Beasts of the frozen sun – ARC review!

Title: Beasts of the frozen sun.

Author: Jill Criswell.

Format: E-ARC.

Publisher: Blackstone.

Page count: 368.

Release day: August 6^th 2019.

Genre: YA, Fantasy.

Rating: 3 stars.

*Thanks to Edelweiss for providing this ARC!*

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

Burn brightly. Love fiercely. For all else is dust.

Every child of Glasnith learns the last words of Aillira, the god-gifted mortal whose doomed love affair sparked a war of gods and men, and Lira of clan Stone knows the story better than most. As a descendant of Aillira and god-gifted in her own right, she has the power to read people’s souls, to see someone’s true essence with only a touch of her hand.

When a golden-haired warrior washes up on the shores of her homeland–one of the fearful marauders from the land of the Frozen Sun–Lira helps the wounded man instead of turning him in. After reading his soul, she realizes Reyker is different than his brethren who attack the coasts of Glasnith. He confides in her that he’s been cursed with what his people call battle-madness, forced to fight for the warlord known as the Dragon, a powerful tyrant determined to reignite the ancient war that Aillira started.

As Lira and Reyker form a bond forbidden by both their clans, the wrath of the Dragon falls upon them and all of Glasnith, and Lira finds herself facing the same tragic fate as her ancestor. The battle for Lira’s life, for Reyker’s soul, and for their peoples’ freedom has only just begun.

My thoughts:

This is a really hard book for me to review, because I didn’t necessarily dislike the book, but I also did not really like it?! But I will do my best!

First of all, I absolutely love the cover! That is what initially sparked my interest!

In the beginning of the book the story mainly focusses on the relation between Lira and Reyker, but since I didn’t know these characters very well, I didn’t really care about their relation. I just thought Lira was acting stupid.. I mean they have always been afraid of the Beasts of the Frozen Sun, and then one of them washes up on the shore, and she helps him?! Like why!? It didn’t make much sense to me.

There were some small things I did not really enjoy, like how Lira is basically the only important female, all the other important characters are male (her father, uncle, brothers, Reyker..). Also for some reason Reyker speaks fluently in their language after 3 days?! (I know they said that he learned a bit when he was younger, but it was still kinda impossible how well he could speak it).

After the beginning a lot started to happen. There were things within her clan, between the clans and with the land of the Frozen sun. Which became a bit confusing.

But the thing is I enjoyed the overall story. I think this book could  have been better if the action parts were a bit better explained and maybe a bit more spread out?

I also kept continue reading, since I did really want to know what was going to happen. ‘Just one more chapter!’, 6 chapters later..

I did enjoy the god/goddesses aspect of this book, and how they played with the humans.

I might continue this series when the sequel releases!

Happy reading!