Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
Fireblood is the second installment in the Frostblood Saga (trilogy). If the first book was great, this book is excellent! It took a chapter or two to get back into the characters and events after having read Frostblood nearly eight months previously, but once I got back into it, the events just continue to escalate, and the pacing of this book is fast, exciting, and gets the readers pumped for the final book in the saga, Nightblood.
SPOILERY REVIEW
Now that King Rasmus has been defeated and the Minax of the Frost Throne has been released on the people of Tempesia, Arcus aims to restore peace and order to his kingdom while courting Ruby at the same time. Many of the Tempesian citizens do not care for peace with Firebloods, and even more cannot stand the fact that Arcus is drawn to a Fireblood. His relationship with Ruby puts his life in danger, and when Ruby sees this, she joins a fellow Frieblood and travels to Sudesia to meet the Fireblood queen with the underlying motive of destroying the Fire Throne and capturing the Minax, for only a Minax can kill another Minax.
Joining Kai, Ruby meets the Fireblood queen, Nalani. At first, Queen Nalani has no place for one so loyal to Arcus, the Frost King, but when Ruby opts to take the trials to become a Fireblood master, that also means she must vow her loyalty to the Fireblood Queen. Kai has one week to train Ruby for the trials, and if she passes, he has a chance to take his third trial over again, something that is never permitted. He must pass the third trial to reclaim his place as a ruling prince over one of the islands.
The first trial involves escaping through a bunch of heavy wooden doors, each nearly twice as thick as the last, before the pooling lava, like a snake, slithers up to catch Ruby. When the lava stops, tada! Foreshadowing! The second trial inhibits control from a Fireblood. Ruby sits over a river of lava, nothing separating her from boiling heat except a block of ice. When she meets the time period, Kai helps her out, instigating a non-pass by the Fireblood Masters. With the influence of the queen’s husband, Prince Eiko, Ruby is deemed to pass and has but one last trial. While Kai is not permitted to tell about any of the trials, he shares his inability to pass the third trial, an execution order given by the queen. When Ruby fears that she must kill someone, the request of the trial is rather shocking.
Queen Nalani, finding that Ruby can manipulate lava, claims that Ruby is her long-lost niece, an heir to the Fire Throne. With an engagement to Kai and an announcement as the new heir, Arcus, having come to save Ruby, sees something more between Kai and Ruby, and is captured in his rage. Ruby aims to find a way to break her engagement, save Arcus, and defeat the Minax of the Fire Throne, but when the two Minax come together and release a God upon their world, there may be no way to stop the creatures of darkness from being released upon the citizens of both kingdoms.
This was even better that the first book, and the first book was amazing. The trials were intriguing and Ruby’s quest to find the book on how to defeat the Minax was likewise an interesting aspect to the plot. The introduction of a new potential love interest also built some good conflict both internal and external among the characters. The only thing about this book that was somewhat annoying, despite how good the plot twists were, was that all the major events were pretty predictable. There is almost too much foreshadowing to hint at Ruby’s royalty, at the engagement, and how things would pan out in the end. Despite this, still a fast and epic read, and if you have not picked this series up yet, I would highly suggest it for a young adult audience.
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