Frost Like Night by Sara Raasch

Series: Snow Like Ashes (bk. 3) Final Book

Genera(s): High Fantasy

Subjects: magic, seasons, winter, royalty, kingdoms, adventure, war, princes and princesses, king and queens, warriors, rebellions, slavery, orphans

Setting: The Kingdoms of Primoria

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, present tense: Meira, and 3rd person: Mather and Ceridwen

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 483 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen: Balzer & Bray

Summary/ product description: “Angra is alive, his Decay is spreading—and no one is safe.

Meira will do anything to save her world. With Angra trying to break through her mental defenses, she desperately needs to learn to control her own magic—so when the leader of a mysterious Order from Paisly offers to teach her, she jumps at the chance. But the true solution to stopping the Decay lies in a labyrinth deep beneath the Season Kingdoms. To defeat Angra, Meira will have to enter the labyrinth, destroy the very magic she’s learning to control—and make the biggest sacrifice of all.

Mather will do anything to save his queen. He needs to rally the Children of the Thaw, find Meira—and finally tell her how he really feels. But with a plan of attack that leaves no kingdom unscathed and a major betrayal within their ranks, winning the war—and protecting Meira—slips farther and farther out of reach.

Ceridwen will do anything to save her people. Angra had her brother killed, stole her kingdom, and made her a prisoner. But when she’s freed by an unexpected ally who reveals a shocking truth behind Summer’s slave trade, Ceridwen must take action to save her true love and her kingdom, even if it costs her what little she has left.

As Angra unleashes the Decay on the world, Meira, Mather, and Ceridwen must bring the kingdoms of Primoria together…or lose everything.”

My Review:  Frost Like Night is the final book in the Snow Like Ashes trilogy. If you have not read Snow Like Ashes, I recommend it to those who enjoyed Frozen, Game of Thrones and books like: Incarnate and The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Crewel by Gennifer Albin, The Jewel by Amy Ewing, Defiance by C.J. Redwine, The Young Elites by Marie Lu and the Red Queen by Victoria Avyard.

Meira is the queen and conduit of the Winter kingdom. She’s trying to find away to stop Angra, the evil ruler of Spring who use the magic of the Decay. Meira is brought to Paisley, the kingdom hidden in the mountains of the north. Rares and his wife offer to train Meira in using her magic. Meira soon discovers that the only way to defeat Angra might not end in a happy ending for. She might have to sacrifice everything to save her kingdom and the rest of Primoria from Angra and this war. With Mather by her side, she feels she can do anything.

Mather would do anything to save Meira from the fate she plans to accept. He really does want to spend his life with her and can’t imagine living without her. Ceridwen is now the monarch of Summer, but cannot use her kingdom conduit because it is male-blooded. She’s trying to save her own people and create new allies. She also wants a relationship with Jesse, but he must first break his relationship with Raelyn, his current wife who’s now under Angra’s influence.

This epic finale is filled with magic and adventure and even all the romance we were hoping for. I will say that I did not enjoy this book as much as the previous book. I’m not a fan of 3^rd person POV and I would have preferred only to have Meira 1^st person POV or have 1^st person perspective of Mather and Ceridwen. Also I was so busy with school, that it takes a long time to finish a book. I did enjoy this series overall and hope to find more unique fantasy series like this one. I’m very happen to see how this series has come so far and to a satisfying ending. I can’t wait to see what other stories Sara Raasch cooks up.

Cover Art Review: I love these cover so much! They are consistent and beautiful. The chakram with the seasons in it is so cool.

Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

Series: Stealing Snow (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Subjects: witches, winter, magic, supernatural

Setting: Up-state New York and another world called Algid

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Snow

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 370 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $18.99

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary/ product description: “First kisses sometimes wake slumbering princesses, undo spells, and spark happily ever afters.

Mine broke Bale.

Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent her life locked in Whittaker Psychiatric—but she isn’t crazy. And that’s not the worst of it. Her very first kiss proves anything but innocent…when Bale, her only love, turns violent.

Despite Snow knowing that Bale would never truly hurt her, he is taken away—dashing her last hope for any sort of future in the mental ward she calls home. With nowhere else to turn, Snow finds herself drawn to a strange new orderly who whispers secrets in the night about a mysterious past and a kingdom that’s hers for the taking—if only she can find her way past the iron gates to the Tree that has been haunting her dreams.

Beyond the Tree lies Algid, a land far away from the real world, frozen by a ruthless king. And there too await the River Witch, a village boy named Kai, the charming thief Jagger, and a prophecy that Snow will save them all.”

My Review:  Stealing Snow is the first book in a new series by Danielle Paige, author of Dorothy Must Die. The book has a very similar subject matter, though rather than being a sequel series to a older piece a literature like Dorothy Must Die, it’s a loose retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson’s Snow Queen that feels kind of like the movie Frozen meet Dorothy Must Die, so it’s more like Snow-King-Must-Die this time. Much like her other series, there are witches and magic. There’s a lot of humor and modernized things in this fantasy world (like a night club and snow mobiles). It take some of the fantasy clichés and bring life to them. It’s a very fun read.

There were a lot of characters in this book. The main character Snow lived in an insane asylum for most of her life and feel abandoned by her mother, who only visits rarely. Snow was sent there after trying to drag a childhood friend through a mirror because she took Through the Looking Glass literally. Snow has pale skin, brown eyes, and white-blond hair streaked with white-gray, supposedly from the pills, but Snow doesn’t think so. She names the different pills she’s given after the Seven Dwarf, which is hilarious since her name is Snow. The asylum has a lot of odd people in it, including Magpie, the kleptomaniac, a girl called Wing who thinks she can fly, and a guy who thinks he can “blink” through time. Then there’s Bale, her boyfriend. He’s a pyromaniac and he tried choking her, so now they’ve been separated.

