MINI REVIEWS – A BREATH OF FROST by Alyxandra Harvey & ANYTHING TO HAVE YOU by Paige Harbison

A Breath of Frost (The Lovegrove Legacy #1)
by Alyxandra Harvey
Publisher – Bloomsbury
Release Date – January 2nd 2014
Buy – Amazon | Book Depository

                      
A Breath of Frost is just as it said ‘Perfect for the fans of Cassandra Clare’. It does show some similarities between both the series but I felt that as this is my first from this author, It’s an average read. For me it reminded me a little of the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz without the vampires of course. Constantly I felt obliged to put this book down, but I plunged on through, it wasn’t a total disappointment. I think it was Emma and Cormac that truly saved me.

The premise of the novel was something I haven’t read in a while and it was one that held very little of my interest in beginning. When a group of cousins, Emma, Gretchen and Penelope find out the the true heritage of the Lovegrove Ladies, they become involved in murder, mystery and mayhem upon their own lives and those of them around them. I’m not biased but my I found that Emma was a really intriguing and interesting protagonist that I could connect with easily despite having the same name. (Haha). She was a devoted, caring and loveable character that hasn’t had the most easiest of upbringings. Though overall, I felt that the cousin’s together show a true and unbelievable tale of power and love to conquer everything that stood in their way. I think a very modern element to the novel that I really enjoyed towards the end.

But when Emma is faced a past friend and love interest, she is courted and helped by the handsome Cormac Fairfax. Cormac has his own secrets and one where he has to make a choice between a lady he loves and his own survival within his own family legacy. What I really did enjoy was the relationship between Emma and Cormac, as the book continued, they really blossomed on their character development, I enjoyed the book a lot more with these two characters taking center stage. I think the use of the two POVs really worked to their relationship’s advantage. Emma and Cormac create the perfect distraction to reward the whole book.

I think for me what disappointed me was the writing style and the written content. Don’t get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed the debutante era, it’s one of my favourites when it comes to the gowns, the dialect, the society and history. But between the various Parts of the book, towards the middle of the book, my interest really dwindled and I think there wasn’t a need for that many separations within the plot. I think the premise could have been explored a lot and create such a beautiful setting, but Emma and Cormac pulled the book together. Aside from obvious lack of certain elements, I’m still looking forward how the plot will progress in the novel.

Rating – 3.5

Anything To Have You
by Page Harbinson
Publisher – MiraInk
Release Date – February 7th 2014
Buy – Amazon | Book Despoitory

                   
When it comes to contemporaries, there is no stopping me requesting this one. It had the whole package, love, loss, friendship, boys, complications and pure mayhem. Just from the synopsis I could tell I was going to enjoy this one, it had a promising plotline and interesting characters. Yes it did remind me of my mixed review of Confession’s of an Angry Girl/Almost Girlfriend series, like the reality of how underneath it all the life that Paige has written is very real and very true in this modern society.

I’m getting older, and I always wonder if I will ever grow out of Young Adult Books but this one is proof that I won’t. That’s based on the author’s written style and how you relate or connect with the character. That was largely down to Natalie’s character. Natalie and Brooke are best friends, but Natalie is very reserved sort of girl, she an ideal of love and romance, the boy to hold hands with and share everything with. She has no interest in being your party girl, she didn’t see a reason too. Now that they are starting their final year in school, Brooke wants to set her up with someone, to get Natalie “out there”, they start with a party… Old relationships into new ones, friendships are torn and broken…

What I loved about Natalie, was her self-control and how she faced the world everyday… she just want’s to get on with her life.I admired that about Natalie, she knew her boundaries and she wasn’t afraid of being that girl.  Aside from Natalie’s persona, the little things really stood out after that night, her friendship with Brooke’s boyfriend Aiden changed, they started hanging more, laughing, flirting, smiling, making each other happy. They knew and I that their relationship had turned a table, one that weren’t ready for just yet.  I was completely addicted to this novel and I know she was the reason to it.

What annoyed me was Brooke, I was really disappointed when it just swapped over into her POV going back to very beginning of the book with her perspective… I think even from Natalie’s perspective she was quite a pushy friend. She may have her back but I felt she was lost in her own life that she’ll destroy another if she wasn’t careful. For me it would have been to have continued in Paige’s narrative, she held all the cards for a brilliant protagonist. Maybe because Brooke was the sort of character I was hoping to avoid in sharing her feeling with. I really thought that Aiden would have made a brilliant second protagonist if there could be a change in the second one. But in spite of everything the moral of the story was between two best friends who needed to sort their own life and progress from there. With a few reservations, I think this is a average/exceptional standalone read.

Rating – 3.5