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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I’m just gonna start by saying this book took me SOOOO long to read, mostly because I really couldn’t get into it. It was such a slow start and it wasn’t until about 2/3 of the way in that I actually was semi engaged... even then it wasn’t that good. The world building was alright but I hated the character development... it was very on the surface, cliche and predictable. On different note, I will be reading the other 2 books in the series to satisfy my curiosity and with hope that they will be slightly better and won’t take me as long to read.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I knew that this was the same author that wrote Switched, so I was familiar with her writing, and was aware this took place in the same universe. I was quite relieved to realize that this took place afterward, and that it was good that I had read Switched first, since this had some spoilers for how Switched ended up.
This story starts out more serious than Switched did. Switched's first book focused mainly on Wendy adjusting to being thrown in to the role of heir of a troll kingdom and trying to keep her love and relationship alive with Finn. Frostfire is about a slighter older girl (Wendy was 17 at the start of Switched, Bryn is 19) who, while she does have feelings for someone, does not want to pursue them (mainly because of her issues with love and relationships, views that are a little too strong for having parents who worked and sacrificed for their love to work out and are even now happy and still in love) and has to deal with the constant reappearances of the man who tried to kill her father. Kanin is worried about due to what that man has done, and while she wants him punished and dead, she feels conflicted because she believes there's more to his actions and there's more at work here than a simple traitor committing more crimes, work that wouldn't end with that traitor's death.
Hocking's writing has definitely improved over time and with every book she writes, and so has her story telling.
Bryn's maturity helps with the reader's opinion of the book. While I am not easily annoyed by characters, and deal with many love-struck or immature characters (comes with reading so many romances, I'm used to it), I thought "You're an idiot" a lot with Wendy. I like her and all, but she doesn't make great choices. That's part of her personality and all, but one could still get annoyed. I only though that once with Bryn, and in the last few pages only. I find her refreshing.
On a different note, we once again are seeing the inequalities of troll life.In Switched, we saw how awful the mansklig were treated and the strict hierarchy, one that Wendy set about improving. In Frostfire, we see it once again, and more so because Bryn faces quite a bit of racism herself, being half-Skojare. It'll be interesting seeing how those social inequalities play more into the plot, how the characters deal with it, and what they do about it.
Also, on an off-handed note, Hocking clearly likes older guys. Every guy in Switched was a few years older than Wendy, even the ones not interested in her. Ridley's a few years older than Bryn. Bryn's father is a few years older than her mother. Hocking has a thing for older guys. Interesting. Kinda makes me think of Sailor Moon, where I think the author also had a thing for older guys. Mamoru was older, and so were the generals.
This story starts out more serious than Switched did. Switched's first book focused mainly on Wendy adjusting to being thrown in to the role of heir of a troll kingdom and trying to keep her love and relationship alive with Finn. Frostfire is about a slighter older girl (Wendy was 17 at the start of Switched, Bryn is 19) who, while she does have feelings for someone, does not want to pursue them (mainly because of her issues with love and relationships, views that are a little too strong for having parents who worked and sacrificed for their love to work out and are even now happy and still in love) and has to deal with the constant reappearances of the man who tried to kill her father. Kanin is worried about due to what that man has done, and while she wants him punished and dead, she feels conflicted because she believes there's more to his actions and there's more at work here than a simple traitor committing more crimes, work that wouldn't end with that traitor's death.
Hocking's writing has definitely improved over time and with every book she writes, and so has her story telling.
Bryn's maturity helps with the reader's opinion of the book. While I am not easily annoyed by characters, and deal with many love-struck or immature characters (comes with reading so many romances, I'm used to it), I thought "You're an idiot" a lot with Wendy. I like her and all, but she doesn't make great choices. That's part of her personality and all, but one could still get annoyed. I only though that once with Bryn, and in the last few pages only. I find her refreshing.
On a different note, we once again are seeing the inequalities of troll life.In Switched, we saw how awful the mansklig were treated and the strict hierarchy, one that Wendy set about improving. In Frostfire, we see it once again, and more so because Bryn faces quite a bit of racism herself, being half-Skojare. It'll be interesting seeing how those social inequalities play more into the plot, how the characters deal with it, and what they do about it.
Also, on an off-handed note, Hocking clearly likes older guys. Every guy in Switched was a few years older than Wendy, even the ones not interested in her. Ridley's a few years older than Bryn. Bryn's father is a few years older than her mother. Hocking has a thing for older guys. Interesting. Kinda makes me think of Sailor Moon, where I think the author also had a thing for older guys. Mamoru was older, and so were the generals.
