[Review] Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston

ABOUT

Title: Frozen

Author: Melissa De La Cruz & Michael Johnston

Series: Heart of Dread #1 

Publisher: Speak

Release Date: August 5th 2014

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Goodreads page

Source: e-ARC via NetGalley

Synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston comes this remarkable first book in a spellbinding new series about the dawn of a new kind of magic.

Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice. Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature—freezing. But some things never change. The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.

At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out. Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called “the Blue.” They say it’s a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise. More importantly, it’s a place where Nat won’t be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.

But passage to the Blue is treacherous, if not impossible, and her only shot is to bet on a ragtag crew of mercenaries led by a cocky runner named Ryan Wesson to take her there. Danger and deceit await on every corner, even as Nat and Wes find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. But can true love survive the lies? Fiery hearts collide in this fantastic tale of the evil men do and the awesome power within us all.

I received an e-ARC from Hachette Children's Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This fact in no shape or form affects my review. Except for the existence of the review itself. I received no compensation for this review in any way.This is my honest opinion of the work.

I've been kind of dreading this one just because it has a low-ish rating on Goodreads, but surprisingly, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

This book is about a post-apocalyptic world with a sort of fantasy twist. The world is frozen over and one of the last hubs of life left is in Vegas. One of the main characters is a girl named Nat, who's "marked", which basically means she has powers. And as always, those with powers are persecuted, used, captured, tortured, etc. The other main character is a hottie named Wes who is a runner. He basically smuggles people out of the country for a price.

The way the prologue was written annoyed the crap out of me, so it really set my bar low for the rest of the novel. I was pleasantly surprised that I quite enjoyed the story and the world building. There are a couple things that I'm still not sure about, like draus. I have no clue what those are.

ANYWAYS. I zipped through this one and so I didn't pick up on all the details that I would have liked to. I liked that there was tension between Wes and Nat and they didn't have too much of an instalove-y thing. It may just be because I wasn't reading so closely, but I almost thought she was his sister at one point because of a thing. I was just like. "no. No. NO." with a smile on my face. That would have been a fabulous twist. But obviously they were meant to be together and that wouldn't have happened.

I thought it was interesting how in this world, everything was done quite young and people died quite young too. Most died in their thirties or so and one of the characters was remarkable because he was in his fifties or so. (or not because details are fuzzy for me.)

Anyways, with that ending, I'm actually interested in reading the next one. I'm also very interested in it because I really like Wes a lot.

Happy Reading!