Review: Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

From Goodreads: Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since. Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior - and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather - she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again. So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics - and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own. 

My Rating: 2 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: Sara Raasch's Snow Like Ashes was a debut I was really looking forward to reading because I thought it would be a good fantasy and feature a strong heroine. Unfortunately, this book just let me down.

Firstly, there was a lot of info-dumping to establish the worldbuilding (and it didn’t help that the Season kingdoms were named after the seasons or that their capital cities were named after months of the year). The world of Primoria was also confusingly set up. So, for example, each Season kingdom experiences only one season - and this is simply attributed to magic, which I hate as an explanation. This means that it only snows in Winter, yet in the neighbouring kingdom of Autumn, it’s always dry and cool (i.e. fall-like weather).

As well, Snow Like Ashes featured a very whiny protagonist. At the beginning of the novel, Meira moans about not being allowed to go on important missions to Spring, even though she knows that she needs to improve her close range fighting skills. (Personally, I think living is a better option than dying recklessly, but hey, I’m not Meira.) Of course after complaining about wanting more responsibility, Meira is given the opportunity to help out the Winterian's cause by creating an alliance with another kingdom through an arranged marriage. In response, Meira naturally grumbles about this. While I sympathized with her situation, I do think people who are responsible for hundreds of other lives sometimes need to suck it up and not be so selfish. What’s an arranged marriage to a prince, compared to knowing that you can help free others from enslavement?

Lastly, and unexpectedly, Snow Like Ashes had a love triangle. It would have been nice if the synopsis had warned me of this! Here I was all excited about a slow romance between best friends, and what I got was a story where I barely got to know either guy and didn’t really care who Meira ended up with.

Recommended for fans of Mary E. Pearson’s The Kiss of Deception, Snow Like Ashes will be released tomorrow by Balzer + Bray. If you didn’t like The Kiss of Deception, I’d suggest passing on this book.

Comments About the Cover: It’s so pretty! I like that the focus is on the snow and Meira’s weapon of choice, a chakram. 

In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (HarperCollins) for free via Edelweiss.