Enjoyable and well written. I love YA historical, and I love Harvey's writing style. She has a dedication to just the right amount of interesting detail that both baffles and impresses me. My only qualm with the story was the attempt to weave too many threads all at once. There are too many PoVs, which is distracting in the beginning, but they do later merge, as the characters are more frequently together, so I didn't mind in the end. But I felt like too much was happening in this book, and it could've done without focusing on a few characters. The world of magic was so broad and strange that I'm not sure what I thought about it, although I'm biased--I'm not a fan of magic that alters human anatomy, so I thought Emma growing antlers was really silly.

All the same, a fantastic read. I'm looking forward to the next one!

3.5
http://www.nyx-shadow.com/2015/06/the-lovegrove-legacy-t1-breath-of-frost.html

3.5; there were some parts that dragged and writing was occasionally clumsy but nevertheless enjoyable and cute

London, 1814: Emma, Gretchen and Penelope--three cousins and reluctant debutantes--discover their families have been hiding a host of secrets one snowy night at a dull party. It starts with a broken bottle and a fire. It ends with the girls discovering they have magical powers and a girl found dead, her body covered in strange bruises and, stranger still, a coating of snow.

With their powers unbound, the gates of the underworld open to allow all manner of nasty creatures from the underworld including the feared ghosts of the Greymalkin warlocks--three dark witch sisters--to wreak further havoc across London. Worse, more debutantes are turning up dead.

While all three cousins try to understand and control their new powers, Emma has an added problem. Somehow she is connected to the murders; she keeps finding the bodies. With the authorities targeting her as a suspect, Emma will have to work with Cormac--an unlikely (and entirely too attractive) ally--in order to clear her name and find the real culprit before it's too late in A Breath of Frost (2014) by Alyxandra Harvey.

A Breath of Frost is the first book in Harvey's Lovegrove Legacy--a trilogy which will presumably allot one book to each cousin. The second book, Whisper the Dead, will be published in October 2014.

In this alternate historical London, magic runs rampant for the people who know where to look including the Order of the Iron Nail, Madcaps and various sundry characters and groups readers will have to sift through in the early pages of the novel. Patient readers will be rewarded with explanations of all of these names and a motley group of characters magical and otherwise.

Although the cousins often read more like sisters, Harvey still creates a romantic, adventurous novel with a strong familial bond at its core. The cousins are stronger together--something that is not often featured enough in literature. Magic and mystery come together here to create a suspenseful, if not always perfectly paced, adventure. Filled with wit, adventure, and just the right amount of romance, A Breath of Frost is a delightful start to what promises to be a superb trilogy.

Possible Pairings: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carringer, Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe, The Woman Who Loved Reindeer by Meredith Ann Pierce, Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood, The Amulet of Samarkand by Johnathan Stroud, Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevemer

El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Si hay algo que siempre dejé claro es que la magia y yo nos tenemos manía, aunque debo decir que exageré un poquito en ese afirmación, si han leído la trilogía de Gemma Doyle de Libba Bray quizá les pueda dar un ejemplo de qué tipos de libros sobre magia me gustan. A Breath of Frost es un libro que primero se me negó, pero Danielle de Barclay Publicity movió sus influencias y Bloomsbury cayó ante mis encantos :D Más o menos.

Disfruté completamente del libro. Siempre he sido una persona solitaria así que leer sobre estas amistades largas, o como en este caso primas, es un tema que me seduce por lo extraño que es para mí.

Alyxandra Harvey nos lleva por un mundo extremadamente seductor, me encantó que estuviera narrado en tercera persona, porque no se centra así en un solo personaje, aunque en su mayoría es con Emma a quién vemos día a día, pero cuando pasa a los otros personajes, es... No sé como explicarles esto sin darles un enorme spoiler. Son pedacitos de información que nos va dando y que entre ellos no comparten, hacen que en la última tercera parte del libro (¿hice mis divisiones bien?) ya sepamos quién es el que está detrás de todo el enredo, pero ellos no, porque lo que a nosotros como lectores nos lleva a descubrirlo, son detalles en apariencia menores, lo que me pareció completamente fascinante. Te sientes un una obra de teatro, gritándole a los actores "¡¡ahí está el malo!!" "¡¡No, ve por allá!!". Amé eso.

Y los personajes son geniales, hay una enorme cantidad de donde escoger quién será tu favorito, de las primas mi favorita es Gretchen, una badass total. Aunque Penelope también me encanta, ¡y Emma! ¡Y Moira! ¡Es difícil!

Y Cormac... *suspiro* Solo diré: Cada vez que alguien diga "Keeper", Cormac me tiene que dar un beso.

Reseña Completa: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

This book starts out slow but the author ends up leaving you wanting more at the end!

Slightly jarring as the reader is at once plunged into the story, but I loved the world and characters, and the literary references.

2.5*

*Received in exchange for an honest review*
*Thank you, Bloomsbury*

Ohhhhh it was so hard picking a rating for this book. It was a toss up between 2.5* or a scrape into the 3* zone. I've decided to go with 2.5* though, unfortunately. I really thought I was going to love this book. I didn't hate it at all, but it took me so long to read (4 days is a long time for me) and I just felt like it wasn't going anywhere. I didn't find the premise of this book particularly interesting - I kept waiting for something exciting to happen. I was starting to get into it more towards the end where all of the action starts, but it all fell a little flat for me. I felt like the book needed a little more oomph. I feel really sad about this because it sounds absolutely amazing and has earned some really great ratings too! I think it's another one of those cases where it's a 'it's not you, it's me'.

Even though I didn't really like the way the book was told, I still really enjoyed the layout of it. I love reading about the era that it's set in and all of the different worlds that existed. It was great reading about the rich side of society: the ball, etiquette etc. It was very Jane Austen in that sense. With the blend of magic I thought it was going to be a definite winner for me (even though witches aren't my favourite within the supernatural/ paranormal world). I really loved the world building and a few of the characters. Gretchen is one of the girls that is striving for equality so I absolutely loved her. She was so tough, feisty and funny. I liked Penelope too. She was feisty but loved the things that came with being an upper class woman. I didn't like Cormac (love interest) or the main protagonist Emma though. I found them frustrating and Cormac was just horrible!

I think all I can sum up of the book in this review is that I just feel really sad about it. I really wanted to love this book - it sounded amazing and just like my cup of tea. Unfortunately though, it wasn't. It all felt a little bland and fairly boring in places. So many sections could have been developed further (The Sisters, Emma's mothers past, Moira's character) and I'm struggling to see where the next book in the series will go. It was all tied up at the end of this one (a little too nicely) so I am curious to see where the author will go with it. I feel disappointed, a very conflicting read.