All posts tagged Elly Blake

Fireblood

By Brookelorren on 1 Comment

I recently read Fireblood by Elly Blake. It’s been nearly two years since I read the first book, Frostblood. I liked the story, but I wasn’t enamored with the book (probably because I listened to the audiobook and I didn’t care for the narrator). I read a physical copy of Fireblood so I wouldn’t have those problems.

Because this is the second book in a trilogy, there are probably spoilers for the first book. You can read my review for book 1 here.

Ruby is an anomaly at the frost court. If she didn’t have the favor of the king, Arcus–King Arkanus–she wouldn’t be there at all. Even so, she feels out of place. So when she gets the chance to see the fire kingdom, Sudesia, she takes it. Especially since the fire nation might be the key to destroying the Minax, which is now wreaking havoc in the countryside.

Of course, things aren’t quite as simple as Ruby would hope them to be. There’s trouble at home, Tempesia, there’s trouble in Sudesia, and–there may be a love triangle in this book.

I enjoyed this book and immediately added Nightblood to my TBR lottery. It’s hard to tell whether I liked this book better because I wasn’t listening to the audiobook or whether the book was better, but there was a lot going on in this book from start to finish. And now I want to find out how this ends–because while Ruby meets her goals for this book, there’s another difficulty that arises that she’ll need another book for.

Fireblood is an excellent sequel to Frostblood. It was well-written, had excitement throughout, and I cared about the main character, Ruby. I’m looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy, Nightblood, although I’ll probably wait until I draw its number in the TBR lottery before I read it, since there’s so many other books I also want to read on that list.

Frostblood is a Nice Wintry Read

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

Frostblood coverI 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.