I was really looking forward to reading this but although it started out well, it just wasn’t for me.

I liked the characters but the dialogue was a little over written in places. Overall just okay.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO DIVE INTO YOU - YOU BEAUTIFUL ARC YOU.

Shadow Frost- ugh GUYS, this book was so freaking good. I didn't realize how behind I was on my damn ARC reading until last week... and boy am I behind. I decided to jump into this one first (mostly because it was at the bottom on my kindle - again sorry!) and I was not disappointed.

In it, you will meet Asterin who is kind of like Harry Potter. Someone had a vision of her kicking some evil bitches ass. I was totally down for all of that happening..but there was also some mystery shit going on in the background. That being said, this book definitely gave me some Snow White vibes. Which again, I'm totally down for some retellings even if she isn't my favorite. Yet, Asterin made me fall in love with her because she was such a bad ass. Ugh, my ship guys - I wont tell you who it is with.. but damn that gave me some Pocahontas vibes at the end. Oops is that a spoiler?

Overall, I loved the magic, fantasy, ships, characters, and everything else in between. I didn't hate or dislike a single thing - well maybe that it was too short? Or that I don't have the next book readily available? Ugh, I hate waiting!!

Where to start... I want to say thanks to netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this amazing book!. I really got a small feel of girls of paper and fire with this book and I absolutely loved that and both books!, the plot was amazing, the characters are amazing and I adore them all, I cannot wait for the next book. I will most certainly be buying a physical copy of this when it comes out and I will be telling everyone to read it!.
I give this book 5 stars.

This is literally one of the best reads of 2019. I had a hard time putting the book down. The writing surprised me, being a debut author. It was rich with symbolism, detail and magic. One of the things that made me truly LOVE the book was the friendship between Asterin and Luna. I don't care for romance, but I really dig being able to dive into the platonic love. I feel like this is something that young adults don't get in books. SO many books focus on romantic love, and while that is marketable, I really feel like friendship love is what so many -girls especially- need to be able to feel comfortable with. I enjoyed the romance with Q as well, but Luna and Asterin friendship really stood out for me.
If neither of those things are for you, then come for the magic and mayhem, because there is plenty of that. The story is entirely full of twisty, turny, shocky goodness. It's so many things, too many things to list. I just suggest that you pre order it. NOW. and wait, impatiently at the door for it arrive. :)

This was a tricky story to get into. At times the writing didn't seem to flow correctly, and the tone often teetered towards juvenile. I loved the history behind the world and it's magic. I loved the unique way in which the characters accessed their magic and the abilities they had.

At times it was a little inconsistent with regards to timing, or world development. For instance there was a scene where they were described as jumping from a hotel fire escape, which I found to be at odds with the world that had been built - carriages, castles, hunting for food ect.

I did think that the book really picked up in the latter half of the story though, but it was a shame that you had to wait until over halfway through to feel any connection to the characters at all. Some of the characters didn't have any backstory until half way through, despite being introduced in the very beginning i.e Eadric. Some I realise their backstories needed to be a little later on. However I feel that there was a lot of 'wasted time' within the story that didn't actually develop the character's relations.

I know it sounds like I'm being overly negative about this story, but I did enjoy the book the more I read, but if you are someone who DNF's a book if the first few chapters don't grip you, then this may be off putting.

Love the premise, love the magic system, some of the characters I felt were more flushed out than the main character. Rose was a particular favourite.

Firstly, I will talk about my 2 dislikes of this book and the reason I didn’t rate it 5 stars. Trust me, I loved this book but these 2 things were irritating.
Firstly we have the romance between Asterin & someone else that I won’t name because spoilers. This romance was a very typical, predictable romance and kinda insta lovey. When the second character first got introduced I guess there would be a romance straight away and I was not wrong. I however thought it could of been a good opportunity for a Hate to Love situation but they only showed dislike for eachother for about 3 seconds and then it was all over.. So the author missed that chance.

Now for the second reason I didn’t like this book, which is the character Orion. He rubbed me the wrong way from the very start of this book. His overly jealous personality really freaking irritated me. Then there was the romance he is apart of later in the book….

I can’t say more without spoilers but I want to explain, so if you don’t want to be spoiled for anything then don’t read the next section that is in italics.

