The book "Cold Magic" leads to a parallel world in Europe, in the world ruled by the Cold magic house and many royal houses. This is the dark world in which human life is worth nothing, and all the inhabitants were slaves or Cold magic house or Ruler. The industrial revolution was in its infancy, but Houses of Cold magicians are hardly conducive to the progress and try to prevent any progress. Therefore, the rebellion led by the Roman legate Camjiata, but after a terrible war and the destruction...

Re-read Update (6/29/2021): I think reading this book during the summer was a bad idea because it is so hot and this book was set in winter and I couldn't jive with the cold, biting temperatures. I still love the characters of Bee, Cat, and Andevai, and all of their interactions together. That's the best part of the book.The pacing was a lot slower than I remember and there was much more world building so some of it went over my head. I'm thinking I'll enjoy the next book more (as I did the las...

My first Kate Elliott book. I HAVE SUCH FOND MEMORIES. *_* Things this book has:- awesome diverse cast!- lady friendships that are incredibly important to both ladies AND THE PLOT!- examination and critique of colonialism and other terrible social ills, BY CLEVER HEROINE and company- kissing!- magic!- a complicated romance with a dude that doesn't come with an easy resolution that both people have to work for!More thoughts (with spoilers): https://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/2...

Review also available @Scaredy Engines End of Line LibraryThis was such a richly described complex novel that was about a lot of things I'm interested in e.g. culture, mythology and the what ifs in history. This is not a story to be rushed it has to be savored and analysed to get the full experience. The novel is set in an alternate early 19th century europa that still has fragments of the ice age and magic and the spirit world are real and well known. After the fall of the Roman empire the regi...

Pretty close to awful. In fairness, I'll admit I'm not a fan of Victorian romances. Didn't think this was one? Ha.Here, let me save you some time:Chapter 1 to 6Cat misses her dead father, so she reads his expedition journals. Cat is cold because they can’t afford heat in the big, drafty house. She is hungry because she missed breakfast. Cat is cold when she runs to school because she forgot her coat, the one in last season’s style. See Cat’s cousin, Bee, and “best friend” pinch her during lectur...

First off, I really ought to say that there are a lot of very good aspects to this novel. Some parts, such as the dream of the dragon, the bits with the illusions and the cold steel, and especially the alternate history of Europe right up to the Regency era, with all of the Napoleanic (Camjiata) flavors built right in, even going far back for the world-building to the great empire of Carthage, the Phoenicians.Like I said, there's a lot to love.Unfortunately, there's also the bad.Andevai has got

A GR friend of mine has a shelf called wtf was this. And as I closed this book for the last time, utterly defeated by the barrage of incomprehensible & unnecessary pseudo-european cultural fantasy-speak, I actually thought what the fuck was this? If I had a shelf with that label, I'd put COLD MAGIC on it.As much as it pains me (& really, it does; I had high expectations for this one), I'm waving the white flag. Regardless of my issues with the poorly-developed setting & magical WTFery, I've been...

Ughhhh I know I shouldn't but this book is only 99 cents so GUESS WHAT I BOUGHT

Kate Elliott’s Cold Magic is about as slippery as dress shoes on ice. But fortunately without the painful fall.Why is it slippery? Because it’s (as Elliott describes it) a mashup novel.When I started reading I decided it was a magic-riddled steampunk novel. Then I decided it was also a political novel (exploring cultural beliefs using an alternate Europe). But no sooner had I decided that when Elliott threw in an “I hate him with all my heart” romance in the best Harlequin tradition. Later, once...

In an alternate history Europe an orphaned girl struggles for her family against forces that would use them as political and magical pawns.The world-building here is intricate and rich, with a very geologically different Earth. There still appears to be enough of an ice age that the Mediterranean is small and there's no English Channel and the middle of Europe is still glacier-bound. Also historically, with no Christianity, and an extant Roman Empire that didn't defeat Carthage and didn't collap...

