A Soul As Cold As Frost: 1 (The Winter Souls)

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Um… A dozen images flashed through my mind at once: smiling rabbits, sparkling birds, tree-sized people, a human-swallowing snow-tornado. But I forced my cheeks to move out of the way for a smile, otherwise my grandma would know something was wrong. I got distracted. I’ll apologize at some point, I promised, though she and I both knew I probably wouldn’t. I would rather stay in for the month of December and have my grandmother read us boring old Christmas tales to spare us the holiday drama.

I loved Winter. It’s filled with Christmas-y creatures such as dwarves, giant gnomes, reindeer, and ice magic. The world is cool (pun not intended) but that’s only in part due to world building. The author is beyond talented. Her multi-layered, immersive descriptions completely bring this book to life. I could almost feel the bitter cold, taste the richness of the hot chocolate (I literally had to make myself a cup), see the ice magic smash against Jolly Cheat (the resident villain). I smooshed my face against the window, my hands cupping around my eyes to see where he went. But beyond where the boy had been, two dozen beings of unnatural height congregated around tables, hunching to fit beneath the ceiling. The sight sent a barrel of heat rolling through my stomach. Pointy ears and long noses protruded from their heads, hidden only when they sipped from their steaming mugs. Some of them had to be as tall as the lampposts outside.

Customer reviews

I remember there were scenes where I would wonder, “So, what’s the villain doing? Oh, she’s still walking toward him with a sword. She started that three paragraphs ago…” For me, these instances pulled me out of the story and made it difficult to continue. Helen

My one real gripe is Helen herself, our allegedly book-smart heroine who keeps bumbling in huge ways for over half the book. I wanted to like her more then I did, as she has a relatable story—but her inability to listen to Zane even in the simplest things irritated me quite a few times. (Stop waving the orb around and hold still!) She does grow, mind you. I just would’ve liked to see her smarts a few more times early on. First of all It’s full of adventures, we can read many times how the main characters are in constant movement, there is always a danger, there is always mystery there is always something happening, which I found awesome. The dialogues in my opinion had a lot of sarcasm (at least from the main male character) this gave him a very strong personality and definitely made me laugh because of it.

I really liked this book as a change of pace in my normal reading. I knew going into it that it was filled with Christian things and I personally enjoyed trying to find the comparisons. I am sure that I missed plenty. I hesitated, studying the vintage sign and eyeing the splinters of wood that seemed to have flaked off the storefront into brittle piles over time. It wasn’t an eye-catching place, but still, I was sure it wasn’t here a moment ago, which didn’t make sense because the store wasn’t newly built; all the evidence said as much. As Helen Bell is whisked into a wintry adventure, from snow squatches, to trains, to magic libraries, frost giants, dwarf dwellings, red palaces, and more, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw provides a stunning array of unique voices in delightful accents. Helen must find a way out, or she’ll be dragged into the arena to face the crooked Queen head on before a crowd ready to watch her die. Jennifer Kropf has a poetic style of writing that slides like hot chocolate down the throat, warm and gooey in a good way. There is an abundance of adjectives throughout that occasionally distracted me from the action but otherwise the writing is solid. Her prose is ideal for a Christmassy read, strongly reminiscent of Narnia, with solid world-building and vivid settings.

It's the Chronicles of Narnia meets Harry Potter. This fantastic winter tale is the perfect blend of classic portal fantasy and the magic world co-existing with our own. It's a beautiful reminder of what is truly important in life." Please note that I listened to an audio copy of this book. This means that some spellings of names and places may be incorrect.My only other critique is that the scenes seemed a little jumpy and random at times. Maybe it was purposeful and meant to be another quirky part of the story and the world, but I personally think I would've liked a streamlined approach more. Zane was amazing. I really, really liked him. I feel like I didn’t get to know him quite as much as I wanted to but I’m hopeful I’ll see him in book two.

This is a story I enjoyed reading but it was really hard for me to finished it. This book is a fantasy, action story. The author really respected and follow this two genre but it also (although I haven’t seen anyone talking about it) has mystery which in my opinion was written in a very specific way for the reader to really see every scene and every character as a suspect. This is how Helen's magical journey to Winter begins. A fast paced adventure with hurdles at almost every corner, full of bravery, epic battles, sacrifices, prayers, hope and quite a bit of fun. People moved on by as though they hadn’t heard it, chatting and pushing their way through the rush hour crowd. Your aunt tells me she had to leave you in the street to make it here on time, she said to me beneath the chatter of the room. The scolding in her voice was entirely overshadowed by the smirk on her face.Never in my sixteen years of life had I believed in things unseen until that day. I had never created an imaginary friend as a child or believed in ghosts or the work of angels. But on that cold December afternoon, everything I knew went up in a gray cloud of smoke. My favorite part of the book was the allegory. As a Christian, seeing the symbolism throughout was amazing. I got teared up at times. It definitely reminded me of Narnia, just different. It was really clever! I sighed, wondering if a good night’s sleep would fix me since most of the medical journals in the Waterloo Region Library advised that rest was the best remedy for people out of sorts.