Ice Like Fire was a DNF for me. The first book in this series was okay; nothing about the plot or characters made the book stand out from anything other YA novel released in the last 10 years. This book just continues with that general mediocrity of the first book, but with more politics, making it worst than the first one. I made it about 150 pages through Ice Like Fire before giving up. Not only is the story unoriginal, but it also contains a lot of plot holes. It does not make sense for Meria to become Queen. After spending 16 years telling her Mathis is King and having him prepare to be King, Meria is actually the Queen? Nobody is upset about being tricked in this book or feels like this has caused Meria to be unprepared. That is not the only plot hole. How could all of Winter be destroyed? No Winterian was living outside of Winter? Visiting outside of Winter? And finally, the children are upset that Meria and company abandoned them. They had 23 adults and 2 children and eventually dwindled to 8 adults over the last 16 years. The anger seems very misplaced.

The entirety of book one is written from Meria’s perspective. Why did the author choose to change book two to dual perspectives? This book also Flip-flops between love interests, and it is annoying. Therion seems like a completely different person from Snow Like Ash, and it is clear like Maria will end up with Mathias. Why even introduce Therion as a likable character in book one?

The author also has no diversity in these books. While she writes about persecuted characters, they are the whitest characters in the book. They have pure white skin and white hair. She does not include people of color in her world-building. While she did describe the people of Spring having a darker complexion, the description was a tan, white person. The Spring Court is the villain of the series, so if someone would argue that there are BIPOC characters, they are the bad guys persecuting white people.

Overall, I give this book 1.5 stars due to a lack of creativity, excessive plot holes, unnecessary flip-flopping, and a lack of diversity. I will not be reading the next book, and I do not have any interest in reading something else by this author.