For more romantic-minded readers, the possibility of a monarch love triangle will be all it takes. It's fine in one way - let the romance happen in Book 2 - but in another it reduces once-important characters to very minor ones by the end of the book.Īll those smaller quibbles aside, SNOW LIKE ASHES builds a world many readers will enjoy exploring for a whole trilogy. And then there's the dropped romantic plot line. The small problems run the gamut: some hasty explanations of both major revelations and the details on how this magical world works, some poorly set scenes where you wonder who's where and what's happening. Once readers are roped into the story, they may be forgiving about the less-than-careful way it's constructed. Weaving in magical realms, a race of people nearly lost, and a teen girl's struggle to matter in the fight to save them, this fantasy tale is compelling - when it holds together. In Cordell they find their support of the Winterians comes at a hefty price, one that Meira is not sure she's willing to pay.

Before reinforcements come, they split off and make for the kingdom of Cordell seeking help in their fight against Spring. Meira has been followed back to their secret camp. But there's no time to celebrate her success. After a run-in with Angra's captain of the guard, she runs away with the magical prize. Meira begs to go and Sir William eventually allows her to prove herself. When they finally have a lead on where one half of this source of Winter's lost power may be, Meira's mentor Sir William intends to send someone else to sneak into Spring and retrieve it. They are the only Winterians not enslaved by Spring's evil King Angra and the only ones who have a chance to reclaim a magical amulet Angra stole and split in two pieces. She's been hiding out with seven others, including their future king, Mather, for 16 years. Meira wants to help save the kingdom of Winter more than anything. But the book was still written very well, so I liked it a lot. I was kind of disappointed when Meira was revealed to be the true heir of Winter, with magic inside of her because this is basically what happens in every YA book it seems. Sir and Mather secretly arrange for Meira to be married to Prince Theron for an alliance of their kingdoms, which of course makes Meira very upset. And so he and Meira can never be together, no matter how much they want to be. Mather is her best friend, but he is also the only heir to the throne of Winter, and therefore the future king. And so her weapon of choice is a chakram, which she uses instead of pretending she is good at swordplay. She hasn't beaten her best friend, Mather, in a fight once. Yes, Meira has grown up with sword fighting lessons, but she is awful at it. Yet despite this, Sara Raasch does not make her a heroine with unlimited skills and capabilities. She was raised by the commander of the Winter army and has been learning to fight for years.

Snow like ashes book