Now he has joined with the Parsantheans to help join the western realms in an alliance against the Destroyer.   He allowed Lizzan to get away from him but now that they have stumbled across each other's paths, he is determined never to let her go.  There is just something he must do first.  Something that might just make him a monster in Lizzan's eyes.  He can only hope that once it is done, she will understand that he had to be the one.

Aerax and Lizzan have always been drawn to each other and while she tries to keep him at arms length, they were never very good at staying apart.  And now that they are together again Lizzan is really kind of hoping that her quest really was more of a task because suddenly dying in a great battle and leaving Aerax to suffer alone feels like even more of a punishment than enduring shame.

This was such a great story.  Aerax and Lizzan have such a strong connection.  They loved each other for years, flaws and all and even when they are mad at each other, they can't stay away from each other or even stay mad.  There is just too much history between them.

Lizzan had been drinking a lot to forget all her pain and the goddess demands that she stop if Lizzan is going to take on her quest (task?) and the goddess decides she will purify all the water Lizzan drinks.  Lizzan agrees that she needs to stop  drinking but keeps forgetting and Vela spends the rest of the story turning Lizzan's ale into water.

I also loved Caeb who was a long-toothed snow cat, like a saber-toothed tiger, who Aerax and Lizzan came across as an orphaned cub and the hand-raised him.  He is a very intelligent creature and he is very protective of both of them.   After spending most of his life ignored and shunned by everyone, there are few people that Aerax even cares about except Lizzan and Caeb.  He doesn't get upset by snide comments because no one else matters to him so their opinions don't bother him.  It is funny how both Aerax and Lizzan try to get the other to hang out with the Parsantheans because they both want the other to open up and make more friends.

I did a quick re-read on A Heart of Blood and Ash and while it isn't necessary, we do pick up with some of the Parsantheans who were part of that first story.   There is also references of Blackmoor, who was the feature of the novella in the Night Shift anthology, The Beast of Blackmoor.  Again it isn't necessary to re-read it but I did remember that I enjoyed it and got more out of it this time since I understood the world building better and caught a couple of references in this story that I have forgotten about.

I thought this was going to be a trilogy, and reference to the next story is up on Goodreads, but I am hoping there are even more stories to come because several happenings piqued my interest and I can't imagine we are going to get to all those in the next story and face the coming Destroyer.   I am hoping there is a lot more to come because I am definitely invested in this group and seeing what becomes of them all.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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  • Started reading
  • 21 June, 2020: Finished reading
  • 21 June, 2020: Reviewed