Frostblood by Elly Blake

Title: Frostblood (Frostblood Saga #1)
Author: Elly Blake
Release Date: January 10, 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 384
Source: ARC provided by Hachette Book Group Canada
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Overall: 3.5 STARS

SUMMARY

The Frost King will burn.

Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has concealed her powers of heat and flame from the cruel Frostblood ruling class her entire life. But when her mother is killed trying to protect her, and rebel Frostbloods demand her help to overthrow their bloodthirsty king, she agrees to come out of hiding, desperate to have her revenge.

Despite her unpredictable abilities, Ruby trains with the rebels and the infuriating--yet irresistible--Arcus, who seems to think of her as nothing more than a weapon. But before they can take action, Ruby is captured and forced to compete in the king's tournaments that pit Fireblood prisoners against Frostblood champions. Now she has only one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who has taken everything from her--and from the icy young man she has come to love.

Vivid and compelling, Frostblood is the first in an exhilarating series about a world where flame and ice are mortal enemies...but together create a power that could change everything.

MY THOUGHTS
Set in a world where ice and fire are mortal enemies, Elly Blake's Frostblood is a thrilling debut for YA fantasy fans! For seventeen years, Ruby has been forced to conceal her Fireblood nature, to suppress all her gifts of flame and heat, in order to survive. Because in a kingdom ruled by a tyrannical Frostblood king, all Firebloods have either been hunted down by his soldiers or fled across the sea. 

Living high in the mountains with her mother, Ruby always felt their small village would escape notice from the king's soldiers. But she's wrong. So terribly wrong. Ruby's mother dies trying to protect her and she's thrown in prison, tormented everyday for months by her Frostblood captors. So when Ruby is rescued by Frostblood rebels wishing to overthrow their king, she has only one thought on her mind: revenge.

If you've read a lot of YA fantasy, I don't think anything about Frostblood will really strike you as innovative, but it's such a fun and addictive read anyways. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love it when there's elemental magic... and that's where this book really delivers. The clash of ice and fire is so fantastically visually described that it really helps bring the story to life, whether it's in the form of Ruby training with Arcus as she attempts to control her powers or later in the king's gladiator-style tournaments.

And the best way to describe Ruby and Arcus? I kept imagining them as Elsa from Frozen and Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, except with their powers reversed. Ruby has been told so long to conceal, don't feel, that it's too dangerous for anyone to know she's a Fireblood, but it's made learning how to wield her fire as a weapon all the more difficult. Where Ruby is impulsive and fiery, Arcus is the opposite. Scarred by terrible burns, Arcus is much more cold and brooding, and guards his secrets closely when he's not infuriating our heroine with his sharp words.

I sincerely enjoyed reading Frostblood, I really did. I just didn't fall in love with the book, you know? I was satisfied and got what I expected, but nothing really surprised me... And I can't quite put my finger on it, but I still feel like I didn't completely connect with the characters. Maybe it was the fast pacing? Or maybe some areas of the book just felt underdeveloped because there was a lot of ground to cover? I'm not entirely sure. But I am very curious to discover what will happen next when the sequel, Fireblood, comes out later this year!