Fast paced

Heartwarming

Unpredictable

Frostblood

Elly Blake — 2017

The first in a page-turning young adult series about a world where flame and ice are mortal enemies--but together create a power that could change everything. Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a fireblood who must hide her powers of heat and flame from the cruel frostblood ruling class that wants to destroy all that are left of her kind. So when her mother is killed for protecting her and rebel frostbloods demand her help to kill their rampaging king, she agrees. But Ruby's powers are unpredictable, and she's not sure she's willing to let the rebels and an infuriating (yet irresistible) young man called Arcus use her as their weapon. All she wants is revenge, but before they can take action, Ruby is captured and forced to fight for her life in tournaments that pit fireblood prisoners against frostblood champions. Now she has only one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who has taken everything from her and from the icy young man she has come to love.

Reviews

Annalissa Powner @annalissa222

Mar 3, 2024

This was a 3.5-4 star book for me. I listened to it using audio books and have to say that if I hadn’t listened to it I’m not sure I would have liked it as much. The voices and phasing made the book better. Aside from that I still enjoyed the book. Some of the twist were fairly predictable, others not so much. I loved that for once handsome wasn’t the biggest driving point for the affection between main characters and main love interest. Though speaking of love interest... that’s what took this book from a 5 to 3.5 for me. Don’t get me wrong I love a bad boy, in fact I usually root for him in love triangles, but this was just weird for me. The way he talked to her, the way he basically threw himself at her and then forced himself on her only to have her be chill about it and mad all at the same time... it just did nothing for me and made me want to skip ahead to have the awkward over. All in all it was a lovely read, but I’m not sure I’m curious enough to read the next two.

Melissa Palmer@melissapalmer404

Nov 5, 2023

Book #103 Read in 2016 Frost Blood by Elly Blake Ruby is a Fire Blood, meaning fire burns within her and she can use it as a weapon. The Frost Bloods rule the Kingdom and are hunting Fire Bloods. Ruby is broken out of prison by some monks who want her to free the Frost King from his curse by using her fire. This book reminded me of the His Fair Assassin series, which is a compliment because I loved those books and loved this one as well. This is the first in the series and I highly recommend it to both high school readers and adult readers. I received a copy of this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for a honest review.

Giulia Giacometti@giulia

Jan 5, 2023

Fun, quick read

Wesselhoff @i_wesselhoff

Nov 3, 2022

just yes, I loved it.

Sven Test@sven-sg-test-1

Aug 31, 2022

This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews. I'm so beyond excited I got this book! For one, the cover is amazing! I had wanted to read this before the cover change, so the new cover had me all kinds of excited. Ruby is a Fireblood in hiding. The king has searched for all Firebloods and then sends them off to face Frostblood challengers, leading them to their deaths. Now, Ruby is possibly the only Fireblood out there and she doesn't even know how to control the fire. When Ruby is discovered, she's taken to a prison, but her stay doesn't last because some Frostbloods rescue her in exchange for her help in taking down the king. With the Frostbloods help among some monks, Ruby starts to train. She even gets a lesson in sword fighting, thanks to Arcus, a handsome young man who for some reason, fears fire and sometimes Ruby herself. I don't read much Fantasy, usually because it takes me a while to get used to the world-building. Let me tell you that I was hooked right from the start and read this book very quickly! It was so addicting! The characters were what made the story even better. We have Ruby, who has a very sassy attitude that leads her to some trouble, but at the same time, she's strong, brave, feisty, and eager to learn more about her control of fire. I loved that there's a lot of character growth for her. She has quite the temper but along the way, she started to control it and focused her energy on more important things. Ruby really struggled a lot to keep control of her powers, which made her feel real to me. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to make sure he was unhurt. I wanted to leave him in the dirt and run away. I wanted him to stop me from leaving. Let's all swoon over Arcus! Arcus is quiet, grumpy, mysterious and quite the handsome man! Arcus and Ruby first meet when he breaks her out of prison. From the start, these two can't get along. Arcus doesn't trust Ruby because she's a Fireblood and Ruby doesn't like Arcus because he's rude towards her. Along the way, they start spending time together, mostly because Arcus is helping Ruby train, but during these times, Ruby starts to develop feelings for Arcus and vice versa. Their chemistry was so strong, especially with all the banter! "You don't know the effect your words have on me, Lady Firebrand. It took years to build up this ice. You will melt it and then I will be broken." I really liked the mythology-like aspect of the story. It had lots of history of the how the Frostbloods and Firebloods came to exist, along with a dark and evil force that makes an appearance later in the book. At times, I would get lost over the history, but it was still quite intriguing and kept me wanting to learn more. Overall, Frostblood is an addicting and satisfying Fantasy with great characters, quite a few twists that had my mind going crazy, and a fantastic swoon-worthy romance! I received an eARC from the publisher for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.

