24/11/2015
I liked this a LITTLE bit less this time around, but I think it's only because I enjoyed the second book more and so I was comparing this to that. Also, WHERE THE FUCK IS THE THIRD BOOK, HARVEY??? IT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST ON GOODREADS YET. GIVE IT TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, I NEED IT.

6/2/2014
Well, this was fabulous. A trio of best friend cousins who turn out to be witches in Regency London? YES. Add a magical finishing school and a side of swoon, and I'm on board. Our main trio are all awesome characters that I'd quite like to be friends with. The relationship between Emma and Cormac is stupidly adorable and caused repeated squeeing. I liked that it could effectively act as a stand-alone story - there's no cliffhanger ending and, while there are things that are left unfinished or that will clearly be dealt with later in the trilogy (*cough* Penelope and Cedric *cough*), none of them felt like they were "TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR MORE DETAILS"-y.

My one main criticism would be that it was a liiiiiiiiiiiiittle bit too long as a result of how many things were going on at once. Between the school and the Madcaps and the romance and the murders and the trips to Windsor and the balls and the Order interrogations, it was a wee bit overwhelming trying to keep track of things sometimes.

Still, I didn't want to put it down so the length was clearly a minor niggle. Is it October yet? Because I very much want to read the sequel.

If there were 1/2 stars it would be 4.5/5.
INITIAL THOUGHTS
As soon as I saw this one on Netgalley I was seriously considering requesting it. I have read some of The Drake Chronicles and I also read and really enjoyed Haunting Violet, all by Alyxandra Harvey. Then I was contacted and asked if I would like to be part of the Blog Tour, so immediately said Yes! and that I would review the book too. I had also signed up to a challenge in 2013 to read more "Witchy" books, so this fit that perfectly too. I admit to having pretty high expectations from this book from my experience reading Haunting Violet.

REVIEW
So you already know how I came to be reading and reviewing the book, so I'll go onto the cover. I love the cover, it's attractive and certainly piques your interest int wanting to now more abut the girl with the red hair on the book cover. The title, series and author names are in pleasant fonts. The title being the largest with the series and Author name being a little smaller. the colours on the cover appeal to my as I love all shades of lilac,purple etc. I also really like the O with the snowflake in it. We later learn within the book that one of the three main characters/witches is actually a Weather Witch.
So would the cover alone make me pick up the book from a book shelf? Definitely Yes! Then the blurb would totally sell the book to me too.
Now to the actual book itself. The book centre's on three main female characters of Gretchen, Penelope and Emma. The girls are cousins but you discover throughout the book that they are so close, as close as perhaps sisters would be. Though they don't initially know they are eventually revealed as Witches, descendants of a powerful witch family. The three girls are to be debutante's and are ready to be presented to society as the tradition was in 1814. But murders are occuring within the debutante scene . . . .and every time a body is found Emma seems to be there so many begin to believe that she is the murderer. As it was Emma that broke her mother spelled bottle. The bottle breaking opened up the gates to the Underworld and has released many things that shouldn't have escaped along with the somewhat infamous Greymalkin Sisters. It is thouht hat there are no descendants of the Greymalkin left alive . . . . but records are wrong . . . there was a Greymalkin male descendant hidden away from society who goes on to fathers a child . . . . and that child has the power that the Greymalkin sisters need to come back.
The girls are sent to Rowanstone Academy and the boys go to Ironstone Academy. These academies are disguised as regular schools and/or finishing schools but they are really schools teaching the magic community how to use their powers correctly. There is also a type of magical police force, they are called The Keepers. It is their job to keep everyone magical in line. There's one particular Keeper that all the female debutantes swoon over called Cormac, he hasn't been blessed with magic but his sisters have.
There's witch's, shape-shifters, ghosts, a market that sells magical supplies and the madcaps that steal items for it as well as mysteries to unlock and much more to discover.
I did enjoy the book. It's fairly medium paced to begin with learning who everyone is and how they are related in the story. Though I did feel it lost a bit of momentum about half way through, then picked up the pace again. I loved how unlocking some of the mysteries involved going back into the girls parents histories too. When the murderer is revealed to the reader it is quite a shock, which I loved as I hadn't guessed the murderer. The story does become quite involved and intricate in parts but Alyxandra guides you through what is happening brilliantly. The book builds up to a great fight scene, who wins? You'll have to read the book as I don't want to say anymore. The book does end in a way that I would say it could be the beginning of another brilliant series by Alyxandra Harvey. It has a feel of "setting the scene" and introducing the characters to us the readers.
So did I enjoy the book? Yes, I did enjoy the book a lot. Would I recommend the book? Yes, this book would appeal to a wide range of age groups, from young teen upwards. I personally think it would appeal to those who love series that are set in schools/academies. Would I read another book in this series? Yes, I'd like to know what happens back at the Academies and if there's any repercussions to the descendant of the Greymalkin who is revealed in this book. I also want to know more about the Lovegrove Legacy and all those connected with it. I'd definitely say I want more! Would I read another book by Alyxandra Harvey? I already have read other titles by Alyxandra Harvey.

