The story is told in the first person, alternating between the perspectives of Elias and Laia, sometimes handing off during interactions of theirs and those bits have been especially fun.
Love the character progression of every single character. Loved the bits of humanity and the bits of ice in every single character. Loved the way the fights were settled. Loved the way the Augers seem to have everything planned and executed. I'm interested in seeing their end game. Their involvement was very Old Testament God to me. Maybe I've just been in the Old Testament for too long. I even appreciated the slow burn to the romance and the way it seemed to sidestepped one of my least favorite YA tropes. I even loved the way that one death left me with the feeling that story had just lost its most decent character, no I won't tell you which one. It left with my with a slight hangover and I had to keep it for a little extra time after finishing just so I can listen to my favorite parts over again. I listened to the book, which was over 15 hours, and the narrators were just amazing. Steve West did Elias's perspective and Fiona Hardingham did Laia's.
Altogether, 4 stars for being in love and for breaking the mold a bit. Anyone into YA would love this, including adults. It's also a great read for anyone doing the year of reading women of color put on by the Goodreads group 500 Great Books by Women or otherwise interested in diversity in books!
I am now on hold for the sequel, A Torch Against the Night
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