4.5 stars

I can’t get over how good this book was! I was completely engrossed in the story and didn’t want the book to end.

This YA fantasy had everything I love including mystery, magic, action, and a little romance. Keltania has spent her entire life training to be the guardian of the Winter Fae. Unfortunately, when she finally meets her charge, Valen, the crown prince of the Winter Court, nothing is as she expected. She quickly realized that everyone is hiding something making her job difficult.

The banter between Tania and Valen is so incredible, I constantly had a smile on my face as I was reading. I really loved both their characters and how they each grew as the story progressed. I also can’t stress this enough, but neither of them was annoying, which I find is often the case in YA novels (especially the FMC). But I truly loved them both and couldn’t get enough, especially as their relationship started to evolved into something a little more sweet and romantic (but no spice).

There were so many twists and developments that I did not see coming. I can’t wait for the next book in the series to be released because I need to know what happens next.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, what a fantastic YA adventure. We have fae, Druid’s, magic, fighting, snark, and a slow burn romance that is both delicate and adorable. Keltania has been trained her whole life to be an Aphelian, or a Druid with powers to protect Royal fae. Valen is her charge and she soon discovers there’s more to him than his good looks, charm, and mayhem.

So many little twists and turns! Just when you think you’ve figured something out, a new surprise pops up. I really liked how the plot built. We weren’t just given a buttload of information, but instead, the secrets were gradually woven into the story. Bravo!

The writing was a bit flat. Nothing about the writing screamed “unique” but the plot was well-paced and kept me interested so that’s not a bad thing. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I can’t wait for more! The ending was a bit wrapped up nicely, which is strange for the genre, but it was also a refreshing change. This was my first read from Jus and I’m eager to read more.

POV: 1st, Dual
SPICE: 🌶️
ANGST: Mild; no real angst, just typical fantasy angst

𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚. 𝙈𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝙞𝙨 𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮.

Fast pace, easy to read, and a page turner.
Omen of Ice is a story of generational correction.
Because of a druid and fae pair, the natural world destruction sped up.
Druids lost their magic and most of the supernatural world began living in harsh condition.

Many hundreds later, Keltania, has completed her training to guard her assigned fae.
Little does she know she got assigned to the Prince of the Winter Fae, Valen.
Valen doesn't want another protector. He doesn't want to develop feeling for this druid.
Snippy fun bantering ensues throughout this novel. I love how Tania kept her coolness throughout the story.

The plot twist was interesting. I love the magic life that gravitated towards Tania.
The ending left in a subtle cliffhanger. A new adventure for sure.

A good read that doesn't paint fae in a good light.
Fae in the past are known to be evil, greedy, and lazy.

Great flow and pose. Would recommend!
Entangled Publishing and Red tower are rocking it lately!

Omen of Ice is an engrossing YA fantasy romance that took us on quite an adventure, and I was hooked from the start and couldn't put it down.

Keltania and Valen were wonderful characters. As part of the royal family of the Fae Winter court, Valen needed protection, and Keltania, one of the few druids left, was sent to guard him.

The back and forth banter between them throughout the story had me highly entertained. They were complete opposites but balanced each other out perfectly. Although there was no spice in the novel, I enjoyed the building tension and chemistry between them.

The world building was creative and I thought the character development was well done.

The story was well paced and told in dual POV, and I loved that we got the folklore/history of what happened in the past. There were so many unexpected twists and turns, I was frantically turning the pages to know more.

This was a great start to the series but after all the build up, I felt the ending was rushed although I will admit the twist did leave me shocked.

This was a new to me author whose story telling I did enjoy and I can't wait for book 2, to find out what happens next.

I would definitely recommend this novel to fantasy lovers.


What To Expect:
Slow burn, forbidden romance
Bodyguard romance
Forced Proximity
Political Intrigue
Fae, Druids, Selkies
Betrayal
Shifter
Magic

This was a fun read. I enjoyed the story & characters well enough (who doesn’t love a headstrong FMC?), but felt like there was just something missing.

I look forward to seeing how the author develops the storyline in the next book!

I received an ARC for this book but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a wild ride!!!! This book had soooo many twists and turns, I couldn't stop reading it! Daroose was easily the BEST character in the whole book. <3

Both main characters were easily likable. I loved that Keltania really took her assignment to protect Valen seriously. She struggled the whole book with how she always pictured her future job would be like - once she met Valen and got to know him she learned that the world was actually so much more different than she could have imagined. Valen at first comes off as kind of a jerk but his character growth throughout the book was exactly what I wanted to see. By the 70% mark in the book I couldn't put it down. I honestly never predicted the book would end how it did - which makes it a great story because I don't want to read something cliché and predicable.

