This is one of the best reads on 2019. This book is so beautifully written and the story is so wonderfully told.
Asterin and Luna's friendship is really one of the best I've read in a while. And Asterin's character development is STUNNING! This novel really does not feel like a debut at all!
This book really is different from anything I have read, and you get lost in the world and the characters. It is spell-binding and enchanting on all new levels.

Hey, all!

I just finished reading Shadow Frost, by Coco Ma! This was sent to me by Blackstone Publishing via Netgalley as an eARC. This will be published in October 2019. The fact that this is an arc does not alter my opinions.

Before I even start reviewing this, take 2 minutes and pre-order this. It is worth it, I promise.

The first thing you should know about this book, is that it's written by Coco when she was 15, and is being published just a year after she graduated high school. I've spoken with her and she is SUCH a ball of human sunshine! I am honoured to be able to share this book! I'll also be getting a physical ARC, so I'll be all over sharing this!

Shadow Frost was such a smooth read. The writing made sense for the story, and the characters felt real. There was confusion and name-calling and stubbornness and laziness and none of them felt like a holier-than-thou Mary Sue. Even Asterin just felt like a normal teenager who just so happened to be able to control various elements. It was really refreshing to read characters like this - it was somewhat akin to Percy Jackson. Characters were relatable, which made it all the more fun!

One of my favourite characters was Harry. I won't spoil a thing aside from the fact that he's a cinnamon roll and I wanna go in the book and hug him.

Coco also did a good job depicting all kinds of relationships! There was a great cousin dynamic, a series of strong friendships, a (sorta insta-lovey but I shipped it right away so I can't judge) romance, and no love triangles! I thought there would be for a bit, but it ended up being something I couldn't anticipate.

I loved the magic in this book - it had relatively clear rules, straightforward abilities and creative detours. Nobody overused their magic - it was simply a part of who these characters were, and I was all in for that!

Shadow Frost has a plot that keeps moving, almost dancing with the reader. When you believe it to go one way, it takes you another, that only feels more clever. It's also super well-organised: a detail I liked was that, at times, shifting POVs described one thing, from two points of view. It gave a 3D feel to the plot, if that makes sense!

And that ending! Shadow Frost punched me in the feels at the end - so many bombs were dropped! I always thought I knew what was happening, and it would shift! Aaa so good!

There were a few things I would just tweak - Quinlan's overuse of the word 'brat' is one I can think of now. He's not the best insulter, but it also does add to his charm.

That's it for now! I could keep talking about this for a long time - I can't wait to meet other people who have read the book!

I'm giving it 4.5/5 stars!

Stay bookish!

At the ripe age of 15, Coco Ma wrote Shadow Frost. With this knowledge in mind, I began reading this story in complete awe. After completing only a few chapters, it was quite evident that Ma’s writing was more mature and better crafted than some of our most experienced and most loved YA Fantasy writers out there. Not to mention the prologue was done flawlessly. I completed the first few pages and knew this story would do everything but disappoint.

Shadow Frost begins with a small introduction to the Princess of Axaria and her Guardian, Orion. These two are quite the competitive duo, who like to train and test one another’s strength. This training becomes quite useful when Asterin volunteers to find and defeat a shadow demon that lurks and tortures her people. With Queen Priscilla’s permission, Asterin takes a few of her most trusted confidants and some new friends (who we aren’t quite sure of yet) on a journey that could end in the demise of the mortals.

Along the way, we meet some interesting and exciting characters. Ma provides a little insight and background into each of our characters which I really enjoyed. Commonly with YA Fantasy novels we get our main protagonist as the narrator leaving us with only bits and pieces of the supporting characters story. Ma took a different approach with narration which provided a fresh take to the genre. Additionally, I truly liked each and every character that was introduced with the exception of our villain. Although, I found some of the banter between the characters to show Ma’s age. This isn’t meant as an insult, but brat was used quite heavily. It was just an observation.

