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Omen of Ice by Jus Accardo

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billies_not_so_secret_diary's review

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Omen of Ice
by Jus Accardo
Omen of Ice #1
Fantasy YA
Scribd (Everand) Audio
Ages: 16+

After training for most of her life, druid Keltania has finally got her assignment. She is to be the bodyguard to the heir to the fae's throne, Valen. But at court, she finds that he does not want her, and the stories about the Winter Fae and their court were exaggerated.

There is a reason Valen doesn't want her following him around everywhere. He is hiding two secrets: one from his people, and the other from everyone. But the rumors of one of his secrets have already spread, and now the people either want him dead or to use him.

But one day Valen discovers a third secret, one that could shatter the fae's and druid's alliance, and he knows if he tells Keltania, he could lose her.

The chapters are split between Keltania and Valen as they relay the events from their points of view, which overlaps as the next character picks up from where the other left off. I did like the story, Keltania came across as very naive, and as intended Valen was very self-centered, while he did have a reason, I felt his actions were overdone.

For a person trained as a bodyguard, Keltania made mistakes that should've gotten her fired, but the only punishment was what she said to herself.

The two secrets Valen was hiding were interesting, and keeping them hidden was understandable, but the third that he discovered, I figured it was going to happen at the first mention, so there was no shock.

As for the audio, I didn't mind the female narrator, but the male, he spoke way too softly, and his overly dramatic laughs and noises were irritating. I imagined Valen as an outspoken loud male, not the husky whispering want-a-be the narrator was coming across as.

Overall, I liked the story. It was a simple read, kept to the plot, and the romance wasn't graphic, instead sweet and simple, though there could have been some more backstory about Keltania and her childhood. There were bits and pieces, but not enough to make the reader really understand her life and what she was taught.

Valen's life was the typical heir, so there wasn't much need for depth in his upbringing.

I think readers 16+ would enjoy this simple fantasy read.

3 Stars

ellejo3's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I wanted to love Omen of Ice. The concept and the world mythos were interesting, and the OwlCrate edition is stunning. Ultimately, it suffered from the same core flaw as other books from Entangled Publishing in that it needed more developmental editing. If you like other books from Entangled and the concept intrigues you, you might like this one. However, if Entangled books frustrate you, you probably won't like this book.

The tone was inconsistent. I hate the "this YA book read as YA" comment, but with this one, the tone kept shifting drastically from New Adult to Lower Young Adult. For instance, Valen is 19 and sometimes engaged in typical behavior for a 19-year-old (drinking, sex, etc), and then at other times, he sounded like an insufferable 13-year-old boy. The writing style was also inconsistent. At times, it felt like it fit into a fantasy world of the fae, and yet at other times, modern vernacular was used, which felt jarring.

This book is advertised as enemies-to-lovers, but Keltania and Valen are definitely not enemies. At best, there's mild dislike. Valen's "disdain" for Keltania is rooted in the fact that he feels guilty that his last guard died because of him and doesn't want anyone else to suffer the same fate. He's rude to her but feels guilty for it. While Keltania finds his personality off-putting, throughout the entire book she repeatedly states that she'd die for him. Also, crucially, they're attracted to each other right from the start in a way that overwhelms whatever distaste they have for each other.

More characterization was needed. Keltania and Valen had the potential to be great characters, but ultimately I thought they were bland and one-dimensional. They lacked the motivation to drive the story and ground their actions. Keltania's only real goal was to keep Valen safe, and Valen's only real goal was to not repeat the same mistake as his previous guard.

Later, their shared goal was to unlink themselves, but even that felt low stakes until we learned that Valen's magic was harming Keltania

They both needed to want something bigger and then have something get in the way of that personal goal.

For instance, Keltania was separated from her mother and brothers at birth and spent her entire life training to become a guard to the Fae, yet it didn't affect her at all. Exploring that was a missed opportunity. It would've been interesting to have her resent that she was separated from her family to serve the Fae. She could have wanted to find her mother and brothers, which would've put her at odds with her duty to protect Valen. This would've created more tension and could've given Keltania more of a reason to dislike Valen - i.e. she resented him because she resented her position.

When Valen suggested she try to find them, Keltania said she wasn't interested.

Or maybe she could've disliked something else about her position like the fact that she had to receive the heartbreaker sigil, preventing her from ever falling in love. She needed to care about something, though. Her one-track-minded "protect Valen at all costs" stance got boring.

Meanwhile, Valen was the typical lazy party boy with no real ambition or goals. It seemed like he was trying to be Cardan Greenbriar, but he lacked Cardan's complexity. His mother was murdered when he was an infant and his aunt and uncle use him for his magic, and yet it doesn't seem to affect him. His shift also isn't explained or justified.

He spends the entire book saying how he never wants to take his uncle's place as lord, despite being the heir. Naturally, he becomes the Winter Court lord, but the book never really tells us why he's embracing the role when he spent so much time not wanting it. What changed to cause him to embrace it? It was the character arc I expected, but that didn't ground his choice. A great motivator here could've come from seeing so many people in the Winter Court suffering while his uncle refused to help them. But Valen sees this and refuses to interfere.

Because the characters lacked depth and drive, I didn't care about them. The only reason I didn't DNF this book is because it was such a fast read. I also kept trying to find something to like about it because of how pretty my edition is.

Due to the lack of characterization, at times the characters made decisions that seemed to exist purely for the sake of the plot. This is particularly true when it comes to the dynamic between Keltania and Valen. Their shifts were so sudden and dramatic that it gave me book whiplash. The characters' actions needed to be grounded more.

The book also lacked stakes. Each time a danger presented itself, the conflict was dealt with easily in just a few pages. A lot of the book felt like a string of these scenes pieced together. When threats are defeated within a few pages, they lose steam. I was never worried that something bad could happen to anyone.

Some inconsistencies should've been caught during the editing process, or at least explained further.

For instance, when Valen meets his father, Delkin asks if Valen's mother is alive too, only to later tell Valen that Orbik, his maternal uncle, killed his mother, only to later say that Delkin spent the last 19 years not knowing what happened to her. This inconsistency could've been prevented by saying that if Valen's mother died, then her uncle had to be the one responsible based on past attempts. Another inconsistency is the fact that Valen becomes the new Winter Court ruler when his father, the rightful ruler, is right there. Why didn't Delkin take over? It's not because the people wouldn't trust him given that the curse making everyone forget him was broken.

It's so frustrating whenever I read a book that has a lot of potential and the pieces to make it great are all right there, but falls short because the publisher's business model is to publish books at a rapid pace instead of investing time in editing. Ultimately, I think Entangled books aren't for me. However, I would try another book by the author at a different publisher because I think she has interesting ideas and the world here was really intriguing. This one just needed more developmental editing.