[Asis’ Review] Frost and Flame by Gena Showalter

From Gena Showalter, the New York Times bestselling author of the Lords of the Underworld saga, comes Frost and Flame , the second book in the scorching paranormal romance series Gods of War.

Bane of Adwaeweth is the most feared immortal warrior in All War history. Possessed by a bloodthirsty beast, he will stop at nothing to win. Then he meets irresistible Nola Lee. He hates the power she wields over him, but she alone can rain vengeance upon his wife’s killer.

Unaware of her destiny to rule as queen of beasts, Nola battles illness, addiction and vulnerability. With Bane, however, she experiences pleasure for the first time, and only wants more. But being with him comes with a terrible price.

With enemies lurking around every corner, Bane and Nola must fight to survive. But time is running out, and neither can resist the sizzling attraction blazing between them. Will their romance save the beast and his beauty, or destroy everything they’ve come to love?

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I think the idea of this story was really interesting and exciting, but it could’ve been executed a lot better.

I loved the prologue. It made me feel everything, I connected with the characters incredibly well and it presented the villain perfectly. But after that, it felt like there was a lot of unnecessary content… like this could’ve been a simple novella and it would’ve remained exactly the same.

Her writing was also definitely not my cup of tea. I truly feel that it needs a lot of improvement in that department, especially on the dialogue.

What first drew me to the book was the idea of shapeshifting dragons (because I love dragons big time), but I have to say, I was expecting more presence from them than what we actually got.

While at the prologue I really connected, rooted for and empathized with Bane, it was super hard for me to do it afterward. Being on his pov felt like being inside a caveman’s head who didn’t know how to interact with anything or anyone and except for a few glimpses that we got of an actual interesting person, he didn’t feel very dimensional or well-developed. Zion was very likable but he also felt like a very unnecessary character most of the time.

In general, I liked the romance in this book and how they’d had this connection during her entire life before they met. It had a soulmate feel to it, and there were a couple of scenes where my heart totally melted.

I really liked the fact that our main heroine was suffering from two different illnesses that do not get portrayed as often in these books and I loved how a huge part of the story was the message that strength comes in different forms and not being a super badass warrior does not make you weak. Better dialogue and giving more realism to her feelings and actions would have made her a better heroine, in my opinion.

I liked the idea of the queen being reborn and having a bond with the beasts/men, and I wish we could’ve explored more of that after the ending. Because the ending felt too open for my taste, it closed the most personal plot of these two characters but it didn’t really give us much in regards to the big premise of the story, which was the All War.

All in all, this felt like a good short story with a lot of filler content.  

Asis

Asis is a Mexican girl whose life changed at the age of six when her father read the first chapter of Harry Potter to her. Ever since that night, the book world sucked her in and she’s never been seen amongst mortals again.

I am a professional Translator-Interpreter, currently working as an ESL teacher at an elementary school and an ELE teacher online. I have a passion for languages and an imagination that works 24/7. I am a romantic at heart, and my favorite genre is fantasy.
I’m incredibly obsessive towards anything I like, I can’t just like something, I always end up obsessed with it.

I love Scotland, musical theatre, Taylor Swift, beautiful places, Critical Role, and I love stories in all formats.
Stories are a refuge for me and they’ve always been, they are also the one thing that makes me feel, interact and truly live.

I’m not the most social person but when it comes to fangirling… whenever, wherever… I’m your girl. Hit me up!