Quick Stats
Age Rating: 13/14+
Over All: 4 stars
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3.5/5

Special thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.

I’m loving the up-tick in vampire YA books. And they’re all so good. I thoroughly enjoyed The Coldest Touch, but I honestly thought it was a standalone—it’s not. I’m kind of disappointed by that (I’m a sucker for fantasy standalones) but I’m also excited because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Elise and Claire. If only I didn’t have to wait a year!

The Coldest Touch follows two girls in a delightfully paranormal world.
Elise’s life hasn’t been the same since her brother died in a tragic accident nine months ago and she saw his death before it happened. Now, she can’t touch anyone without seeing their death. Anyone, that is, until she meets Claire.
Claire is 17.
How old are you?
17.
How long have you been 17?
A while.
Annnnyyyyywayyy (I promise this book is so much better than Twilight). Claire is a vampire who has been frozen at 17 since she was turned against her will in the 1930s.
Claire has been sent by a magical organization of supernatural beings to watch over Elise and help her learn how to use her powers, but Elise has no interest in learning. She isn’t even sure she believes in magic.
But Elise’s mind changes when she sees a future murder, and she needs Claire’s help to stop it from happening.

I loved both Claire and Elise. I was expecting more of a traditional mystery aspect, but the book definitely focuses heavily on the magic of it all, and the mystery becomes a subplot, which I actually think ends up being the right choice for the book. It just wasn’t what I was expecting. Claire and Elise have great chemistry from the start—it’s especially well shown from Claire’s POV. The exploration of discovering your sexuality when you thought that wasn’t even an option was well written and nice to see, but I’m also glad that we had Claire who was already comfortable with herself. Seeing POVs from both sides, and having each be accepting of the other’s pace, was great. Often these sorts of scenarios end up with the “out” character pushing the other character who’s still trying to figure things out into defining themselves and coming out before they’re ready, and it’s great to see a storyline where that doesn’t happen.

The vampire and paranormal lore was pretty typical, but it was unique in enough aspects that it didn’t feel overly cliche or trope-y. Isabel Sterling really got to the heart of her characters, giving them fully developed personalities, wants, hopes, and dreams. Many of the vampire novels from the early 2000s (*cough* Twilight and it’s many copy cats *cough*) rely so heavily on the tropes and paranormal aspects, that the characters are just card board cut outs going through the motions. Claire, Elise, and even the minor characters were fully fleshed out and I really like that.

I can’t wait for book 2—seriouslyyyy why is it a whole year awayyyyy—and I think I need to check out These Witches Won’t Burn ASAP.