courtney garrison@simplycourtney

Aug 10, 2022

This book…. this book is so good. I didn’t know what to expect from Elly Blake’s new series. I was blown away by the book, I went in not knowing much about the novel. The writing was amazing, the story was just intoxicating from the first few pages, I immediately could not put the book down. I finished it in just a couple of hours it was so good. You have your MC Ruby, who is a fireblood. In this world, there are firebloods and frostbloods, Fire and Ice. Ruby has always been told to suppress her gift and hide it or she will be sent to the King and executed. One evening the king’s soldiers appear not far from her home. Ruby rushes off to warn her mother, shortly after the soldiers burst through their home and they flee. A village not far from their home, Ruby and her mother is caught. Her mother is killed protecting her and Ruby is takin to prison. She soon escapes to abbey, a small village of frostbloods who help her control her gift. They train her for one reason, to help them kill the king. While she is also falling in love. You are basically thrown in from the first few chapters, you follow Ruby as she learns her gift and tries to find who is helping her and who is just using her. You watch Ruby grow from a scared child into a fierce warrior you take down a kingdom. It was truly a great story and I can not wait to see where the story goes in the second novel. I love Elly’s writing and the way she can capture the reader in just a few pages.

Princess Twasam @bookishminds

May 27, 2022

This book was a hunger games meets red Queen and I really liked it. Ruby and Arcus are amazing and their relationship is your classic enemies to lovers. The ending fulfilling yet it is obvious that their are more issues to come. I have already read this once and this series has been a short comfort trilogy for me. I would totally recommend.

Becky@afoolsingenuity

Jan 6, 2022

3.5 stars I have a lot of feelings about this book and it isn't all good. I think my expectations may have been slightly too high going in so I was disappointed and I was also suffering through a bit of a reading slump where I was reading because I knew I had to but didn't want to, so reading this did feel a bit like a chore. That being said, it is a really fantastic YA read. I enjoyed it and I really liked the characters and the plot was interesting. I will begin by saying I loved the characters. Ruby was amazing. She was sarcastic and funny and flawed and I just loved her. She was a girl who lost her mother and had a major guilt complex who had to survive awful situations. She has trust issues and survivors guilt and doesn't know who to trust. She doesn't trust these monks and this stranger who saved her and I don't blame her. Throughout the book, I was cheering for her getting things right and making good choices and I got why she struggled so much because she is left alone without knowing what's going on and she has to make the best of a bad situation. She is a favourite. Iw as like her mistrusting everyone she came across because who knows who you can trust when you live in a kingdom where everyone hates your kind? I know a lot of people loved Arcus and her romance with him, as well. I liked that romance but I didn't feel it was a sparky and passionate as some have said. Ruby and Arcus do have fun bantery conversations and they do bounce off one another but I kept waiting for an incendiary spark between them and it didn't happen. Hopefully, in the next book where they get to spend more time together without secrets I might like them a bit more. The romance was one flaw for me and the other was the plot. I didn't dislike the plot, I enjoyed it throughout, it's the fact it didn't feel original which bothered me. I know it's hard to get originality in genres like this where so many books have been released already and it's not its lack of originality which truly bothered me. It was the fact I saw the twists coming. When I'm reading a book which is trying to keep secrets and reveal major plot points later on to shock readers I don't want to see it coming a mile away. I mean, it wasn't terrible. It didn't spoil my enjoyment but it made come out of the story as I was reading as I thought 'that's going to happen' and 'they're keeping big secrets'. I may be picking flaws where there aren't any. I don't know. Maybe, once I've let the book settle for a couple of days I'll like it a bit more, but that niggled at me. It wasn't all doom and gloom, though. I did really enjoy it. I was hooked but suffering from a slump which left me not wanting to read. Basically, this is a really fun YA fantasy which fans of that genre will enjoy. It isn't groundbreaking. It will never define the genre. But why does every book need to be new and amazing? I liked it a lot and would easily recommend it to others, surely that means it's a good read, right? I will definitely be sticking around for the next book, anyway. I need to know what happens next and any book which hooks you like that deserves some love in my eyes.

moa @moa

Dec 30, 2021

A little to obvious live story between arcus and ruby and a little lack of explination of power but strong history story and easy to understand.

