Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for Frostblood, the first book in the Frostblood Saga by Elly Blake.
I read this book at the very beginning of last year (2020), and ended up binge reading all three books.
Let's get into the review!
Frostblood follows Ruby Otrera, a seventeen-year-old girl who is a Fireblood. In this world, there are mainly two types of people. Frostbloods, people with blue blood who have the power to control ice and are the ruling royals, and Firebloods, people with red blood who have the power to control fire and are oppressed by the Frostbloods. This is basically a story about fire versus ice.
The ruling Frostbloods' main goal is to eradicate Firebloods from the world by either executing or imprisoning them. Ruby has lived with her mother in a village, making sure to conceal her powers. THe two of them live in the village as healers.
One day, Ruby slips up. She uses her magic (which she has done before, albeit successfully still concealing it), and attracts the attention of Frostblood soldiers. Not long after, the soldiers raid her home. The soldiers kill her mother and imprison Ruby for simply being a Fireblood.
She is later rescued by two Frostbloods. A monk who lives at a monastery and another guy named Arcus. Arcus is cold and somewhat callous. He doesn't like Firebloods due to something that happened in his past. The two Frostbloods rescue Ruby because they want her to help them kill the Frostblood king.
Before their plan can fully begin though, Ruby is captured and forced to compete in the Frostblood king's tournaments which pit Fireblood prisoners against Frostblood champions. Ruby must find a way to win and overthrow the king, as well as deal with romantic feelings.
That's what the general plot is. It's interesting, and it hooked me from the first page. The plot twist toward the end of the novel shocked me, as did many of the plot twists sprinkled throughout. I couldn't predict what was going to happen next. Just when I thought I could, it subverted all of my expectations.
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As far as the characters go, I liked all of them. Arcus and Ruby were my favorites, and I definitely shipped the two of them. The banter between them was amusing, and there were quite a few scenes where they acted cute with each other.
Ruby is on my list of favorite female characters for sure, which is a rarity for me, and Arcus is on my list of favorite male characters also (though I'm not surprised; I have more male characters I like than female ones).
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A lot of people compare Frostblood to Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I understand it, however I don't. Yes, the covers are somewhat similar, and the stories have similarities as well, however there are a lot of books that follow a premise where a group of people with powers is being oppressed by another group with different powers.
Even though they are similar in nature, I have so far enjoyed Frostblood more. While I haven't finished Red Queen, I had started reading it last year, and I was so bored. I'll probably go back and finish later, but I for sure like this series better, at least at this moment in time. I liked the characters more, the plot didn't drag, and the setting was intriguing. I just liked this one better.
I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. I saw it as an e-book at my library, read the synopsis, and found it intriguing. I also thought the cover looked pretty cool. So I picked it up. I didn't start this book with any expectations really. I was just expecting a YA Fantasy novel with a pretty simplistic plot and love interest. It was more than that, at least for me.
Overall, I really enjoyed Frostblood and gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. It's an intriguing and fun YA Fantasy/Romance novel. It's one of my favorite books, and I'd definitely re-read it. It was a nice, quick read during a move-in to a new house.
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