Where's the Fire?

I'm so excited to review a new release by a spunky, quirky author, Amanda Hocking.  This book is Frostfire, the first in the Kanin Chronicles Trilogy.  This is her first release since wrapping up her Watersong series with Elegy in August of 2013.  That's more than a year and a half that we've been waiting.  That's forever in book-lover land so to say that this has been greatly anticipated by this reader is a serious understatement!

Frostfire is a clever story that has some familiar characters in it, from Hocking's previous Trylle trilogy and takes place in the same far northern/Canadian land of fantasy.  This story has a "tracker" named Bryn whose job it is to find changlings and bring them back to her home in Doldastam.  She is also very determined to avenge the man who stabbed her father years before.  The sub story is basically about the political unrest in each of the four tribes that live in the area. The tribes are all very different and play to their various strengths.  It reminds me a lot of the Divergent trilogy in how they were separated, but whether that was Hocking's inspiration, I'm not sure.  Either way, there is clearly discord among the tribes and alliances are being made "just in case."  I have a feeling a lot of this series deals with political agendas and things hidden among the royalty of the Kanin.  However, I may be wrong.

There is of course a little romance in the story too. Bryn is beginning to feel differently about her friend and boss, Ridley.  He clearly has feelings for her too, even if he pretends otherwise by dating someone else.  I noticed also that even though Bryn initially had a crush on another character Konstantin, but then it went away that there still seems to be a little bit of sexual tension between them.  He is kind to her in a strange way and wants to protect her for some reason, though it's not really revealed why just yet.

Overall, this was an easy, totally fantasy based read.  It was light (well mostly...except for the boiling of babies!) fun read.  I do question the title a bit because I am still unsure what it had to do with the book other than that they live in a very cold desolate area.  I am looking forward to the next one Ice Kissed, due out in May.