YA Fantasy about a bad wizard

Hi!
I read this book around 2014-16. It was like average novel length, around 250- 400 pages. I think the cover was blue and had something about ice or frost or cold in the title, maybe something wizards or magic (Magick?).
The basic plot is this young man (boy#1) who is a prince (or something similar) and also a terrible wizard gets, more or less, banished to a cabin to live with his wizard hound which is a giant dog breed that are usually trained to work with wizards to protect them while they are casting. The cabin is very isolated and maybe on a cliff or mountain? I do know that it is very snowy wherever it is. the cabin is also on the border of a place that he has been told is full of dangerous people that are trying to take over his home land, or something like that. He finds another young man (boy#2) half frozen and passed out, buried in the snow. I think the hound actually finds him. He brings him in the cabin and ties him up because he knows that he is from the other kingdom.
My favourite part is when boy #2 wakes up and boy#1 tells him not to try anything because his wizard hound would attack him, the hound instead wags his tail and licks boy #2, or something equally as cute. I think he also pees on the floor making boy #2 extremely unafraid of boy #1.

Anyways... After a while they form a friendship of sorts and the discover they are soul brothers. Its something like that, it was essentially that they were spiritually connected, kind of like a soul mate but not sexual and more like a master/apprentice relationship. Or that they are destined to work together and are essentially family (why the wizard hound wouldn't attack, it sensed that this new boy was important to its masters future). Boy#1's father (a king?) sends an assassin to kill him and they escape to the other place. This is where it ends but it is insinuated that they will begin to find a way to join the two kingdoms.

I know ther is at least 1 more book but it may be a trilogy.

I wish I could remember the characters names but I have no clue. They might be average American/Canadian names or strange fictional, made-up names.
I would love some help finding this... it has been dragging on me for a long time and driving me crazy.

if it helps, I think the author was male

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I just realized I never said that it may be a book on kobo or iBooks . I read a lot of Kobo exclusive novels and got my kobo in 2012.

I think I now have some sort of record for no one even guessing what book it is...

Bumping.

I am tempted to guess very badly, to spoil your record.... (your description has lots of good details, which will tend to reduce the number of "approximates" people might guess

>9 TimSharrock: TimSharrock Thank you for adding something! Made my morning a little better.

Could it possibly be Magyk? I admit I have not read the Septimus Heap series, but your comment about the title brought it to mind and when I read the wikipedia entry, there is a moment with someone being found in the snow. Nothing about a hound, though, and the someone in the snow is a girl.

>11 megbmore: I don't think it is Magyk - I read it some years ago

>11 megbmore: Its not Magyk. The main character is a girl in Magyk and in the one I was thinking of the characters are definitely boys. Thank you though.

Could it be the A Man of His Word series by Dave Duncan? The hero's name was Rap.

And you don't need to bump your post so frequently. This group isn't that active ;0)

>14 Awards-and-Medals: It's not that series, the heroine's name is Rap but I don't remember a single female character in the book, certainly not important characters. thank you for trying. Also thank you for your input on when I should bump my post but I only ever bump it when it moves off the first 2 pages every 3-5 days. Recently more just to respond to people.

When you say he's a 'bad wizard' do you mean he does bad things, as in an evil person, or 'bad' as in his magic is really poor quality? Just curious, as I don't really have any idea what your book is.

>16 jeane: He is just not great at being a wizard. It’s something like his family is a long line of great wizards and he can’t even create the most basic spells. I think it’s one of the reasons his dad tries to kill him.

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The Accidental Sorcerer?

>22 humouress: thank you but no. That does look good though.

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Do you have an idea of when it might have been written?
Was the target audience YA/ children's/ fantasy?

>25 humouress: I read it about 6-7 years ago so probably was written around 8-10 years ago and the target audience was probably young adult. I know there were no mature content warnings if that helps. I do believe it was a fantasy novel but that may be wrong.

I googled ‘inept wizard and giant wizard hound’ and got Rubeus Hagrid. I suspect this is not what you’re looking for ;0)

>27 humouress: ummm not quite but thank you lol

Bumping post.

Just bumping. I have a feeling I won’t find the book at this point but I can still hope!

Reaching desperately here (based on ’inept wizard’): The Colour of Magic?

>31 humouress: that’s not it but thank you for trying!

Jinx? The Ring of Allaire? They don't fit all of the description though.