Looking back at the book cover after finishing reading it - OMG! I didn't see it's real meaning until now.

I honestly CAN NOT wait for book 2!!!

Keltania Tunne has spent her whole life training to become a bodyguard for a Winter Fae. It’s the highest of honors for a druid…only when Tania arrives at the Winter Court for the first time, nothing is what she expected. Her assignment is the heir to the throne, Valen, and he doesn’t want her protection. In fact, he wants her gone. Yesterday. But Tania will not compromise, even if he is the most arrogant jackass she’s ever met―because something isn’t right in the Winter Court. Everyone has secrets. From the Winter Lord to the kitchen maids to the rising faction that wants the prince dead―no one is who they seem. And now it’s up to Tania to keep her sacred oath and protect Valen, even when his smart mouth makes her skate the razor-thin edge between love and hate. But the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes his secret is the biggest of all―and might just get them both killed.

Let me start by saying that this isn't a genre that I usually read, although sometimes the description will just draw me in and make me want to read. But I do love PNR and decided to give it a try just based off the description even though it's marketed for teens/YA. And let me say, I am so glad I decided to give it a try! This book is fast paced and the fantasy to it is phenomenal! Which is exactly what kept me reading and needing to know more. The romance is more of afterthought, in my opinion, but with how rich the story is with the fantasy and intrigue-it all worked out perfectly. My only big drawback, the ending of the book felt like it was a moment to throw all this information at you that was left out throughout the rest of the story. It does end on a cliff-hanger, so if you don't like cliffy's-then I would wait for it to be complete. Definitely well worth a read, especially if you like YA and fantasy!

Kaltania has spent her life training to be an Aphelian (AKA a boss lady bodyguard to a fae). Now that she’s officially been inducted as a druid, Kaltania is sent to the Winter Court to meet her new charge.

Valen strange for a fae and doesn’t quite fit in with his uncle or the rest of the Winter Court. His unusual violet eyes are just the tip of the iceberg. Valen is certain about one thing, though—he doesn’t need an Aphelian guard. Especially considering what happened to the last one.

This is the first book in a new fantasy series about druids and fae. I found it to be fast-paced and interesting. I really liked Kaltania and her commitment to keeping Valen safe right from the beginning. Valen has so many secrets and constantly has to keep himself in check. It was fun to see him slowly open up to Kaltania. The magic system is well-developed and compelling. I don’t what to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that I’m very interested to see what happens next!

"Omen of Ice" marks the captivating debut of Jus Accardo in the world of YA Romantasy.
Keltania, a determined young woman who has dedicated her entire existence to the path of becoming an Aphelian, a guardian of the Winter Fae and a revered druid. The highest honor of her kind. Keltania carries the legacy of Aphelian, a human druid who once relinquished her magic for the love of a fae, inadvertently setting in motion the complete erradication of fae magic.

That is until Keltania meets her relectuant charge, Valen, the crown prince of the winter court, and a fae with magic. Valen shows minimal interest in her protection, actively avoiding her whenever possible. But Keltania does not care - all she cares about is her duty. In an effort to save Valen in case of an assassination attempt, Keltania inscribes a sigil connecting them but when the ill-fated protection sigil goes awry, Keltania and Valen embark on a mission to fix their dire situation.
Along their journey, concealed truths unravel, romance blossoms and adventure is met along the way!

Valen is a unique blend of book boyfriend, embodying the sassy attitude of Rhys, the charisma of Dorian, and the arrogance of Cardan. Hes kind of amazing? Meanwhile, Keltania is fiery, has no-nonsense attitude, and is unwaveringly loyal and loving despite her difficult upbringing. PLUS, there is a Kelpie and a dragon shifter.

This book was so FUN. I am always hesitant to read fae books because so many of them are just knock off's of ACOTAR, but this book had a unique storyline that had me hooked! The world-building is surprisingly rich, unfolding in a post-magic apocalyptic future where humanity teeters on the brink of extinction and fae courts dwindle in numbers. There is a captivating array of characters and intricate magic systems that really help enrich the story.

This book is fast paced and is hard to put down with TWISTS and TURNS at the end that you don't see coming. I cannot wait to see what book two has to offer!

Read this if you like
- bodyguard romance
- fae/human
- fast paced book
- slow burn romance
- forbidden romance
- 100% BANTER
- fantasy world with interesting characters and creatures
- TWISTS AND TWISTS AND TWISTS
- Cliffhangers
- friends/enemies/tolerating eachother to lovers?
- Dual POVS
- Tension (but no spice)
- Cool Magic system

Thank you to Entangled Publishing, Brittany Zimmerman and NG for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

"She's warmth and life"

This was an interesting fast-paced read with two strong main characters - Keltania is a human druid who is assigned to protect Valen, the fae heir to the Winter Lands. The story features a dual POV between Keltania and Valen, which was particularly insightful to emphasise how history is twisted in the perspective of the different groups of people.

