I reallllllllly tried to read this book but I cannot finish it. The writing is a bit juvenile for me and the fact that the princess is flighty is on my nerves. I mean in my mind as a royal you know what is expected of you and at the very beginning she is throwing a temper tantrum about being betrothed to a prince and then the next thing you know she is shooting an arrow at him to kill him. Then when she meets him in person she wants him?? I can’t

Kingdom cold had problems with writing. The premise was amazing and Brittni even managed to bring a big twist to show it different from the usual fantasy.

The pace wasn't fast. And the writing didn't work with me at all.

I thank NetGalley for providing me with the review copy in exchange of my honest opinion.

Kingdom Cold was interesting, unique, and breathtaking. It was something I could read and read again, with how much is in this book and it was written beautifully.

This is a fun read if you enjoy stories about battles, adventures and politics with a touch of romance. The plot was compelling, the characters were interesting and the writing was good. I enjoyed the romance in this story, it was not the only aspect but it was beautiful.

In summary, this book deals with sixteen year old Charlotte having to deal with an attack on her kingdom and an impromptu engagement. We get to see her rise up and do what she must to save her country, including trusting the prince she so badly despised in the beginning.

When I first read the premise of this book, I was incredibly excited to read it because it sounded like a fun, fast paced read. In this aspect, I have to admit the book delivered because it was quite fast paced and a fairly entertaining read. I liked the overall progression for Charlotte and Young's characters and I liked how their relationship progressed and flourished throughout the entire book.

However, I felt like this book didn't live up to its full potential. In my opinion, it was incredibly repetitive and I didn't really empathize with any of the main characters. If anything, I disliked them the majority of the time because they just couldn't make up their minds about anything, starting with who loved who. This was a huge problem for me because it seemed like they all were in love with one another but with no other explanation than 'we've been spending a lot of time together'.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read but I wouldn't go into it expecting the best epic fantasy of the year. If you're looking for a fast paced, short read full of romance, then this book is definitely for you.

Charlotte is the princess of Besmium and she's being forced into a marriage to Prince Young of Vires. To say she's not happy about it would be an understatement. Soon marriage becomes the least of Charlotte's problems when her kingdom is besieged on all sides. Now she must rely on Prince Young to keep her safe, and to help navigate the political upheaval to come.

What drew me to this story was the plot about a princess being married against her will. There are so many amazing books that begin with this premise. Sadly, this was not one of them. The story suffered from a lack of cohesive thought. The characters and plot line was so scrambled it was hard to keep track of. There was so many twists and turns that the story became congested and convoluted. Kingdom Cold suffered from a lack of a clear plot. I enjoy a good plot twist, but some of them seemed tossed in without a thought, and had no relevance to the overall story. Perhaps, this is a set up to the other two books to come.

The saving grace of Kingdom Cold is Prince Young. He was a strong character, who stayed true throughout. He was honest, kind, and morally upstanding. Charlotte on the other hand was a disaster. Prince Young sums her up best. "...a spoiled, selfish, little princess who had already crossed enough unforgivable lines in the brief time he'd been in Besmium." He doesn't even know the half of it. She's 16, and doesn't want to be forced into marriage, which is completely understandable. Charlotte throws tantrums, goes on a hunger strike for about a mili-second, tries to run away without any thought or plan, and tries to kill her betrothed with a single arrow. This is all just within the first few chapters. Admittedly, she does get better as the story goes on, but she continues to be wishy-washy, and just not a character I could connect with.

I received this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

With so much going wrong in the book, I actually found myself enjoying the underlying story arc. I think Kingdom Cold could have been made better with heavy editing geared towards a concise plot line.

This is a very very tame game of thrones type story. There is an arranged marriage, battles, backstabbing, and a whole lot of other stuff going down. For me this was just a bit too much going on. I couldn't get fully into the characters but I did enjoy the amount of diversity that was shown.

although it has not been able to tie with the Ma in characther, the plot is interesting. it reads quickly and is very pleasant

This was a quick read, Some sections of this book were good, some were weird. I had to kind of gloss over some parts. The twists were a nice element, some of them were even unexpected and I felt as though I could predict most of the plot points in this book. In a nutshell; Princess Charlotte was to marry Prince Young for the security of the kingdom, but they were attacked, her father was captured, she escaped with Young, met Emmett, came back to the kingdom. From there, she was to marry Emmett and Young was imprisoned. His brother saved him, Young later married Charlotte and his brother too fell in love with her after knowing about the marriage. That was pretty wild! Anyways....

Friends became foes, and foes suddenly started to like each other. The characters made me want to rip my hair out. They were young and spoiled. All of them unrealistically fell in love at first sight.. Princess Charlotte couldn't decide till the wedding whom she liked as she was shown attracted to every prince who made an appearance. Only in the end did she finally mature. Prince Young made the most effort,, but being surrounded the rest of the cast, he only play his part in all of it.

