Frozen

Frozen
Rating: 2/5
Buy or Borrow: Borrow
Source: Copy courtesy of NetGalley

Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice. Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature—freezing. But some things never change. The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.

At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out. Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called “the Blue.” They say it’s a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise. More importantly, it’s a place where Nat won’t be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.

But passage to the Blue is treacherous, if not impossible, and her only shot is to bet on a ragtag crew of mercenaries led by a cocky runner named Ryan Wesson to take her there. Danger and deceit await on every corner, even as Nat and Wes find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. But can true love survive the lies? Fiery hearts collide in this fantastic tale of the evil men do and the awesome power within us all.

Okay, so while parts of this interested me, and I did quite enjoy all the unique little things about it, there where a couple of things that made this a two star job, although don't take it the wrong way, it's only two stars, but there where seriously some parts to it that I thought had merit if they could be worked on ya know?

So. Good things? The mythology/history of the world, it was unique and I love unique things as everybody knows. The first chapter of sorts drew you in, and made you want to keep reading and there where plenty of instances where you wanted to know what happened next, not to mention the rather colourful characters of the crew. I found plenty of chuckles from them, not going to lie.

It's clearly a fairly extensive world, and I am interested in knowing more about it and the Blue. I liked Nat, she was quite cool, quite badass, she wasn't perfect, but then none of us are, I did have a connection with her, but it wasn't a very strong one, and there where times when she kind of annoyed me, but then I forgave her cos of the badassness. The double POV worked fairly well I think, Wes was an interesting character, I quite liked him and want to know more about him and his sister, not to mention his crew!

The bad? (I know you're all confused cos I don't usually set my reviews out like this, but it's gonna be a rambley jumble otherwise!) While I said there where moments that made you want to keep reading, there was also moments where I was quite bored because the pace was fairly slow and it was kind of dragging.

The grammar, and before anyone shouts, yes I know you expect it with an ARC, but this was quite something else. Like the POV change for a couple of sentences. It was a bit shocking to be honest. The grammar makes me look like I'm a grammatical genius when I do my long ass reviews.

Like I said, again, the world  and the history and so on, was quite unique and clearly extensive, and I would like to know more about it, if not out of interest, then to work it out. The world building was....interesting. It was confusing. Really confusing. I admit a majority of the time, while I was enjoying the uniqueness, I had no idea what was going on.

Things where rather contradictory more than once, and I'm giving this three, because I'm hoping that while I was confused at the patchy and then at times overdone world building, a lot of it's going to be ironed out in the second book. I mean there was a flood...then there was a freeze, and I ended up confused and wanting to know more about the history just to work it out. I'm not sure if that's a style of writing or not? I still don't know why the government took over either or why every car has petrol but they have no heat cos they don't have the cash, ya know?

There where elements that, like I said, where very unique, but I don't think the most was made of them. I couldn't really get a complete feel for the world a majority of the time, I only vaguely got the sense it was frozen. I did enjoy the sea though, with the trashbergs and things did rather pick up from that point on, not gonna lie, but it didn't really last long because the interesting plot twist went down like the Titanic.

What's sticking with me is Willie Winkie Patrols. Because they sound utterly silly, but they where never explained, and there where a few other things that weren't explained and where left as a question mark, like why the whole frozen thing happened, and plenty of things made no sense, no water, but the world is frozen....no scientists but loads of technology. See what I mean? Don't get me started on the Bacon Fruit. Just don't.

Despite the fact I did like Wes and Nat and thought they where interesting and kind of badass didn't make up for the times when they where a bit...bland, Nat didn't really garner my interest until nearer the end of the book, and Wes was flitting between being interesting and bland. I was quite interested in their pasts as well, although that could quite probably be the main attraction.

My main problem with the characters, that overrode the good of the characters, was the romance. They're all flirty at the beginning, and it's kind of awkward, but then they get all romancey and the awkwardness continues and it feels quite forced. I didn't really buy their romance.

And did I mention the flirting? Second time they met. Second time. I had no idea why they liked each other and then there was jealousy and dragons and pirates and it was a whirlwind.

A lot of the book I didn't understand, and then right at the end a few things are explained and I'm kind of curious about the second book, and I did like the unique aspects, and the characters where a bit half and half between being interesting and being bland and, the most interesting part to me was the journey on the sea.

But then I didn't get the romance, or most of the characters motivations or a lot of the world building or the plot. It was all a bit jumbled up, like the voice Nat hears, and then the romance suddenly being some epic true love type thing when a second ago they didn't even know each other.

I really can't make my mind up about this book, some parts of the jumble are actually interesting and quite unique, but there's a lot of "huuuuuuuuuh" to it, where it's all like what the hell?!