Of Ice and Shadows

By: Audrey Coulthurst

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Moira Quirk

Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

The long-awaited sequel to the acclaimed YA fantasy Of Fire and Stars! Mare and Denna travel to a new and dangerous kingdom where Denna will be trained to tame her magic by a mysterious queen who is not all she seems. Perfect for fans of Malinda Lo and Kristin Cashore.

Princesses Denna and Mare are in love and together at last - only to face a new set of dangers.

Mare just wants to settle down with the girl she loves, which would be easier if Denna weren’t gifted with forbidden and volatile fire magic. Denna must learn to control her powers, which means traveling in secret to the kingdom of Zumorda, where she can seek training without fear of persecution. Determined to help, Mare has agreed to serve as an ambassador as a cover for their journey.

But just as Mare and Denna arrive in Zumorda, an attack on a border town in Mynaria changes everything. Mare’s diplomatic mission is now urgent: She must quickly broker an alliance with the queen of Zumorda to protect her homeland. However, the queen has no interest in allying with other kingdoms; it’s Denna’s untamed but powerful magic that catches her eye. The queen offers Denna a place among her elite trainees - an opportunity that would force her to choose between her magic and Mare.

As Denna’s powers grow stronger, Mare struggles to be the ambassador her kingdom needs. By making unconventional friends, her knowledge of Zumorda and its people grow, and so, too, do her suspicions about who is truly behind the attacks on Zumorda and her homeland.

As rising tensions and unexpected betrayals put Mare and Denna in jeopardy and dangerous enemies emerge on all sides, can they protect their love and save their kingdoms?

©2019 Audrey Coulthurst (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

I LOVE my Princesses😘🥰😍

Loved how Denna and Mare evolved to much stronger princesses. They loved each other when they're together but love much more when they're not. My heart ached and blossomed with every emotions the characters felt, thanks to the talented narrators. The story make me want for more of Denna and Mare's adventure, will definitely wait for the third book.🥰🥰🥰

Leaves you wanting more

Leaves you wanting more just like many of the others have stated. Hopefully there will be another book as there are many questions and with the way the world is set up, there are plenty of stories that can take place within it and being part of the struggles that the two go through is part of the draw. I can see how this could be an end but it would be better if it would continue to tie up some loose ends.

I hope the author reads this..

I have been waiting a LONG time for a story and romance like this. Been relistening to other books because I just can’t seem to find one to catch my interest. Then I found these books and quickly fell in love with them and got the second as soon as the first one finished. Needless to say I was saddened to find out that their isn’t a third book. PLEASE! Oh, please write a third and final novel. Oh. My heart aches. This was an amazing love story and to top it off a fantasy story too! I LOVED every single aspect of the story. It’s beautifully written and the voice actors are absolutely amazing at capturing the two main characters. It was wonderful to listen to and had me laughing loudly at work, of course people looked at me crazy and I had to explain what was going on in the book even though I knew they had no clue what I was going on about. It’s so, so, SO GOOD. Please, pretty please with strawberries and whipped cream and cherries and chocolate and sprinkles on top..write a third and final book. I’ll be waiting in anticipation on how it’s going to end.

breathtaking

my only complaint is that I want to hear more of their story I love this Duo they're a beautiful couple with struggles that can be metaphorically related to the struggles of the LGBT community this is worth every penny please give these books a read

Love this series! I need more!!

I am obsessed with Mare and Denna’s adventure. I read the actual books Inkmistress as well, then bought them on audible so I could hear them. Eagerly awaiting a third book 🤞🤞

Great Sequel?

The direction this books takes is different from Of Fire and Stars, but the lessons learned are quite important. The two main characters are apart for the majority of the story and that only teaches them to love each other more deeply whilst they are learning to gain confidence in themselves.

This book has more action than the previous and it is well done. I really appreciate the character development in Of Ice and Shadows.

I did feel like this book raised many questions that went unanswered and I hope for a third book to tie up all the loose ends.

Decent Listen

The story was good. However, since the two main characters spent most of it physically apart, I was disappointed. After listening to the first book, I thought it was setting up some great lesbian romance. Turns out, most of that content was in the first book and there is extremely few lesbian scenes in this one. I think they maybe kiss a few times. The rest is just about how they don't want to lose each other to a long distance romance. I'm really hoping there'll be another book after this where we actually get to see them be together and what that relationship is like.

Was expecting so much more

While I over all did enjoy the story. I found the characters and plot lacking. As many mentioned before the ending was very anticlimactic after pages and pages of set up and background the final battle was meh. Also I found that Mare was very much unlikable throughout the whole story coming off as a selfish child and very much intolerant of this new culture and kingdom she was very much disrespectful in a new place where she was meant to be brokering an alliance. Not sure if I’ll listen to a third of it comes out.

love the sequel!

loved this series! I really hope that there will be more in this series to come!

Let down

It was good and set up to have a potentially very cool ending..........and then it just didn’t. The final battle was so lame and uneventful that I was expecting another one afterwards. But there wasn’t one. Plot and character development was decent but again, what happened w the ending??