Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Ok where do I even start?! I love every bit of this book! The world building was very straight forward, while parts could have been a bit more detailed, I am hoping for a continuation of the story. The characters are fantastic. I can not explain how much I love Asterin. Our fierce warrior princess is smart, cunning, and fun. She has flaws, and doubts, but there is also character growth. Quinlan and Rose, visitors from another country, have just the right balance of mystery, questionable trust, and some adorableness thrown in for good measure. Orion, this sweet boy. I see some serious back story to him, and major growth coming. His storyline is really open ended, and seriously I'm gonna need there to be a book 2. Eadric is like a long suffering parent to all of them and it's great. Luna, man her character development gave me some whiplash in the best way. Basically these characters are all adorable, I loved them all. The journey to save their land could have had a bit more action, but the last hundred pages were just crazy with action and plot twists galore.

The magic system was really good and easy to grasp and well developed. Honestly this book wraps up in a way where it could work as a stand alone, however I REALLY REALLY hope there is a second one because it is so open ended and I need some closure! Go add this book to your TBRs! If you like magic, cute boys with sass, and some squad goals, plus intriguing villains, I highly recommend this book.

What a great YA fantasy novel. I always love a well-written female protagonist. Asterin was fierce, loyal, and sassy in a fun loving way.

She was surrounded by a great cast of characters. All with their own strengths and weaknesses. What I truly enjoyed was watching everyone's growth as the tale unfolded.

Coco Ma knows how to do twists well. She blends in nicely ones you expect, ones that are slightly hinted at, and some completely unexpected. This keeps the reader on their toes not knowing if what they expect will be what actually happens or not.

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. The way the ending crept up I assumed this would be stand alone, but there will definitely be a sequel and I can't wait for more in this story of Asterin and her friends.

Shadow Frost was a surprisingly great read after a rocky start.
At first I was rolling my eyes because our heroine, Asterin, is able to pull off the special magic of her people with ease. It seemed like she was your typical YA chosen one and I wanted more of this book.
But Asterin grows on you as the events move on and some great characters show up to bring the story to life.
Even the so-called monster gets a chance and there are some great moments and unexpected turns.

The only thing that didn't sit well with me was just how quickly Asterin and a certain someone fell very deeply for each other. At first, there is some great banter and some dislike but soon it's an I'll-die-for-you trope, at least for one of them. I would have loved for a little more teasing as it was so much fun with those two.
Therefor, the storyline of the other two characters that developed feelings for each other was handled well. But I won't give away who they are since it's beautiful to watch them working out their feelings.

Overall, I had fun reading Shadow Frost and it's stunning if one realizes how young the author was when she wrote this.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this ARC!

Oh man. I tried. I REALLY tried to enjoy and get through this book, but I just couldn't. I made it halfway through when I finally had to give up. I'm so disappointed especially since most of the reviews online were RAVING about it! What I found to be lacking was just the cliché tropes that were covering the majority of this book. The plot was forced as well as the characters' relationships and motives. Everything seemed extremely rushed and not believable. "Oh, we're suddenly supposed to go along with this rushed and forced relationship now?" Yeah, no. I wish I could have loved this one more, especially since it had all the elements I usually LOVE about YA fantasy, but, alas, it was not meant to be.

I was enjoying this story very much, especially the relationship between Asterin and Orion but I'm having a difficult time reading with the format being all messed up on ebook. I'm giving it 3 stars because of this. I don't want to ruin the rating but I also don't want to give it 5 full stars without reading the full book. I am grateful for the opportunity to read this and will be getting a copy once it is released.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing and eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.


Shadow Frost is a book I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, it is an interesting new fantasy story, written by a 15 year old (!!!), with a lot of potential, on the other hand, it is quite inconsistent and full of clichés.
I going to try not to spoil anything, as the book comes out in a couple of months, so my thoughts might not be explained fully.


The book starts off amazing. It really captured my attention from page 1. The writing is beautiful, too, and it makes it hard to believe a 15 year old wrote it, which is even more impressive. Yet, with every chapter the book becomes more clunky and all over the place.
Shadow Frost is a high fantasy, with kingdoms, magic and a princess as a main character – Asterin.

She's not your typical princess (although very typical nowadays in YA), she enjoys fighting and all of the non girly things. She also has quite powerful magic. As we find out about halfway through the book, she is often sent on secret missions around her kingdom, to protect her people.

There are other main characters whose perspective we get to read from.

