Frostblood by Elly Blake

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MerryLove
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Frostblood by Elly Blake

Post by MerryLove »

published: January 10th, 2017 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

pages: 371

genre: YA fantasy

series: Book 1 in the Frostblood saga

This book wasn't bad, but it just wasn't good either. There was nothing in it that felt fresh and exciting to get me invested in the characters. There were a number of reasons why:

1.) The Firebloods vs Frostbloods felt too much like other books, particularly Red Queen. In Red Queen, the Silvers are in a place of power and have magical abilities, while the Reds do not. The few Reds that do have powers are hiding from persecution. In this book, The Frostbloods are in a place of power and have magical abilities. There are not very many Firebloods left because they've been killed. Those that live are hiding among the regular folk from persecution. To add more similarity, this book even has a fighting arena very similar to Red Queen.

2.) Ruby, the main character, is one of the last Firebloods. But wait, there's more! It's not enough for her to just be one of the last of her kind, no. She also might be special, a “chosen one” you might say. Because that's never happened before...

3.) Ruby's time spent at the abbey training for half of the book was very dull. Again, there was nothing exciting going on. Usually there's a good story going on behind the scenes of a training section at least, but this one was rather flat. The training wasn't even exciting.

4.) The racism and animosity between the two main characters (Ruby, fireblood and Arcus, frostblood) is just annoying. Even after spending plenty of time with each other, they both keep stereotyping the other. All firebloods have a lack of self control and will burn the place down. All frostbloods are cold hearted and don't feel anything. It's bad enough to get it from a multitude of other characters throughout the book, but it's especially irritating coming from the two main characters who should know better a lot sooner than they do. It seemed way too past-minded to believe that such an exorbitant stereotype was so widely believed to be carried by all people of that type.

5.) Ruby's “revenge” felt so false. The book never shows the girl to have a vengeful thought, other than “I want revenge.” If the book didn't tell me she wanted revenge, I never would've guessed she did.

Now, giving credit where it's due, the book does get better in the last 100 pages or so. The story starts to become interesting, and the climax becomes intriguing. It's enough that I will probably read the second book eventually. I just won't be rushing for it on release day. While it felt a little more original, it still reminded me of a lot of other books I've read in the last few years.

Rating

I'd give this book a 3 out of 4. While it wasn't a bad read, it wasn't really anything special. This is going to be one of those books that some people love and some people don't. If I was new to YA fantasy, maybe I might have enjoyed this one more. I'll be interested to see how the reviews go on the second book, and from there will decide whether I will be continuing the series or not.
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Meggie Lou
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Post by Meggie Lou »

This is a great review of the novel. It has been on my TBR list for a while and I wanted to give it a shot. I’m moving it up the list now ?
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MerryLove
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Post by MerryLove »

Thanks! =)
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Jaime Lync
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Post by Jaime Lync »

Your review is very informative. I have been wanting to write a story in this genre but it is very hard to write anything truly original. King Solomon was right when he said that there is nothing new under the sun. Most stories are simply recycled. I have read a lot of stories like this as well so I guess I won't be rushing to read this one.
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RLG
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Post by RLG »

I agree with all of these points. Another thing that was odd to me was how fast Arcus (a main character and love interest of Ruby) changed. I almost felt like he was a completely different character from the time that we last saw him at Forewind Abbey to how he was portrayed after his appearance in the arena at the Frost Castle. However, I enjoyed the first two books of the Frostblood Saga and I am just starting to read Nightblood (the 3rd book in the saga.)
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