The trade of chapters were ambit overwhelming, as there sometimes felt like there were too many,, it got confusing in the middle. I had to go back many times and reread the narrative title to keep the character in mind. The writing was too modern for the chosen era, and that was a bit confusing.

It wasn’t the worst read, but definitely wasn’t the best.

I received this via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Very enjoyable. This book was fun and the plot was good but I just didn't connect with the story.. The characters were very well flushed out. I do recommend it though. It was a solid 3 star.

The characters are annoying me to death, and I can see where this is going, so this one is a DNF.
Hard pass from me...

Love, war, and tragedy are the three words that come to mind when I think about Kingdom Cold. I felt so much while reading this book and I was surprised by its ability to captivate me. I'm a sucker for a good romance and I was not disappointed, Chenelle crafts a reluctant but beautiful love story that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
It starts with a simple desire: freedom to choose. "“I won’t say ‘I do’,” I said, locking my knees to keep them from shaking . Marriage? Even the word repulsed me. It sat at the back of my throat and I choked on it." Charlotte, the princess of Besmium and main protagonist, is a rebellious girl with the simple wish to get married on her own terms. Besmium is facing a brutal war and the promise of a marriage between Princess Charlotte and Prince Young could unite the East and West to save the kingdom of Besmium. But through tangle after tangle the love story deepens winding in and out of characters until they must face an even more powerful enemy than they ever imagined. Death lurks at their doorstep and they must think quickly to save everything they love.

What I love about this book is the depth of each character. Everyone has wants and their own motives that make them unique. There is a rich history, that while it doesn't delve super deep it feels well rounded and complete. Every single character down to the smallest of servant has their own special personality, there are no cardboard cutout characters. My all-time favorite is Charlotte herself, she reminds me of Celaena from Throne of Glass. She takes her fate into her own hands and makes the absolute best of each situation. She's analytical and blossoms into a full blown badass who isn't afraid to get blood on her royal hands. She is not a damsel, she is a warrior in her own rite. She is not afraid to speak her mind and no man is her master. Her fate is her fate alone.

The antagonists are done so authentically, even minor antagonists like Charlotte's mother. While not intending to be evil and cruel, the queen is brutal and horrible to her daughter. Charlotte's hatred for her mother feels real and justified. Charlotte is not just a silly teen girl that is irritated with her mother, she is full on verbally abused by the queen. It's so satisfying watching Charlotte defy her mother at every turn. While the queen isn't the main antagonist, I felt so empowered everytime her plans were foiled.

This story has so many layers and felt like a roller coaster ride. My only quarrel with this book is that it felt like it was written as a standalone and changed towards the end to make it span a few more books. The plot would heighten and dip making me feel like it had three different stopping points. I will say that I am glad that this series is going to be three parts because I really enjoyed the story and characters. I was angry when I read the ending but with a promise of continuation in the acknowledgements my anger was quelled. I need to know more and I refuse to be left with the ending presented.

I give Kingdom Cold a 4/5 stars. This book surprised me and has a love story that I won't soon forget. I will be looking forward to reading the next installment.

3.5

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Even if I like the first few chapters, I expected more from this book. I was intrigued by the plot but during reading I noticed that the story ran too fast and sometimes I miss some "pieces".
I like the writing style of the author. The multi POV's style is a good point, especialy to better understand the history and feelings of the characters.

The main characters are Prince Young and Princess Charlotte. I like the two of them. They’re like opposite poles trying to get close for the sake of their family and kingdoms. I didn’t get very attached to the characters especially the "boys".

The "love interest" sometimes bored me, I didn't like some choices of the characters who were influenced by "love" - who is for most of the story a "political arrangement between kingdoms"

I like the final! There are a cliffhanger that hyped me so much and I hope that in the next books of this serie will be more exciting.

This book was packed with things that happen and there wasn't a single filler in it. I always thought this was what I wanted, but I missed some intrigue, some suspence, something more. I really liked the characters and the different povs, but I really needed something more. More setting, more romance, more details but I think this could have been a really good book with a 100 more pages of world/characters building.

Charlotte is only sixteen when she is going to be given in marriage as an alliance to a powerful country with a strong military.

Young is the youngest prince who is unexpectedly gaining a kingdom. Charlotte doesn’t want to get married, and impulsively shoots an arrow at him when he arrives. Their marriage is off to a great start.

"I'm Prince Young of Vires," I said, bowing deeply. My mind raced.

I'll never love you.

I continued. "It's an honor to meet you."

You tried to kill me.


Thankfully it is canceled when enemies attack the castle- forcing them to run.

This is a plot driven story without a lot of character development. It makes me think of younger (middle grade) works that have a lot of action but not a lot of characterization. But then there are talks about the consummation of the marriage that wouldn’t make this appropriate for very young readers.

It has several POV - Princess Charlotte, Prince Young, Milly the ladies maid, Prince Emmett of the rival kingdom, Prince Minseo Young’s older brother. I really grew to like Young - he’s a honorable guy.

The ending was surprising. Especially when the author announced that it is part one of three. This book could be read as a stand-alone.

Ultimately I didn’t care for it. This feels like a first draft. It’s too heavy on plot twists without character development. Emmett was the only voice that was really unique, and that’s because of his arrogance. I am giving it one extra star for the ending.

Free on Kindle Unlimited.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I love fantasies. Epic, dark, honestly I love them all. But "Kingdom Cold" was a disappointment. I don't go into a book trying to find things that are wrong with it. But this book had some problems. The story is all over the place. The pacing is off as it moves slowly in some parts and then there are suddenly a bunch of plot twists within a few pages. The main characters are not fleshed out and I ended up not connecting with any of them. There are some passages which I just hated where the main heroine almost accepts being treated poorly by men. Some others have complained of racism but I felt like that wasn't as intense as some others portrayed. I think there was a point to that where we were supposed to know that the people making the comments were bad guys. Also there wasn't anything unique to the story that made the plot stand out from what is already out there. I do think this author has a lot of potential and if I was to hazard a guess I believe that her next books will be much stronger. I've seen it happen a lot before.

This book was interesting and I enjoyed reading it, however i feel as though the end had too much going on and was quite rushed. It felt too concluded, but I intend to read the other two books in this trilogy and I am intrigued on how the story is going to progress.

The first thing that I noticed going into this book was the pacing, unlike some of the chunkier fantasy books I've found myself reading lately, this one had a fast pacing. It made it easier to read in just a few sittings and I didn't find myself getting bored and have to skim read sections. I've seen this book advertised in a few places so I'm glad I got to read it, it was a quick and entertaining read with good writing.

My only issue was the characters, I would have liked to see them with a bit more depth But even then it was a minor issue.

Boy oh boy do I have so much salty tea to spill about this book. But first, I will put a disclaimer: that I do not write this for the purpose of attacking the author nor do I condemn her writing talents . . . I just have issues with this book in particular.

'Suddenly I was being courted. I was speaking to a handsome prince around my age. It was a scenario I'd often fantasized about while waiting for my parents to decide I was old enough to be courted.'

O o f where to start with the multitude of problems and annoyances I had while reading this?? There is a large cast of characters with 4 randomly rotating POV's, although Princess Charlotte and Prince Young are the primary voices . . . and yet for some reason they never really feel like main characters!?! The biggest issue with this book is that it reads like the summary of a first draft. It is messy, it only has the hints of good potential but goes nowhere with any of it (minus a few random lines of post-mediocrity), and there is too much plot going way too fast. Once again, it is a mess. And it's such an uncoordinated, sexist, racist (yeah you heard me right) mess that doesn't even seem to TRY to alleviate or fix those problems that it's probably the first time I've squinted in confusion at a book and been like, "oh my gosh . . . this is actually super racist".

Look, I'm one who probably lets way too much slide that should bother me more . . . which is why I was surprised that things in this book irked me so much. But once I realized what kept recurring, it was hard to ignore the stereotypical descriptions given to the kingdom and prince(s) inspired by East Asia. Also, I'm pretty sure that Young isn't a proper first name if you're wanting to stick with the Asian inspiration . . .

R E C E I P T S of particular instances that bothered me:

'Not to mention Young himself--weak, scrawny, and barely man enough to grow facial hair. What was he thinking! To challenge me [Emmett]? I settled on the possibility that he'd been so ashamed of losing his contract with Besmium that he was choosing suicide over returning home. If that were the case, then this was a mercy killing--a perfect way to stab away my wedding jitters.

"You're serious?" He [Emmett] wheezed. "There is no conceivable advantage you have over me."
I [Young] shifted my weight. "I-I don't see it that way."
"Your military is too far, your personality is dry, and..." He covered his mouth with his hands. "Just look at you." He grinned. "And more importantly, look at me."
I blinked with disbelief.
"Fair skin, eyes the color of beryl stone, golden locks."
I huffed. "So, I imagine in your world that's superior somehow?"
"In every world that's superior."

EXCUSE ME???? I don't care if the majority of the statements against Young and his heritage are from the villainous character. I don't care if that's meant to make us hate the villain more. I DON'T CARE FOR RACIST COMMENTS USED IN THIS WAY okay and look, I get that sometimes a book will be "racist" to prove a point or show the fallacies in a system/mindset . . . but the stuff in this book is truly pointless. Now, is Young himself slightly racist too?? Y E S but I would argue that, of all the problematic characters in here, he is the one who tries the most to change and improve himself and his mindsets. However, for content like this to appear and be handled as improperly as it was, it shouldn't have even been here in the first place.

The second biggest problem with this book is that it doesn't know what to do with the things it wants to do.

There truly is a lot of good potential in this book . . . but it is utterly WASTED. Mostly because of this being a glorified summary, but also because it really doesn't seem like a lot of thought and attention was given to things. Plot twists, character decisions, even the freaking dialogue just appears to be slapped willy-nilly in here. It's much like how I wrote some of my first "books" in my early teens that I still cringe at whenever I open those old documents (because there's enough decent potential imo for me to want to make them better). I had the same type of cringing when I read this because it's just so badly written and barely developed.

' Shloop. An arrow landed on the frozen ground.'

SHLOOP?? LANDED ON???? I literally bust out laughing when I read that sentence because it pretty much encapsulates the juvenile writing of this entire book. And while the thing I'm the saltiest about was how the Asian influences and characters in here are treated, quite annoyed at the fact that THE PLOT DIDN'T FREAKING PICK AN ARC TO STICK WITH OH NO WE HAD TO HAVE FIFTY DIFFERENT TWISTS WITHIN TWO PAGES . . . I'm also just so done with the characters. Except for Young, who is a idiotic dear who tries his best and was the only two-dimensional character in the midst of all the cardboard flops.

My favorite line from the entire book:

'He [Minseo, Young's older brother] stepped back. "So all of this is about the girl."
"It's about keeping my word."

But other than that ONE LINE IN THE ENTIRETY OF THIS RIDICULOUSLY LONG BOOK it was mostly weird drivel like this:

'Dying wasn't my intention. Yet there I lay, ravenous--twelve hours into my hunger strike, certain I was already slipping away.'

"It's time for the hunt." He [Emmett] gestured to me [Young]. "One of us must stay behind to defend you helpless womenfolk, while the other finds us dinner. Who do you [Charlotte] delegate to this task?"

'He [Young] was my [Charlotte] cage, my captor [????], the death of my freedom, but in one kind glance, in my darkest hour, he granted me a modicum of comfort. I ran to him and threw myself into his arms. I didn't care that he didn't embrace me. I didn't care that his body tightened with discomfort. He was alive and, to me, that meant my father could be too.'

Seriously, this book is just such a mess. It is problematic without much point behind WHY it's so problematic. It's written in an extremely juvenile way and has a plot as given by a six year old recounting their day to you: repetitious and 99% unbelievable. And somehow I ended up slogging through all of it wondering whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy I do stuff like this to myself.

I felt like this book lacked adventure, excitement and rushed. It's about a Princess name Charlotte who is arrange to be married to Prince Young of Vires. She tries to do everything to avoid marriage by running away and even by attempting to murder him. Once Charlotte was introduced to Young she instantly was attracted to his brother Minseo and Milly (Charlotte's friend and servant) falls for Young.
A war has broke out and Young is asked to care for Charlotte and Minseo has been captured. Charlotte has brave characteristics she kills 2 soldiers which Milly (Charlotte's best friend) is taken back by (which confuses me because would you rather die or have you best friend save you). While at war Young sends his friend and best solider Leon to save Minseo while he takes Charlotte to the Southern castle where it's safe.
During their travels they come across Prince Emmett who leads Charlotte and Young to his castle where she meets her mother and now forced to marry Emmett. Young has been sent to be executed for treason and because of that Milly tries to kill the Queen.

Prince Emmett find Minseo and Leon is and convinces them to go back with him and that he will set Prince Young free. Young and Minseo reunites. Mineo want to go back Vires and Young wants to stay and be with Charotte. Mineo gets upset and punches his brother in the face.
Young challenges Emmett for Charlotte hand in marriage. Emmett has the upper hand and is forced to stop right before he kills Young because Minseo showed up with army and Emmett is forced to leave, but before he leaves he kills a servant and poisons the King and Minseo which kills the king and leaves Minseo bedridden. While healing Charlotte makes it to his room every night to read to him and just to comfort him. He then falls in love with Charlotte. Young and Charlotte gets married and she becomes the Queen and Young becomes the the King. Minseo battles Young for the love of his wife and finds out that she is pregnant and will all this going on Prince Emmett is on the way with his armies.
Prince Emmett kills almost everyone in the kingdom to get to Charlotte, Young and Minseo. He has even killed her mother. Prince Young saves Minseo and Charlotte by telling them to run into the pipes while he stays to fight Emmett and unfortunately dies in the process. Charlotte kills Emmetts and is the hero .
This book was really rushed and was difficult to connect with any of the characters.