Orion is Asterin's friend and her royal guard. He's sworn to protect the princess. The story sets up as there could possibly be some romance between the two, but it dissolves along the way, when Orion becomes interested in someone else. I'm not sure if it's a spoiler, or not, but I felt like the character was written as a possible love interest for Asterin, then Rose, and ended up being edited in the later revisions for more representation.

Luna, the lady in waiting, and Asterin's best friend (or is she?) was one of my favourite characters. She doesn't have any magic and no real skills other than she's a great sculptor. She really develops throughout the book and her journey is definitely the most interesting of all, although at the start, she's not particularly important.

Rose, or Orozalia, is a queen of the neighbouring kingdom. She joins Asterin's guard in disguise. She's a great fighter, and altogether badass, and we definitely don't get enough of her in the book.

Quinlan, Rose's cousin, is my least favourite character. He is a pain in the backside – arrogant, in love with himself, and all in all annoying. I'm sure many girls are going to swoon over him, and maybe as a teen I would, too, but now that I'm old and a bit smarter, I know better.

Eadric and Harry are characters I can't say anything about because there really isn't much to say. They don't really develop, and one serves nearly no purpose at all.

As characters go, I see some of them appealing to the target audience (I understand I'm not part of it).

As I said earlier, the writing is beautiful at the start. It doesn't deteriorate much as the story progresses, not much, anyway, but it definitely changes and becomes more clumsy. The dialogues especially. I didn't like that the tone changes so frequently between the flowery language to a colloquial one, and it made it difficult to be fully immersed in the world. Another thing were the names of characters... we got Asterin, Eadric... and then Hayley, Nicole, Harry. It's just incredibly jarring to read these in one book.

One of the things I enjoyed the most about this book was the magic system. If you like Avatar The Last Airbender, then you definitely will enjoy it, too, as it is quite similar. I wish the author didn't try so hard to make it very complicated, and stopped adding rules to it. It became too complicated in the end, which is a shame, because it gives plenty of space for errors, inconsistencies and loop holes. I understand it's to make the world richer and more developed, but that could've been done in a different way. I mean, being able to control different elements is cool, using stones for it is cool, too. Depending on what family you are from to what's your affinity is okay, too, I guess. But also using spells? It just gets too much.

What I flat out didn't enjoy is, surprise, surprise... the romance! Saying that, I'm sure many people will. Romance is just not my thing, and the story could really do without it. Especially without the nearly love triangle, and the main couple teasing each other and calling each other names, but in an “endearing” way. It's such a kindergarten way of describing a brewing romance.


I think Shadow Frost is a solid YA fantasy with a lot of potential, that many readers will love. It gets 3.75/4 stars from me, because I definitely enjoyed it – I just didn't love it, as I feel I'm a bit too old for these kind of stories.

This was the most childish, derivative work I’ve read. I didn’t know how young the author was when I requested an ARC from Netgalley, but from the first page onwards her youth is evident. The synopsis sounded interesting and I was keen on reading an Asian writer’s take on fantasy. But I couldn’t finish this book.

The slow start reads like a fairytale and has no focus or plot. Asterin is a dull character and the writing - though imaginative - is stilted and intentionally archaic. It’s hard to become invested in a story that is so safe and cliche. Nothing that I read in 150 pages subverted my expectations - mean parents, love triangles, chosen ones, it’s all been done before.

For a book that has a female protagonist, she spends most of her time being told what to do, with the dudes being in the thick of the action. If there is strife in the book, it is contrived. It all comes down to the naïveté of the author. Everything is glamorous and extreme because that’s what the world of young adult books and entertainment tend to be.

There was no impetus to tell a story; world building is important but we have absolutely no idea where this story is headed even 150 pages in. The uninteresting characters are little more than caricatures and it astounds me that none of them read as anything but hot Caucasians. Also, everyone is straight and I’m sure they would have paired up by the end of the book. The central love story of Asterin and Quinlan was the worst adaptation of Jane Austen’s writing style as well.

I’m sure people of a certain age and temperament will enjoy this book but it tried too hard and was too derivative for me.

I was super excited to get an eARc of this book as the blurb made it sound right up my alley. Warrior princess must fight a demon to save her country with the help of her friends? Consider me intrigued. Also the cover is beautiful.

Asterin was needless to say, awesome. She learnt how to swordfight, she’s a powerful mage and she doesn’t give a damn about the rules.

