3.5 stars
So what if I only read it because the cover was pretty?
Ruby wields fire in her veins. However, where she lives Firebloods are killed, deemed too dangerous to exist- unlike frostbloods. Living with her mother in a secluded and small village, she must everyday all day:
Except she kind of sucks at it. She just simply must practice in secret because who the eff knows. This gets her into quite a bit of trouble with the King and his guards because...
Okay enough with the gifs, I promise.
I actually did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped. Ruby's voice wasn't particularly intriguing and the world building is sort of shoddy, BUT I can see it has room for improvement. I liked the eccentric monks and Ruby's training scenes which got a little more detail.
I really appreciated that there was no insta-love between Arcus and Ruby, BUT the romance wasn't very believable, not for lack of the author trying, because she really did try hard to make it a progression. The went through the 4 phases: Hate, grudging respect, friends, lovers (ish). The turn to lovers however, was just to quick and the grudging respect and friends phase kind of just meshed together and wasn't very well fleshed out. STILL I RESPECT THAT THERE WAS AN EFFORT.
Overall, not a bad start to a series I will definitely be following up on. I'm excited to see how Arcus and Ruby deal with the challenges ahead!