Burned by Frostfire: A Review

Frostfire (2015)
Written By: Amanda Hocking
Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy
Pages: 321 (Hardcover)
Series: Book One of The Kanin Chronicles
Publisher: St Martin’s Griffin

Why I Chose It: I’ve been thinking I should read something by Amanda Hocking ever since she blew up the self-publishing world by selling something like a million copies of her Trylle series. I figured she must be doing something right.

The premise:

Hidden deep in the heart of a snow-covered wilderness lies the secret kingdom of the Kanin―a magical realm as beautiful as it is treacherous…

Bryn Aven has never fit into Kanin society. Her blond hair and blue eyes set her apart as an outsider―a half-blood unable to hold a respectable rank. But she’s determined to prove herself as a loyal protector of the kingdom she loves. Her dream is to become a member of the King’s elite guard, and she’s not going to let anything stand in her way…not even her growing feelings for her boss, Ridley Dresden. A relationship between them is strictly forbidden, but Bryn can’t fight her attraction to him. And she’s beginning to think he feels it too.

Meanwhile, there’s an attack on the kingdom―one that will test Bryn’s strength like never before. Finally, she has the chance to confront Konstantin Black, the traitor who tried to kill her father years ago. It’s up to Bryn to put a stop to him before he strikes again. But is she willing to risk everything to protect a kingdom that doesn’t accept her for who she really is? And when her mission brings her closer to Ridley, will she be able to deny her heart?

Minor Spoilers Ahead.

Discussion: This ended up being really “meh” for me. I had a hard time getting through it, even though it should have been an easy read, simply because I couldn’t bring myself to care what happened next. I only finished it because hope springs eternal, and from Hocking’s reputation I really kept hoping it would get better on the next page.

I didn’t hate it, but that’s about the best I can say. With mediocre writing and flat characters, I just didn’t feel like there was anything to make this book stand out from a very crowded genre. It blended a bit too well with many other young adult fantasies featuring a revenge driven protagonist with unsupportive authority figures and unwanted yet undeniable romantic urges.

These are familiar tropes in young adult fantasy and I’ve seen them work plenty of times elsewhere, but here they just didn’t do anything for me. The “strong female” protagonist was the typical humorless “all I care about is my career and my revenge” teenager. There was really nothing to make me like her or even root for her. And because I didn’t care about Bryn, it made it very hard to care about her job.

Or the fact that none of the adults around her wanted her to do it. The only feeling that elicited was annoyance. I’m very tired of young adult books that are full of unsupportive and disbelieving adults. I know teenagers are notorious for thinking no one understands them (although I’d argue this is common for anyone, regardless of their age) and in this genre it’s necessary to get the grown-ups out of the way so the kids can solve their own problems. But let’s give teenagers some support from the adults around them for once. How about parents who aren’t borderline neglectful? Or mentors who not only believe their students, but support them when they encounter conflict bigger than themselves? Tamora Pierce has always been wonderful at giving her teenage characters agency without undermining the people around them.

And Bryn’s “forbidden romance” with what’s his face didn’t salvage my interest either. That completely fizzled for me when I realized it wasn’t going to be any different than every other I-really-want-to-focus-on-my-career-but-I-can’t-help-lusting-after-my-cute-boss romance already out there.

The changelings Bryn was supposed to be finding should have been pretty interesting. I love fairytale elements woven into our modern world. But what should have been compelling felt really unsatisfying when their society’s motivation for abandoning their children as changelings was basically no more than greed. They placed their children in wealthy families, waited till they’d grown into their majority, and then they retrieved them—along with their hefty trust funds. What? You ignore your children for eighteen years so you can steal their money? Not okay. And yeah, Bryn kept thinking to herself how awful the whole system was, but here’s the kicker: she didn’t do anything to change it. She just kept justifying it to herself – and the reader – as the way the world worked.

In the end I felt like I finished this book without a clear idea of what this story was supposed to be about. The prologue centered on this random event that felt a little forced. As if the characters were making these choices and doing these things just so Bryn had a reason to hate this random guy for the rest of the book. Then the main conflict of the book felt vague and fairly aimless and had nothing to do with the random guy except that he always seemed to be around. I wasn’t certain what Bryn’s goal should have been.

And worse than an unclear goal is an unfulfilled goal. Yes, I know, a story is considered a tragedy when the protagonist doesn’t get what he wants. But that isn’t what this was. Bryn didn’t get to solve any kind of problem or face any kind of conflict head on. She ran around trying to find missing changelings until the book just ended. Every single question that was raised throughout the story was left unanswered. This does not make me want to pick up the next book. It makes me want to throw this one across the room. How do I know my curiosity will be satisfied later if I didn’t get the answer to even one question now?

Conclusion: To be honest, I kind of wish I hadn’t wasted my time on this. And I hate saying that about any book. But I just couldn’t bring myself to care about any of it. A part of me still wants to read the Trylle trilogy since it was so wildly popular and consensus seems to say it’s better than this one. But a big part of me doesn’t want to risk it. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. I think someone with more time on their hands, who enjoys young adult fantasy and doesn’t mind ignoring some overly familiar plot elements would like this just fine. But I was looking for something a bit deeper and I just couldn’t shake that disappointment.