The story itself was done pretty well considering Ma was practically a child when she wrote this book. From the start, we get introduced to the infinity stones that play a role in the magical element. I actually really liked that Ma explained this aspect from the get. Some stories set the stage and get into the other elements a bit later in the novel. There was no mystery or hesitation, you have a clear and concise understanding from the start. The rest of the novel was done quite well. Admittedly, there was a time or two when I found myself a bit bored. Ma had the classic training chapters that we read in every single YA Fantasy novel that has ever been published. Which I am kind of over, but understand how it is sort of necessary. But overall, it was an entertaining and well-paced story with a few unanticipated twists.

I really enjoyed how Ma ended the story. I won’t go into detail, but it certainly didn’t end how one would expect. Things are in disarray. Relationships are damaged. The world is changed. But it certainly feels like a sequel will be coming our way. And I for one am very much looking forward to it.

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for a copy of this novel.

I really enjoyed this.
And I really liked the romance. I mean dark haired and tattooed. Heck yes lol

I was really interested in this book. It has a gorgeous cover and an interesting summary, but it fell flat for me. I couldn't get through the entire book and I had a really hard time getting into the story. The characters weren't interesting enough and the plot was very slow moving.

Where to begin, this book started off promising but then quickly descended into a mess of characters and plot points that seemingly came out of nowhere. The book starts with a fantastic description of someone creating a demon. From there, Asterin Faelenhart takes over the perspective and introduces the concept of the affinity stones, nine in total, that represent different elements. Asterin can control five: water, earth, ice, light, and wind, which means she is multifinitied. In a show of her skills with her mother and General Garringsford, she accidentally breaks the stones and sends shards towards the two. Disturbed by this event, Asterin is distracted when Rose and Quinland are sent from the kingdom of Eradore to serve in her Elite Royal Guard. The guards give her an affinity stone that unlocks all nine elements and Asterin becomes omnifinitied.

From here, Asterin learns of a demon attack that has taken out a number of guards. Asterin volunteers herself along with her two newest guards, her guardian, Orion, her lady-in-waiting, Luna and another soldier named Eradore to investigate the attack and kill the demon. This takes them on a journey to Corinthe, where the demon attacked. It is absolutely demolished and we learn the history of Orion, who survive a demon attack when he was a kid that took the lives of his mother and sister. The group meanders and eventually comes across their contact, Harry, who lives in the Aswiyre Forest. Here, the group attempts to find the demon but uncover secrets about the kingdom and Asterin's mother, Queen Priscilla.

I'll be honest. I did lose interest in the plot but I have a very valid reason: all the characters seem exactly the same. There are two reasons why this happens and mainly because the third person perspective is not used properly but instead as a way to jump into all the characters' minds. Every chapter means you could start out with Asterin and then switch to Quinlan and then to Orion without a nuanced difference between the three. It is also evident in the dialogue as no one seems to have their own voice in the story and all constantly sounds like children playing at being adults. I understand that the author wrote this when she was fifteen and quite honestly, it shows. For example, here's this line: "But I'm not from Axaria. I'm the Queen of Eradore, and trust me, you wouldn't even remember the meaning of scary by the time I got through with you." It just sounds cliche and unnecessary but unfortunately, the book is full of these types of sentences, which is just too much for me to look past. As each character sounds like one another and no one has a clearly defined voice or motive in this story.

"Discipline, talent, and hard work fueled by the burning desire to impress her mother had honed her into a terrifying force to behold"

*
1 / 5

I don't really like writing negative reviews, so I'll keep this one short. I massively respect anyone who can write a book and get it published. Shadow Frost made me feel pretty similar to how I felt when reading Frostblood, which is super bored. I read somewhere that the author first wrote this when she was fifteen, which made total sense, because this book is chock-block full of the kinds of things I might have written when I was that age, like being a magical super-powerful princess with several men fighting over me because I'm just that awesome.

"I want you to be proud of me for who I am!" Asterin shouted. "Not what I can do."

Princess Asterin Faelenhart is the heir of Axaria and she spends the first 20% of the book fencing in her bedroom with her childhood friend and mentor Orion. She spends all her time thinking about how rock solid Orion's abs are and he get very protective over her, but they aren't into each other. At. All. Right? Orion gets given a different love interest in an attempt to divert a love triangle but it still reads A LOT like a love triangle. Enter new hot boy Quinlan, who is totally brooding and powerful and a little bit bad. Did I mention he is also super hot? He arrives at court with his cousin Rose as a gift to join Asterin's elite guard. 

Asterin hears tell of a dark monster destroying a couple of villages, confronts her mother, and demands to be allowed to march to her apparent death with only five people to keep her company. Despite this being very dangerous, she decides to take her friend/maid Luna. Alright. This is about when I twigged that Asterin is a moron. She also takes the Captain of her guard, Eadric, who I did like. They voyage out to find the monster and end up discovering a bunch of devious secrets and plots. Standard stuff.

"Rumour had it that someone once tried to stab her in the heart, but the sword had shattered instead"

There were quite a few things that I didn't like about this book. Briefly, I thought Asterin was a moron and a bit of a brat. I couldn't stand Quinlan or their romance - Quinlan is a brooding boy with a tragic backstory, but also gets his flirt on all the time. Great. Then he starts addressing Asterin as "brat" all the time and crashing in through her bedroom window. Obviously, she swoons because this is super hot. Who addresses a member of a royal family as "brat"? What the hell?? Also his name is daft. Which brings me to another point - we have classic made-up fantasy names like Asterin Faelenhart, classic celestial fantasy names like Orion and Luna, and then Harry. Then the characters are talking like "we shall meet on the 'morrow dear brother" (not an exact quote), whilst living somewhere with hotels. It was really jarring.

The book is narrated in third-person, which I happen to like, but it had about seven POVs. This was totally unnecessary. We ended up seeing the same event - like a fight - twice over, from two different points of view. Then we get a 3-page interlude with some random soldiers we never see again chatting to the Queen. Shadow Frost does a lot of telling, particularly with its plot twists. To reveal something major about a character, the book jumps to that character where he just tells us his secret, instead of letting us experience it and reveal it through the others. It was a very odd style choice. 

But my biggest problem was that reading Shadow Frost was very slow-going. I waded through pages of unlikeable characters not doing very much, against a backdrop of a total-mishmash of YA tropes and awful, tedious banter. The author obviously shows some promise - there's good ideas in here, like I loved the idea of the Houses and their Patron gods with different kinds of magic associated with them - but Shadow Frost reads like it came straight from the mind of a fifteen-year old without any editing going on. 

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of Shadow Frost.

This book, as a whole, was wonderful. The first thing that caught my eye was definitely the simple yet gorgeous cover, and I think that helps authors who are just debuting to have a nice cover (I know a lot of people say, "Don't judge a book by its cover," but I feel as though having a pretty cover is what helps to sell a book!). Besides the cover, I absolutely LOVED the characters! They were such a delight to keep up with and I found myself tearing through the pages faster and faster just to see how some of them were faring (especially Asterin- I LOVE YOU!!!).
Besides the characters, I felt as though the worldbuilding and story as a whole were enjoyable to read. There were many twists and turns and reveals that I could barely keep up with, but loved all the same. Thank you for giving me a chance to read this wonderful book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the published for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Shadow Frost in exchange for an honest review.

I'll start right out and say that YA fantasy is my jam; it's what I mainly read so my review may be skewed by this as I've read a lot of outstanding books within this genre. For me personally, Shadow Frost fell shy of the mark. There were definitely certain aspects that I did enjoy, like the magic system (which really should have been expanded upon) and the banter between the characters, Asterin and Quinlan especially - but the relationships between the characters, whilst new within the story felt like they had just immediately formed and I missed that getting to know you stage - I'm a huge fan of world building and I didn't feel like there was much of that at all; it just seemed to focus on 7 people who rambled alot.

The overall storyline had promise but I was majorly confused several times; the multiple character views within a chapter was hella confusing, and the big reveals weren't particularly surprising tbh. I already have some predictions for how book 2 could go.

I'd say that this is your standard middle of the road YA fantasy, perfectly fine if you go into it not really expecting much but for me, it just fell a bit flat.