Complete and full of romance, magic, mystery and adventure!
Despite the amount of chapters, it was worth the read, absolutely amazing! :)

2.5-3.0 stars. My main complaint is that there were too many characters and multiple names for characters to keep track of who was who. I felt like too much was put into the first book and that maybe the books should be shorter and the series longer. I'm not one who usually gets confused reading books, but this was very hard to follow.

I really liked Theo's story; Emma was ok; Cormac was wishy-washy, and Moira was good. I'll probably continue with the series in hope that the other Lovegroves' stories will be more interesting.

http://theprettygoodgatsby.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/a-breath-of-frost-by-alyxandra-harvey/

Alyxandra Harvey is a completely new-to-me author. I haven't read her Drake Chronicles series, Haunting Violet, or any of her other works, but the moment I came across A Breath of Frost I was instantly intrigued. Regency London, witchcraft, opened gates to the underworld - it all left me dancing in delight and I couldn't request it fast enough.

Three cousins - Emma, Penelope, and Gretchen - are in the midst of their first Season. As debutantes, they're expected to attend ball after ball in the hopes of obtaining a husband. Unfortunately for their parents, these girls have other ideas.

Emma's mother descended into madness shortly after Emma was born. Since then, Emma has carried around a small perfume bottle that had belonged to her mother. When a party-goer bumps into Emma and the bottle smashes to pieces, all hell breaks loose. Literally. Suddenly there are dead girls and whispers of magic - things Society would never discuss in public - and somehow Emma discovers herself in the middle of it all.

I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed A Breath of Frost. This was definitely an instance where I was at the right place at the right time, the-star-were-aligned sort of moment. A Breath of Frost was exactly what I hadn't realized I wanted to read and it was fantastic. The sheer size (clocking in at just shy of 500 pages) is definitely going to put off some readers, but for all its heftiness, this was a fairly light read. Oh sure, there are multiple murders and hellhounds, but it kept me entertained the entire time - and that's certainly not something that can be said for every 500-page book I've come across.

Although Emma is very much the main character, Penelope and Gretchen have their chance to shine and from the looks of things, the sequel focuses on Gretchen. I'm a big fan of series where each book follows a different character, so this only adds to my eagerness for more! The secondary characters: Cormac, Daphne, Moira, were all given their fair share of screen time so-to-speak and felt wholly unique. I will admit that for the first few chapters I was under the impression that Moira's scenes were some sort of flashback or time skip, but that turned out to not be the case once she started interacting with Emma - whoops!

For such a long book, I'm really at a loss of things to say. A Breath of Frost contained fluff when I wasn't looking for something heavy, but also held enough substance to keep me entertained and invested. The romance, while not a love-triangle, was of the I-hate-you-but-I-love-you variety that I'm not overly fond of. While he was never physically abusive, Cormac was definitely cruel to Emma - yet couldn't stop thinking about her during his own chapters.

