Book Review: Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston

ISBN: 0399257543
Published: October 2nd, 2014 (first published January 1st, 2013)
Publisher: Orchard Books
Read from August 19th to September 21st, 2014
Synopsis from Goodreads:

From New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston comes this remarkable first book in a spellbinding new series about the dawn of a new kind of magic.
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.

Review:

I received this book for review from Netgalley. The main reason I decided to read and review it is that I've heard many people say they've enjoyed Melissa de la Cruz's other books. There was also the fact that its synopsis immediately had me intrigued. You're told right away that it's a fantasy book, and you can also pretty much get the dystopic aspects from the synopsis. I love both fantasy and dystopian, so I was interested to see those sort of combined.

That being said, I didn't really end up being all that intrigued by the world created in the book. The world's gone into another ice age, which has caused the nations to kind of fall apart. The USA is now the RSA or the Remaining States of America. In addition to that, some people have started being born with special powers and there's this mysterious place called the Blue (which is also talked about as being Atlantis, Avalon, etc. at different times in history) where the world hasn't completely fall apart like it has everywhere else. That all sounds good in theory, but I'll admit that I wasn't blown away by it. Something about the world just didn't work for me. I couldn't get a good sense of how they had went from the world we have today to the one they have. Most of that had to do with the magic than anything else. I love fantasy, but something seemed weird about how everything played out. It's not something I can directly put my finger on because it wasn't anything I flat out hated. I just couldn't really get into it.

I did enjoy the book more than anything, but I'm not sure if I enjoyed it enough to continue with the series. If I happen to see the next book in the future, maybe I'll pick it up, but I don't see myself going that far out of my way to read it. It wasn't a bad book, and I can definitely see that others would like it much more than I would. If you find the synopsis interesting, then I would recommend going ahead and giving it a try.