Title: Ice Like Fire (Snow Like Ashes #2)
Author: Sara Raasch
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release date: October 13th 2015
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC
Rating: 3.5/5
Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository
You can read my review of Snow Like Ashes - here
It’s been three months since the Winterians were freed and Spring’s king, Angra, disappeared—thanks largely to the help of Cordell.
Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria’s lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity—with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra. But Meira fears the danger the chasm poses—the last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay. So when the king of Cordell orders the two on a mission across the kingdoms of Primoria to discover the chasm’s secrets, Meira plans to use the trip to garner support to keep the chasm shut and Winter safe—even if it means clashing with Theron. But can she do so without endangering the people she loves?
Mather just wants to be free. The horrors inflicted on the Winterians hang fresh and raw in Januari—leaving Winter vulnerable to Cordell’s growing oppression. When Meira leaves to search for allies, he decides to take Winter’s security into his own hands. Can he rebuild his broken kingdom and protect them from new threats?
As the web of power and deception weaves tighter, Theron fights for magic, Mather fights for freedom—and Meira starts to wonder if she should be fighting not just for Winter, but for the world.
Ice Like Fire begins three months after the end of Snow Like Ashes, so we get to see Meira dealing with the aftermath of winning the war against the Kingdom of Spring and freed the citizens of Winter of the concentration camps, those who after 16 years in exile returned to the Winter´s Kingdom to try to rebuild it, but it's not easy because after so many years away and most of the citizens sick and/or malnourished, it´ll take a long time to rebuild, time that the Winter´s Kingdom doesn´t have, due that the Kingdom of Cordell once that helped them throw off the yoke of Spring´s Kingdom, is pushing hard for their pay, it´s exploding their mines trying to find the "chasm of magic", which had been lost for centuries and there is speculation that the "chasm" will give magic to everyone, something Meira is not willing to let happen, because this could create chaos as it once did. Meira embarks on a journey through various kingdoms trying to find allies, besides trying to find the keys of the chasm of magic in order to safeguard them and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
So Meira, Theron, some soldiers and some people close to her make the long journey, visiting different kingdoms and during that trip Theron and Meira start having disagreements with regard to the "chasm of magic" and their relationship it becomes strained.
Ice Like Fire is told from two points of views, the main one being Meira´s, but there is also the point of view of Mather and through his POV we get to see what´s happening on Januari, Winter´s capital in the Meira´s absence.
In this second book of the series we get to know more about the world of Primoria, since Meira travels to the kingdoms of Summer, Yakim and Ventrall, I liked how each realm because they were so different, from their clothes, their physical features and their technological advances.
I felt it was a little predictable or at least I had a bad feeling about what might happen and I was right on almost all my predictions, but I could not help feeling that as the moment of truth approached, some kind of collision that can not be stopped and you just have to sit and watch to happen, despite my protests.
The ending was good but many events happen one after another, some of them I was just processing them when other major event happened. Ice Like Fire it isn´t as good as its predecessor, but it was a good second book and let me hooked to read the next book. Can´t wait to read the next installment.
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Nice! Looking forward to reading this one! Have read a mix of reviews. Most saying that this falls in the dreaded second book syndrome but glad to read that you had more positive things to say about it. Though I do still have my own fears about reading it! LOL! Will do so eventually, just soooo many books to read and so very little time to read them all! Great review!
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