The ending of Snow Like Ashes was just WOW! So many twists and turns I didn't see coming, loved it!

This was so much fun! 4.5 stars (almost 5).I kept getting this book mixed up with Shatter Me so I stalled on reading it, but it's like this glorious little whirlwind of a YA fantasy plot that made me eat every single word I've ever said against YA tropes. I loved them all. And I'm not even sure if it was ironically? I was just straight up entertained.Tropes in a nutshell: Meira is part of a group of outcasts trying to take back their kingdom of Winter & free their people from the evil kingdom of Spring (that sentence might sound cheesy but the worldbuilding is seriously so great). But before that happens, she gets to angst over whether she likes Mather, the only guy she's ever known who's remotely around her age, or Theron, the prince of the kingdom where Meira's squad flees to. So obviously the guys have to take of their shirts and swordfight over her... The whole story was basically a series of hilariously convenient moments where something showed up at the exact right time. I was just laughing and rolling with whatever came up the whole way through because the plot never, ever got dull. Throughout the whole thing I was just likeI really did like Meira for the most part, too! She had some odd moments of judgement where she'd trust her dreams more than what was happening in real life, but I liked that she was tough and had realistic thoughts & reactions. She's a believable warrior. I saw the plot twist coming from the first chapter, but the way it was revealed was perfect.I honestly didn't mind this love triangle, either! I liked both Mather and Theron... I couldn't get as strong of a sense of Theron but hopefully the next book clears that up. Right now everything's grand.The worldbuilding was seriously awesome, too. I just really love snow, so any story that mentions an icy area gets automatic stars. Sorry for all the gifs but this had to happen:

I probably would have rated this a tad lower, but (and I can't BELIEVE I'm saying this) I adored the love triangle.I KNOW, RIGHT?!No one is as surprised by that statement as I am.And it is a love triangle. There's the boy she's loved all of her life, and then there's the boy she's forcibly engaged to. Guess which one I picked?The new guy!Again, no one is as surprised as I am. I'm a HUGE sucker for the We've-Been-Friends-Forever sort of love. Plus, there's no easy winner in this triangle. Like, it doesn't turn out that Mr. Boy Next Door is hiding nefarious plans for world domination or anything. He's awesome, and he really loves her.However, in the immortal words of the philosopher Beyonce...If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.Nice world building in this one, as well. The concept of the world and it's brand of magic, while not new-new, had a nice flavor to it. Ok. I'm going to be honest. I can't for the life of me figure out a way to describe the plot that sounds even remotely interesting. I've been staring at this page for several hours (read: minutes), and I'm coning up with a blank. Sorry.There's magical relics, quests, a tough heroine, honorable princes, an evil villain, secrets, and dreams from a dead queen.Read it for yourself if you want to know more.I will say that at times my mind did wander a bit between action scenes, but that's typical for me because I have the attention span of a squirrel, and doesn't necessarily reflect poorly on the book. My only quasi-complaint?The Big Twist was something I guessed fairly early on, but that didn't really lessen my enjoyment of the story all that much. So, yeah...tiny annoyance.This was (on the whole) an interesting book, and I had very few issues with it. If you've been sitting on the fence, go ahead and give it a shot.Also reviewed for: