Author: Mindee ArnettSeries: Rime Chronicles #2
Audience: YA
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: June 4th 2019
My Rating: 5 Cups
Source: The Fantastic Flying Book Club
Blurb (from Goodreads):
From acclaimed author Mindee Arnett comes the thrilling conclusion of the stunningly epic, action-packed, and romantic fantasy adventure about a powerful girl possessed of strange magic, the outcast prince she loves, and the kingdom that has torn them apart.*Disclaimer: I received an eARC from The Fantastic Flying Book Club and Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or the content of my review in any way.
Kate and Corwin are on the run, desperate for allies in a new world of war among the kingdoms of Rime. As the book opens, Kate suffers a massive loss, one that will shape the struggle for freedom of all wilders and magic folk—that is, if Kate can learn to control her own power.
What an ending, guys. I have been waiting for this book for a year now, hoping to be just as great as the first one, and I got my wish. The book starts on a really high note and it just goes up from there.
The story picks up about 6 months from where Onyx & Ivory ended, and that prologue is probably one of the most intense ones I've ever read. I loved what Mindee Arnett did with those first few pages, because it hooked me into reading and not stopping until I reached the ending.
I loved that this was a duology, because I feel like it allowed for this book to be much more intense. There were a lot of times where this book had me on the edge of my seat, and I think this is because there was no need for filler scenes, which I loved. I also got some serious epic video games vibes while reading this book, I can't really explain it, but I just went with it. The way the story was told, the action, everything kind of took me back to my younger gamer self, and it made me love the book even more.
Kate is changed from how she was in the first book. I think this change happened during the war that happened between the prologue and the first chapter, a war we don't see. She is hardened by loss and war, she is much more ready to use her powers on humans. She's also ready to do what needs to be done even if people disagree with what she wants. She does tend to jump into things without considering other possibilities for something that happened, but I do like this Kate a bit more than who she was in the beginning of this story. Her journey throughout Shadow & Flame is a really good one, and I loved seeing everything she went through and how she dealt with things.
Corwin's journey was amazing. He suffered a lot throughout this book, and I truly enjoyed seeing how his character developed. I enjoyed the fact that he didn't have it easy in this book. I knew this was going to happen, because the author really knows how to put her characters through a lot of hardships, but I didn't expect him to go through some of the things he had to overcome. He had to fight to survive, and he ends up being almost like a different man than he was when the duology started. Although I felt sorry for what he had to go through, I was excited seeing how he changed and how he became a better version of himself.
We meet a lot of old faces, and a few new ones as well that I was excited to meet. Like I said in the beginning I loved how intense this story felt. I was so hooked that I finished reading the book pretty quickly, because I just couldn't stop reading. I liked the pacing of the story, and I liked the fact that there seemed to always be something happening. Like the first book, we get the story from both Kate and Corwin's POV, which I loved.
All in all, this story was fantastic and I couldn't have imagined a better ending.
PLAYLIST
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
YA Author of THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR, a contemporary fantasy coming March 5, 2013 from Tor Teen (Macmillan) and AVALON, a YA sci-fi thriller coming Winter 2014 from Balzer+Bray (HarperCollins). Represented by the fabulous Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary. Addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space.
CHECK OUT THE TOUR SCHEDULE HERE
GIVEAWAY
GIVEAWAY
Prize: Win a signed copy of SHADOW & FLAME and ONYX & IVORY by Mindee Arnett and swag (INT)
Embed Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway
Direct link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d9681b86372/?
