Sara Raasch
My rating: ★★★½
ISBN: 978-0062286925
Publisher: Balzar + Bray
Date of publication: October 14, 2014
Age: Grades 8 - 11
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: identity, power, fear, balance
Sixteen years ago, Winter was conquered and enslaved with only a few refugees making it out, including the heir of the kingdom. Meira, an orphan included in this group, has been training her whole life to take Winter back with Mather, the king-to-be and Meira's biggest crush. But as her group gets closer to their goal, Meira is subjected to political manipulations, dark magic, and the truth of her destiny.
I was close to not finishing there in the beginning. Meira came off as pretty immature and a tad bothersome, especially any passage referring to her fascination with Mather. But! It did pick up, and became rather exciting. Like, went-to-bed-way-late exciting. So I'm averaging my review to be a 3.5.
The characters did have some nice depth, what with some fascinating peeks into the past and some darker magical manipulations. I really really liked Theron, but who wouldn't? (Maybe he's a little too perfect?) It never really was a love triangle to me. Meira knew who she should like. But still, Meira, overall, bothered me. On the one hand, she'd have these super intense action scenes where she'd kick butt and be ninja-awesome. But then she'd go back to her confusing self-characterization (act for herself? act for Winter? soldier? a lady? back and forth and back and forth). I started to skim some of her musings.
But the story was great! Just the right amount of romance, some really exciting action sequences, and a great (albeit totally predictable) ending. Will I read the others in the series? Maybe.
Find it at your library or on Amazon
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