This book was amazing! With a wonderfully-built world full of magic and amazing, feisty characters, I was entertained from start to finish.

At times heartbreaking and others heartwarming, Shadow Frost draws you to the characters with their all-too-real flaws and all-too-real problems and choices. The world that Coco Ma has built is amazingly detailed, easily allowing readers to immerse themselves in the story.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, especially if you like fantasy, magic, or characters with attitudes.

I was super excited to pick this up because it sounded just up my alley - the fantasy world is intriguing, the characters are tangible and accessible, and the writing was so much fun. It definitely helped me get through finals week because I knew I had to study hard if I was allowed to continue reading. I enjoyed the story arc even though it's quite overused and common and while the characters did fall into stereotypical archetypes, there was still enough in the story to keep me reading. It's not the most innovative and life changing story in the genre but it was fun and I enjoyed reading it.

DNF @ 38%.
I received this from Netgalley for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings expressed are my own.

I see everyone praising this book and I just couldn't connect to it. It felt flat. It felt like I read summaries at times and I'm really sad about that bc I think this book has such good promise to be honest. Reading it at times was really hard and it was chopped up. I kept putting it down after 4-6 pages bc it did nothing for me. And I'm tired of reading books that do nothing for me.
The premise is interesting but the execution leave a lot to be desired.

This book was a bit all over the place. This novel did some really great things but at the same time also left me with a bitter aftertaste. I love the concept but the beginning of the story was slow pace and the elements repetitive

SHADOW FROST has a really exciting premise, but for me, fell a little short. I was expecting a darker YA fantasy and this felt more like a middle grade fantasy. The beginning is really exciting with a new beast/monster being risen and controlled. Asterin is the princess of Axaria, and she has been training in combat against her mother (the queen)'s wishes. She is also developing her magic powers, a little at a time.

That is, until a neighboring kingdom sends two guards for the princess who give her a stone, which explodes her magical abilities. Then, Asterin decides to go after this beast/monster that is killing so many soldiers, accompanied by her friends.

The dialogue was a little too descriptive (characters saying what they would do and then the text describing it further), and there is a lot of sparring and such that delays other parts of the plot. On top of that, there was a lot that did not make sense to me, such as why the queen was so disapproving of her daughter and why she cared so very little for her welfare (e.g. assigning two guards from a mysterious other kingdom to her service). It was unclear if this was the way things had always been or why or what Asterin thought about it. The text felt really disjointed to me, and it was a bit flat.

To be fair, things do pick up later. If I had thought this was middle grade vs YA, I think I could have gotten into it more, but it was a little too simplistic and understated for a YA fantasy, in my opinion. For instance, the new guards give her a stone which makes her pass out- without consequences and no one is terribly concerned. There are also a lot of characters at first whose perspectives we get and this also makes the story seem spread a little thin.

Overall, I really hard time getting into this one, but the premise is fascinating. I think I would have liked it shortened and made into a middle grade more. Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

The choppy rhythm of the language made it difficult to immerse myself in this story or find it believable.

Another amazing YA FANTASY debut book.

If you are a lover of cliched tropes, this on definitely ticks off all : instalove, love triangles, crushes etc.

The writing is at times however abit too descriptive that is not my favorite when it comes to fantasy.

But I loved the world building, the intrigue and that climax ahhhh.

This was a good YA fantasy read. It’s also an impressive debut by a young author. It’s got all the good stuff...strong female lead, magic, adventure, demons.

But despite all of that, the story is really about a group of young people with all kinds of drama. Instalove, crushes coming between friendships, needing breaks. I didn’t enjoy that stuff so much. And it was a bit odd how some of characters’ backstories were throw in.

Still, I enjoyed I and I think lots of others will, too.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the great ARC.

The book started off strong, but I felt that the plot slowed substantially once the characters met Henry.

