Review: Devil's Frost (Spellspinners of Melas County #3) by Heidi R. Kling

  Source: Received a review copy from the publisher for an honest review.

Publisher: Coliloquy, LLC

Release Date: Already Released
You can find out more about Devil's Frost and the Spellspinners of Melas County Saga on Coliloquy's website.

Blurb from Goodreads:

Every young witch looks forward to her first Solstice Stones. The pride of representing her coven against the warlocks. The rush from her first taste of dark magic.

But a few short minutes into the Stones, and Lily’s lifelong dream turns into a nightmare of pain and regret. Betrayed not once, but twice, her restraint snaps—with dire consequences.

Lily is wracked with guilt and on the run from the powerful Congression, when her broken confidence is further shattered by an ugly secret from the past. As her options dwindle, Lily is forced into a distasteful alliance.

Will she be able to find her way back to the light? Or will darkness consume her before dawn's new day?

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I've really been enjoying Coliloquy's interactive titles, and the Spellspinners of Melas County is one of my favourites, so I've been eagerly awaiting this book. I absolutely loved getting to return to Lily and Logan's story in Devil's Frost, but there were a few things about this installment in the series that I wasn't a big fan of, so while I did really enjoy it, it is my least favourite out of the three books so far.

Mostly, I was disappointed with this one because it really wasn't interactive at all. As I have gushed about the interactive parts being one of my favourite elements in these books, it's probably not that surprising that I was disappointed with a lack of choices. The only options in Devil's Frost were whether you wanted to read bonus material or not....which frankly isn't a choice at all because it doesn't actually do anything for the plot itself, or to the narrative that you as a reader are following. The fact that there were no actual choices in the book made a lot of it seem really repetitious, too. We see the same events from both Logan's and Lily's points of view, which was drastically different from the narratives of the first two books, where we rarely saw the same scenes twice, and while I enjoyed the story, the repetition made it feel really anti-climatic, and like it was all filler. I also didn't realize that this was going to be a nine-book series. By the setup of the first two books, I was thinking four or five at the most (since I knew it was a "saga"), so instead of having the story start to tie together in this one, like I expected, we just got more conflict, and circled back through the alternating points of view.

While I was disappointed with this one, I was glad to see more of Lily and Logan. I still love their chemistry and the dynamics they have together, especially when they cast spells. As I mentioned, a lot of this book did feel like it was more filler, and that it was laying the groundwork for future books in the series, so I'm hopeful that the next book will return to the feel of the previous ones. A lot of questions were left open at the end of Devil's Frost, but we finally got more about the prophecy and about both Lily's and Logan's pasts. In the bonus material, we also got to see a little bit of Daisy, which was definitely different from the rest of the book, but was interesting nonetheless. I still loved the imaginative world that Heidi R. Kling has created in this series and embedded within our own world. I love the way her spells work, the dynamics of the witches and warlocks, and the vast history surrounding the segregation of the spellspinners by gender...it's incredibly interesting, and has kept me riveted since I first started the series.

Overall, I enjoyed Devil's Frost, but was disappointed in the lack of interactivity in it, and I felt that compared to the first two books, this one was a bit lackluster. There was action, and we got a little bit of Logan and Lily romance, but the parallel narratives felt a bit repetitious, which was very different from the first two books. I do think that fans of the series will enjoy returning to Lily and Logan's story though, and I'm personally really excited for the next book because I think that Devil's Frost set it up for some serious action and intensity...and hopefully lots and lots of romance, too. ;) If you haven't started this series yet, don't let my disappointment in this book stop you. The first two were fantastic, and the magical world in the Spellspinners of Melas County series is amazing, and I think you'll be riveted by it, too.

You can find my thoughts on Witch's Brew and  my review for The Gleaning, here:
Witch's Brew (Book #1) - short GR review
The Gleaning (Book #2) - blog review

Twitter Links: Heidi R. Kling | Coliloquy

Have you started the Spellspinners of Melas County series yet?

If you have, have you read Devil's Frost yet? Thoughts?

And if you haven't, are you a fan of witches and magic?

Does the series sound like something you'd like to read?