*Even though I said I’ll try to do these logs 2 times a month, I’ve seen that I have made no progress on that front. I apologize for that, the reason was that I kinda got carried away when I started to read a book that I forget to keep a device beside me to record my thoughts*
Nevertheless, I’m here with another book called Snow Like Ashes. The backstory of this book is that I found it on my Goodreads feed and I also saw that I had the physical copy as well, so under a spontaneous decision, I added it to my TBR and started to read it. I read a few pages of the book and I even made a post on it on Instagram a few days ago, but I wanted to officially start the time log once I added it to my Goodreads which was today (20th July).
Summary (from the back of the book):-
A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.
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, 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.
Time Logs:
July 20th 7:56 pm
I’m already 90 pages into the book as I write this log, but so far, I’m finding the book to have a typical fantasy sequence. It reminds me of An Ember in The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir and the unexpected part where Meira barely escaped from the soldiers in Lynia and gets back to camp safe and sound was pretty amazing. I didn’t expect the soldiers to track her so fast though, but oh well.
July 21st 2:30 pm
So I did do some “morning reading” and the story seems to take a new turn. The Autumn King really represents Midas; why can’t he be generous for once and use his wealth to stabilize his kingdom, instead of spending it uselessly on making golden maple trees for his palace?
July 22nd 3pm
It’s been a while, and I actually made a lot of progress. I’m about 200 pages in (halfway, but it doesn’t feel like it) and the story is progressing in a very different way from what I was expecting. Although I really don’t want to keep my hopes up, I kinda am having hopes for this one theory that I have about Meira, but we’ll see.
July 23rd 9:35 am
About three fourths into the book, and my theory about Meira has met halfway till now, but let’s read a bit more to see how far it’s met.
Since this book is a bit of a dystopian novel, I’d highly suggest that you read it in one go and not take longer breaks like I did, because then, you might lose interest in reading the book altogether. I find that happening a lot when I read dystopian fantasy novels, because when I tend to not read it in one sitting, I kind of lose interest. The same scenario happened when I read Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I didn’t sit through and read it and since I kind of read it in parts and stopped at the middle every time I decided to stop reading, I slowly lost interest by the time I reached half of the book. But after I did a re-read a few months ago, I did finish it in few sittings and I really liked it.
July 23rd 3 pm
So, I’m finally done with the book and Meira’s character has developed really well. I was surprised by the development, but I wasn’t at the same time? Like I said, half of my expectations were met and the other half simply surprised me. It was actually better than what I had thought in mind.
Rating- I’d rate this book a four out of five, mainly because of the dystopian theme, and until about half of the book, character development was pretty slow. But I am interested in reading the sequel, Ice Like Fire.
