Frostblood - Elly Blake

"The frost king will burn.

Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has concealed her powers of heat and flame from the cruel Frostblood ruling class her entire life. But when her mother is killed trying to protect her, and rebel Frostbloods demand her help to overthrow their bloodthirsty king, she agrees to come out of hiding, desperate to have her revenge."

Have you read any mainstream YA fantasy book over the past few years? If so, it is likely you have already experienced this book with different character names. Frostblood is just so... unremarkable. Everything about it is familiar and predictable, leading to a read that offered up no excitement, no need to keep turning the pages. It often feels as if YA fantasy publishers deliberately go looking for new authors to retell the same old recycled plots. Stick an attractive cover on the front and lets see if we can fool people into buying the same book over and over again.

This book follows the heroine - Ruby - who is a Fireblood in a world where Frostbloods are the ruling class. Once again, this world is split evenly into two societal groups - an overdone technique that I find particularly lazy. If only the world were that simple! If only there were just two groups of people with differences. There is just no depth or complexity to a "this vs. this" world.

Also, Ruby was uninteresting and bland. I feel like I have nothing to remember her by and it was really difficult to become invested in her story and troubles. The book opens with her mother being murdered and Ruby being captured by Frostblood soldiers; There's nothing here I haven't read before.

Then, of course, the plot takes a completely mindblowing turn when our standard heroine with elemental powers (easy way of adding some magic without having to think too much about a magic system) teams up with a hot guy (Arcus) to get revenge on the royals who wronged her. Is it just me or are you getting déjà vu as well?

I don't know why so many authors think there is anything interesting about pages and pages of training. It's mind-numbing.

But wait! Just when you thought this was all looking familiar, Arcus reveals his... dum, dum, dum, DARK PAST! Yes, that's right. Arcus is a very boring, very typical love interest, with very unoriginal secrets.

A lot of YA fantasy is tropey and contains all the same elements, that's true, so maybe you could say I'm being harsh, but this book's problem is not just a series of components that make it derivative - it also has a very lackluster style. The writing did nothing to draw me in; dramatic events came and went without being engaging. There can be slow parts in any book, but even the most dynamic chapters didn’t hold any fire for me.

To add a tiny bit of credit where it's due: by far the most interesting aspect of this book was the exploration of how one can be blamed for the actions of others they are grouped with. For example, the actions of a few radicals, whether they be Firebloods, Muslims or Feminists, can be used to make sweeping (and false) generalizations about all the others in said group. This is interesting and rather appropriate right now. Too bad it got lost under everything else.

Age Rating about 13+. Nothing inappropriate, a few tame kisses and a creepy king.