Another fun and exciting instalment in this series! This time the action took us out of Europa and to the Antilles, and I for one enjoyed the change of scenery. I can't wait to see how this story wraps up in the final book!

First, let me tell you what Cold Fire is like. Cold Fire is like ripping your heart out, stuffing it into a washing machine, and watching it go around and around, twisting and turning in every which way while you are helpless to do anything. Of course, then you try to do something to this poor heart of yours, so you rush forward to stop the washing machine, but it’s in the middle of the wash, so even when you get your heart out, you still have to wring it out and dry all the excess soapy water,

Cold Fire is the second installment in Kate Elliot's Spiritwalker trilogy. As within the first novel Cold Magic the story is told in the first person by the main protagonist Cat.We'll start right where we left of last time after Cat and her cousin Bee have met the revolutionary general Camjiata.Throuout the book we will finally learn more about Cat's sire, visit the spirit world and have a look at the other side of the pond.Those elements are the strenghts of the novel. The world building of thi...

I said about Cold Magic that it somehow got under my skin in spite of the very heavy world building at the start. Now it has gone from being under my skin to being a world that I am dreamily living in and don’t want to leave. The atmosphere is fantastic, the writing beautiful at times, the sense of place rich and layered. Regardless of characters and plot, being in the world is a feeling to savor. This book takes us out of the frigid north that is still ruled by princes and mages into the Antill...

Cold Fire continues the story begun in Cold Magic, with the majority of page count devoted to Cat's adventures in the Antilles, equivalent to our earth's Caribbean. She's sent there on a distasteful mission, that she must fulfill on a deadline, in order to save her best friend Beatrice (Bee) from death. In the meantime, we meet a new cast of characters and reacquaint ourselves with some old ones, and the preparations for Camjiata's war to become emperor of Europa, and revolutionary sentiments in...

UUUUUUUUG I dunno. I LOVED the first one in this series, totally interesting steampunk-magic world, and I was so psyched to see this pop up on my Kindle the other day, but something felt completely off for me in the first half of this book. Especially the first 50 pages, it was lot of confusing information that didn't really settle you back into the world that readers have been away from for a few years, it was like an info dump, and a bit of a scattered wonky political info dump at that. Maybe

Originally reviewed on The Book SmugglersCatherine Bell Hassi Barahal has been through an incredibly trying few weeks. Willingly sacrificed by her Aunt and Uncle in order to protect their daughter, Beatrice, Cat has been whisked from her home and bound into an unbreakable marriage to haughty, powerful cold mage Andevai Diarisso Haranwy, based on a prophecy and a deal struck by the Hassi Barahals and the cold mage houses. The only problem is that Cat is not truly a Hassi Barahal by blood, and the...

What I loved about Cat in the first book was her resourcefulness, even while alone in a strange land with no allies. Even when other people were trying to exert control over her, she was always the hero of her own life and always made a path for herself.This book doesn't do that. For the vast majority of it, she's the object, not the subject. She's a supporting character in the machinations of a bunch of powerful males, and the only plot she has any agency in is in giving in to the supposedly gr...

This book. This book right here. This is really original and excellently executed epic fantasy. A step up from an already impressive first novel, Elliott's second Spiritwalker book doesn't disappoint.

You know what I love? A series that just gets better and better as it goes along. Cold Magic had a rocky start, and took a couple hundred pages before I really started enjoying it. Cold Fire caught my interest right away, amping up to a finale that stomped on my heart and made me need to read book three posthaste. The Spiritwalker Trilogy boasts one of my favorite romances, and I'm going to need to fangirl about the feels.Know that there's totally a lot more going on in Cold Fire than romance, b...

I tried to get into this one. I really did. Elliot did a great job with the world building in this one, and I found aspects of it fascinating, like the cold and fire mages, the spirit world and the Wild Hunt. This book earned its two stars based off of that.So where did the other 3 go? The book dragged in places and I struggled with some of the characters. Characters are super important to me. If I don't care for a character, its difficult to be invested in what happens to them. The protagonist

A major improvement on the first book, this one moves the action to the Antilles and the culture of the Taino and a Europan enclave that they allow to exist called Expedition.Scarce days after the end of the first book Bee and Cat flee their house arrest in Adurnam intending to go to the Troll lawyers that Cat had befriended in the first book. At the lawyers they encounter a number of strangers including a Fire Mage as well as Andevai who is there on a different matter. Cat, Bee and Rory flee, a...

4.5 that I am rounding up. The middle book in this trilogy changes the setting, gives us a whole new world and mythos, made me want to drink lots of rum, allowed a love to bloom, and developed the plot in interesting ways. (It's not without some issues, either, but I don't care! Just too much fun.)

Cold Fire is the second book in Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker trilogy. Some of the things that annoyed me about the first book were less evident in this book. On the other hand, the story didn’t hold my interest quite as well. There were times when I was glued to the Kindle, but there were also many times when I was restless and kept putting it down to do other things.One of the things that annoyed me in the first book was the way the author delivered exposition in the form of unrealistic dialogue...

Okay, I think I’ve put this off long enough, don’t you?I totally loved the first book in this series, Cold Magic. I loved the characters, the worldbuilding, the magic system, everything about it was pretty awesome to tell you the truth. So when this second one came around, I snatched it up right away.Everything that you didn’t like or stumbled over in the first one; the slow pacing, info-dumping, or excessive attention to detail is not present in this one. I don’t know about you guys but Cold F

Why is Spiritwalker trilogy underrated? I’ll never understand.As I’ve said in my Cold Magic review, this series is simply well done in every aspect. Some people might not share the same sentiment as I do, for it could be overwhelming. But, I wholly appreciate that, these books challenge the normal status quo of everything I ever encountered. The focal center of Spiritwalker to begin with, are about two cousins who are deeply loyal to each other, thrust into a world that continues to mislead them...

Fantasy Review BarnAnother infuriating entry in the Spiritwalker Trilogy. How can a book do some things so damn good, and make a complete mess out of others? I was going to finish off the book, then be done with the series despite already having the concluding volume in my hands. Then in the last hundred pages this meandering tale suddenly got a cohesive plot and found its purpose, ensuring that I will give the final book a try.Cat may be one of my favorite first person narrators in the genre, w...

I don’t know, you guys. I REALLY loved the first book in this series, but this one starts out on the wrong foot. (And then kind of continues that way.) I was looking forward to this one so much that I went out and got it the first day it was released. But - all the things I loved about the first book were kind of missing – the cold mages, the magic, Andevai’s history and conflict with the Four Moons house (SUCH a great character), Catherine’s family and cousin and the backdrop of her traditional...

I really liked this story, and I think Elliot developed her characters a lot more in this one. I think the first one was really bogged down by infodumps, and while they were still very present in this one, I think it was to a lesser degree. I definitely felt more engaged in the story, and I think that Elliot had set up her world already, so she didn't feel the need to have the characters engage in so many awkward conversations to describe the environment. I really like the direction that Cat too...

I could not put this one down. It has everything I love in a book. The relationships are a bigger part of this installment, which I really enjoyed, but there's still so much action and plot and growth. I love this world, and I'm not looking forward to leaving it!