One night, a mysterious new orderly named Jagger shows up and tells her to go to the Tree. Something happens to Bale that night. He suddenly disappears and she goes outside to the tree and ends up in a world called Algid. There she meets a River Witch named Nepenthe, a young architect named Kai, and a nature witch named Gerd. Snow stays in a house with them for a while so the River Witch can teach Snow to control her snow powers. Kai shows Snow the town and tells her about Algid. Snow learns about a prophecy about a Snow Princess, about herself.

Snow runs into Jagger again, who introduces her to the Robbers, who are all female, except for him. Their queen’s named Margot, there a girl named Howl’s who go a great voice, and a girl named Fathom who Snow saw selling potions when she was with Kai. Margot claims she can help Snow get Bale back, but she must first help them get a piece of the king’s mirror that is with Snow’s cousin, the duchess. Snow trains hard for complete control of her power and learns to be Robber.

Think book was crazy and epic, but sometimes I did get a little confused and disappointed in how things kept changing. I loved the world building for it’s descriptions and crazy colors, but something felt inconsistent, like the technology, but maybe it was just magic. Some things felt to ridiculous and frivolous, which was okay for Dorothy Must Die, because Oz is just a crazy place, but I wanted something more High Fantasy, like Snow Like Ashes and Six of Crows, but as a parallel world. I did enjoy the book and want to read the sequel.

I recommend this book to fans of Danielle Paige, the movie Frozen, Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch, Six of Crows and the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, The Young Elites by Marie Lu, Cold Spell by Jackson Pierce, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, the World Walker trilogy by Josephine Angelini, and any unique YA fantasy series out there.

Cover Art Review: I like the cover, but it reminds me too much of Cold Spell by Jackson Pierce.

Nothing Bad is Going to Happen by Kathleen Hale

Series: No One Else Can Have You (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Realistic Fiction/Mystery

Subjects: humor, comedy, murder, mystery, small towns, winter

Setting: Friendship, Wisconsin (which is north of the Wisconsin Dells) before Halloween

POV/Tense: 1st person present tense. Kippy’s POV.

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 260 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “Geeze Louise, for such a small town, there sure are a lot of murders in Friendship, Wisconsin.

After helping to catch the man who murdered her best friend, Kippy Bushman was looking forward to life returning to normal. Well, at least as normal as it could get in a town like hers. But then the unthinkable happens: Kippy finds her boyfriend, Davey, in his house, barely breathing and surrounded by pills and empty beer bottles.

The sheriff is quick to rule the incident an attempted suicide, but Kippy refuses to believe it. She and Davey are completely in love; there’s no way he’d ever hurt himself. Right?

Kippy swears she saw someone else at Davey’s house that night and is convinced that person tried to murder him. Without any real evidence, though, no one—not even Kippy’s own father—believes her. So she has no choice but to team up with her former nemesis, Bible-thumping Libby, to try to catch this new killer. But in a town where everyone has their own secrets and a next-door neighbor could be a serial killer, who’s left to trust?”

My Review: Nothing Bad is Going to Happen is the hilarious sequel to No One Else Can Have You. I don’t think there will be a 3^rd book, but ya never know. Anyways, despite what other reviewers think, this book was pretty awesome. Maybe they were just being jerks, don’tcha know?

Kippy Bushman was almost murdered and has a leg cast to prove it. She caught her best friend’s killer, but the Sheriff took the credit for it, and made her look like a crazy person. The killer was a friend named Ralph who’s totally a sociopath and now locked up in Green Bay Correctional Facility. He keeps sending her creepy letters and calling her.

When Kippy find her boyfriend passed out on the night they planned to have sex, she calls 911. She think she saw a shadow figure and that no way could Davey commit suicide, but they rule it as attempted suicide because the bottles of alcohol and empty pill bottle. Kippy enlists Libby, a girl who used to be mean to her, but who’s now her only ally, to help her find evidence of Davey’s attempted murder. Filled with mystery, crazy twists and hilarious laughs, it’s the perfect sequel.

This book series is set in (Wisconsin) the hat of the state I live in (Illinois), I place I love dearly and the state that I visited the most. I’ve seen more of Wisconsin than Illinois. And I’m familiar with Wisconsinisms and their love of the Packers and cheese and all that. Friendship, Wisconsin is a real town near Baraboo, which I camped at Devil’s Lake State Park last year. The real Friendship, of course, is nothing like the one in the books.

The humor in this book is my favorite part. Sometimes it’s very dirty and full of swearing and things that make me cringe just thinking of because it sound erotic, but I cracked up reading this so many times that I sure that if I had read this in public, people would be staring at me. I think the characters came along better in this sequel. Kippy seems less strange and more smart than she did in the first book. Libby’s nice to her now and really helpful. Rose, the anger management counselor, is now dating Kippy’s dad Dom. Rosa is so hilarious. She’s Polish and speaks in broken English and calls Kippy by the most hilarious pet names, like Mud Dumpling, and says things like “Soup is on.” I’m like 20% Polish myself and I find her hilarious.

I recommend this series to people who love watching comedies, or reading books by Heather Keeble or Gretchen McNeil.

Cover Art Review: I love the donuts! They’re so cute….until you read the book and realize why they’re on the cover.