I loved the banter between the two with the slow burn building the tension so perfectly. Daroose is a fascinating character that becomes a favourite. There was excellent world-building with some twists that you suspect and some that have your jaw dropping. The story wraps up but leaves you needing to know where the story goes next .

If you're looking for a series that has fae, romance, political intrigue, interesting family bonds, and a fascinating story without info-dumping with the promise of so much more to come as it progresses, add this to your TBR now!

Thank you so much to Entangled and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this.

Badass FMCs are taking over fantasy and I am here for it!

Keltania is a human who gets assigned to protect a broody fae lordling and their relationship was my teenage dream.

I love that Keltania is such a kick ass bodyguard and that she wasn’t charmed by Valen at all. The witty comebacks and sarcastic comments from each of them really enforced that they are both young. I don’t remember Valen’s age being explicitly stated but he feels about 19-20 to me, and Keltania is around 18-19 and their dialogue really conveys this.

The plot was fun and the build up was great—but the climax felt a bit rushed. I definitely think the book could have been at least 50 pages longer so that all the plot lines could have been more fleshed out. The overall pacing was just a tad fast for me but there were so many events happening that it wasn’t jarring until the end, when we went at breakneck speed to the conclusion.

This was a fun, quick read but still kept me engaged and I am looking forward to see how things in the Winter Lands develop further!

I was provided an eARC by NetGalley and my review is honest and written voluntarily.

When I first read the blurb for this one I immediately zoned in on one word, Druids, and after reading the rest of it I could only say yes, please.

Tania is one of those characters that is so much more than she seems and she has so much more to give to the world other than that sword arm of hers.

Valen is an heir to a throne that has no idea of all the secrets and dangers that are around him daily.

From fighting off mythical creatures, realizing she can talk to animals, and maybe mistakenly binding herself to Valen in the worst ways Tania has her hands full and I loved reading her story.

The story itself is without a doubt the star here, it's well thought out, and weaves lore, legend, and history together in a seamless way that had me falling in love with it.

This is the first book I've read by Jus Accardo but it definitely won't be the last. That ending, I don't know how someone can come up with something like that, it's brilliant and detailed, and had me wanting more the second I closed the book.



Thank you to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for providing a copy of this E-Book, I have voluntarily read and reviewed it and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

“Magic is a funny thing. It can be infinitely powerful yet, at the same time, as fragile as the most delicate bloom. All it takes to lose it is a single sacrifice.”

Omen of Ice by Jus Accardo was unlike any story I’ve read before. The world-building is phenomenal, featuring fae, druids, trolls, and a kelpie. The writing made visualization of the people, creatures, scenery, and fight scenes easy to imagine. The secondary characters added humor, mystery, and suspense to the story. But it is the main characters of Valen and Tania who drove the story with their back and forth, oftentimes sparring banter, and budding friendship/romance.

Valen is the nineteen-year-old nephew of Orbik, the lord of the Winter Court. Valen is charismatic, shallow, and cocky. Orbik and others don’t think too highly of him, so he lives down to their expectations. In actuality, Valen thinks and feels deeper than anyone knows. He has a sense of duty and responsibility. He willingly endures pain to keep his court and its people thriving. Yet, Valen is weighed down by secrets.

Keltania (Tania) Tunne is a human. A druid. She was born and expected to give her life to the Winter Court. Her job as the new Alphelian is to guard and protect Valen, the next in line to the Winter Court throne, from threats both within and outside of the court. Tania is persistent, courageous, strong, and fierce.

So much happens within the pages of Omen of Ice. This is a young adult, fantasy, filled with betrayal, surprising twists, and found family, capped off with a slow-burn, forbidden romance. Once you pick this book up, you will not want to put it down. I will patiently be waiting for the next book in this series.

~ Favorite Quotes ~

“There’s always a way.”

“Kid, you gotta relax. Take one day at a time. Tackle things in priority order.”

Keltania spent her life training to be a guard for a fae. Valen, her assignment, doesn't want her as a guard and spends his time trying to get her to give up and leave. I found Valen and his antics to be pretty funny! Tania is mostly all business due to her training, but as she spends times with Valen you see another side to her. This book has twists and turns, magic, forbidden love.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing, NetGalley and Jus Accardo for the digital review copy for my honest review

Holy moly, this book has me obsessed.
It caught my attention from the very beginning. The lore and the world were interesting and mysterious. The banter between the two main characters was my absolute favorite. I never thought I’d swoon over someone being called Fungus. The side characters add so much to the story and it really builds upon the main characters’ personalities and motives. Overall, this is one of my favorite recent reads. I can’t wait for the next one.

