Snow Like Ashes

so uh. i hated this book.
multiple reasons really but you know, they're all spoilers
-it was really obvious who Meira really was tbh
-i didn't connect or care about any of the characters
-the author writes like an elementary/middle school author and frankly its basic
-author breezes past terms and info dumps later on

oh and also, i really hate these kinds of books now.
Spoiler
like really make the main heroine the missing fucking princess and make her fall in love but say its forbidden like thats so stupid and cliche
what is with YA nowadays? I'm all for strong characters, strong female and male characters, kicking ass and falling in love but this is just taking it too far. also it was so so so so obvious. so obvious. sooo obvious. i'm done reading these kinds of books. no more please.
oh and sorry Raasch, but try harder on your next set of books. you're just like the rest and you don't really stand out.


kkkdkjfkdjkfjdkfj
dnf
will never go back to it

Snow like Ashes

☆☆☆☆

Status: Finished

Type: Trilogy

Series: Snow Like Ashes

When the Kingdom of Winter is conquered and defeated by the Kingdom of Spring, it's up to 8 Winterian refugees to find and fix Winter's broken conduit, save it's enslaved citizens, and take back their Kingdom.

Meira, one of the refugees, longs to do something more than hunt for food. She wants to fight, along with the other refugees. The only person that's stopping her is Sir, the refugees' leader, who refuses to let her fight and help find Winter's conduit. One day, thanks to her best friend, Prince Mather, Sir agrees to let Meira finally help find the conduit and she succeeds! However, this leads Meira to problems that seem impossible to overcome, feelings that she may have for Mather and another prince, and secrets that change Meira's life forever.


I really LOVED this book. At first, I thought this book was going to be super boring and regreted buying it, but it turned out to be one of my favorite books so far. This book deserves way more recognition than it has; It's really good. The cover is very unique and pretty, I love it.

Pros

• I REALLY like the idea of seasons being kingdoms and I love how they each have different characteristics. Like Winterians have white hair and Summerians have ginger hair. Autumn is my favorite.
• I love the refugees determined and fire for bringing the Kindom of Winter back and saving the enslaved Winterians.
•I love the rocky relationship between Sir and Meira. I like reading Meira's struggles and passion to get Sir to approve of her.

Cons

• Yes, there is a love triangle BUT it's really not the main focus. Trust me, you'll barely notice it's there, so please don't let that be discourage you.
• There's about one cliché, but I can't tell you because it may be a spoiler.
• There is a attempted rape scene in this book, just be aware.
• It's a little slow paced at times.

Favorite Character: Theron.

The Cordellian prince is really nice and really helps Meira when she feeling conflicted or confused.

Least Favorite Character: Noam

The Cordellian King is a trickster and a troll. He's very tempered and hotheaded and doesn't care about anything but benefiting himself.


Overall, I rate Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch, four out of five hearts.

I thought this was average. I really liked the magic system. The romance was a bit much, and I didn't love Meira. She is the MC, but also my least favorite character. I liked it enough to see where the series goes.

My first book in English!
I really really loved it! I really enjoyed reading it! I really liked the story, the world, the magic, and also characters were great, I mean protagonists, because antagonists were awful af! I especially liked the trio Meira, Theron and Mather ♡ The writing was great as well.
The book can totaly be as a stand-alone. I give it 4,5/5 ★ because of some violent details, that I hate observing in general. Nevertheless, this book is going to be in my top favourites! ♡♡♡

4.5
There wasn't anything drastically different from most YA fantasy books, but the author managed to make the story enjoyable and exciting to the end.

The characters are quite likeable. I liked Meira's resilience and strength, she was an amazing heroine. Both Mather and Theron were good characters and it made me tolerate the love triangle despite being one of my pet peeves. Although i have to admit that Theron appeals more to me as a love interest.

The construction of the world is intriguing and the plot is constantly engaging. There were too much info dump but i didn't mind that because the world building was interesting enough to read more about.

