I remember there being hype over Frostblood by Elly Blake, and the summary peaked my interest, so I picked up the ebook from my library and thought I’d give it a go. It surpassed my expectations and I’m actually really interested in continuing the series!
Blake’s world is really interesting, The concept is deceptively simple. A world divided seemingly between those with Frostblood powers and those with Fireblood powers, where the Firebloods have been hunted almost to extinction by the Frostbloods in power. It’s only logical that fire and frost be enemies, it needs to explaining, but Blake actually gives it to us! There’s a solid mythology behind the world, reasons given for why the Frostbloods and Firebloods are at odds, and I’d love to get deeper into hopefully with the second book in the series. There are gods and beings and they directly influence what is happening and it’s just so great to see a YA story where the author knows what the basis of their world is.
Though it clocks in at 376 pages, it felt surprisingly short for me, which is a good mark of how well the pacing worked for Blake. The book was broken up into various little mini arcs, each with their own tension that subtly built up to the finale. We go from death of Ruby’s mother, to training with the monks, to meeting the King so quickly and fluidly, there simply isn’t time to get bored and lose interest. The downside to this, however, is that we don’t get the time to build the romance between Arcus and Ruby.
Speaking of which, Ruby’s character growth was fantastic and I cannot wait to see her face the consequences of her actions in the sequel. But, what I really want to see is what happens with Arcus. As I said, there wasn’t enough time to build a proper romance, but it was one that I wanted nonetheless. I was excited at the prospect and giddy when eventually a kiss was shared (giddier still when a secret revelation was made at the end, though I had hoped/guessed at it long before). Will Arcus actually be ‘the one’ for Ruby? Or was he simply the one that was there? I’m hoping if he’s ‘the one,’ that we can actually see his character grow, or even just have him better developed. And, well, if he isn’t, then we do get a love interest that can match Ruby.
Frostblood by Elly Blake was a solid start to a new YA fantasy series that combines solid world-building with great pacing and main character growth to create a lovely story I thoroughly enjoyed.
