Kingdom Cold

An eARC of this novel was sent to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to desperately like this book. The cover was cute; the story sounded interesting and enticing, and the character's where culturally diverse, but it didn't sing for me, and that's ok. Not all stories sing for every person who reads them.

The story follows a cast of royalty through an arranged marriage, betrayal, war, unrequited love, and then eventual marriage. There are many bumps on the way, much like a tamer and more kind version of Game of Thrones.

There are some excellent parts of this story. Firstly, Chenelle wrote a very diverse story culturally. The two leads of the novel, Prince Gray and Princess Charlotte are of Asian and African heritage respectively. I like that; I also like how Chenelle wrote the settings, memories, and environments of the characters reflecting those upbringings. It is not something you often see in literature, and it is not something you see done that isn't ham-fisted. The author was not throwing up her diversity flag yelling, “hey look at what I did!” She wrote it with class and sensitivity as is befitting. The characters culture is not a thing, it is a part of who they are, and that is how it should be written.

Secondly, I liked the leads in the story, especially Gray. Gray changed and developed as a character; he became more of himself if that makes sense. I love his progression as a person and leader and felt like he was an exceptional counterpart to Princess Charlotte. Charlotte also demonstrated growth. She started the novel as a typical teenage child with ordinary problems and ended as a scarred, but more emotionally mature adult.

Thirdly, the love story was charming. I don't want to give too much away, but as the story progresses and the characters mature the bond that develops between the personalities is written well and is lovely.

The good of the story did not outweigh what did not work for me. I had a difficult time with the points of view changing from chapter to chapter. On the one hand, the multiple points of view were there to lend many voices to the story and/or scene, but they sounded very similar in much of the book. So it became both confusing and repetitious. It did get better as the story progressed, but I found it difficult connecting with any one character aspect because of the shaky beginning.

Also, I found that the story lacked the necessary detail to build a clear picture of events. We hopped from moment to moment before I could get a visual representation of the scene in my head. Again, this led to a disconnection to the characters and the setting.

The plot progression was strange for me also. The events of this story could easily fill three books but are reduced down to a distilled short single book. This seems like an awful missed opportunity. It would have made a killer trilogy.

Brittni Chenelle wrote a solid YA love story. Although the story is plagued with technical problems like pacing, POV, and lack of detail, the central love theme was successful, and the ending comes as quite a shock. Give it a try. It wasn't for me, but maybe it will be for you.

I had the chance to read Kingdom Cold for #KingdomColdTour and after reading, I'm very happy to have embarked on this story - and the tour. This is one of those cases where the plot is a pleasant surprise.
In this narrative, we follow the story of Princess Charlotte, a teenager who finds herself forced into a marriage arranged with a prince, Young, so that her kingdom has chances to prosper. And of course, to improve the scene, we have Young's brother, Minseo, who is swayed by the girl, and a devastating war that will not bring a favorable future for any of these characters.
Charlotte was an annoying character at the beginning (even with all the marriage drama, it was hard to really like her in the first few chapters), but her development was fantastic - if she starts out as a spoiled and impulsive princess, having her kingdom invaded begins to change her into a more focused and strong version os herself. Seeing her growth made me proud, yet my favorite character will always be Prince Young.
Young had two facets - the serious and focused and the hopeful and dreamy (which appeared little) - and at the beginning, he took a thump when meeting his unwilling bride. His loyal personality and actions are the perfect ingredients for a good character. I was surprised (and happy!) to see how much he was delighted [and open] to his bride and the differences that were between their realms. He and Minseo are completely opposite, their personalities are totally different - which is great.
Minseo is a great character. His cheerful and “carefree” nature exudes from his pores, but it is not only from great smiles that he is made. There is so much to see of this character that I am happy to know that there is a sequel [its release will be in June] with him as the main character. It is more than obvious that he and Young love and blindly trust each other, and this is one of the most beautiful things in this plot - which made me wish for a minute that its pace was a bit milder for us to have more time with them.
The rhythm of the plot would not let me rest until I figured out what would happen in the end, each chapter had something that made me run to the next, and the amount of action and plot twists made it hard to guess what would happen on the following pages, mainly because all the relationships here are complicated, and left me breathless. Which leads me to comment that, because it is a quick plot, the feelings are fleeting and also change quickly (and that does not mean that we have an instant-love). Regarding the main couple, their relationship turns out to be mature and become solid and deep (and it is beautiful).
What really impressed me in this story was how the author managed to build a world so rich in diversity and thematic and to create characters capable of growing and having deep and real relationships. The plot is short, but it has a lot of action, drama, mystery, and romance, it treats the pains of war and loss in a sensible and real way, it shows what true love is and how much someone is able to sacrifice for another person, and it ends leaving a good feeling. Its target audience is young, but the plot is not childish, on the contrary, it is brave, substantial and more real than any happily ever after.