ITALICS - So as I said his jealousness pissed me off. It was constant when Quinlan was around and felt very possessive in most situations. Which I did not like. If I was Asterin I would have kicked him to the curb well before this. In the beginning I assumed the jealousness was because he was in love with Asterin, which came across a few times as true but THEN… Bringing in Harry and all of that is completely abandoned. Talk about Insta love! He meets this dude and then instantly stops with the love sick crap towards Asterin and the jealousy shit towards Quinlan… I just don’t get it. Like at all. This character in my opinion just wasn’t written very well, his actions constantly contradicted each other and as I said he came across as possessive at times, which I’m not a fan of in any situation. Of course this may have been fixed for the release of the finished copy, as I did read an eARC but I was not a fan! - ITALICS

Well that’s the dislikes out of the road and now for everything I liked! Firstly, the Characters in general (excluding Orion) and the POV. At first the POV was a little disorientating. We jump between POVs with each chapter and occasionally within a chapter and in the beginning it was a tad hard to follow. The author does not include names at the start of the chapters but the character’s name is usually in the first sentence of the chapter, so it was relatively easy to figure out whose POV we were reading from. After getting used to the frequent changes I actually really enjoyed it! Throughout the book we follow the POV of nearly 10 characters or more which allows you an insight into not only what the main characters are doing but also the bad guys.. Each character felt like they had a unique voice within their POVs section, except for maybe the ones we only see one chapter of POV from. But I think overall it was done quite well and I enjoyed it.

The characters themselves we all very well developed and grew throughout the book which I really enjoyed! They were all written very well excluding Orion and even the ‘bad guys’ were written very well even if they aren’t nice people. Asterin suffered from the kinda typical trope of having more power than most so she has to go and defeat the villain but in this situation it did work and everything fell into place and made sense in the end. I really enjoyed Rose’s character as well! She was a badass and I really enjoyed reading from her POV. I also really liked Luna! She developed so well throughout the story and I 100% agree with her choices at the end of this book! Quinlan was also kinda typical… Extremely attractive, powerful and there to save the day of course… He was an enjoyable character but he definitely fit the mould of most YA male characters. Then we had Eadric who was probably the character that grew the most throughout the book. He was kinda the Dad figure of the group and I really enjoyed his personality and the way he developed.

The next thing I loved was the world & magic system. Both of which are very fleshed out and detailed! I loved learning about this world and the magic system. It was so interesting even if the magic system was not the most unique I’ve seen it was still very solid. I just enjoyed how much it was thought out! There was reasons for everything and it wasn’t like some magic systems where you just have to accept that this is how it works and that there isn’t a why involved… The world was really interesting too and I would love to learn more about the other kingdoms in this world. Which hopefully we will get in book 2!

Lastly we have the plot itself to talk about because it was intense! There were only 1 or 2 places where I guessed a plot twist/plot point but even then I was so into this book that it didn’t annoy me, I just wanted to know the how! Besides those couple I guessed this book was unpredictable! There were so many twists and turns that just kept me hooked the entire time and I loved the rollercoaster ride this book took me on! I do however want to yell at the author a lit for that cliff hanger! How dare you!!

So, overall I really enjoyed this one! It had a couple flaws in my opinion but I enjoyed the ride it took me on. I loved most of the characters and I can’t want to see where they go next. Also that cliffhanger!! I need to know what happens next!!!!!!!! I can’t wait for book 2 but it’s going to be a bit of a wait I would say. There are no details released yet as Book 1 isn’t even released yet…

Hello, I will be posting this reivew to my Instagram, Goodreads, and blog on September 26th. I will add the links here when they are posted. Thank you!

I went into this without any expectations and I am glad for that. Unfortunately, this just wasn't great and there were many things I did not like about this book. It sucks when a cover and synopsis are so promising and they let you down.

I will start this off with a positive. I am always a fan of multiple point of views in a book. For me, its easier to connect with characters in that way. Sadly, I didn't like any of the characters in this book. They were all quite cliché especially the main character, Asterin. The first couple things that are mentioned about her is that she has this extra special rare gift of being able to control different elements or in their terms, affinity stones. She is also great at fighting. I strongly dislike characters like this. All of the characters dialogue felt similar especially when it came to the banter between a few. I am always up for some good banter but in this case I just wasn't a fan.

As for the plot, it was very slow in the beginning and some of the scenes were painful to get through. The affinity stones/elemental magic was an interesting concept and I did appreciate that. There were many plot twists especially towards the end but it was like a jumble of so many that it just felt over the top and didn't have me enjoying them or even being surprised since this book had many clichés. I will say some of the book was very similar to others that I have read and there wasn't enough uniqueness to set it apart for me.

