Snow Like Ashes

Title: Snow Like Ashes
Author: Sara Raasch
Series: Snow Like Ashes #1
Pages: 416 (hardcover)
Published: October 2014 by Balzer + Bray
(All links lead to the books' respective Goodreads pages)

Summary: 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.

My Thoughts: I'm kind of new to the world of the fantasy genre, and just so y'all know, I loved getting out of my genre-comfort zone with this book. Anyways, let's talk about how BA our main character Meira is. When I first started reading, I had no idea what a chakram was, which is Meira's weapon of choice, and upon further investigation it's what's on the cover of this book, too. I think it was the little details like archery and chakrams and other weapons that added a little more flavor to the epic battle scenes.

The world building at the beginning was a little bit of an info-dump especially when it came to the royal conduits, which harbor magic.  Each of the four Rhythm kingdoms has one and each of the Season kingdoms has one except Winter whose conduit was destroyed by Spring's king, Angra. And each of the conduits is gender specific so, for example, only a female heir can control Winter's conduit and only a male heir can control Spring's conduit. It took me way longer than I care to admit to grasp this concept but hey, I'm new to this fantasy epic world building jazz, give me a break.

That's not to say that the world building wasn't good. No, the world building in this book was downright amazing. I loved this concept of Seasons being kingdoms, and even the Rhythms were fun to read about just to see how much they differed from the Seasons. It was so completely original to me and I couldn't get enough of it.

Now for the characters. Meira was a great, sassy heroine who don't need no man to fight her battles because she's a warrior in her own right. And when you get about three fourths of the way through the book, you really get to see her come into her own and shine. Mather was stoic, angsty, and broody most of the time which almost became tiresome, but I think the author Sara Raasch knew where the line was between broody and whiny and she never once crossed it with Mather. And then there's the Cordellan prince, Theron, who let's face it is quite the hottie with a heart of gold. I'm team Theron, what can I say.

With the characters and the awesome action scenes, it was easy to look past the info-dumpy beginning and I ended up truly enjoying this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to jump into the great escape that is the fantasy genre but still wants to read a good YA book. Also, I neeeeed it to be October 15th yesterday so I can finally read the sequel to this novel, Ice Like Fire. And I would like to thank this book for properly introducing me to the fantasy genre. I look forward to reading more of your ilk.
My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars