Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

October 23, 2014     erinbook     Book review

Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes #1) by Sara Raasch


Release Date: October 14, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
422 Pages
Received: Bought from B&N on release day.
Format: Hardcover


Rating: 

4.5 Nuts














Description: A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.


Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

Review: There’s a reason high fantasy is my favorite genre. I love being transported to beautiful worlds with complex magic systems and awesome, ruthless villains. That’s exactly what I got here in Snow Like Ashes: beautiful, complex, and evil.

When I first started reading the book I couldn’t help but draw parallels to Throne of Glass. Once I got into it though I stopped doing that, because comparing books all of the time kind of takes the fun out of it. It’s funny how quickly my tastes changed in this book. I loved Sir from the beginning and he was the first character that got an “I want one” from me. I’d love to have a Sir around, but hopefully not yelling at me. I started to like Mather at the beginning but I quickly became frustrated with him as a character and as soon as Theron came along I had the perfect excuse to shun him. Mather just gets on my nerves and I can’t quite figure out why, but long before we met Theron I was rolling my eyes at the guy.

But let’s talk about Theron, because he’s my favorite character. I definitely have a new guy to add to my book boyfriend list because he caught my interest immediately. Why do I have this bad feeling that something bad is going to happen to him? I sure hope not. I don’t want to get into a lot of detail about him because I loved reading about him and I don’t want to ruin that experience for those who haven’t read it yet.

The world building in this book is absolutely stunning, the magic system here is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Sara Raasch obviously put a lot of love and hard work into her world building and it certainly shows. I want to know more about the balance in this world and I assume we’ll get that in later books. I admit, I did predict part of the big twist, but not exactly how it would go down. There are a few bits and bobs that are pretty predictable, but it’s a first book in a series and not everything is so easily figured out.

Fans of high fantasy will enjoy this book a good deal, I certainly did and I have very little that’s bad to say about it. If you liked Graceling, Shadow and Bone, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, or Throne of Glass then this book is for you. And vice versa.

What did you think of Snow Like Ashes? Share in the comments.

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