I love finding books from Minnesota (my home state) writers. Frostfire had such a pretty cover and I thought it sounded a bit of fairy tale, fantasy style, so I gave it a shot.
Likes:
Amanda Hocking has a great writing style. I loved her world-building. At first I was worried that I wouldn't fully understand all the cultures and all of the positions, but I caught on fairly quickly.
World-building is always my number one with fantasy and made-up places. I want to be able to fully understand the structure of the society and envision it easily. When the world-building is well done, I can fall easily into the book and picture what the characters are going through and get wrapped up in a book.
Bryn was an interesting character. She was an outsider from birth, because her mother was from a different tribe and she looked different than the rest of the Kanin people. She was blonde in a sea of dark haired people. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Along with her unique characteristics, she wanted more than anything to be a tracker for her people. It was a hard job and even harder because she was a woman. She had to constantly fight to be better and to prove to everyone that she was able to do the job.
Ridley was one of my favorite characters. He was such a perfect mix of bad boy and good guy, definitely the type of guy that I would fall for in real life. I enjoyed his progression from the beginning of the book to the end and am interested to see where he and Bryn, if it happens, goes.
Gripes:
The whole baby situation in the book was odd. I just couldn't really wrap my mind around the way that was the best option for the community and a reasoning for income. With all their talents I would have thought they could find a better way to survive.
This book was a complete set up for the rest of the series. I knew that I was going to be a bit disappointed with the end when there were so many unanswered questions and only a few pages left. Luckily all the books are going to come out soon, so I only have to wait until May for the next one, but I still like for a story to be a bit more wrapped up first.
For more reviews visit
A Flurry of Ponderings
Likes:
Amanda Hocking has a great writing style. I loved her world-building. At first I was worried that I wouldn't fully understand all the cultures and all of the positions, but I caught on fairly quickly.
World-building is always my number one with fantasy and made-up places. I want to be able to fully understand the structure of the society and envision it easily. When the world-building is well done, I can fall easily into the book and picture what the characters are going through and get wrapped up in a book.
Bryn was an interesting character. She was an outsider from birth, because her mother was from a different tribe and she looked different than the rest of the Kanin people. She was blonde in a sea of dark haired people. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Along with her unique characteristics, she wanted more than anything to be a tracker for her people. It was a hard job and even harder because she was a woman. She had to constantly fight to be better and to prove to everyone that she was able to do the job.
Ridley was one of my favorite characters. He was such a perfect mix of bad boy and good guy, definitely the type of guy that I would fall for in real life. I enjoyed his progression from the beginning of the book to the end and am interested to see where he and Bryn, if it happens, goes.
Gripes:
The whole baby situation in the book was odd. I just couldn't really wrap my mind around the way that was the best option for the community and a reasoning for income. With all their talents I would have thought they could find a better way to survive.
This book was a complete set up for the rest of the series. I knew that I was going to be a bit disappointed with the end when there were so many unanswered questions and only a few pages left. Luckily all the books are going to come out soon, so I only have to wait until May for the next one, but I still like for a story to be a bit more wrapped up first.
For more reviews visit
A Flurry of Ponderings
I was expecting to like this book, but since I love the Trylle trilogy as much as I do, I was expecting for this to come in second place.
I was absolutely wrong. Frostfire was a thousand times better than the Trylle trilogy, and that’s saying something. This is totally different, as the protagonist is a tracker, and the protagonist in the Trylle trilogy is a princess. They are totally different, but they have their similarities.
Frostfire is an amazing book with awesome character development. I don’t think I actually have anything bad to say about this book. Except one thing, but I’ll get to that.
I guess I can say that the villain in this book is Konstantine Black, so I guess I should hate him, right? Well, that’s not the case. I have no idea how, but Amanda Hocking made me love Konstantine with all of my heart. I’m rooting for him, and I did so all the time I was reading the book, even when I had no reason to.
I met him only a couple of times, but he’s got my heart, to put it lightly.
This is absolutely a easy book to read, I read it in one sitting. It’s hard not to fly through this book. You’ll fall in love with the world and the characters, Amanda Hocking makes sure of that.
As this is the spin-off series from the Trylle trilogy I would recommend that you read that first, so that maybe you’ll understand everything a bit better, but you don’t have to do that. I’m sure you can understand everything even if you don’t read that, but it’s really good, so you will definitely miss out if you decide to skip it.
