Of Ice and Shadows

By: Audrey Coulthurst

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Moira Quirk

The long-awaited sequel to the acclaimed YA fantasy Of Fire and Stars! Mare and Denna travel to a new and dangerous kingdom where Denna will be trained to tame her magic by a mysterious queen who is not all she seems. Perfect for fans of Malinda Lo and Kristin Cashore.

Princesses Denna and Mare are in love and together at last - only to face a new set of dangers.

Mare just wants to settle down with the girl she loves, which would be easier if Denna weren’t gifted with forbidden and volatile fire magic. Denna must learn to control her powers, which means traveling in secret to the kingdom of Zumorda, where she can seek training without fear of persecution. Determined to help, Mare has agreed to serve as an ambassador as a cover for their journey.

But just as Mare and Denna arrive in Zumorda, an attack on a border town in Mynaria changes everything. Mare’s diplomatic mission is now urgent: She must quickly broker an alliance with the queen of Zumorda to protect her homeland. However, the queen has no interest in allying with other kingdoms; it’s Denna’s untamed but powerful magic that catches her eye. The queen offers Denna a place among her elite trainees - an opportunity that would force her to choose between her magic and Mare.

As Denna’s powers grow stronger, Mare struggles to be the ambassador her kingdom needs. By making unconventional friends, her knowledge of Zumorda and its people grow, and so, too, do her suspicions about who is truly behind the attacks on Zumorda and her homeland.

As rising tensions and unexpected betrayals put Mare and Denna in jeopardy and dangerous enemies emerge on all sides, can they protect their love and save their kingdoms?

©2019 Audrey Coulthurst (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

A pleasurable read, like it's predecessor.

Short of some writing "faux pas" that were also present in the first installment of this series, including unnecessary redundancy of how the characters felt about one particular thing or another throughout the book, and maybe some narration issues that I think should've been cleared from the beginning, such as how to pronounce a character's name, this series is truly unique and clever. Each book (the first I read, this one listened) kept me on the edge of my seat. They pull at your emotions in the same way the characters' are pulled with each new turn. Even though there were some similarities between plot formulas used for each book, each of the characters are different and show growth throughout. The two main characters also remain a favorite of mine in terms of fictional couples. I was also thrilled to see Moira Quirk and Saskia Maarleveld as narrators for each character, as both are very talented.

I think some people might be put off by the story's climax, but if you think about it for a minute, it was a wise decision on the author's part considering the story's overarching conflict (validity of magic vs non-magic in battle), looping everything together.

The stories as a whole are not without issues, but I've never found time spent on these stories a waste. (Which is an unusual place to be in.) I mean this as a complement to the author, and do hope she continues the series as she's found a fan in me.

Love this series! I need more!!

I am obsessed with Mare and Denna’s adventure. I read the actual books Inkmistress as well, then bought them on audible so I could hear them. Eagerly awaiting a third book 🤞🤞

Great series

Loved everything about the series. The character development and the world building were fantastic! I only wished there had been more fluff or maybe something a lil riskier ;)
It broke my heart that the main characters spent so much time apart, but what's a good love story without a lil angst

Let down

It was good and set up to have a potentially very cool ending..........and then it just didn’t. The final battle was so lame and uneventful that I was expecting another one afterwards. But there wasn’t one. Plot and character development was decent but again, what happened w the ending??

GREAT MAGICAL FANTASY BOOK WITH LESBIAN LOVERS

After reading the first book I thought it couldn’t get much better but I think I enjoyed this sequel even more than the first. Highly recommend this book to anyone who has read the first one.

breathtaking

my only complaint is that I want to hear more of their story I love this Duo they're a beautiful couple with struggles that can be metaphorically related to the struggles of the LGBT community this is worth every penny please give these books a read

Decent Listen

The story was good. However, since the two main characters spent most of it physically apart, I was disappointed. After listening to the first book, I thought it was setting up some great lesbian romance. Turns out, most of that content was in the first book and there is extremely few lesbian scenes in this one. I think they maybe kiss a few times. The rest is just about how they don't want to lose each other to a long distance romance. I'm really hoping there'll be another book after this where we actually get to see them be together and what that relationship is like.

Refreshingly good writing for wlw lit

Solidly developed and well defined characters, flawed and likeable. Just enough twists to the standard fantasy romance formula to stay invested in side characters and side quests.
The in-universe variation that lady lovin ain't no big thang was odd getting used to, but was nice after I did. The gays fleeing homophobia plot line gets old and this allowed a for more focus on the actual relationship. Thoroughly enjoyed! =D

Ending was lacking

The issue I had was the ending felt very rushed. The love story as a whole between the two books I thought was okay. I stuck it through to hopefully get the happy ending I wanted for the characters.
I just think unfortunately the story lost itself along the way and the Author realized that they needed to end the book and tie up everything they introduced.

-SPOILER-

The battle Dena faced to secure her place along side the queen that had been what her character had been working toward and dreading for over half the book was very fast and there wasn’t much to it at all. It was a few pages worth of quick fighting.
The end battle for Kartasha was so fast and nondescript that I actually had to rewind to understand that the battle ended so suddenly and easily against what had been built to be an all powerful demigod.

I thought the narrators did a good job and I really enjoyed them personally.

i loved this story and its world but

this book series is currently a favorite and the world building was amazing. the dialogue was impeccable. this book also has probably the best performance narration I've heard in a while. but... and light spoilers ahead the ending felt so anticlimactic it felt like it was just too easy to defeat the villain at the end i get the idea behind it but It was just not very well executed. I felt like the pacing just happened to quickly like at one moment someone dies dramatically and the next moment suddenly the fights over "god" is defeated in the span of a few sentences