The writing wasn't something that I liked and that also didn't help with me already not liking many aspects of this book. I also felt that there could have been more world building.

Overall, I wasn't impressed and it won't be a book that I will remember. I am sure I will be in the minority and so don't let my review sway you too much.

The plot had me intrigued from the first chapter. I adore any magic system that is focused around elements, and this story was no different. Some of the repetitive aspects had me feeling a bit disconnected from the story, example being the nicknames the characters used for each other.

I adore the main protagonist Aeslin, a princess that breaks down gender barriers of what women are "supposed to be" and forms her own definition. The characters were well developed, though I felt like the character interactions and relationships could use some work. The interactions themselves seemed a bit immature for their age. Though it was fun banger and I found myself chuckling a few times. I think I just wanted a more mature romance. The relationship seemed forced and unfeeling, and was quite rushed if I don't say so myself. I feel like it had great potential to be a hate to love romance I could adore.

The ending was amazing, a huge plot twist and one of those cliff hangers that just about kill you.

If the characters and relationships were flushed out a bit more I think this could easily be a four or five star read.

This upcoming novel has such a unique interesting plot. I really loved the bit of the world and magic we learn in book one. Our main characters are interesting, realistic and dare I say a good mix of banter and serious. Asterin isn’t our perfect princess and she isn’t one to think I can save the world by myself. I like that she knows she needs her friends. I really liked that we do get to see everyone’s past relatively good in this short amount of time without it feeling dragged out.

My biggest problem with this book is the writing/ending. The writing wasn’t bad, but sometimes it felt a bit too childish or unrealistic. A lot happens in this book and you don’t necessary have all the history and answers yet. The ending though was almost to wrapped up. The connections that are going to be furthered into book two aren’t quite there. Like I’m interested in book two, but also would of liked more why is this other evil person so interested.

I do recommend this book and think as the author grows so will her writing like so many of our favorites!

I am so happy that I found this book. This was one of the best books that I have read in a long time! This book kept me interested with all of the action. I really enjoyed this book.

Title: Shadow Frost
Author: Coco Ma
Pages: 428
Genre: Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Young Adult
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This is an Advanced Readers Copy. That means that this is not the final version of the book. Therefore, facts and quotes are subject to change in the published book.

Release date: 10/01/2019

Asterin Faelenhart is the princess of Axaria. When a strange creature begins threatening the safety of her kingdom, Asterin finds that she may be the only one who can defeat it. But not without the help of others who offer their services to her. This group of strangers find that not only do they have more in common than they thought, but they grow closer together thanks to this trip of a lifetime.

Oh No's
The booked dragged on a little in the middle. When the setting stays stationary for too long, I feel the repetitive days feel just that. And that's when I usually find myself slowing down when I read.

Yay's
Learning about a group of characters and their personalities. It wasn't just the main character and her story it was each person's and how they are all connected. It was quite entertaining to read and learn

The mysteries and secrets. From learning more about each person's secrets to those around them, not all of what you see is the truth. And that is all I will say on this matter. 

Finally,
This was an adventure that I wish had kept going on and on. The author did the leave the end open to a second novel which I really hope she makes. I definitely suggest adding this book to your TBR radar. 

My similar recommendation for this novel would be Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas.

Favorite Quote
"Caves that come and go with the full moon, enchanted lakes. Proceed with the utmost caution. It appears that you're Axaria's last hope, Princess Asterin."

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-PM

I received this via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it guys. This book was just what I wanted It to be. The world building was fun and enticing. The characters were very well flushed out. I loved the plot of this. I can not wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book

This was a DNF at around 28%. The lore I found complicated and none of the characters grabbed me, I was pretty much forcing myself to keep reading. I'm finding that maybe this type of story isn't for me anymore.

I really enjoyed Shadow Frost. I am really impressed the the story was written when Coco was only 15. I found the characters to be well developed and relatable and plot easy to follow. Highly recommend this book!

I started this book with great expectations. The cover is just amazing, right?
At first it was okay, I enjoyed the first few chapters but as I read on, the details got to be too much and gave a slow, lagging feel to the story instead of a rich vivacity. I'm sorry to say the story didn't grip my attention and keep it. Also, some of the scenes just seemed to come out of nowhere. There was a lack of smooth flow from scene to scene that annoyed me.
I'm an eclectic reader and as such, I enjoy a variety of stories. In fact, I always find something good about a story. I really wanted to like this story but the writing just dawdled too much.
This book didn't work out for me. However, other readers might enjoy it better than I did.

