Going into Cold Magic, I had thought it was going to be a political fantasy of manners. I think the cover gave me this impression? I'm not entirely sure where I formed it. Regardless, while it definitely has political elements, it had SO much more action and adventure than I'd expected!

The main character, Catherine (or Cat) and her cousin start off in an academy setting. I got all nice and settled in, reckoning on the fantasy of manners to continue in this pace. But then... Elliott completely fucking flips the table on the reader. A mage shows up, MARRIES Cat, and then they go and blow up a fucking airship?? Sorry, what? There are explosions and wilderness survival and mysterious coachmen and beings from a spirit world and I just. was. not. expecting any of this??

Further hijinks and table flips ensue. Obviously, Cat is very not cool with the whole unexpected marriage to a mage thing, and even less so when it turns out that the family is... not exactly happy with her, either, though to say more would be spoilers.

Cat's having to fend for her life at every turn, exploring a dangerous spirit world, and also trying to figure out what the heck is going on with her cousin, Bea, who definitely has some pretty important and extremely mysterious powers going on. The people she thinks she can trust betray her, and the people who seemed to be against her prove to be the ones she can rely on. It's all so wonderfully twisty and action-packed.

The whole thing is a hell of a trip. The first book is only 99c on kindle, too, so it's dirt cheap to start the series. I literally just finished reading it, and I instantly bought the second book... which I intend to dive into as soon as I hit send on this post :)

PS I also write other reviews on my blog. Not this one cos it's just extremely informal yelling about a book and frankly I didn't feel like doing a "proper" review, but if you want proper reviews that's where you can find them. :)