Luna, Asterin’s friend and basically magicless was strong in her own way. She was soft where Asterin wasn’t and had a relationship with the Elite’s captain. I loved reading about this girl’s soft strength.

Rose is just an utter badass.

Orion was sweet but I wish we got to see more of his relationship develop with Harry. It just sort of happened and I’d rather have liked to see it rather than it be kept secret from the reader as well as his friends for part of the time – and they all worked it out pretty fast anyway.

I didn’t really love the other characters so much. There were a lot of them introduced to us in the beginning and I feel this really affected the pacing of the novel. It felt slow in the beginning, as Asterin didn’t receive her ‘call to arms’ until about a fifth in to the book. It made the plot meander in the beginning and while I enjoyed learning about the characters I was just wondering where this was going if it wasn’t for the blurb. Then in the middle again the story seemed to really dragon on as they searched for the demon.

I wanted to root for Quinlan and Asterin, but they were very hot and cold towards each other. It was fun at times to read and others, I just couldn’t work out why Asterin was suddenly fuming at him. Also Quin’s level of cheesy made me embarrassed for him at times.

Overall I liked the story but the pacing was what really got to me. If you perhaps don’t mind a bit of a slower read then you’ll probably love this book. The magic system in this book was a real gem to read about and I liked how fleshed out the world’s history was too.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I enjoyed reading this. An interesting story with fun characters. Well written.

Thank you to NetGalley, Coco Ma and Blackstone Publishing for an eARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot believe that Coco was fifteen when she wrote this! I am in awe! The cover grabbed me straight away, and the content is pretty wonderful also! It is enchanting, full of beautiful imagery and everything you can ask for in a tale of princesses, magic and evil threats that might head their way.

I thought the magic system was initially going to be fairly complicated, but not at all, and once explained it's very easy to follow and the world so enchanting you are quickly absorbed within the story.

I love all the characters. Every. Last. One. I have no favourites, although I am biased to all the girls obviously. They’re written wonderfully. I thought there would be a million cliché's but nope, I was pleasantly surprised.

I didn't find the 'twists' to be twists, they were expected, but I don’t even care. I was 100% here for it anyway.

I only have praise for this! I hope there are many more in the series! I'm on the lookout for anything and everything Coco has to come! Giving this one 4.5*, but rounding up to 5!

The cover instantly drew me to this book and the blurb sounded perfect for me! ... and it was! Absolutely perfect, love the characters; the world, the story

#ShadowFrost #NetGalley
First I want to say this cover is beautiful! People will read this on the cover alone, it definitely made me want to read it :)

Second, although it is a brilliant cover I was sorely disappointed. While most reviews I read seemed like the book was very enjoyable and a quick, exciting read, it wasn't for me. I struggled to get into it. It was very slow. The romance seemed very cold and then very warm, not a lot of build up.

I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

This is truly a coming of age style novel, for both the characters and the author. After writing Shadow Frost at 15, Coco Ma has taken some time to rewrite and review, but here it is! A really intriguing first novel which fits perfectly into the YA audience. Asterin Faelenhart, Princess of Axaria, comes across as your typical spoilt princess type - mother doesn't pay her enough attention, believes she is always in the right, an stomps on her friends when it is convenient, yet it is clear she has a sense of responsibility, which drives her to hunt down the demon terrorizing her people. From a simple plot (or so it seems!) intriguing developments unfold. Asterin grows up, perhaps not in time to get everything she wants, but she does. While she is the central character, she may not be the favorite of all - and there are plenty of others to love - Luna, Orion, and my favorite, Rose. There are a lot of characters, typical of many fantasy stories. The magic system introduced is interesting, reminds me of our reliance on technology (yes you can do it perfectly well without!).

A fun read with entertaining characters. I am hoping for a second book to keep exploring.

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, there were some really solid aspects I could get behind and on the other hand there were a few very glaring, critical flaws. On the whole though, the writing was well done. The world building was decent BUT the character development was spotty and the character dialogue was excruciating...especially the zero to 100 I hate you nope wait that's Love I feel...yup, definitely Love and I happen to love you more than anyone or anything in my entire world...GRRRRR!

There were 6 POVs, which can make things messy if not done well. Here it was slightly disorienting but otherwise it flowed rather nicely.


