The Tainted (Dominion of Ash, book 1)

By Frost Kay

Blurb: 
She never should've taken the dare.

In a destroyed world plagued with pestilence and monsters, nothing was easy. It's brutal, deadly, and most often, short.

Hazel thought she understood who her enemies were: starvation, infection, her mama's disgusting lima beans, and the Tainted - human beasts full of death, fury, and poison. That's why she never saw it coming.

The death. The lies. The complete betrayal.

No one said love wouldn't destroy you.

Review: 
This is my second series of Frosts that I have read. I highly enjoyed it but not as much as mixologists and pirates. 

This series follows a girl called Hazel, it is coming up to the blending ceremony where she must choose a husband to rule Harbor alongside her. She put it off the year before because she had just lost her best friend/lover and was not ready to choose someone while she was still grieving him. Hazel seems to struggle with who will do the town good as she does not love any of them and still misses Matt a lot, he is with her in every thought.

The night before the blending she ends up arguing with her father about her mother and needs to go on a walk to get some space and think about her choices. She leaves the wall and comes across her three options for the blending inviting her to the party with her worst enemy Genevieve.

From this point on there is quite a few trigger scenes for rape and self harm. So if you are effected by those topics then I'd suggest not reading it.

I loved how there was certain aspects from Mixologists and Pirates coming through in this series too. Such as another species that has heightened sight and smell, moon time for periods, and moonshine. I wasn't too keen on how there was a character with the same name as the other series though.

The actual plot of this book was excellent. There was a lot of adventure, twists and shocking moments. I feel like the main character was quite well developed but the minor characters that interacted with her could have done with more development, hopefully this will come further into the series.

But I'd definitely recommend this book if you are wanting something unique, set in a realistic world with a hint of sci-fi.

Favourite Character: Hazel

Read: 17/01/19 - 23/01/19

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

Check out Sammie's review of the short story of the series: The Strain

Check out Sammie's review of book 2: The Exiled