There were multiple plots I easily called (Ewan, the identity of the murderer, etc) and Emma's newly-sprouted antlers were more amusing than anything, but I thoroughly enjoyed A Breath of Frost and am looking forward to Whisper the Dead (coming later this year!). If you like your paranormal with a side of fluff and enjoy a full cast of characters (seriously, there are a LOT with multiple perspectives to boot), pick up a copy of this book!

I have to be honest: I bought this book for the cover.

But when I found out that this book sets place in "Regency London" I knew that I would not finish this book.

But I forced myself several times into reading it but I didn't get past page 130.

It was just so confusing and very poorly explained? First of all this one girl dies, then Emma finds out that she is a witch and then she is on this school, like whaaaat?

Who is the bad guy, what's wrong with her mother, why is this happening?

The potential of this book might be so enourmous and if it wouldn't have been about witches in good old London I would have liked it.

But it's just too much and I started this skimming this book at page 200. I hate to DNF books but here I am again:

DNF AT PAGE 331

Let me just start out by saying that I really enjoyed this book. I feel like it was different from the other YA books I’ve seen lately and that was so refreshing. I love regency-era books and this was a real treat.

The main characters were all charming in their own way. Emma and her cousins are just the right mixture of debutante and daring. This first book is mainly about Emma, the second focuses on Gretchen, one of the other cousins.

“Ooof,” Emma wheezed. “Someone’s elbow is taking liberties.”
“Sorry, sorry.” Gretchen shifted. “But if Penelope’s left foot gets any closer to my cleavage we’ll have to read the banns.”
Penelope squirmed and spat out what felt like a wad of lace. “I sincerely hope that was someone’s petticoat and not a rat.”

The dialogue between the girls is especially great. They interact with each other like you would expect family or close friends to. There’s no cattiness between them or petty jealousy. (Although Penelope might be jealous that the other girls’ familiars weren’t spiders like hers…)

Cormac is a breath of fresh air in the world of YA male love interests. Let me just take a moment to say thank you to Alyxandra Harvey. Ah yiss. He is not brooding in the way that has become so common. He is not borderline mentally abusive just for the sake of mystery and he’s rather dashing and suave.

“Shouldn’t you at least be clutching me out of fear?”
She turned to look at him. “Why? I’m not afraid of the dark, Cormac.”
He sighed theatrically. “But girls clutch at me out of fear all the time. Apparently I am a great defender against bees, spiders, moths, and suspicious-looking scones.”
Aside from the characters, I really loved the setting and detail in this book. Harvey really drives home certain smells and feelings for different things, and at first, I was kind of annoyed by it. I just wanted to say out loud that I get it. But after thinking about it a little bit I thought, I actually like that she did that. It really cemented the scene for me. You could almost be more a part of this story when you knew that the since the character was coming upon something you’d seen before, you’d remember the way it would smell or the way that it would feel.
I.Love.That.

There were only minor details that bothered me. I wish Emma had been more upset about her mother’s broken keepsake. I wish that the characters weren’t so garbled at times. I got a little confused when there were too many at once.

Other than that, I highly recommend this book. The second book, I’m waiting to read and I’ll admit, it’s for a stupid reason. I REALLY hate the main guy’s name. Tobias. *shudder*

This book was so enjoyable and such a fast read. It had a few tropes sprinkled throughout, however the plot, characters and writing made it so fun! I could barely put the book down and I think I read it in four sittings.

The story follows Emma Day, a debutant in Regency London who during one season finds out that she’s part of the Lovegrove Legacy - something which has been hidden from her. With her new identity in the supernatural world, threats follow her and her cousins and they have to find a way to stop everything before it ruins their world.

Emma is such a great protagonist, she has the basic ‘girl finds new world’ stereotype, however the new world is also so deeply rooted in her family and the London world that it makes it so lovely to read. Family dynamics are explored and also the different classes from Keepers, Madcaps to Debutants. I love the relationship Emma has with her two cousins; Penelope and Gretchen; they are both so humorous. Emma is also the perfect mix of being aware of situations however also being so overwhelmed with all the new information that she is being exposed to. Information is given at a great pace, during the first 100 pages you are as confused as Emma is however throughout the novel small bits of information are either given to Emma or she finds them out herself. It wasn’t spoon fed and it also wasn’t overloading, which is rare to find in a fantasy world.

