Askia is the rightful heir to the throne of Seravesh, but the kingdom she loves is crumbling. Her cousin allied with Radovan, king of Roven, to take the throne of Seravesh, but Radovan has since invaded Saravesh and declared it to be part of his rapidly growing empire. Askia leads her soldiers in the resistance, but entire towns have been burned, with all the residents of the town trapped inside. What Askia needs most is assistance from Emperor Armaan of Vishir, who has the military and financial strength to stand against Roven. Vishir also has the militant religious sect that murdered Askia’s parents for being witches, and tortured young Askia to determine if she was a witch. She survived, and has kept her power to see and communicate with the dead a secret ever since. Vishir may hold the key to Seravesh’s survival, but can Askia survive at court long enough to make her case?

The Frozen Crown was a good read, but lacked the ornate and detailed world-building that I associated with high fantasy. It certainly felt like Kelly must have developed an intricate backstory for the characters and the politics of the world, but omitted much of that from the novel. I know it isn’t being marketed as YA, but I think it has high cross-over potential, especially for readers who aren’t quite ready for the darker aspects of Kristin Cashore or Sarah J. Maas. I look forward to the second book in the duology, to learn how everything is resolved.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

The magic system for this book was interesting. I also enjoyed the fact that the main character's goal/motivation was clear from the very beginning and consistent. Everything she did was in service to that cause. The story also had a very strong beginning.

Unfortunately, that beginning made the book overall feel like a letdown. The ending was certainly a letdown and I felt like, past a point, nothing happened in the story.

My thanks to Harper Voyager, Netgalley and Greta Kelly!
Anyone who is not reading this book, should. It's a duology. Love! I do hate waiting around for 3 to 15 years!
I was annoyed by how much I cared about "court life!" I like a mixture of fight, magic and courtly conniving. If I had ever thought that I was tired of Court...I wasn't!
Then came the last 40 or so page's. Askia! Her husband and the first wife? Egads! I need the rest of this book now! I need to see some freak lose everything and 🔥burn! In witchfire!
I loved this story, and want more!

The Frozen Crown is thrilling page turner. The characters are well developed and easy to love or detest. It’s an amazing book. Get lost in this world.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in one day!! It has romance, political intrigue and a fast paced plot. I highly recommend this book. I can’t wait for the sequel!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I’m annoyed at myself for taking this long to start this lovely story.

This was a fun read. It sucked me in quite quickly, and I’d call it fantastic for a first-book fantasy and debut for the author.

Askia, is a likable lead who is a badass and leans into her flaws. The world and magic system is different and interesting, and that cliff hanger, AH!

Can I have the next book, please?

The Frozen Crown has a strong female protagonist in Askia , a queen without a country. As she is forced to beg for foreign help to save her people from a malevolent usurper, Radovan. Traveling to the kingdom of Vishir she is confronted by political intrigue and of course magic, which she herself is hiding. There is interesting world building here, well defined magic and of course romance. If there is one thing I wish wasn’t apparent is Askia having to use marriage as her most useful tool to seek help. Still it’s hard to believe this is a debut authors book. I’m also delighted it’s a duology, can’t wait to see where it’s going to end up. Thanks to Net galley and Harper Voyager for an arc of this book.

I was given a free copy of The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly (author), Avon and Harper Voyager (publisher), and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This novel is the first in Warrior Witch duology.

The Frozen Crown is the first novel, written by Ms. Kelly, that I have read. I would describe this novel as an epic fantasy based in a palace.

This review will not contain any spoilers.

Ms. Kelly did an amazing job in creating a world that is vibrant and alive even though it takes place in one location. She describes the palace, city where the palace is located, and other regions in this world with just enough detail to give the reader the ability to visualize the setting without interrupting the flow of the story.

The magic system is more soft than hard. The people who can use magic or called witches. The types of witches are fire witch, death witch, a type of witch that heals, and other types that are mentioned but not featured. The main character has magic ability and uses it in interesting ways in this story. I found the magic system is straight-forward and not difficult to understand.

Ms. Kelly has created a main character that is fleshed out and three dimensional. She is a twenty-something, and she is a princess-in-exile and her primary objective, in this story, is to get a ruler from a nearby empire to provide an army to assist her in overthrowing the ruler of her home country so she can rule. The main character is willing to do whatever she can to save her country even if she must sacrifice herself to get the ruler to agree provide the arm.

One of the strengths of this novel is the political machinations and palace intrigue on display. Ms. Kelly has done a commendable job of creating stakes through the machinations and intrigue and still maintain the progression of the plot at a quick pace. I found the evolution of the main character as a political operator to be compelling and engaging.