4/5 to Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Honestly, I loved this book. In every way.
It was interesting. It was fantasy. It had magic. It had battles and wars. It even had love, but not love that came in the way of the plot but furthered the plot, even helped it.
Some things I did not (and still don't) understand are:
- chakras. I think I missed the explanation for this kind of weapon
- the magic the kingdom uses is in or comes from a mountain??
- hannah can talk through magic but isnt she.. dead?
But I read the last 100-200 pages rather quickly - too quick perhaps so maybe i've rushed past the connection.
The writing style in the book is pleasant and simple (not sure if it's really the words) and reads nicely.
Meira is also a character I love though most characters in this book were absolutely loveable.
For the romance,
my vote is absolutely on Theron and I hope it will stay that way actually.
Also if you're a tad smarter than me the twist can be guessed from early on in the book (especially after a certain point) but I personally think there's nothing wrong with that

Let's see how winter does in ice like fire :)

3.75 stars.
It took a while (and a second try after a few years), but it finally kicked off and got interesting towards the middle. It was quite predictable, so that's why it doesn't get the last 0.25 of the fourth star.

This is such an extraordinary world and I can't wait to start the second book! Unfortunately, it's too late tonight to do so, but this is definitely going to be one of my all time favorite trilogies!

The world-building in this book is fascinating. At first, it seems like yet another YA novel about displaced royals trying to win back their kingdom, but this royal is in much more dire straits than most. Meira is a refugee living on the run with seven others, one of them her rightful King. All the rest of their people have been enslaved by the conquering country, and their kingdom's link to the magic inherent in the land has been broken.

A little backdrop is needed. In Meira's land, there are eight countries. The Rhythm countries, where seasons proceed as normal, and the Seasons - 4 countries locked in one season each. The rulers of each country have a magic conduit that lets them feed magic to their people - but the conduits are gender-locked. In four of the countries, only women can use the conduit; in the other four, only men. Meira and her little band are all that's left of the free people of Winter. Spring invaded sixteen years ago, killed Winter's queen, broke the locket that was their magic conduit (each ruler has one) and enslaved their people. Because the queen only had a son, he can't wield Winter's magic anyway. They're still trying to find the two pieces of the locket so when he has a daughter, she can wield it. You'd think at this point, since he's of age, he should be trying to get as many women pregnant as possible to up the odds of getting a royal heir who can wield the magic, but that...doesn't come up.

The book does delve into the country's people being oppressed, used as slaves, and being incredibly abused by the conquering country, and this is where I ran into a quandary. The Season's people reflect their countries: Autumn's people have copper skin, Spring's citizens are blond-haired and green-eyed - and Winter's people are white. Pale skin, snow-white hair, blue eyes. Writing white people as the oppressed people just rubs me the wrong way. (In that false “help I'm being oppressed because other people want equal rights!” kind of way.) Yes, this is fantasy, yes, it has nothing to do with our world's politics - but it bothers me. It's at least not white-savioring, as Meira's trying to save her own people, but I don't know. Is it better or worse to write white people as the oppressed protagonists?

That question aside, this was a well-written novel of fighting against an oppressor. There is definitely still work to be done at the end of the book, and there are two more books, as well as two short stories. While I am a little curious what ultimately happens, I don't know if the series has earned more time on my reading list.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

So I picked this up as I was in the mood for some quick, exciting YA fantasy and it did not disappoint!

We follow Meira who has been brought up amongst a very small group of soldiers/refugees from a kingdom which, along with their magic, was wiped out during a war 16 years ago. The group discover a way to possibly get their magic back and Meira decides she wants to complete this task and make her mark so the story goes from there.

One of the things which really work in this book are the characters - Raasch writes insanely likeable characters and you are immediately connected to them and root for them throughout. I love Meira as a main characters, I like her strength and determination, and I also like that she did need to learn and grow and move past her insecurities as the story progressed. She wasn't just “plain Jane” one minute then a superstar the next, there was genuine growth. I also appreciated that her insecurities were about her place in the world and how she could impact the lives of those around her, rather than about image, physical appearance or men!

The setting and history of the kingdoms was enjoyable and I can already see (or I'm hoping!) that the books will build on the politics between the kingdoms, which is a theme I really like in fantasy books. Half of the kingdoms are based on the seasons, so of course I got major ACOTAR vibes from this but that is a good thing as I really love the ACOTAR series!

All in all a solid fantasy series which I'm very excited to continue with!

3.5*

I'm glad this series has fans, but I found it to be the same old, same old. We have yet another special snowflake with the makings of an insta-love triangle (although I'm not buying that 1. Theron and Meira could even know each other enough to be in love and 2. Mather even feels that way toward Meira, sorry-it didn't come through.) There is a mostly unexplained, one dimensional big bad. There are all of these rules for magic that the reader has to accept and then watch as they unwrite themselves (I find this a common trope in high fantasy anyway).

