Coco Ma

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley and in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The first word that pops into my mind to describe Shadow Frost is “indulgent”.

This isn’t, strictly speaking, a bad book. It’s relatively entertaining, but it’s extreme and predictable. It has that Disney-esque quality of good triumphing over evil. The characters are highly powered with limited training and few show more consequences. There were some pretty cool ideas in the skeleton of this novel, but I just didn’t believe it. At all.

And, yeah, okay, this is a fantasy and requires suspension of disbelief. I get that, I really do. But I also have a problem with characters who achieve the highest levels of power so quickly. While I don’t mind a runaway royal here or there having her own adventures (hello The Storm Crow) I have a difficult time with multiple royals running around without interference and doing dangerous things. Like – no big deal if you, the only heir dies! We’ll figure it out! The lack of rules and consequences holding the characters in this world made it so they could run around doing whatever they wanted.

For me, that’s a deal breaker. I love beautifully crafter worlds. I want to see the characters grow and fail and overcome and struggle beautifully. Without consequences, these characters had no apparent growth. The love stories came quickly and too easily. The friendships were uncomplicated. I wanted more depth to these people besides dead parents and lightning fast reflexes.

The one thing I wanted so badly to experience in more detail was the magic system. At the beginning of the book, I felt like Coco Ma had this beautiful, complex, fascinating magic system. Especially in the first chapters, I expected to see more about how this worked, and learn alongside the princess and she struggled to gain control. But that, too, fell aside. The reader was given a once-over of the rules of magic and the rarity of the different types, just enough to follow the plots… then everyone became rare magical experts real fast. I was so disappointed.

In as far as the plot goes, nothing surprised me. There were a lot of things going on to the characters, to the point where it seemed like the author wanted each character to have an equally, dramatic storyline. This novel had six different POVs and a complicated world-building system that was introduced in awkwardly timed flashbacks and a lot of telling.

Please don’t misunderstand – I didn’t hate this book. I think that the ideas in Shadow Frost were fun and interesting, and the characters had potential. But it felt raw and underdeveloped and I expected more. I was disappointed, but I believe that those less thoroughly read in epic fantasy would enjoy this one a lot. It was written as though it was an HBO series, with romance and adventure and fight scenes. There’s an audience out there for Shadow Frost, but it fell a bit short for me. show less

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, there were some really solid aspects I could get behind and on the other hand there were a few very glaring, critical flaws. On the whole though, the writing was well done. The world building was decent BUT the character development was spotty and the character dialogue was excruciating...especially the zero to 100 I hate you nope wait that's Love I feel...yup, definitely Love and I happen to love you more than anyone or anything in show more my entire world...GRRRRR!

There were 6 POVs, which can make things messy if not done well. Here it was slightly disorienting but otherwise it flowed rather nicely.

Princess Asterin, one of our MCs, was a fairly competent female heroine if not a tad oblivious, obnoxious and annoying. She had a tragic backstory, which made her compelling yet her powers (like many characters in this story) were mastered WAY too easily. For me, this is a BIG no no and throws up all sorts of red flags, deep sighs and dramatic eye rolls. I like when my characters have to work hard and earn their achievements as well as deserve their "True Love's" desire (which works both ways). It's just more satisfying that way. Asterin's best asset, however, was her ability to pull people... especially powerful people...into her personal gravitational field and garner a deep sense of loyalty and protectiveness from them.

One such valiant protector was Quinnlan. Quinnlan had a yummy yummy gooey center surrounded by a rather fickle hard, prickly shell of PTSD from years and years of abuse at his father's hands... a much (re)visited, almost to the point of projectile nausea, character defining anchor point in his tragic backstory. I was torn between wanting to kiss his damaged psyche to bits, bitch slapping him... the pages and chapters of wide eyed mooning was a bit much to digest... or jumping into trouble just so he could rescue me, damsel style. BUT unfortunately, I am not fictional and Quinn... well Quinn's state at the end of the book is a detail I won't discuss... spoilers and all...but only time will tell.

A couple of MCs that enjoyed were Rose and Harry. Rose was practically (a bit too) perfect in every way. She was a badass magic wielder, fighter, strategist, friend, cousin and all around MVP. This type of star player that can do no wrong and is awesome just by breathing can and will irk me in large doses. Thankfully she was more of a side character and thus it wasn't as glaring and painful to witness. Harry, on the otherhand, was a surprise for me. When we first heard about him I thought he'd be a stereotypical bad guy that we'd be preprogrammed to despise BUT I ended up loving him. He was loyal, endearing, and more emotionally fragile than one would think.

Overall: I wish I could rave about this one I really do. The synopsis ticked all the right boxes for me but ultimately, in my humble opinion, it was spectacularly middle of the road Meh. The characters were almost always predictable and their dialogue was extremely sophomoric. The love matches seemed trite, stilted, forced and clunky at times BUT even so, they also managed to be sweet at other times so there's that. The plot had too many convenient or easily foreseen twisty turns for my taste. BUT on the bright side, the story's writing was strong. It did seem like the author knows how to write very well but when it came right down to the heart of the tale, the meat and potatoes were lacking compared to the well crafted prose. The latticework of ideas was solid and the writing was good but the rest fell short for me... except for Harry...BUT alas, a Harry (or a barrel of Harry's, although that would admittedly have been a MUCH different story) does not a cherished novel make. I wish it did.

*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *** show less

I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review. This is the first book in the Shadow Frost trilogy and I really enjoyed this adventure fantasy.

This story jumps between a number of different characters. The initial character we meet is Asterin, a princess of Axaria, who has strange magic powers. She discovers that her magic powers may be what helps her kingdom destroy a terrible demonic beast that is plaguing the kingdom. She ends up going on a journey with some of her guards and show more friends to complete the task.

I loved the adventure, magic, demons, and action in this story. There is some romance in here too to balance things out nicely. I really enjoyed all of the characters and the dialogue. I loved the magic and the history behind the different types of magic. This was an incredibly engaging read that I breezed right through.

My only complaint with this story is that it jumps between different characters very quickly. This worked well for the story and was done in a way that never got confusing. However, it made the story feel kind of sloppy and the whole thing felt a bit “ad lib” and not well planned out.

Overall it's been awhile since I read a fantasy I really got into and enjoyed! I loved the magic, adventure, intrigue, and romance in this book, but did think that the story was put together a bit sloppily. Still don’t let that stop you! This is a very engaging and fun fantasy adventure. I would recommend to those who enjoy adventure fantasy with some romance. show less

This is a tale of a band of adventurers who have to defeat an evil and it's a shock to them when they discover who it is. It's a book that shows that the author has promise and I will be watching their career.
Asterin Faelenhart is a princess of Axaria and heir to the throne and she goes on a mission to defeat a monster who is laying waste to villages and their homes. This demon is tricky and as they investigate they discover a plot to kill the princess. Fixing it all is going to unravel a show more lot of plots and they will have to learn to trust themselves and others.
Interesting read, sometimes a little cliched but shows promise. show less