Another strength in this novel is the characters. Each of the major secondary characters are almost as fleshed out and three dimensional as the main characters. Each of these characters have separate and distinct arcs, particularly the ruler who is being approached by the main character to provide the army. The other members of the ruler’s family that are featured in this story are also separate and distinct from each other. Ms. Kelly creates compelling and interesting characters is to weave a backstory that ties the main character to the ruler and his family through her deceased parents.

As already mentioned, the story flows at steady – but a quick – pace which still allows for the both the characters and the plot to breathe to feature the machinations and intrigue. The stakes increase as the story progresses and explodes in an ending that caught me by surprise but wanting me to read the next novel in this series as soon as I finished The Frozen Crown.

Ms. Kelly featured the machinations and intrigue in such a way that is both complex and interesting. I was never taken out of the story while I read this novel. I think the politics and intrigue in The Frozen Crown are on par with the politics and intrigue in Daughter of the Empire which is the first novel in the Empire series written by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts.

The only quibble I have with this novel is that slightly slows a bit in the middle of the novel, but it was not too bad because events pick up and increase in intensity as the stakes are raised higher and higher until the emotional gut punch of an ending.

I rate The Frozen Crown 5 stars.

I would like to thank Greta Kelly, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Netgalley for the free ARC.

Thanks to Harper Voyager for an advance Netgalley of this fantasy title, which came out on Jan 12, 2021--

Princess Askia Poritskaya e-Nimri of Seravesh has a problem: the dangerous Emperor Radovan and his army have invaded her home, and she can't stop them by herself. Askia needs to negotiate for an army, but she's much better at fighting than playing palace politics at the Vishiri court. Oh, and she's also hiding the fact that she's a witch.

In Greta Kelly's The Frozen Crown (Warrior Witch #1), witches are persecuted by a fanatic religious cult called the Shazir--a group which has already tortured Askia and killed her parents. Askia will have to deal with the Shazir in Vishiri, along with a wide cast of complicated characters: a playboy emperor and his calculating wife, a naive and jealous prince, and multiple court members who wish her harm. Askia will have to figure out how to navigate in this high society and raise an army to help her people before it's too late--while also trying to stay safe. Romantic feelings for her personal bodyguard certainly don't help matters, or the fact that she might have to enter a political marriage in order to save Seravesh. More witches and enemies are revealed and alliances are tested before the shocking cliffhanger ending of this first volume in a duology.

Kelly's novel is a slow-burn take on managing palace intrigue, with more tense negotiations than action sequences. I'm a big fan of these types of fantasy novels, which explore the reasons behind government stalls and stonewalling while the outside world burns. The Frozen Crown is generally good fun, but it does have some pacing problems: some sections feel too slow and repetitive, while the ending flashes by at breakneck speed. But Kelly's put our hero in such a precarious position that readers will definitely be drawn back for the sequel.

I really enjoyed this first book of Greta Kelly’s Warrior Witch duology! It is a fast paced fantasy full of political intrigue and lush world building!

The main character Princess Askia is a fierce leader willing to do what it takes to save her people and land after her cousin leads a brutal invasion. She travels to other kingdoms seeking help to raise an army to fight back while trying to keep her forbidden magic a secret, There is also a little bit of romance that I can’t wait to hopefully see a little more in the next book! After that ending I can’t wait for the next book!

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. There is excellent world-building, complex characters, and a very sympathetic protagonist. She is faced with overwhelming challenges and the book explores how to deal with those situations when you don't know who is an enemy, an ally, or somewhere in between, and how does one make a critical decision when none of the options are good. How does one go on from there? I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am eagerly awaiting the sequel.

"I felt my future, my people were balanced on the tip of a blade. But if I pushed too hard, my people would fall...In the great game of power I had only one more card to play. Me."

And play that card she does with great care, love, honor and a bit of magic in this female driven sci fi fantasy. The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly is book one of the Warrior Witch duology. It is worthy of comparison to the original Star Wars trilogy and Princess Leia in all her glory.

The premise is actually very simple. Princess Askia is trying to save her land from a brutal invasion led by her vicious cousin. She travels to other lands to raise an army to save her people. What follows is not simple but it is exciting, adventurous, surprising and complicated.

The author has created a world filled with dubious leaders, political intrigue, fierce warriors and a fun mythology. Askia is a strong minded female protagonist who is more warrior than royal politician. She also has a secret that could upset the delicate balance of her reign. It involves magic and her ability to control it.