Oh holy Cinnabon's! This book was so so so good. I think I loved just about everything about this book, it is easily on the favorites list of arcs I was able to read this year. It is erven at the top of the list of books to pre-order.

I am a huge fan of elemental's, it probably has to do with my love for Sailor Moon that developed early on in my childhood. I also enjoyed the fact that the princess took her crew out to slay the monster threatening her kingdom.
There are so many twists and turns in this book that I honestly was not sure how this was going to end. Which is normally a shock since most of the time I can predict the ending of a book, when I find one that throws me for a loop it is an automatic print copy buy for later re-reads lol.


It is hard to believe this author wrote the first draft at the age of 15, talk about making me feel like a slow writer. This is definitely one of the must read books of the year

This book has one of the best prologues I've ever read in my entire reading life and it turned out the prologue is also one of the best parts of this novel. The story features Princess Asterin of Axaria who is good at both fighting and magic that are great combination especially because of the threat of a demon that had been terrorizing her kingdom. Everyone who had been sent to hunt and kill this demon has never returned that finally, Asterin makes it her duty to do kill the demon herself. Accompanied by her friends, they set out to an adventure that would change everything they believe in.

The premise of the novel is really intriguing and after reading the prologue I was even more intrigued. Then I met the characters and I became truly invested in the story though I must say, this book is not without its flaws. But first, let me talk about the good ones. I love how badass the characters are, especially the women. Seriously, these women rule. You don't tell them what to do because they already know it. Asterin, especially, is so cool not because she can fight physically and do magic, but because her aspirations for her kingdom is astounding. I love it. I see her as a great queen of Axaria. But let's not forget the other characters who for me, are pretty well-rounded and I really enjoyed the dialogues and banters between them.

Another thing I somehow enjoy are the twists. The story is full of twists and they really add to my enjoyment. BUT I said somehow enjoyed because there are times I felt like there's TOO much of them but it's okay.

Now to one issue I have. Look, the story features a princess who sets out with her friends to kill a monster. And she's good at fighting and has elemental magic. I don't know, it's just that around 70% of the story, it suddenly seemed a little formulaic for me But maybe that's just me. Your experience might be different from mine.

But overall, this book is worth every minute of your time reading it. I can guarantee that. I definitely enjoy it. :)

I cannot give this the praise it deserves! EVERYONE should read this book, the world building, the magic system and the characters were all built and developed so incredibly well. It truly is a book I could not put down.

Review can also be found on *Milky Way of Books*

It's been a while since I read a YA fantasy with such a BADASS princess! Asterin is amazing as also her gang, both human and....ahem...not quite; Luna, Rose, Orion, Quinlan, Eadric, Harry, the horses which seem to have a mind of their own, Amoux (the sword).

The villain on the book seemed to give Darkling vibes for me and yet Asterin defied Mother and society to fight ith her magic and save her kingdom. This was a really good read and you are going to enjoy it if you prefer something fast-paced and highly entertaining.

I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review. This is the first book in the Shadow Frost trilogy and I really enjoyed this adventure fantasy.

This story jumps between a number of different characters. The initial character we meet is Asterin, a princess of Axaria, who has strange magic powers. She discovers that her magic powers may be what helps her kingdom destroy a terrible demonic beast that is plaguing the kingdom. She ends up going on a journey with some of her guards and friends to complete the task.

I loved the adventure, magic, demons, and action in this story. There is some romance in here too to balance things out nicely. I really enjoyed all of the characters and the dialogue. I loved the magic and the history behind the different types of magic. This was an incredibly engaging read that I breezed right through.

My only complaint with this story is that it jumps between different characters very quickly. This worked well for the story and was done in a way that never got confusing. However, it made the story feel kind of sloppy and the whole thing felt a bit “ad lib” and not well planned out.

Overall it's been awhile since I read a fantasy I really got into and enjoyed! I loved the magic, adventure, intrigue, and romance in this book, but did think that the story was put together a bit sloppily. Still don’t let that stop you! This is a very engaging and fun fantasy adventure. I would recommend to those who enjoy adventure fantasy with some romance.