I can’t say that I hate this about the book, but it’s kind of annoying: it stopped right where everything got freaking interesting! I read the last chapter, and when I was done, I flipped the page, fully expecting to read more, and it was freaking done! How is that possible? I’m glad I didn’t read this immediately after it was released, because I’m sure I would have died waiting for the next book.
I was absolutely wrong. Frostfire was a thousand times better than the Trylle trilogy, and that’s saying something. This is totally different, as the protagonist is a tracker, and the protagonist in the Trylle trilogy is a princess. They are totally different, but they have their similarities.
Frostfire is an amazing book with awesome character development. I don’t think I actually have anything bad to say about this book. Except one thing, but I’ll get to that.
I guess I can say that the villain in this book is Konstantine Black, so I guess I should hate him, right? Well, that’s not the case. I have no idea how, but Amanda Hocking made me love Konstantine with all of my heart. I’m rooting for him, and I did so all the time I was reading the book, even when I had no reason to.
I met him only a couple of times, but he’s got my heart, to put it lightly.
This is absolutely a easy book to read, I read it in one sitting. It’s hard not to fly through this book. You’ll fall in love with the world and the characters, Amanda Hocking makes sure of that.
As this is the spin-off series from the Trylle trilogy I would recommend that you read that first, so that maybe you’ll understand everything a bit better, but you don’t have to do that. I’m sure you can understand everything even if you don’t read that, but it’s really good, so you will definitely miss out if you decide to skip it.
I can’t say that I hate this about the book, but it’s kind of annoying: it stopped right where everything got freaking interesting! I read the last chapter, and when I was done, I flipped the page, fully expecting to read more, and it was freaking done! How is that possible? I’m glad I didn’t read this immediately after it was released, because I’m sure I would have died waiting for the next book.
*Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge*
**A Book Published this Year**
Having not read Hocking's 'Trylle' series, I did actually feel a bit lost at the beginning of this book. A lot of stuff was not explained, it was just taken for granted that the reader would know about it. And since this is supposed to be a stand alone series, I thought that pretty ill conceived. But I stuck with it and got caught up with it all. I think. Other than that, I feel that the book was somewhat predictable at times, but not enough to make me not like it.
**A Book Published this Year**
Having not read Hocking's 'Trylle' series, I did actually feel a bit lost at the beginning of this book. A lot of stuff was not explained, it was just taken for granted that the reader would know about it. And since this is supposed to be a stand alone series, I thought that pretty ill conceived. But I stuck with it and got caught up with it all. I think. Other than that, I feel that the book was somewhat predictable at times, but not enough to make me not like it.
I like Bryn even if she's a little too cynical for me. I don't quite buy the her and Ridley romance, I'm honestly hoping for her to hook up with Konstantin. They have way more chemistry. 3.5/5
This book just felt so forced. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the main character, I felt like the drama between her and Ridley was so unnecessary, and it just fell flat. Kinda got Vampire Academy vibes only not as thought out.
Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars
Amanda Hocking's novels just aren't as good since she signed on to write for publishing houses. Being self published allowed her to write what she wanted, nothing more nothing less. Her books have lost the fast paced plots that initially drew me into the world of the Tyrlle, and that is a crying shame. I loved the original trilogy!
The original trilogy had a vapid main character, but I could forgive it in place of interesting things happening every other page. Frostfire, unfortunately, dragged its feet while still managing to give us a self-centered and narrow-mindedMary Sue main character. It felt like nothing interesting happened. Even the "action" scenes had me yawning.
I will not be continuing this series.
Amanda Hocking's novels just aren't as good since she signed on to write for publishing houses. Being self published allowed her to write what she wanted, nothing more nothing less. Her books have lost the fast paced plots that initially drew me into the world of the Tyrlle, and that is a crying shame. I loved the original trilogy!
The original trilogy had a vapid main character, but I could forgive it in place of interesting things happening every other page. Frostfire, unfortunately, dragged its feet while still managing to give us a self-centered and narrow-minded
I will not be continuing this series.
All I can say is that Amanda Hocking is and will always be my favorite author!! I love this book it brings me back to the trylle the first books I ever finished and loved. Because of the trylle and Amanda hocking herself, made me love reading in the first place. Love all her books and this one was amazing I enjoy every second of it!!! Can't wait to read ice kissed and crystal kingdom!!!