Book Review: Frostfire by Amanda Hocking (spoiler filled review)

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for Frostfire, the first book in the Kanin Chronicles by Amanda Hocking.

This series is a spin-off of the Trylle trilogy, which I just finished reviewing last week.

Let's get into the review!

As I mentioned in the introduction, the Kanin Chronicles is the spin-off of the Trylle trilogy. Instead of following a royal character, we follow 19-year-old Bryn Aven, a tracker from the Kanin tribe, another group of trolls. 

I checked this book out last March, intending to read it during quarantine. I read it in August of last year, which is fairly late compared to when I checked it out, but I was reading a lot of other things during the time before. 

Even though this is a spin-off, it could be read before the Trylle trilogy. I wouldn't read it out of order just because it would annoy me, but it could be, especially if you don't care much about the other series. 

If I remember correctly, Wendy from the previous series made a cameo in this book. It mainly spoils the events that occurred in Ascend I believe, as well as showing Loki as the person Wendy chose in the previous love triangle. 

If you aren't familiar with some of the characters, it might go over your head, but this is largely a separate story on its own that honestly doesn't have much to do with the Trylle, at least at this point in time. Obviously, since they are both troll tribes, they are mentioned, but since they aren't the focus, it isn't a large deal.

However, one of the main side characters is Ember Holmes, which, if you've read the Trylle trilogy, you'll recognize as Finn's little sister, so as far as the connecting of the two series, that's largely where it comes into play.

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Based on how the story is going so far, I'm going to assume that there is going to be a love triangle between Bryn, Ridley, and Konstantin. Personally, I'm on Ridley's side. I like him. Haven't seen a lot of Konstantin yet, but based on what I've seen, he's all right. He's not great. He's not bad. He's still kind of 'evil' at this point, so I don't know where this is going.

I'm hoping Bryn ends up with Ridley, because he genuinely seems to care about her, and I like his personality. He seems like a much better tracker than Finn (especially when it comes to emotions), and I can say I'm on his side more solidly than I was on the side of Wendy and Finn. Ridley seems more mature for his age. 

I liked Bryn. She was interesting and her actions made sense to me. I can't remember getting annoyed much (which is a definite plus). I also liked Ridley. He was an interesting character who cared about Bryn, which, in turn, made me care about him. 

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The plot is once again very simplistic, but it is distinctly different from the Trylle trilogy. Instead of following a troll princess as she tries to navigate her new life while saving the world, we have the story of a tracker who's goal is to become a member of the King's Guard in order to protect the royal family. In this story, her goal is set back as someone from her past is kidnapping changelings. 

We get to see into the life of a tracker, which I thought was very interesting. I like how Amanda Hocking decided to change up the perspective. Instead of focusing on a changeling from another tribe, we get to read about a tracker who, instead of falling in love with a prince/princess, falls in love with her boss, which is a separate forbidden love story from the one Wendy and Finn had in the Trylle trilogy.

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Another thing I really like about this book (and this series in general), is the cover. The Kanin live in a cold place, so it's only fitting that the cover would be covered in snow. The covers for this series are gorgeous. I had seen these books at my library as e-books, but they were never available because the licensing on them had expired, and I thought the covers were beautiful. I thought the covers for the Trylle trilogy were pretty, but these are even prettier.

I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I really liked the story and the characters. It seems like Amanda Hocking's writing has gotten better since the Trylle trilogy. It isn't the best writing I've read, but it's most definitely better than other writing I've come across.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! 

See you Thursday, 

Lexi K🖌