Review: Ashes and Ice by Rochelle Maya Callen

Ashes and Ice

Author: Rochelle Maya Callen

Release: February 4th 2013

Genre: Supernatural, Romance, YA

#1 in the Ashes & Ice series

Sequels: Fire & Shadows (#2)

Plot:

She is desperate to remember.

He is aching to forget.

Together, they are not broken.

But together, one may not survive.

​Jade wakes up with no memory of her past and blood on her hands. 

Plagued by wicked thoughts, she searches for answers. Instead, she finds a boy who doesn't offer her answers, but hope. But sometimes, when nightmares turn into reality and death follows you everywhere, hope is not enough. 

LUST. LOVE. LOSS. Sometimes, all that is left are Ashes and Ice.

Goodreads | B&N

Review:

I was quite excited for this book, but in the end, very disappointed. 

Ashes & Ice suffered Twilight syndrome, being focused purely on the romance and love, so that the plot could shine a little during the last seventy to fifty pages. It was sad, because half the time, I didn't even know what the hell was going on. Jade was having some strange flashbacks that were just bizarre and nothing was explained, ever. Not even in the end, because having finished this, I still don't really know what happened. There was so little closure, so little information, it wasn't funny. It was painful to be walking around in total darkness for the whole duration of the book. 

Everything that did happen plot-wise was boring and uninteresting and towards the end I was skipping and skimming whole passages. 

The characters were dull and 2D, they didn't feel alive nor were they very likeable. I admit, there have been worse characters, but I was not able to connect with any of them at all for all of the 288 pages.  

Writing was at times quite beautiful and nice, and at others very unpleasant. There were a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes, which made for an uncomfortable reading experience.

All in all, I wouldn't really recommend it.