Literary Merit: Okay
Characterization: Okay
Recommended: No
Level: High School

This one was... slightly better than the second novel, but still not anything to write home about. Mercifully, the plot focuses more on the political dilemma than the love triangle, and the romance takes a much-needed back-burner to the action. This helped me get through the book much more quickly than I did with the other two, and I was grateful to Purdie for at least making it a quick and easy read. I'm still not a huge fan of this series, however, as all of the problems I had with the first two books (an unlikeable main character, a forced romantic subplot, abusive and icky characters, etc.) were still present in this one.

Frozen Reign, much like its predecessor, begins right where the last book left off. Sonya, who has just been gravely wounded by the former emperor Valko, wakes up in the convent to find that all of her ability to sense aura has completely vanished. Devastated, Sonya is unsure how to take her place in the Riaznin revolution, living her days taking care of soldiers who have fallen ill with consumption. When an Esten Auraseer named Genevie arrives at the convent seeking refuge from a bounty hunter, however, Sonya learns of a powerful Auraseer who might be able to help her regain her abilities. Determined to help end Valko's latest rise to power, Sonya ventures to the land of Esten on a mission to forge an alliance with Esten, while also seeking a way to regain her lost power.

As I said above, this book suffers from many of the same problems I had with the first two. Sonya is still bland and whiny, Valko is still terrible, and much of the plot feels rushed, with the pay-offs and plot twists seeming un-earned. One improvement this book made was actually focusing on the overall political issues going on in this universe, though still not enough for me to really see what was happening outside of Sonya's personal bubble. It would have been really interesting to see the perspectives of some of the other governors, or to switch points of view to see what was happening elsewhere in the world. As it currently stands, it feels like nothing outside of Sonya and her friends even mattered in what was supposedly a massive revolution, and that really killed any hope I had to see a big, epic fantasy series with this trilogy.

Another huge issue this book (and the entire series) has is pacing. As with the other books, it feels like not a lot happens until the last third, when Sonya flees with the Esten Auraseers and is captured by a bounty hunter (side note: what is it with this series and bounty hunters?!). From this point on, it seems like the story wraps up ridiculously quickly, with everything neatly tied up in a little bow. Anton just so happens to be in the area, along with Valko and Dasha. Sonya gets her confusing powers back at exactly the right time, and both Valko and the bounty hunter are killed quickly, without any real loss on the side of the heroes. For a series that clearly had no issue adding stakes in the first two books, I was shocked to see that Purdie ended it without there being a single consequence to the heroes' victory in the end. Even Genevie, who I really liked but felt was expendable, survived due to some stroke of luck. The only real loss is Sestra Mirna, and she dies from an illness rather than at the hands of an enemy soldier.

This is yet another thing that annoyed me about this series as a whole. Characters who really don't learn or grow from their mistakes are continuously rewarded for no reason, sending a mixed and confused message to the reader. Sonya ends the series as pretty much the same whiny, slightly useless, and reckless character that she began, only she has (thankfully) been stripped of her extra powers. While this is a good thing (that woman did not need the ability to manipulate others, considering how poorly she's used it in the past), it made little sense that she gained back her basic powers at the most convenient time possible. It seemed as though Sonya put in very little effort to achieve this; she spent ten minutes with Madame Perle discussing buried memories, and was then gradually rewarded her powers for very little work. Once again, Sonya's powers make little sense: what exactly made her lose them, and how was she able to partially regain them? Furthermore, why were they not completely returned? So little is explained about the origin and mechanics of Auraseers that I stopped caring completely when Nadia also gained her power back, even though she'd never gone to Esten to have it restored. I found myself saying, "Sure, why not?" and moving on to get the book finished faster.

Anton and Sonya continue to be a bland couple, their romance still feeling forced and unearned. Anton never truly confronted Sonya for manipulating him, and she never really faces any consequences for it aside from brooding for weeks about how much he "must hate her." He seems completely unaffected, however, mooning over her for no apparent reason. Because Sonya feels very much like a Mary Sue, her romance with Anton turns him into a Gary Stu by proxy. Sonya sucks everything unique and likeable out of him, making him just as boring and needlessly sappy as she is. Like I've said before, I adore romance, but it has to be done right for me to feel invested in the characters and their relationship. Sonya and Anton's relationship is neither healthy nor realistic, and I found myself not really caring whether or not they ended up together at the end of the series.

As with the other books, I found myself really enjoying the side characters. It baffles me that Purdie can write such fun and interesting side characters, while sucking the life out of her romantic leads. Dasha, Genevie, Sestra Mirna, Nadia, Tosya, and all of the other secondary characters are a lot more fun and interesting than Sonya and Anton, and I read this book wanting to know far more about their struggles and victories than I did about Sonya's. It was refreshing to see Dasha, a little girl with the same abilities as Sonya, use those abilities in a much better way. Though she also lacks control, Dasha (who, again, is only a little girl) is far more responsible with her power than the adult Sonya, who commits the most atrocious crimes with her power when she isn't whining about how difficult her life is. I was glad to see that, in the end, Sonya's full power never returned, as she has proven throughout this series that she is the last person to whom power should be granted.

My last gripe with this series is the fact that, because the ending was so rushed, many characters never got closure. Many plot threads are never resolved, one such plot thread being the relationship between Dasha and the leader of the Romska. We never get to see him meet his daughter or come to terms with the fact that he is the father of a princess, and the two are never given any real closure. We see very little of Nadia, one of my favorite characters, and the conclusion to her romance with Tosya feels rushed and unsatisfying. Sonya never faces any real consequences for her terrible actions; she gets to be with Anton, is still friends with Nadia (despite killing her mother), and is even granted the title of governor for the Auraseers when it was her negligence that almost wiped the convent out in the first book. We never get to see Riaznin grow and build its democracy (something an epilogue would've fixed), and we never get any sort of resolution for characters like Delphine and Kira. This whole book felt extremely rushed, and I wish Purdie would've slowed down a little bit to really explore the large cast of characters she created for this world. Everything in this series seems to revolve around Valko, Anton, and Sonya, the three LEAST interesting characters. Meanwhile, characters I actually wanted to see were left without any real development or attention.

Overall, this series is a bit of a mess. As I said in my last review, it's not the worst fantasy I've ever read, but it feels unfinished. It's bland, with carbon copy main characters and side characters who never get the chance to develop because of the novel's focus. The scope and politics of this universe are never fully explored, which is a shame considering how interesting this series might've been if we knew more about the fictional nations warring within it. Sonya's powers needed more fleshing out, and she needed to face real consequences for her actions when she messed up. Because she was granted a happy ending without putting in any real work, it feels as though Sonya didn't grow at all from the first book to the third, making her journey seem a little pointless in the end. Again, I've read much worse, but I'm honestly disappointed that a series with such an interesting premise and great potential wound up to be this lackluster and average. It is my hope that Purdie will continue to improve, and that her next series will build upon the things she does well... while cutting out the pieces that cause this story to get lost amid a raging tide of bland YA fantasy. ( )