Frostfire (Kanin Chronicles #1) by Amanda Hocking

Title: Frostfire

Author: Amanda Hocking 

Series: Kanin Chronicles

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Source: Owned Paperback (Purchased at BookOutlet)

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Publication Date: January 6, 2015

Summary:
Bryn Aven is an outcast among the Kanin, the most powerful of the troll tribes.

Set apart by her heritage and her past, Bryn is a tracker who's determined to become a respected part of her world. She has just one goal: become a member of the elite King’s Guard to protect the royal family. She's not going to let anything stand in her way, not even a forbidden romance with her boss Ridley Dresden.

But all her plans for the future are put on hold when Konstantin– a fallen hero she once loved – begins kidnapping changelings. Bryn is sent in to help stop him, but will she lose her heart in the process?

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I don't even know where to start with this. This is a spin-off (I guess?) of the Trylle series and I highly recommend you read that series first if you are planning on reading it at all or else you will be spoiled for the entire Trylle series by reading this book (and probably the rest, but I wouldn't know because I have not gotten there yet). 

One thing that Amanda Hocking does really well (in my opinion) is to have something bigger and broader happening than what we are seeing real time. There is always a large overarching plot that is affecting the characters' day to day life. And I think this one has been wonderfully constructed. There is enough information in the prologue to give you the understanding of why Bryn is so conflicted during the entirety of the novel.

Bryn was a great character. I loved how she stood by her convictions, even if they went against the grain of what everyone else in the story wanted. I really enjoyed that she was so adamant about some things being necessary and so great but being so conflicted about them at the same time. She doubted a lot of the traditions but at the same time wanted to uphold them. It was a really interesting internal struggle to read because it is a reflection of how people truly act.

I enjoyed Ridley. I think I will forever love any character who is named Ridley because of Ridley Duchannes (Caster Chronicles) so he had that going for him before we even really met him. But after we did, I was hooked. I always enjoy the romance more when both sides are so adamant about not falling in love or settling down and then slowly they realize that it is because they only want to do that with each other. I'm also really glad that we got another true love dancing scene in this one. *sighs* 

The world building for this one expanded upon what we already saw in the Trylle series so it wasn't as much detail as we probably would have gotten if this had been something "new" in that sense. (Another reason I think you should read the other series first) But it did tell us much more about the Kanin tribe and their beliefs so that was pretty interesting -- I really liked how Bryn explained the story of the five tribes to Linel since it was a little different from how Finn explained it to Wendy. I thought that it was interesting to see the different cultures and how they all started to mix together. 

Overall: 4/5 I loved this one but thought it could have used just a tad more world building. And the actual ending was a little boring compared to what had happened just pages before so it left me a little disappointed. But I am trying to find Ice Kissed right meow so you know I'm not too worried.