I really enjoyed the detailed sword fights and battle scenes. I could have done without the descriptive hunting of animals. I loved the forbidden romance and wanted more and hopefully book two will include more of it. I wish there were less characters. I just could not remember them all without notes. The jaw dropping cliffhanger guarantees I will be pre ordering the next book. If you enjoy getting lost in a faraway land that is a mash up of Game of Thrones and Star Wars this is the book for you.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 8.5/10

The Frozen Crown is author Greta Kelly’s fantastic first installment of the Warrior Witch Duology. There is so much to like about this book from the beautiful cover to the interesting characters to the tension-filled storyline. The Frozen Crown was a hit with me, and if you like stories like this I think it will be a hit with you, too. Let’s dig in.

I have to say (and this does not always happen), but the synopsis nails the plot. The entirety of the book is Askia hanging out in Vishir working the political system in an attempt to bring an army back to Seravesh and free her kingdom from her usurper cousin who took the throne forcefully. That was a mouthful, which, suffice to say, is pretty much the way this story goes. There is a lot of political maneuvering, which I am not always a fan of on its own merit as the main driver of the narrative. But, Kelly does a great job of incorporating enough narrative tension to make it work. I credit the depth of the story for that, because, even though the storyline sounds very straightforward, it is much more intricate than it appears. In addition to the main storyline, there are lots of other angles at play: family issues, forbidden magic (gotta love a Secret Order of Witches), manipulation (policital and otherwise), and even a little romance (not much but just enough to make it worth mentioning). The author included all of these aspects into a very well-written narrative that ebbs and flows and created enough tension to make it intriguing all the way through.

As good as the plot is, this story is really all about Askia. She is the driving force behind this story. Exiled from her kingdom, Askia’s sole focus is finding a way to free her people and win her throne back from her cousin. What I love about Askia so much is she does not pretend to have the right answers all the time. She is a badass warrior witch, and, no, she does not care about your rules. Askia is going to do things her way… until, maybe not? She is a “foreigner” (more on that shortly) in Vishir’s court, and has to learn how to play by their rules if she is going to get an audience with the emperor. But, being a queen herself, Askia is also allowed certain accommodations for a person of her station and the local etiquette does not always apply. So, what we get is an Askia who is at times confident, self-assured, and demanding; other times she is unsure and wavering. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that Askia is not a true foreigner, as she has ties to Vishir. She lived there for a time with her parents when she young and spent time there on and off. I do not want to say too much more about that, because I want to keep away from spoilers, but it is important to note that there are a ton of layers here. It goes deep, constantly building upon the tension. I really grew to love Askia over the course of the story. Her loyalty, dedication, and courage are inspirational, and her story evokes a lot of emotion. She is the perfect protagonist for this story.

I should mention the rest of the cast of characters. The character set is not huge, which I enjoyed. The fact that there are only a handful of important characters allows for the reader to get to know them intimately, which fits with the tone of the book. I am not going to mention them by name, but know that Askia encounters witches, old friends, new friends, family, love interests, wanna-be love interests, politicians, and foreign dignitaries. She also spends a little bit of time swooning over a few hunky guys (wiggles eyebrows). The character set was great, every one of them being distinctive and fascinating in their own way.

I do have to say, there is not a ton of world-building, which I found to be surprising because the first thing I encountered when I opened the book was a map. I am never going to complain about a map (I love them so!), but the story does not get into the wider world all that much. But, as I mentioned before, this story is meant to be more of a small batch, a close-up, and there really is not any reason to do so. And did I mention the gorgeous cover? It hooked me from the start.

I cannot sign off without talking about the ending. It has its share of twists and turns, though nothing I would label as shocking. It is quite a satisfying ending in certain ways, but it does leave things wide open for book 2; this being a duology, the second book will be the finale, and I am excited to see where it goes.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Frozen Crown. The story is intimate and intricate. And quite intriguing all the way through. If you are a fan of this kind of story about royalty and political intrigue, I recommend this book for you. I will be anticipating the next (and last) book in the duology, for sure.

Adored this! While not feeling like a new premise for female-focused fantasy, it 100% kept my interest and loved the relationship between country and family that developed. The opening was confusing, and it took me till about 20% to get my standing of who was what and why I cared, but once I hit that mark I was all in.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this debut adult fantasy. The magic is interesting and has consequences. I LOVE when magic has a price. It helps build characters outside of their powers, because maybe magic isn’t always the answer.

If you enjoy political fantasy, this book is for you! Marriage alliances, court politics, and oh so much scheming. You trust and are skeptical of everyone.

I would recommend this book to those who also like Enchantress by James Maxwell, Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep, and The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.

