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Official Synopsis from Goodreads: Fire and Frost; no two nations have ever been so divided. Only two bridges across the great River Gora connects them and their long-standing hatred. When spring comes early the Frost Nation looks upon the Fire Nation with suspicion. Soon they will discover that the rising rivers, warmer temperatures, and the quakes are all a result of something far more terrifying then each other. When the world seems to turn against them they will only have each other to look to. Can they put their differences aside long enough to fix their planet?

Genre: Fantasy
My copy came from: I received a free copy of Frost Burn from the authors! Thank you!

Review: Frost Burn took awhile for me to get into, but I grew to love the setting and the characters. Frost Burn is an interesting fantasy book. I hadn’t ever heard of this book before, until one of the authors emailed me and asked me to consider reading it. I’m very glad that I decided to read Frost Burn as it had adventure and romance, friendship and drama. It was a lot of fun, especially towards the end of the book when the plot all started coming together.

Frost Burn takes us to a fictional world where two nations exist: the Fire Nation, whose inhabitants wield fire magic and cannot be in the cold; and the Frost Nation, where ice magic reigns and no one can take the heat. A large river and an ice wall keep the countries separated.

The leader of the Fire Nation is Queen Darha, who is skilled in using fire magic and is close with her brother Coor and his wife Thea. I wasn’t sure what to think about Queen Darha at first. She always seemed to be on the verge of tears and full of fear, and these are not very promising leadership attributes. But she grew on me as she came into her own, and by the end of the book I was cheering her on. Thea is a warrior who speaks her mind, and I really enjoyed her character, especially once she meets up with Kirill, a commander in the Frost Nation.

The Frost Nation is ruled by the kind, elderly Queen Vesna. Aradel, one of Queen Vesna’s protégé’s, has strong ice magic, and we see a lot from her perspective. Aradel was a perfectly fine character, if slightly bland at times.

The Frost and Fire Nations have disliked each other for as long as anyone can remember, and they begrudgingly trade between each other for goods each country needs. I thought the dynamic between the two nations was interesting, and seemed to be well thought out. The world they live in is changing, and is becoming deadly to both nations, and the two nations must come together to save the world. This plot was fine, and I appreciated all of the geology and climate talk in the book. I wasn’t expecting that and it surprised me in a good way.

In terms of what I didn’t like about the book, there were a few parts that felt a bit “been there, done that”. Like the ice wall separating the countries – it was very similar to A Song of Ice and Fire, and our ice princess, Aradel, even appears wearing a blue dress and her blonde hair braided like Elsa in Frozen. So, little things like that made me want for just a bit more originality, but this is a very minor quibble. Also, some of the conversation felt stilted, and didn’t have an organic feeling to it. This played a part in me feeling somewhat removed from the storyline, especially right at first. I also do think that the book needs a different cover, but I’m not a fan of people being on the covers of books.

So those are my thoughts on Frost Burn, which I did enjoy and would recommend to those who like fantasy novels without a lot of blood or violence. And I was very happy to discover that there is a sequel in the works! I have a couple thoughts (wishes!) on what I hope happens in the sequel.

Bottom Line: Frost Burn is a good, enjoyable fantasy tale. I felt a bit removed from the characters, but I did have fun!

Links to Frost Burn on   Amazon   |   Goodreads

Does this sound like an interesting book? Have you read Frost Burn? Would you rather have fire magic or frost magic?