This review contains a spoiler

laura@booksandpops400

Nov 20, 2021

*I give this book 4.5 stars* I loved everything about this book. I loved the characters all of them captured my heart from page one. I love ruby as a lead. I also really loved how the world was build and crafted. The world in my head was so visually cool. I really was carptured by both this world and these characters. I will be honest reading the summary for this book made me drag. I was spoiled on plot elements that did not happen until part 2 of the book and that made me story drag. I loved where i was in the story but knew it was going to change and that made the story drag. I am still so excited for book 2!

Hannah@ponderingpages

Oct 18, 2021

4.5 - i was really surprised by this!

Kathryn@bookhemianrhapsody

Oct 1, 2021

** spoiler alert ** It's not often that I either give a book such a low rating or DNF a book completely but I had to with this one. I decided to put it down at about the 50% mark. Let me explain why. This book is not badly written. I've seen a lot of reviews that say it is but I would have to disagree. I think that the issue with this book is the plot and the pacing. Let's start with the plot. The basic plot is a kingdom ruled by people with one power against a girl who controls the other. Girls mother is killed by kings soldiers, girl wants revenge against king, girl joins rebellion members to train, girl kills king. Like I said the writing isn't bad but the plot is very predictable. It's a variation in a storyline that has been used so many times and to be honest I got bored. Another reason I got bored was the pacing. The premise makes it sound like such a fast paced and punchy story but the reality is that I got halfway through and we hadn't really gotten past the training stage, which started about two chapters in. It's not a bad book, just felt like I had read it before.

Cori McCarthy@corimccarthy01

Sep 5, 2021

This was my second time reading this amazing book, and I still feel so strongly about it! It is such exhilarating read full of twists and turns that you will be dying for the second book! Let’s dive on in to the review! In an endless battle between ice and fire, this is an epic story that will hold your attention until the very end. Right from page one, you follow the protagonists Ruby trying to hide her fire powers in a land full of ice. The characters had to be my favorite part of this book! From the sassiness and complexity of Ruby, to the quiet solitude of the brothers, it was just such a joy to read. The world is so intriguing to read, and so rich with details. The romance was to die for, and the friendships even more so! This book is definitely a page-turner! I cannot recommend this book more! It is full of adventure, steamy romance, and is just such a vibrant world! Believe me, you will want to be up all hours of the night, flipping through these pages! “Face them all like a warrior, whether you are one or not.” Elly Blake Final Rating: 5/5 Stars⭐️

Wren Hardwick@fablesandwren

Aug 31, 2021

This was typical for me. Things were really predictable and it's been done. Typical girl has rare power, typical girl has a big, horrible thing happen (like a family death), typical girl teams up with broody man with big dark secrets and his teams of rebels, typical girl falls for broody boy and broody boy falls for typical girl even though they both didn't plan it. Broody boy makes rash decisions and typical girl makes rash decisions completely forgetting about the power play at hand and only caring for each other. Things end on a happy-like-well-kind-of note and now we wait a year for the next book to get more predictable things for typical girl and broody boy. Oh and there is going to be a love triangle or two, mark my words. I mean, there was seriously nothing wrong with this book. It held my attention okay and the characters were a little too flat for my taste, but I have read a lot worse. I think this would be a great book for someone getting into the fantasy side of young adult or someone who just has a unquenching love for the genre itself. I just need more from the characters and a twist that makes me fall out of my chair and I didn't get that out of this book.

Lisa Beasley@carefulofbooks

Aug 18, 2021

I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. I part listened to the audiobook and part read on my kindle but really enjoyed the audio narrator. She captured Ruby really well and as a protagonist I warmed to Ruby quickly. There are some parts which are typical and expected but also others which are surprises. Looking forward to the next one :)