23 December, 2016

REVIEW: ICE LIKE FIRE by Sara Raasch

Title: Ice Like Fire
Author: Sara Raasch
Series: Snow Like Ashes #2
Genres: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Kindle Edition
Pages: 432

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SYNOPSIS: Game of Thrones meets Graceling in this thrilling fantasy filled with shocking twists and heart-pounding action, the highly anticipated sequel to Snow Like Ashes. This action-packed series is perfect for fans of An Ember in the Ashes and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

It's been three months since the Winterians were freed and Spring's king, Angra, disappeared—thanks largely to the help of Cordell.

Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria's lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity—with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra. But Meira fears the danger the chasm poses—the last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay. So when the king of Cordell orders the two on a mission across the kingdoms of Primoria to discover the chasm's secrets, Meira plans on using the trip to garner support to keep the chasm shut and Winter safe—even if it means clashing with Theron. But can she do so without endangering the people she loves?

Mather just wants to be free. The horrors inflicted on the Winterians hang fresh and raw in Jannuari—leaving Winter vulnerable to Cordell's growing oppression. When Meira leaves to search for allies, he decides to take Winter's security into his own hands. Can he rebuild his broken Kingdom and protect them from new threats?

As the web of power and deception is woven tighter, Theron fights for magic, Mather fights for freedom—and Meira starts to wonder if she should be fighting not just for Winter but for the world.
I read the first book last year and I enjoyed it a lot so at first I was excited to read Ice Like Fire but then I read a few reviews and most of them were kinda meh (3 stars average) which made me hesitant... I tried to lower my expectations. Didn't work.


THE WORLD: Same world as in the last book. There are 8 kingdoms in Primoria. Politics and wars and power. Here is the map:


CHARACTERS: There are so many new characters in this book... and I didn't care about ANY of them. None. Zero. I won't even bother to list them so I'll stick with our 3 main characters. We have Meira of course, Theron, and Mather. Ah, and they're also in a love triangle #cliché. Anyway, Meira in the first book was fine and she had Katniss vibes you know. She was like the badass heroine but in this book she has other responsibilities (saying what would be spoilers from SLA) which makes sense but she is so incredibly boring, whiny, and political geez little did I care for her. Then we have Theron who gave so many Jem vibes, he was sweet and caring and loved poetry and he didn't like the politics involved in being a prince etc. I liked him in SLA but here? Corrupted. OOC. What the heck happened? I just... I'm mad. Finally, Mather... in SLA he was also fine. He didn't actually have much of a personality but he seem okay-ish. Here? whining, complaining, yelling, throwing tantrums, a couple good lines, a couple good remarks, and that's it. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ABOUT THE LOVE TRIANGLE!

LOVE: Annoying love triangle. But like super cliché of clichés.

PLUS: Eerr... the end? The tiny bit of actual plot that was present? I don't know.

MINUS: To be honest. Almost everything. Until the very end all the characters did was travelling here and there for political reasons, whine, get mad at each other, love triangle getting even more annoying, some betrayals... bah, even the betrayals were not a plot-twist. It got more interesting in the end but I wanted to DNFed it so badly. The only reason why I kept going was because I want to finish the series and read the last book (which has better reviews) so... yeah there is that.

Oh, as a small note I didn't remember much from the first book and suddenly a ton of characters started making appearances and I got SO confused. Oh my God my brain was such a mess.

OVERALL: 2 stars. I'm sorry, I didn't like it. I will read the last book but this one has a serious issue with "second book syndrome" :/



What did you guys think about ICE LIKE FIRE?