Chapter 12 is the YA straight girl equivalent to a fan service spread in a manga chapter.
I did love the line on pg 235, “Spring is coming” HA!
I liked the gypsy feel of the beginning of the story.

I really liked this: “Is it possible? To be both what Winter needs and what I want? Instead of fighting for ONLY what I want, or surrendering to ONLY what Winter needs, to find a balance between the two?” pg 192
How refreshing to see such a level of maturity in a pretty stock character.
Bonus points too for not shoving it down our throats how attractive Meira is.

I don't care enough to continue the series, but I'm glad it's finding readers. It's a little Game of Thrones-lite for my taste.

Review to come

A quick read
surprising twists
and an interesting premise.
However, there was
unnecessary telling and
the world building as well as the
characters needed more
depth.

I wanted to give this book 5 stars, I really did. But I honestly cannot since I figured out the thing half way through the book. I also am not a fan of the continued love triangle throughout the book. I guarantee it will heat up even more in the second book. Other than those two issues though, this book was amazing.

There was so much world building and history to the world and I enjoyed every second of it. Sara Raasch did an amazing job immersing us into her world and the characters' lives. It was fascinating to learn the history of the different kingdoms and how everything came to be the way it was.

I also really loved the characters in this book. Meira, Mather, and Theron were each unique and struggling with what the world handed them and I really liked getting to know them and how they dealt with everything in their own way.

This book was a great mix of world building and action all woven into this great fantasy world. I devoured this book reading it basically in one setting. And I cannot wait to continue on with the series in Ice Like Fire.

The book had a slow start, but it picked up greatly at the end. I'm normally spot-on with my predictions, and I don't if it was because of Sara Raasch or my summer cold, but I was definitely shocked! Very excited to read the second book.

I really, really wanted to love this book. I loved the little prequel, [b:Icicles Like Kindling 23304663 Icicles Like Kindling (Snow Like Ashes, #0.1) Sara Raasch https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-4845f44723bc5d3a9ac322f99b110b1d.png 42859855], and I was really excited to start Snow Like Ashes because of the glimpse into Meira's early life... only to end up in disappointment.This book is by no means bad. The world, as in the setting of the story, is amazing, but the world-building itself is lackluster. I'm not sure if that makes any sense. Does that make any sense? I love the world, the land of Primoria. It has eight kingdoms. Four of them—the Season kingdoms—have only one season all year round, while the other four—the Rhythm kingdoms—have the rotating four seasons. I think it's brilliant. Each kingdom has unique traits and culture, and it really gives off the fantasy feel that I love in books or games. BUT. When it comes to the actual execution, there's not enough details to completely bring this world to life... and so the beautiful setting becomes a bit flat.Another thing that bothered me was Meira, the heroine. She's fierce and strong, true, but she's also immature, reckless, and awfully—I repeat, awfully—whiny. She often disobeys orders and throws tantrums, putting not only herself in danger but also everyone around her. What I dislike the most is how Meira often acts like this to advance the plot. At first it felt like a very convenient coincidence during her Lynia mission, but then it happened again in Cordell. In exactly the same way. I actually liked her complicated relationship with her father figure, Sir, but the tantrums she throws at him irks me most of the time. It was, however, understandable in some situations, and Meira does grow as a character as the story progresses.Actually, this book has a lot of situations that are too convenient to be true. It's made very clear right from the beginning too. Like how a councilman rambles about information he's not supposed to say, just so Meira can figure out the locket location. Or how Herod put Meira, a captive, onto her own horse and left the locket piece dangling nearby, just so she can snatch it and runs off. This isn't even all of it. Convenient. Way too convenient.Complaints aside, the plot starts picking up at around 50% through the book. That's when it finally started getting exciting for me, and I mostly enjoyed the rest of the story from that point on. There's a love triangle, but I fairly liked both of the guys. Especially Theron. Man, he's just so fascinating and has some of the best interactions with Meira. I feel that we still don't know much about him and Mather though, so I expect to see more depth in the second book. Also, there's the twist. It was predictable especially if you pay attention to Meira's dreams, but I quite liked it. The matriarchy in some of the kingdoms felt refreshing too.I love the concept and the setting.I wanted to love this book, really.But in the end, 3 stars is all I can give. ;_____;