Kingdom Cold didn't live up to my expectations. It's underdeveloped like it was written in a hurry. There are several unnecessary and unbelievable elements in the story that cause a jumble of unrealized ideas. It's not a bad premise. It's poorly executed and needs editing, though, to help it become something more solid. I would like to read a polished version of the story. For now, it's a miss for me. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I received this ARC from NetGalley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book. Very addictive read, great characters, good storyline and plot. A little chunky at places and sometimes there were annoying parts.

I received this book from the author/publisher for my honest review. Thank you for allowing me to read this wonderful book.

I really did love this book. I really enjoy reading books about royalty and this was that but with a twist. Charlotte is not your average princess and I loved that about her. She didn’t let others tell her what she could or couldn’t do, GIRL POWER! This book sure takes you through a lot of emotions, one minute you are happy and the next angry. It really keeps you engaged in the story. Very well written and easy to read. Can’t wait to read the next installment!! I need more!!

Thank you NetGalley for this free book in exchange for an honest review!

I love the cover of this book, it’s what made me want to read the book in the first place. I like the premise of the story, but as I started reading I found myself thrown off by a few things, but mostly, the time discrepancies.

So much was going on. I see where the author was going with the twists and turns in the story, but I just wish the scenes were fleshed out more. More of show me, don’t tell me is needed. Time jumps fast throughout Kingdom Cold and not because the characters have some teleporting powers or anything like that. The scenes are rushed which is one of the reasons why I had trouble getting through this book.

It seemed like the story was just speeding down to a conclusion, with an attack here, a villain there, a love quadrangle thrown in, a few deaths, Princes available for marriage and I even got confused with Prince Young and Prince Minseo’s perspectives at one point!

This story has a lot of potential, it is a seed of ideas. But like a seed, it needs a few elements to grow. All the ideas from this one book, could be stretched out into a three book series. Kingdom Cold, needs some focus on world-building, the plot, pacing and character development. With those fixes, I think this could be a good series.

My rating: 3.75 stars

I was captivated by this book! There was something charming about the setting and characters that drew me in right away. Not to mention the beautiful cover!

The story featured diverse characters who, at first glance, perhaps seemed a bit immature or just not developed enough. But as the book progressed, I looked forward to seeing their personal growth. Especially the heroine, Charlotte. In the beginning of the book, she is spoiled and self-centered. Refusing to accept the news of her betrothal, she decides to take matters into her own hand without taking time to think things through. Young, her betrothed, seems at first to just accept things without revealing much of an opinion, but he quickly became one of my favorite characters. I do wish some of the supporting characters had received a bit more development. Milly could have been a great addition to the plot, but she just wasn't used enough. I wish we could have seen more friendship between her and Charlotte.

As for the pacing, the ending did feel a little bit rushed. I would have liked to see it a little bit more fleshed out. I didn't want the story to end, and then all of a sudden it was over. But, I'm glad to see that there will be two more books in this series, so I can't wait to see what happens next!

We went through a COMPLETE GAUNTLET of emotions while reading Kingdom Cold by @brittnichenelle . At first, we hated Charlotte, thought Young was as bland as lukewarm plain oatmeal, Minseo was the Quagmire (Family Guy reference) of the book, and Mili was as loyal as a hand feed puppy... NONE OF THESE THINGS WERE TRUE!!! (Well, the Quagmire thing was kind of true, but let's not split hairs, shall we?) The character development was AMAZING, pacing was on point and the part right before the ending caused legit tears 😭. The end was satisfying enough, but we NEED us a happy ending!!! Since the author has indicated that this book is the first of a trilogy, we hope we get it!!!

Rough. This one was almost a DNF but I kept going in hopes it would get better. The premise was excellent--angsty teenage royalty facing arranged marriages with the potential for warfare and drama. It sounds good in theory yes? The execution on the other hand fell short. I do credit the author for trying to do something different by telling the story through different perspectives in each chapter. However, in doing so, there are huge gaps of time in the story creating a major discontinuity. There was also way too much focus on the minutiae (i.e. the consummation) and not nearly enough focus on the bigger plot lines (i.e. how the Queen ended up working with Emmett, how anyone figured out that Emmett was the one who poisoned everyone etc.). I felt like the author tried too hard to put too much in "x" amount of pages. If only she worked more on character and plot development, this could have been a great book. Not planning to continue the series.

Chenelle incorporates aspects of various genres to construct a well-thought, imaginative piece. Traipsing boundaries of conventional genres, Chenelle manages to beautifully allude to character-isms that make the novel an all round success.

Unfortunatey, the book didn’t interested me enough and I stopped reading it at 17 %. Maybe younger readers would like it more, I just found the writing style bad, characters flat and childish....

I am sorry that I didn’t like the story....the cover is beautiful and I expected the book will be captivating, unfortunately it’s not.

A round of applause to the cover designer!

Now, let's talk about the story: young princess forced to marry a young prince to save her kingdom from an impending war, and in her push and pull, war arrives at their gates, and they've got to flee and suddenly she learns that the war is all about who wins and gets to stay in power longer, but what of her life? What of the lives of those she loves?

So, it's got a myriad of feelings and with a fast pace, you can't help but get from one sword fight to another to another conspiracy to another and so on.

It's entertaining, that's for sure. Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

At sixteen Princess Charlotte is betrothed to Prince Young. Being that age, she acts as one would or rather more childish.