I thought that this was great! I love books filled with magic so when I saw the description of this book, I just knew that I had to give it a try and I was hooked almost immediately. Keltania and Valen were both great characters and I thought that they were the perfect match for one another. I found this book to be incredibly entertaining and I was glued to the pages until the very end.

Keltania has trained her whole life training as a druid to be a guard to a Winter Fae. She is determined to make sure her charge is kept safe regardless of the cost. Valen isn’t interested in having her protection and tries to ditch her at every opportunity. Things are not exactly as they seem at the Winter Court and before long Tania and Valen form a bond that they would have never expected. One secret leads to another and I love that the story was full of so many unexpected twists and turns. The story had plenty of action as the pair faced danger from a variety of sources.

I hated to put this book down so when I noticed that the audiobook had become available from my local library, I downloaded it right away and started listening to the story about halfway through. This worked perfectly because I was able to continue with the story even when I didn’t have the time to sit down and read. I thought that Alex Kydd and Amy Melissa Bently did a wonderful job of bringing this story to life. I loved the character voices that they used and thought that they added just the right amount of emotion to their reading. I do believe that their narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others. I thought that this book was filled with just the right amount of excitement and the characters were easy to fall for. This is the first book in the series and I cannot wait to see what will happen next.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Entangled: Teen.

This book was almost a dnf for me. I didn't connect to the characters and the world building seemed contrary and made little sense.

The heroine has spent her life training to become a bodyguard for a fae, which is the greatest honor for druids. The heroine arrives at the Winter Court and finds out that she'll be the bodyguard of the hero. The hero doesn't want a bodyguard and tries nearly everything to get rid of the heroine. Yet everything is not as it seems in the Winter Court, and this is the beginning of unearthing all the secrets that were hidden inside this place.

This is the first of this Jus Accardo series. This fantasy book has dual perspectives from the main characters, which enhances the story with depth. This book has two main characters that has strong personalities, the heroine being more likable than the hero in my reading. I enjoyed the descriptive fantasy setting and found the story enjoyable to read. I would have liked more details in some parts of the story, especially when there are a lot of information dumped in one area when it could have been spaced a bit more. Overall, a good beginning to the series and I look forward to reading more additions in the future.


** Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own. **

3.5 stars

Omen of Ice by Jus Accardo is a perfect fantasy read for lovers of Fae books. It contains badass females, magic, and adventure, as well as secrets and betrayals. It balances court intrigue and quests quite nicely, containing the best of both worlds.

Keltania is the badass female in question, along with the rest of her people who are druids and send their females to guard the Fae when they have completed their training. Their people are the only ones who have had any kind of magic for a very long time and so are highly coveted, and given the honour of serving the Fae as a result. Keltania has spent her entire life expecting and eagerly anticipating the time she will be given a charge to safeguard, and it doesn’t quite end up being what she expects when she is sent to protect Valen, the prince of the Winter Court, who very much does not want to be protected.

Enter Valen, said stubborn prince who will do whatever he can to chase Keltania away rather than be subjected to her protection. I honestly loved what a snarky, self confident, deliberately blasé and careless hellion Valen came across as. He’s super sassy which I love, and has no illusions about his own status and how appealing he is to others and he isn’t afraid to use that. I was all about his confidence and how he attempted to use his wiles against Keltania constantly. They had such great banter between them which made me really enjoy their interactions.

As I said, there’s plenty of adventure as the two set off to fix a problem they wind up needing to deal with, and it was a fun little read altogether. I don’t won’t to go into too many details in the interest of avoiding spoilers so I’m being deliberately vague. There was a hint of romance though if I’m honest I was wanting a bit more to work with, and it definitely wasn’t spicy at all. But, other than having a bit of a slow time getting into it initially, it was a quick, enjoyable read and I did very much enjoy the world and its world building. The magic and the fact that it was dying which results in a somewhat dying world had me hooked and my favourite part was getting bits of history of the world prior to the loss of magic and the events that went down that resulted in it happening. I loved the courts and the Fae and human relationships in all their intricacies and I think this will be a very interesting series as it goes along. I will be interested to see more of what is to come, particularly with some of the reveals closer to the ending.

Rated 4.5 Stars

Omen of Ice was an adventure, a wild journey that I quite enjoyed. A lush world filled with some disgusting yet amazing creatures. It was interesting and intriguing. I loved the magic system. The world has dystopian elements, is dangerous, intriguing and in some ways beautiful. There were flawed yet endearing characters. Daroose is a trip and a half. I loved it and recommend. I'm definitely looking forward to more of this world and by this author. I'm so excited to see what happens next.