Mighty lord of the winter snow, show me how to reach my goal. I need you my north, I’m the one for all. Magic rides to my tired eyes, dying sun for your color shy, and your dress now pink under fading lights. Let’s freeze Of Ice and Shadows, by Audrey Coulthurst.
Synopsis:
Princesses Denna and Mare are in love and together at last—only to face a new set of dangers.
Mare just wants to settle down with the girl she loves, which would be easier if Denna weren’t gifted with forbidden and volatile fire magic. Denna must learn to control her powers, which means traveling in secret to the kingdom of Zumorda, where she can seek training without fear of persecution. Determined to help, Mare has agreed to serve as an ambassador as a cover for their journey.
But just after Mare and Denna arrive in Zumorda, an attack on a border town changes everything. Mare’s diplomatic mission is now urgent: She must quickly broker an alliance with the Zumordan queen to protect her homeland. However, the queen has no interest in allying with other kingdoms—it’s Denna’s untamed but powerful magic that catches her eye. The queen offers to teach Denna herself, and both girls know it would be dangerous to refuse.
As Denna’s powers grow stronger, Mare does her best to be the ambassador her kingdom needs. Her knowledge of Zumorda and its people grows, and so too do her suspicions about the queen’s intentions. With rising tensions and unexpected betrayals putting Mare and Denna in jeopardy and dangerous enemies emerging on all sides, can they protect their love and save their kingdoms?
Source: Goodreads
SPOILERS BELOW
Of Ice and Shadows picks up shortly after the previous book’s ending, with Princesses Amaranthine (“Mare”) and Dennalia (“Denna”) traveling to Zumorda; both to warn the country about Sonnenborne’s plan to provoke a war between them and Mynaria, and in the hopes of helping Denna learn to control her unpredictable and dangerous magic. Personal melodrama results in the two of them temporarily splitting up, with Mare getting caught up in intrigue in the trade city of Kartasha while Denna learns magic under the harsh tutelage of the Dragon Queen herself. When a traitor helps Sonnenborne launch an attack on Kartasha, the two rejoin and reconcile just in time for the climactic battle. So, a pretty standard plot progression.
In the worldbuilding department, things took a less predictable course. In the previous book, the big ominous hinting of bad things going on behind the scenes was the Circle worrying that Mynaria’s ban on magic-users was resulting in a build-up of unused magic. That isn’t brought up in this book; instead we get much talk of the Six Gods abandoning Zumorda, the arid climate of Sonnenborne being a result of the country’s lack of magic, the existence of demigods, and a mysterious imprisoned seventh god, the God of Confluence. I’m interested to see if future books in the series can manage to make all these pieces fit together in a sensible way.
Overall, I found Of Ice and Shadows to be a decent entry in the series.
Final Rating: 3/5
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