Review - Forever Frost (Bitter Frost, Book 2) by Kailin Gow (3/5 stars)

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal
Size: 254 pages
Publisher: The EDGE
Release Date: September 1, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1597488990
Stand Alone or Series: Book 2 in the Bitter Frost Trilogy
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 3.5/5 stars


This is the second book in Gow's Frost trilogy.  It was a bit better than the first book and picks up right where Bitter Frost left off.  If you are into YA books about faerie that have a love triangle of sorts than this may be the book for you.

This book finds Breena exactly where we left her; facing off with the Summer Queen and trying to answer the Summer Queen in a way that doesn't get Breena imprisoned or worse.  The result is that Breena is allowed to escort Shasta back to the Winter Court in exchange for Breena's mother's return to the Summer Court.  As happens with these things, it is not all that straight-forward.  Shasta has fallen in love with a Summer Court Knight (which is forbidden) and Breena's werewolf friend, Logan, may not have actually died like she thought.  Lurking in and out of the story is Kian, the Winter Prince, who is in love with Breena.  Can they stop the war between the Winter and Summer Courts or at least not make it any worse?

I liked this book better than the second half of the first book, Bitter Frost.  Gow does an excellent job creating beautiful descriptions and her writing is easy to read and engaging.

I still have some trouble with how simplistic the fairy world is; we never get much explanation behind the magic, only the politics are explained in detail.  I also think the characters are a bit 2D; they are fairly predictable and type cast.  I keep waiting to really care about them, but have trouble doing it.  The characters all take themselves very seriously (a little light humor here and there would make them seem more real) and they always work so hard to do what's right that they aren't as believable as they could be.

We do get to see more of the Winter and Summer Queen's personalities, and they are intriguing and strong woman.  In fact I thought they were the most intriguing characters in this book.

The story ends right in the middle of things again, leaving us at a huge cliffhanger.  The cliffhanger is such that I will probably read the last book in the series, Silver Frost, to see what happens.  The books in this series have been incredibly short and simple reads; so it doesn't take a ton of time to read them because of that I am able to accept the mediocrity of the world and characters.

Overall this is an okay book.  It is again very short and overly simple; yet the story is engaging and the Queens especially intriguing.  This book is a good read if you want something that is easy to read and doesn't require a lot of thought.  I still feel like there are a lot of YA series out there that are more well done.  Check out the following before you check out this series: Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely (Quality)) series by Melissa Marr, The Iron King (Harlequin Teen) series by Julie Kagawa (absolutely one of the best fairy series I have read ever), Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black, and Eyes Like Stars: Theatre Illuminata, Act I by Lisa Mantchev.   If you don't have any other YA fairy to read, this one is an okay read and for the price of $2.99 on Kindle it is a real bargain.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
 - The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge

Review - Bitter Frost (Frost, Book 1) by Kailin Gow (3/5 stars)

Reading level:Young Adult
Genre:Fantasy/Paranormal
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: The EDGE
Release Date:  June 1st, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1597488983
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Frost trilogy
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 3/5 stars


I should start by saying that I got this book because of the pretty cover and the fairy premise; for $4.99 is looked like a steal and had excellent reviews.   I had recently read both of Julie Kagawa's Iron King books and was in the mood for more fairy court drama.  This book was okay; it could have been great and it did start out really good.  As the book went on though it lost depth and characters started sounding awkward and bored with themselves.  Also it should be noted that this is a very short book; took just over an hour to read it.

Breena dreams nightly about a fairy court and a lovely fairy prince.  It isn't until a boy disappears near her school and is found with human looking bites all over his body that she starts to fear there is more to her world than she knew.  Then one night Breena is attacked by a Pixie, saved by a Fairy Prince named Kian, and forced into the fairy realm that she had before only dreamed about.

This book started off wonderfully; beautiful descriptions, a tough and fun heroine.  As with a lot of these teen books there was a love triangle of sorts; Logan is Breena's protector and is a werewolf, Kian is Breena's fairy prince from long ago.  Kian is a wonderful hero; beautiful, moody, honorable.  The fairy courts are interesting, but after the first half of the book things began to decline.

For some reason about half-way through the book I just felt like things started to fizzle out, which is weird because that is when the action really picks up.  Breena looses her personality and becomes this generic fairy princess; she looses a lot of spunkiness and kind of wanders around whereever people put her.  All of the characters seem to loose their passion and become more like 2D figures being pushed through the pages.  The dialogue was forced sounding and a bit stilted, it just didn't sound natural.  In general the writing just seemed less polished and a bit immature.

There weren't really any surprises in the story it was very predictable and the world Gow created didn't add a lot of creativity to the fairy worlds I've read about before.  Through the whole book I kept thinking...hmmm...this plot is a lot like The Iron King by Julie Kagawa, only 2D and not nearly as well written.

The book is very short, I read this on Kindle, and it took me maybe an hour to read.  It also ends literally in the middle of a scene which kind of irks me.  Of course I am sucker, so I bought the second book, Forever Frost, on Kindle because I just want to see what happens (and it was cheap).  If the 2nd book is written like the first half of this book it will be great; if it is written like the second half I will be banging my head against a wall.

Overall an okay book if you are a fan of young adult fairy books.  There are a number of series out there which are way better than this one though.  I would recommend the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr (not my favorite but still better than this one), The Iron King series by Julie Kagawa (absolutely one of the best fairy series I have read ever), A Modern Fairy Tale by Holly Black, and Theatre Illuminata by Lisa Mantchev.  All of these are better young adult series featuring fairies.  If you have made it though all of those and need a quick read, then for the price, this book is worth it.  It is okay and somewhat entertaining; I hope that the second book is better.

This book goes to the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge Book List
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge