Ember and Eli live in a time after the Before. Their world is one of snow, cold, food insecurity, and a non-stop fight to stay alive. They have grown up listening to the stories told to them of a place called Frost. Frost has machines, innovations, and food. Eli has dreamed of discovering this amazing world and finally decides that he is going to take that perilous trip across the frozen tundra. Against her better judgement, Ember accompanies him.

Miraculously, after several weeks of travel the duo come across a world surrounded by a sheer wall of ice. Frost is a place with warmth, electricity, and plenty of food. It almost seems like paradise. But something feels off to Ember. The people do not seem quite right. Upon meeting the Queen of Frost, Ember is assigned a special task, she is challenged with fixing the malfuctioning automatons. During their time in Frost, Ember and Eli begin to grow further and further apart. At some point Eli wants to return home to Dusk. Ember has made a new friend named Felix and with his assistance she wants to stay and discover what is really going on in Frost. What is the secret the Queen is keeping? Do her dreams mean anything. What are the automatons trying to tell Ember?

Aria Noble has created a beautiful described world. Ember and Eli are both endearing characters. The story developed by Noble was easy to read, fast paced, and action packed; I couldn't put the book down and completed it in one sitting.

Queen of Frost is a dystopian novel following Ember and Eli as they navigate across the unknown to find the seemingly mythical city of Frost.

While I appreciate the opportunity to read this story from NetGalley it was just okay for me. The pacing was decent and the world building was unique but the character development felt lacking and the world just wasn’t as well explained as I would have liked. What really grabbed me at first let to my interest petering out toward the end as more questions were asked then answered. I do acknowledge that this is one of three in the series but I just don’t know if the first book gave me enough to keep reading.