I have never read a book in my life that comments so much on eye colour, physical appearance or the perfectly chiseled face of men that women want to dribble all over. Does everyone in the Shadow Frost world have emerald or green eyes? Does everyone have an unhealthy relationship with Narcissism? It definitely feels like it. I had to put this book down so many times because I just felt like there was an unnecessary remark about that type of thing on every single page; it was just distracting, and that's a real shame because I actually think what Coco Ma has here is really interesting and her writing style shows enormous potential, but my God does she utterly ruin it.

The concept is quite simple. A princess wants to defeat a monster terrorising the Kingdom - sounds perfect. She does so with a group of friends who each have an affinity for certain powers. It's difficult to go into this too much without spoilers, but essentially it's based on having connections with the elements and being able to do unique things with them. So the concept is really interesting and definitely pulls you in.

But the problem is, you spend the first 15% of the book confined largely, it feels like, to Princess Asterin's bedroom. Where she mostly looks at herself in the mirror and muses over how special she is. I'm not joking. From here, she begins to muse over how beautiful the two male love interests are which is both irritating and cliche - a love triangle within 15%...really?

On top of this, one of Asterin's potential suitors is just plain weird. Not only does he insist upon insulting her and calling her a brat basically from the moment he meets her (she's a Princess and yet he gets away with this perfectly fine), but he also admits to have been watching her through her bedroom window. Naturally she finds this endearing, even going so far as to wonder if she was changing and finding this funny....make of that what you will. Honestly it reminded me of the time Edward Cullen admits to sneaking into Bella's room to keep an eye on her whilst she sleeps and she stupidly thinks that's sweet. It's not - it's just creepy!

I think Coca Ma has a really unique writing style. She's quite descriptive, which allows for really colourful world building, but not so much so that it begins to feel too fanciful or distracting. It actually felt like she had a lot of fun writing this book and I can imagine her future work will be really exceptional. But I think Shadow Frost reads almost like it was her first draft, her practice run for fantasy writing, with some rookie mistakes that she could easily iron out. The largest issue here is that she has fallen into the trap of trying to make her protagonist strong and confident by making her slightly snarky which just isn't necessary. Clearly her intention was to make her feisty and interesting, but often she came across as rude and this accompanied with cheesy dialogue and immature interactions between characters really detracted from the plot. Her story alone would have carried itself if only she had more likable characters.

Ultimately this felt like a collection of tropes and cliches which most readers will have seen 100 times over. A love triangle, a snarky protagonist who has no issue with weirdos looking at her through her bedroom window, some cheesy dialogue, a plethora of eye-roll-worthy quotes on physical appearance and pretty green eyes and to top it all off a touch of special snowflake just makes this book too much to bear.

DNF at chapter 15

I'm so disappointed that I had to DNF this one, it was one of my most anticipated for this year! And with a cover like that?? How could it be bad?!

This is how.

Honestly, I was all in for the first few chapters. A badass princess who can do magic, visitors from a mysterious kingdom (one of whom is clearly a ship), and a monster made of darkness terrorizing the land? I'm there.

But the deeper into the story I got two things bothered me more and more:

1. The dialogue. This is supposed to be a fantasy set in a different world. I always assume that fantasies of this caliber are in a medieval type setting, though nothing is explicitly stated. In any case, it is not contemporary American. But that's how the dialogue reads. They "flip each other off", the princess calls someone a "drama queen" at one point, everyone is constantly calling each other "asshole." Like....why? It just really pulled me from the experience and was more frustrating than relatable.

2. The more Asterin referenced her mother and the General.....I just didn't understand why their relationship was so strained. And I never got a good explanation. In a world where magic is prized, wouldn't her mother be more pleased that she can use more elements? Why would the General be so snarky about her powers? It just didn't make sense, and I never felt like I was getting a good enough explanation. Actually, all the relationships were very shallowly explained. Asterin's relationship with Orion was confusing (is it a ship or not??? You can't say he's like a brother, but then he's not, and now she's checking out his muscles, but now he's like a brother again). Quinlan's character was a strange mix of characteristics as well. Like is he shy? Is he awkward? Is he stoic, what is happening here?

I'm sure other people will love this one, because the basic plot does sound interesting, I just couldn't deal with how many times the dialogue ruined the setting for me.