It was an enjoyable read but one of those books I won't remember in two months. I had some trouble with the writing style, I'm still not entirely sure whether I liked it or not. It's a nice book for in-between heavier reads.

Aspect of Winter follows Fay, a young teenager who has the ability to control ice and water. Fay tries to keep his freaky powers under wraps, only his parents and best friend Sam knows. Apart from Sam, Fay has no other friends and is a target to the bullies especially as he is gay and somewhat timid. Sam on the other hand is a martial arts bad-ass and will take on anything and is the complete opposite to Fay.

Fay and Sam are approached by a mysterious stranger informing them that they can join a college for gifted teenagers but to enter they must go through some combat and survival trials. The informant leaves them with a book full of magic and incantations to start studying in preparation for the trials, pretty much left to their own devices they come across some challenging situations.

When I first started reading this book I was a little unsure about it, it felt cheesy and maybe even a little too young for me. For me this had some X-Men vibes to it and bits of snow queen parts which I feel like I have read too much at the moment.

However the book is really interesting when the fantasy starts kicking in. The way Tom Early writes the combat and trials are very vivid and I could picture it all as I was reading. The creatures that were involved in the story were great and I really enjoyed all their different characteristics.

This book is great if you are looking for some diversity in your current reads as Fay is homosexual and you get to read about a male/male romance and Sam is bisexual. The characters in this book are very relatable and Sam is so bad-ass, strong, determined and just a great female character. Whereas Fay is the shy, timid character that needs something important in his life to happen for him to shine.

I would have preferred more of a back story to Fay and Sam’s lives as I think it would have made the story much stronger and better character development. The ending to this book could indicate that the author is working on a sequel as there is plenty of room for another book.

I recommend this to anyone that is interested in Young-adult, fantasy books with some diversity mixed in.

I would say this is a great fun read and would say that is for the younger side of YA. This book is available as e-book version only.

I rated this 3 out of 5 stars