Frostblood (Frostblood Saga, #1) Review

Thank you to Hachette Australia for sending me an ARC of this book (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review. 3 stars!!! When I first read the blurb for this book, I was pretty excited. I mean the concept of a kingdom that was divided into elemental powers of fire and ice sounded pretty nifty. However, upon finishing this book, I have to say I am rather disappointed. A major flaw of this book is pacing. It takes forever to pick up. The story progresses at snail pace with half the book just focusing on Ruby training, trying to hone her powers and constantly trying to get revenge. I personally found this very dull. There's also a lot of info dumping regarding the history of Firebloods and Frostbloods which is thrown in during the most inopportune times just to fill pages. I seriously felt like giving up reading half way through. The story does pick up towards the end though and this lead me to give the novel a 3 star rating. With regards to the characters, I wasn't taken up much by Ruby or Arcus. They were rather mundane and not at all relatable. I found the romance to be very cliched as well. With the brooding hero and the girl who gets on his nerves. Ruby's character was redeemed towards the last chapters, fortunately, as I found her to be somewhat feisty and she makes some pretty bold decisions. However, this did not really endear her to me as I had already formed my opinion of her rather early on. The worldbuilding was rather average. It wasn't anything to write home about. I wasn't too impressed with how the powers were described either. However, I appreciated the twists and turns in the final chapters and the battle scenes were nail biting once the story took hold. I honestly wish the author sprinkled some of this throughout the whole novel to take it up a notch. Overall, I would say the story is your run-of-the-mill YA fantasy. They wasn't anything very unique. It does have potential and I will be reading the sequel. I would recommend this one if you are trying to while away your time or if you are looking for something to read in between novels.

#fantasy #youngadult #romance #EllyBlake #specialabilities