A review by elusivity
Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
4.0
Bee and Cat are a pair of well-bred but impoverished young women on the cusp of their 20th birthday, with Cat 2 months older. They go to school, study, banter like normal girls, until a coldly handsome, arrogant young man strolled into their house one day, demanding to be wed to the eldest daughter of the house to fulfill a long-standing contract.
So Elizabeth meets Darcy, so pride meets prejudice, and as with the original story, it is unclear who is which.
My main nitpick is that the villain is weakly realized, one-dimensional, posing merely very abstract danger.
For 600 pages, not much time passes, and we are treated to detailed descriptions of the world, its history, surrounding environments, style and fashion, not to mention vivid descriptions of completely throw-away random characters like inn keeper maids. The effect, though occasionally tedious, is of a well-realized world populated with real people.
Cold magic, sword fights, independent young women of intellect and autonomy, world-changing politics, burgeoning love. Highly recommended!
So Elizabeth meets Darcy, so pride meets prejudice, and as with the original story, it is unclear who is which.
Spoiler
She is forthwith dragged off to Four Moons House, chased by hordes of enemies, where we learn (without warning) she has training in fighting and spycraft. There she learned she was the wrong daughter, not even a member of Hassi Barahal at all but an altogether strange creature with kin in the spirit world. She runs, he chases, ordered to kill her so as to break the marriage in order to wed Bee before she turns 20. Adventures ensue. She learns inadvertently his slave background, being taken from the fields into the House, with the safety of his entire village held over his head. Ultimately, she arrives home in time to warn Bee.My main nitpick is that the villain is weakly realized, one-dimensional, posing merely very abstract danger.
For 600 pages, not much time passes, and we are treated to detailed descriptions of the world, its history, surrounding environments, style and fashion, not to mention vivid descriptions of completely throw-away random characters like inn keeper maids. The effect, though occasionally tedious, is of a well-realized world populated with real people.
Cold magic, sword fights, independent young women of intellect and autonomy, world-changing politics, burgeoning love. Highly recommended!