Askia is the heir to the frozen crown of Seravesh after fighting against the Roven Empire they get too strong for her forces. She travels to the neighboring kingdom to request help and an army to fight for her throne but realizes court politics are something she will have to learn fast, after fighting like a warrior for years.
Askia is not your typical simpering court darling and she gains the attention of a prince, some warriors, some court members and even the Emperor.
Pretty much everyone wants something from her in one way or another and she has to hide her amazing witch powers from almost everyone for fear of persecution cause they kill witches due to their power and their own religious beliefs. Or just cause guys are in charge and suck as usual and jealous they aren't witches, that's usually my take on persecution, jealousy.
Is it bad that the attention of the Emperor was kind of hot even though he has a menagerie of wives he's ignoring. What is wrong with me? I mean I should be more enraged that she can't just petition for help as a royal without marrying someone but .....
Princess Askia is not free to choose who she can marry or love or who can help her without her looking like she's in bed with them literally. So she does not have many options which is so frustrating. But the principal wife of the Emperor may be able to teach her a few things to help her be a stronger ruler and witch. The magic system in this book is very interesting and kept secret in an underground guild.
This is a duology. I need to know what happens to Askia, you left her in a very bad spot!!!

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you @bookriot, @netgalley and @harpervoyageur for the advanced copy for my honest and voluntary review.

This is fantasy okay. We got court politics, a well thought out magic system, yearning, pining, betrayal. The author put her foot on our necks and did not let up one bit. I stayed up till 6am finishing this cause I could not put it down. I also shed many a tear throughout this book.

Ilya. I think that’s all I need to say about that. (But no really I would take a paper cut to the eye for this man. Someone please get some fanart made now).

I have never wanted a character to love and sleep with so many characters yet here we are. Askia deserves a harem of men. Her own menagerie. I would be there as her dutiful servant of course.

I also love when characters I like turn into characters I hate and vice versa. These characters constantly threw me for a loop.

I hate being omniscient cause it’s like watching an impending trainwreck. You know what the problem is and what’s about to happen and no matter how much you yell at people to look, you just have to watch in horror. This is why I didn’t even shed a tear at the end cause I just knew some mess was gonna happen 😔 also the snippet we got of the next book! Finna sneak into Harper Voyager’s office and find a copy okay (for plausible deniability though I would never do this). And at this point I might as well add a finished copy to my cart cause I need this book on my shelves.

Askia may be the heir to the Frozen Crown, but she’s a warrior and an untrained death witch, not an experienced royal skilled in politics and scheming. As she seeks an alliance with the southern emperor and his court, her inexperience and impatience isolates her from those in power. Death and duty push Askia to demand the world go to war, but when the bill comes due, will she truly be willing to pay the cost?

The Frozen Crown has everything - sword-fighting, magic, intrigue, secrets - everything except an ending! Just when the tension ramps up and things started going completely sideways, it ended. It’s truly a cliff-hanger that left me utterly impatient for the second half of this duology.

I loved this book from the moment I started reading. Askia isn't your normal princess, she's a strong, fierce warrior who will do whatever she can to save her kingdom. She is the epitome of a strong female heroine.

The author does an amazing job giving you character depth without dragging the book along. This was a super fast read for me, one of those that will have you up at night saying "Just one more chapter!" The ending will leave you begging for more. The only thing I didn't like is the fact I have to wait for the second book to come out!!

Title: The Frozen Crown
Author: Greta Kelly
Pub. Date: January 12, 2021
Rating: 3.5

I’m feeling rant-y, so I’m going to keep this as spoiler free as possible. The second part of this review will definitely be the rage-y part.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing a free copy to review. Overall, this was a pretty decent and engaging read. Reminded me of The City of Brass in political maneuvering, Tower of Dawn in court intrigue and had the engagement of There Will Come A Darkness. It’s a little heavy on the court politics, but otherwise an enjoyable read. The pacing was steady, kept you interested and turning the page – I finished this over the course of a few days, but really in a handful of hours. The world is vibrant and vivid. I had no trouble picturing it.

Then there’s the actual ending – like, the last page and fuck it if I don’t need to know what happens next. I’m infuriated with events at the end of the book, and then that goes and happens and now you know full well that I’ll be sitting here waiting to find out what the fuck happens next. Dammit, I didn’t want to be anxious for the next one. I figured that since I was raging about the ending, I wouldn’t be interested in reading the next one. But here I am, my brain oscillating between being mad and running through a million “what if’s” for the next book.

I basically requested this book off NetGalley because I saw that Emily A. Duncan had blurbbed it, and that was enough of a selling point for me. And even with the complaints I have with this book – most are born out of heightened emotion and should probably be taken with a grain of salt. Overall, I did enjoy this book. It’s interesting, the plot is a take back the throne fantasy, but it doesn’t feel like every other YA take back the throne fantasy. It’s a little more involved with the politics and court maneuverings. It reads more like an adult fantasy but isn’t so dense that you can’t follow what happens. If you’re looking for a new high fantasy read, then I’m going to recommend this one. Read it, fall in love with Illya and then rage at the ending with me. And even better – it comes out today! So you can pick up your copy – and you should!