As the story progresses, we jump back and forth between multiple POVs and POVs that aren’t really necessary. It felt thrown in and not well planned.

The overall story was good but choppy at some parts.

I really enjoyed this, yes the main character is very self centred but I found that more realistic given the age and I found it interesting, fast paced and fun. I can’t wait for the next book. An interesting fun read, great characters and good plot.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

3.5 stars.

My thoughts are as disjointed as unfortunately, this book is. The gorgeous cover drew me in, and the blurb seemed interesting, but I was immediately taken aback by the spoiled, childish nature of the heroine.

Unfortunately the remainder of the book, and the characters follow suit, their actions largely immature and fickle. I also didn't really follow the tie-in/reimagining of Arthurian legend, other than a bit of haphazard name dropping.

I remain slightly curious to see where the author is going with this, but hope for more consistently likable characters in the next installment.

An ARC was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

First off, I have to say that this cover is absolutely stunning! It matches the book very well, so props to the designer!

The book was a very promising premise and I was not disappointed. The book hooked me from the very first line.

Secondly, the book is written so amazingly. The author manages to have both beautiful prose and action-packed scenes down to a T. Her flow and style were so easy to visualize. The pacing of the story is also so well done. It's fast-paced and gripping from start to finish that I actually could not physically put this book down.

Lastly, the representation in the book was awesome! The main characters are of Asian and African descent which I really appreciated.

Brittni Chenelle is definitely on my radar after reading this. I will for sure be looking forward to other releases by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

First of all, I have to say that this cover is stunning! It captures the essence of the book very well, so props to the designer!

Brittni Chenelle is a very promising writer. Her style and flow were so easy and I really enjoyed the prose. This story was promising also, but I found I couldn't get on board with the characters, particularly Charlotte. I realize that the characters were supposed to read younger, as they were as young as 16. However, there was a pettiness about Charlotte I couldn't stand. She was snobby and annoying, and it made it difficult to read anything from her point of view.

The representation in this book was awesome! I understand the author lives in South Korea and is very influenced by the culture; it shines through in her writing. The cast of characters were diverse and colorful, which I appreciated.

Chenelle is on my radar after this read. Even though I may not have loved Kingdom Cold, I can't wait to see what else she writes in the future.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was just average.

The good
The story was interesting, and I did want to know what happened next. I could visualize the world that was built by the author's words.

The bad
I didn't care about any of the characters, and I'm fact didn't really like them. I wasn't invested in what happened to them. The main character was a spoiled girl with no interest in the Prince on one page. Then suddenly she was ready to sacrifice for him. Really?
The story felt rushed rather than action packed.

E-arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

Oh man, I quite enjoyed this book! I'm not gonna lie if I say that I was drawn by the design of the cover.
Though the book is fairly fast-paced and the plot is very interesting.
I have to admit that some of the characters fell short personally.
Also, the writing was not the best and that's why I decided to give 3 stars :/

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.


I wanted to desperately like this book. The cover was cute; the story sounded interesting and enticing, and the character’s where culturally diverse, but it didn’t sing for me, and that’s ok. Not all stories sing for every person who reads them.

The story follows a cast of royalty through an arranged marriage, betrayal, war, unrequited love, and then eventual marriage. There are many bumps on the way, much like a tamer and more kind version of Game of Thrones.

There are some excellent parts of this story. Firstly, Chenelle wrote a very diverse story culturally. The two leads of the novel, Prince Gray and Princess Charlotte are of Asian and African heritage respectively. I like that; I also like how Chenelle wrote the settings, memories, and environments of the characters reflecting those upbringings. It is not something you often see in literature, and it is not something you see done that isn’t ham-fisted. The author was not throwing up her diversity flag yelling, “hey look at what I did!” She wrote it with class and sensitivity as is befitting. The characters culture is not a thing, it is a part of who they are, and that is how it should be written.

Secondly, I liked the leads in the story, especially Gray. Gray changed and developed as a character; he became more of himself if that makes sense. I love his progression as a person and leader and felt like he was an exceptional counterpart to Princess Charlotte. Charlotte also demonstrated growth. She started the novel as a typical teenage child with ordinary problems and ended as a scarred, but more emotionally mature adult.

Thirdly, the love story was charming. I don’t want to give too much away, but as the story progresses and the characters mature the bond that develops between the personalities is written well and is lovely.

The good of the story did not outweigh what did not work for me. I had a difficult time with the points of view changing from chapter to chapter. On the one hand, the multiple points of view were there to lend many voices to the story and/or scene, but they sounded very similar in much of the book. So it became both confusing and repetitious. It did get better as the story progressed, but I found it difficult connecting with any one character aspect because of the shaky beginning.

Also, I found that the story lacked the necessary detail to build a clear picture of events. We hopped from moment to moment before I could get a visual representation of the scene in my head. Again, this led to a disconnection to the characters and the setting.

The plot progression was strange for me also. The events of this story could easily fill three books but are reduced down to a distilled short single book. This seems like an awful missed opportunity. It would have made a killer trilogy.

Brittni Chenelle wrote a solid YA love story. Although the story is plagued with technical problems like pacing, POV, and lack of detail, the central love theme was successful, and the ending comes as quite a shock. Give it a try. It wasn’t for me, but maybe it will be for you.