Princess Asterin, one of our MCs, was a fairly competent female heroine if not a tad oblivious, obnoxious and annoying. She had a tragic backstory, which made her compelling yet her powers (like many characters in this story) were mastered WAY too easily. For me, this is a BIG no no and throws up all sorts of red flags, deep sighs and dramatic eye rolls. I like when my characters have to work hard and earn their achievements as well as deserve their "True Love's" desire (which works both ways). It's just more satisfying that way. Asterin's best asset, however, was her ability to pull people... especially powerful people...into her personal gravitational field and garner a deep sense of loyalty and protectiveness from them.

One such valiant protector was Quinnlan. Quinnlan had a yummy yummy gooey center surrounded by a rather fickle hard, prickly shell of PTSD from years and years of abuse at his father's hands... a much (re)visited, almost to the point of projectile nausea, character defining anchor point in his tragic backstory. I was torn between wanting to kiss his damaged psyche to bits, bitch slapping him... the pages and chapters of wide eyed mooning was a bit much to digest... or jumping into trouble just so he could rescue me, damsel style. BUT unfortunately, I am not fictional and Quinn... well Quinn's state at the end of the book is a detail I won't discuss... spoilers and all...but only time will tell.

A couple of MCs that enjoyed were Rose and Harry. Rose was practically (a bit too) perfect in every way. She was a badass magic wielder, fighter, strategist, friend, cousin and all around MVP. This type of star player that can do no wrong and is awesome just by breathing can and will irk me in large doses. Thankfully she was more of a side character and thus it wasn't as glaring and painful to witness. Harry, on the otherhand, was a surprise for me. When we first heard about him I thought he'd be a stereotypical bad guy that we'd be preprogrammed to despise BUT I ended up loving him. He was loyal, endearing, and more emotionally fragile than one would think.

Overall: I wish I could rave about this one I really do. The synopsis ticked all the right boxes for me but ultimately, in my humble opinion, it was spectacularly middle of the road Meh. The characters were almost always predictable and their dialogue was extremely sophomoric. The love matches seemed trite, stilted, forced and clunky at times BUT even so, they also managed to be sweet at other times so there's that. The plot had too many convenient or easily foreseen twisty turns for my taste. BUT on the bright side, the story's writing was strong. It did seem like the author knows how to write very well but when it came right down to the heart of the tale, the meat and potatoes were lacking compared to the well crafted prose. The latticework of ideas was solid and the writing was good but the rest fell short for me... except for Harry...BUT alas, a Harry (or a barrel of Harry's, although that would admittedly have been a MUCH different story) does not a cherished novel make. I wish it did.


*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***

While the story and the characters fell a little flat at times, overall, this was a pretty fun read. The magic system was pretty interesting, and the idea of the Immortals and them actually being real beings was pretty neat.

Asterin was a decent enough protagonist, though she just felt a little typical at times. And her romance with Quinlan was also pretty obvious. And his tragic backstory was kinda overdone? They were cute, and I did like how they came to care about one another through their banter and training.

Eadric and Luna were a super cute couple, though they were both a little extraneous to the story. I know, I know, there was that whole plot twist about Luna, but....we didn't reeeeally need it, did we? And did we need Eadric as the captain of the guard AND Orion as Asterin's Guardian? I mean, that just felt like bit much. But Eadric was interesting, and Luna was a sweetie and her wealth of power was intriguing, as well as her dark side at the end.

Orion was probably my favorite character and I loved him and Harry to no end. Honestly, their POV chapters were the most engaging to me because their story felt a little different and unique than all the other typical things going on. I wish we could have gotten more of them, honestly. Harry's struggle with following orders and caring about Orion and company was great, as well as his coming around and saving them all again and again.

You saw the villain a million miles away, as well as the Asterin//Luna plot twist, but the characters were fun and it was a fairly entertaining book. (also, Asterin not realizing Orion and Harry were madly in love until the last five seconds of the book? I legitimately died of laughter over her obliviousness).

Mmmm This is another tough one to rate. I'm giving it 2.5/5 stars, mostly because I've rated other books 3 that I enjoyed a bit more.

First off, can I just say that the author has accomplished so much in 19 years than I have in nearly 21? Like damn girl, get it!

Ok so! The book. It's not for me. I was immediately drawn in by the prologue, and I thought the rest of the book would follow suit.

It didn't btw.

We're introduced immediately to our main characters, and I could honestly care less about ALL OF THEM. Literally. I cared not one bit, and I found Asterin, our MC, to be annoying as all hell. I love strong female leads, but she would literally get on my nerves. Sometimes it felt like that one chick back in high school who thinks they're all that and you scoff at them. That was how I felt about her. Even by the end, I just did not like her. The other characters in here, like Orion, Lola and her Elite Guards, I didn't care for much either. There wasn't enough there to get me to enjoy them, so whenever the scene called for me to feel something towards them, my heart was just a lump of coal in my chest. I would feel nothing, and I still feel nothing.