An awesome book that blew me away; The setting is an ice-age like alt-Earth around the 1800's but with a quite different history, magic houses, but also budding science that the "cold mages" dislike and want suppressed, but the local princes try to protectThe heroine/narrator is Cat (Catherine) of Carthaginian descent - here 2000 years ago Carthage was ruled by queens (called dido's for the famous mythical founder) and Hannibal defeated the Romans at Zama for once, so the two powers fought thems...

I'm not sure what I was expecting this book to be but, whatever it was, what I got wasn't it. I think I expected more historical relevance, more political intrigue, perhaps less romance, though I'm certainly not opposed to romance in a story, and more, well - I think what I expected was for the world-building and the history to be more important to the actual story than it was.There are times when the history becomes relevant to the story line, like the not travelling abroad during Samhain and t...

This book is so FRUSTRATINGI mean, interesting premise: Steampunky alternate Europe in which there is widespread multicultural cross-pollination and ~magic~. Check!Great characters: Headstrong young lady who has been sadly misinformed about herself for most of her life, and a Harlequin-worthy hatemance with the spoiled Cold Mage she's forced to marry and who is Not All What He Seems. Check!But on the other hand--Plot: Hello, yoo-hoo, plot? Where are you? Look at the cover blurb:"Young Cat Baraha...

Cold Magic is an alternate history fantasy, but unlike any I’ve read before. It takes place in England in the 1800s - I think, since there isn’t really an England or a Victoria as far I can tell. Some aspects of both Regency and Victorian society are there, including an alternate Industrial Revolution. All of Europe is still frozen in an extended ice age. There are mage houses and princes in conflict with serving classes and technology, and there is just a tiny bit of steampunkishness to it - th...

When I decided to put Cold Magic aside, after 67% of very little pleasure and a lot of struggle, I felt pretty angry and offended. Angry, because reading these 360 pages took a huge effort and did not dole out the tiniest reward. Offended, because the book, written by an author with quite some published writing to show as a proof for her skills, made me question my ability to focus, my ability to absorb and understand what I read and - for a short, shocking minute – the functionality of my Kindl...

I wrote a really long review and somehow it got erased just as I was about to press "post." Is it because it's Monday? Jeeeez.Ok, AS I WAS SAYING, this book was between 3 and 4 stars for me, but I gave it 4 because at the end of the book I was really satisfied and wanted more. I really really enjoyed Cold Magic, I liked the female protagonist a lot and the mystery behind the book and the politics of the world. Only negative: the world-building slogged down the pace in places though because there...

The beginning of Cold Magic was both slow and felt rather cumbersome, and while I did not precisely struggle to read it, I was more than ambivalent about it. There are reasons for this. The world building has to begin and the author balances a delicate line between too much detail and exposition and not enough (well, like all fantasy novels). I wouldn't say that it was clumsily done, but it was a little heavy. I found myself at turns confused and then enlightened and then confused once more, but...

I really enjoyed this alternate world Regency fantasy - great world-building, characters, and peril. My main complaint is that I think it needed to be pared down - parts got a bit repetitive.

http://www.rantingdragon.com/cold-mag...Cold Magic is the first book in the new Spirit Walker trilogy by Kate Elliott, established author of both the Crown of Stars and the Crossroads series. As the result of a family obligation, Catherine Hassi Barahal is forced into an arranged marriage to a young noble, an enigmatic cold mage. She is immediately torn away from her home and her education in the technology of the impending industrial age, only to find that marriage into a mage house is far from...

I don't often find a book I want to read again after the first initial inhalation of its story and characters. I don't want to pore over events that shape the narrative, linger over the words spoken and the feelings felt by the different characters. It's a rare book that engages me to the extent that I will read and reread because every time I do, I find something more to take away from it.Cold Magic, the first book in the Spirit Walker trilogy, is one such rare book. I found myself reading as s...