I recently read Frostblood by Elly Blake. I listened to it on audiobook. It is one of those books that starts off a little slow and then grabs me towards the end.
There are three types of people in the word: firebloods, who have naturally elevated temperatures and can create fire, frostbloods, who have naturally cold temperatures and create frost, and those that have no special talent for either frost or fire. Our heroine, Ruby, is a fireblood.
The king is a wicked man who wants to exterminate all of the firebloods. At the beginning of our story, Ruby is caught by the king’s men. In the process, her mother is killed, her village is burned, and she is hauled off to prison.
That would be the end of our story, but Ruby is rescued by a couple of frostbloods who plan on taking down the king. They train her to use her fire powers effectively. Of course, living among frostbloods has its own challenges. Many people don’t trust firebloods.
Throughout Frostblood, we learn the secrets of the evil king and also of fire and frostblood. We also learn more about the people who come to rescue her from the prison. These characters begin to grow on you.
Towards the end of the book, the seeds of a romance blossom, but I won’t tell you who, because it will spoil the surprise. I thought the couple was good together and I can’t wait to read about them more in the next book.
So what did I like about this book? In general, I enjoyed the book. I liked the second half of the book better though. I liked the growing relationship between Ruby and (redacted). I liked how she cared for the people in the monastery she was taken to, and how they also eventually grew to care for her, overlooking the fact that she was a fireblood and they were frostbloods.
To me, the book seemed to start slow. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it was the audiobook format itself. The characters had an English accent, and it just seemed strange. Perhaps it was because the mother died so early in the book that I didn’t really get to know her well. At any rate, I initially didn’t know whether I was going to plan on reading the rest of the series or not. The last half of the book hooked me, however, and I plan on reading the next book in the series.
Overall, this book won’t make my top ten books of the year list, but I enjoyed it anyway.