A Kingdom of Frost and Fear by Whitney Dean is the second in the series, and it was quite the wild ride. I don’t find this to be the case often, but I have to say this second book was actually even better than the first in my opinion. There was a lot more significant plot happening in this one, so it was more fast paced and answers set up from the first book could be answered or at least expanded upon here. Though a massive book, I found myself not ready for it to end because I was so invested in the story and the characters and everything happening to them.
One major bit of interesting character development in A Kingdom of Frost and Fear came in the form of Raven and her mysterious new power, actually revealed as a new persona, Morana. It’s a side of herself Raven struggles to control which adds some danger to her magic, and she fights to keep this side of herself from getting free and harming anyone throughout the course of the book.
There is one particular moment in this book that made me teary just from its sheer sweetness, without going into too much detail I’ll just say that it centered around a proposal. Here we have these two people, Zeke and Raven, who have been through so much, their path, their love, never smooth, and having this moment happen between them which was so pure and full of love had my eyes tearing up. I think it was this moment that it really hit home how deeply Zeke and Raven’s love has truly effected me. Everything with them is a constant battle, heart rending and never goes according to plan, but they had this beautiful moment of realizing and accepting that all they want is each other. There was another scene a bit later on that I absolutely adored but I won’t go into details to avoid spoilers, just know it is so worth the wait and all of the struggles these characters endure.
On to other characters, Jeanine is one that I honestly think grows on me from one appearance to the next. At the beginning of the first book, she gave off the impression that she was going to be an annoying barrier between Zeke and Raven. Yet with every new scene she appeared in, she became more and more likable, very much sneaking up on me as a truly great character. Now in this sequel, it didn’t take long before I felt like I absolutely adored her. She becomes this strong friendship for not just Zeke, but also for Raven, and it’s actually heartwarming how she goes from someone Raven loathes as a rival, to the two of them confessing they might just be best friends.
On the other hand there was Cade, and let’s just say I was so relieved when he made himself scarce very early in the book for a good portion of it. My feelings of him from the first book only continued to get worse and worse. I knew there was a reason I couldn’t stand him from the start.
I really enjoyed getting more of other lands within this world, not just Zeke’s homeland, but also Thoya which I would really like to get to see more of as it was such a lovely little glimpse with wonderful characters introduced. Not only does it show significant people in Zeke’s life, but Raven finds herself a new friend and the entire time spent in Thoya is such a sweet little taste of happiness and comfort for this duo, a taste of what life could be without the threats they find themselves enduring. I loved all of the characters introduced here.
Finally, to sum all my feelings up, this book was utterly fantastic and I’ve reached the point where I feel like I can’t get enough. I’m a tad devastated that I now have to wait for the sequel because I just one more of all of these wonderful characters, the beautiful romance, and this incredible world Whitney Dean has created. Ohh, and the cliffhanger ending has me losing my mind more than a little, so there’s that. Happy reading, definitely pick this series up if you haven’t!