There was a character called Daphne and Emma’s cousin called Penelope… so set in Regency Era London I could see a little bit of similarity to the Duke and I by Julia Quinn. However their character arcs were completely different to that book, but it’s just a note.

Cormac like Emma had the male stereotype of ‘I get with so many girls, but you’re different’ trope, but honestly I can’t find a single bloody romance without this idea now. When he did pull out that line I did cringe and curl up my body shuddering with what the author put down. Aside from that his character arc is pretty interesting, we are introduced to him at the start of the book and he is one of the only constants in Emma’s life. The relationship develops well and I thought that Cormac’s backstory was super interesting and pivotal to the interactions between Cormac and Emma.

The plot developed well, enough for there to be substance but also gave space for Emma’s personal investigations into her Family line. Overall I think the book is more middle-grade but enjoyable as is! I would have never picked it up by myself but I found it so fun and heartwarming nonetheless.

3.5

I both really liked and was let down by A Breath of Frost--while the characters are what shine about the novel I felt like the plot, world development, and structure of the novel could have been better developed and that is where the novel fell short.

Loved the characters because they are very much ALIVE--Emma, Gretchen, and Penelope. Emma is our main gal who absolutely has no idea she is even a witch (none of them do, another thing that was REALLY confusing during the first 30% of the novel--I seriously did not know if they did or did not know they were witches). Gretchen is by far my favorite of the cousins, she wants to be a spy, not look for a husband. And Penelope is a hopeless romantic.

Slight downside: There are a lot of characters to keep up with. Cormac (love interest), Cormac's sisters (like, 3-5 of those?), the parents, Moira, Strawberry, etc etc

Felt like some things were left very underdeveloped: Like, for example, the magic system. There isn't one? Magic happens because it happens and you deal with it. No rules as far as I could see; the girl's attend a magic school and they spend the entire novel showing you etiquette classes because "a lady should still be prepared to be a lady" but seriously, where are the magic classes? Who is teaching these girls to harness their power? How do they even know how to do the simplest stuff? It seems Emma spends most of her time in the library learning about her past and magic, and she would have to because the boarding school is no Hogwarts. Also the girl's individual magics were very slightly felt during the novel (other than Emma's awesome weather magic), and again nobody works to develop their powers! These girls were JUST made aware they have powers, how about a little teaching so that Emma at least doesn't strike thunder somewhere she should not and burn the place down.

It was oh so very confusing at times, and awkward POV changes. We start off the novel with Moira's POV as she goes and steals the eye of a dead witch (which was cool and all, but didn't add absolutely anything to the main plot line other than introducing Moira... who isn't even a main character). Then we abruptly switch to Emma, and now you are at a debutante ball and you have to quickly adjust and deal with the onslaught of information that comes your way. There must have been a way to make the introduction of Moira make sense with the rest of the novel, unless I missed something...

The first part of the novel was oh so damn LONG.I feel the book could have easily trimmed. I did not even realize the girls were being sent to a magical boarding school, which would have been so cool if introduced earlier in the story and it payed a bigger part. But it doesn't, and it isn't, and it really just felt like an afterthought. Every witch novel must have a magical boarding school? Would have really made more sense to have the girls be tutored for all the good that boarding school does in terms of both plot and character development.

The romance was cute, but I am on the fence on Cormac being the main love interest-- he seems to only want to make out with Emma and then throw her under the bus under the pretense that "I must keep the order on my side!" EVEN AFTER all the danger is said and done. I don't trust him, Emma could do better. Be like Gretchen, aim higher.

I also give extra brownie points because the main mean girl, Daphne, is not your typical "I am mean for the sake of being mean". She has many facets to her character, she is strong, able, talented, and works at being the best. Dare I say I loved her even more then Emma (I see a lot of potential in Daphne) and we don't get nearly enough page time with her.

I did enjoy the dialogue, and while the plot itself left much to be desired (as did the construction of the novel as a whole) I did enjoy the characters and the time period. For the characters alone I would read the sequel.