The story? This was the redeeming part for me. I might dislike all the characters, but the story was interesting enough for me to keep going. The prologe was what made me keep reading to get the the good parts. The beginning was a whole mess though. It was extremely rushed, with characters being rushed into the inner circle to form our main cast, Random amounts of time pass without warning, and you just feel like so much information is hitting you at once, but it also doesn't feel like enough because of the pacing. Just way too rushed for the first quarter. Once the pacing slows down it drags. It becomes painfully slow that you just feel like giving up. Yet here I am, still trudging along.

Then we FINALLY get to the juicy part and I become invested in the story. From then on, I start to feel like I enjoy it, and I was actually enjoying the ride. Even the final battle scene was one I was enjoying, but then that started to drag after a certain point. The dialogue kept coming, and coming, and coming... It was being held out for far too long that it didn't even feel like the climax anymore. So where all these shocking things happened, I was already outside of the story that I just didn't react. I didn't care anymore by that point. That was so sad, because I felt I could've ignored the parts I disliked if the ending was worth it.

Overall, this isn't one I would recommend, After seeing other ratings, it's very clear that I'm in the minority for this one. Most people would probably end up enjoying this if the rating average continues this way, but it's definitely not one I see myself picking up again in the future. The epilogue does seem to set up a sequel or alternate story in the same universe. If it's not a direct sequel, I may pick it up. This is an ambitious debut novel, but it unfortunately fell flat for me. I'll be on the lookout if the author makes any more novels in the future though.

ARC provided to me by the publsher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Strong female characters are always great, and here is one such individual. Asterin is not only a strong character, but she is, ultimately, such a flawed character. Driven and powerful, she is always eager to try to better herself to make sure that she is the ruler her people need her to be. Asterin is ready to jump into battle with her warriors rather than sit idly by. Moreover, while these are all great merits, it’s her insecurities that make her come to life. Asterin seeks the approval of her mother and attempts to control the power inside her that she doubts. She is human and relatable, and that’s what keeps her from falling into the trap of being a Mary Sue character, which she was close to becoming. She has all this power, all this skill, but she doesn’t know how to use it, her decisions are conflicted, her choices are complicated, and the outcomes do not always favor her. That’s the compelling part of her narrative, how twisted she is inside to do what’s right for herself and her people, while also challenging herself and growing through the story.

However, the story goes beyond Asterin, expanding to her band of friends. Each character has a unique voice, making them stand out, but, much like with Asterin, they each have insecurities that make them relatable, and ultimately, they balance each other out wonderfully. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but they love each other leading them to fight for one another in fantastic ways, even while they battle their misgivings and insecurities.

There is something to be said about the pacing of the novel. It does a decent job of world-building, and the opening sequence is dark and tantalizing. However, from then on, the pace is slower, it takes a while to pick up the pace and then in the middle it slows down again. It is clear that the intent is to showcase the characters, to focus on their dynamics and growth, and at least Ma does an excellent job of summarizing the passage of time in a remarkable way, but while that is happening it almost feels as if the main story is being put on hold to do this. It makes the pacing feel choppy even though it picks back up and speeds towards an action-packed ending.

Shadow Frost is, ultimately, a riveting debut that has such a fascinating story of magic and gripping character development. It breaks apart by giving all the characters their chance to shine and grow, while also introducing tension throughout the layers of the story, making it an excellent read.

DNF at 14%. I can tell the writing style is not for me and I did not connect with any of the characters or the storyline.

This novel is about a princess who is on a mission to hunt a demon. I really like Princess Asterin. She is not your typical princess. Asterin is very tomboyish and trains as a fighter. I thought the world-building was thoroughly crafted because it was set in a medieval kingdom. The writing is very beautiful. However, the novel constantly switches perspectives from a variety of characters, which can be very confusing. Also, the novel took a while to get started. However, once it finally started, it became a journey that I did not want to end. This novel left me anticipating the sequel. I recommend this for fans of Ever, A Cage of Deceit, and The Shadow Queen.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for the arc of this book.
I enjoyed this story, I did guess who was behind everything, early on in the book, but there was still plenty of twists and turns that you don’t see coming.
Hoping there will be another book, lots of loose ends at the ending that I need conclusions on.