The Exiled (Dominion of Ash, book 2)

By Frost Kay

Blurb: 
The dead are supposed to stay dead.

Hazel's world had always been deadly, full of monsters and heartache, but the last thing she ever expected was to see her dead best friend alive, and consorting with the enemy.

Captured, betrayed, and imprisoned, she's determined to find a way out, even if it meant destroying the last connection she had to her old life. Even if it meant casting aside the only boy who'd ever loved her.

Love wasn't meant to survive the wastelands.

Review: 
This is book 2 in the series, it follows straight on from when Hazel tried to escape. 

Most of the book we follow her life living with the tainted and how they treat her. The start of this book is quite slow but by halfway the pace starts to pick up and it becomes more of an adventure. 

We soon start to realise in this book that Hazel does have a conscience and does start to care for the tainted, but only a selected few. She does still hate the majority of them but when she is sold to be a slave we discover her true feelings. She also attempts to escape a few more times because she wants to get back to her family, who wouldn't?

When she is a slave and working for the tainted is when I feel the story started to kick in and became more of an adventure and quite hard to put down. I also felt this is where Hazel developed the most and we seen her true personality. During this time as a slave there are a few scenes which could potentially be a trigger, for violence and potential sexual harassment. 

The story isn't what makes this book great it's the characters and their development. The story didn't develop as much as I would have liked for the length of it but overall I still found it a great book to read and would love to follow the rest of the series.

The ending of the book was a whole new story which is what keeps this series going. And as the books says trust no one!

Favourite Character: Noah

Read: 28/12/19 - 08/01/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

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

The Exiled (Dominion of Ash, book 2)

By Frost Kay

Blurb: 
The dead are supposed to stay dead.

Hazel's world had always been deadly, full of monsters and heartache, but the last thing she ever expected was to see her dead best friend alive, and consorting with the enemy.

Captured, betrayed, and imprisoned, she's determined to find a way out, even if it meant destroying the last connection she had to her old life. Even if it meant casting aside the only boy who'd ever loved her.

Love wasn't meant to survive the wastelands.

Review: 
This is book 2 in the series, it follows straight on from when Hazel tried to escape. 

Most of the book we follow her life living with the tainted and how they treat her. The start of this book is quite slow but by halfway the pace starts to pick up and it becomes more of an adventure. 

We soon start to realise in this book that Hazel does have a conscience and does start to care for the tainted, but only a selected few. She does still hate the majority of them but when she is sold to be a slave we discover her true feelings. She also attempts to escape a few more times because she wants to get back to her family, who wouldn't?

When she is a slave and working for the tainted is when I feel the story started to kick in and became more of an adventure and quite hard to put down. I also felt this is where Hazel developed the most and we seen her true personality. During this time as a slave there are a few scenes which could potentially be a trigger, for violence and potential sexual harassment. 

The story isn't what makes this book great it's the characters and their development. The story didn't develop as much as I would have liked for the length of it but overall I still found it a great book to read and would love to follow the rest of the series.

The ending of the book was a whole new story which is what keeps this series going. And as the books says trust no one!

Favourite Character: Noah

Read: 28/12/19 - 08/01/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

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

The Strain (Dominion of Ash, book 0.5)

By Frost Kay

Blurb: 
The end of the world was uglier than she expected. 

Janice Anderson warned those who would listen that their bio weaponry was too unpredictable. No one had absolute control over a virus. If they thought they did, well... they were stupid.

Plans failed, colleagues died, and those that survived mutated into something other. No one knew what was worse, the virus or the monsters it created.

When the virus spread, she had only one choice to protect those she loved: turn to the people she hated with every fiber of her being for help.

Behind enemy lines, she expected back stabbing, but never guessed she'd be the one betraying those she cared about.

Life was never simple. Neither was the end of the world.

Review: 
This book is classed as a novella for Frost's series Dominion of Ash. The Dominion of Ash only has one book out at the moment called The Tainted (I have already reviewed), but I know the second one is due out later this year which I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing.

This novella is extremely short and I wish it was longer, it is only 3 chapters long. It is based when the disease has just started in the local village. You discover how it started and why it started. You also discover how it spread and how it developed so that the animals were deformed and carrying the disease.

The novella follows one family; a mother, a son, and his daughter. The mother could see that this disease and event was going to happen but no one was listening to what she was saying, but when it happened everyone started believing her, even though she had gave up on hope of getting away from the village to see if someone would help her until her son come along.

The novella follows their journey from the house to the military base. There isn't much to really say about the relationships and characters within this book because it really was quite short that I couldn't have a true opinion on them. I did love though that when his mother seen her grandchild a switched clicked in her brain, which was quite sweet and she was still really protective over her son even though he had his own life now.

Within this novella there is a lot of action and adventure considering the size. It was super fast paced. I really would recommend reading this book no matter what you have read of Frost's even if it is her first work you try as it is really good and I could definitely compare it to her other series and say that it's not any worse it's just as good, which I really love. I find that authors who have several series, the actual series become distant and not as good as the first ones.

So I'd definitely recommend this book if you love family love, twists and a lot of action.

Favourite Character: Janice

Read: 05/05/19

5 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

If you haven't already, check out Sammie's review of Book 1: The Tainted

The Strain (Dominion of Ash, book 0.5)

By Frost Kay

Blurb: 
The end of the world was uglier than she expected. 

Janice Anderson warned those who would listen that their bio weaponry was too unpredictable. No one had absolute control over a virus. If they thought they did, well... they were stupid.

Plans failed, colleagues died, and those that survived mutated into something other. No one knew what was worse, the virus or the monsters it created.

When the virus spread, she had only one choice to protect those she loved: turn to the people she hated with every fiber of her being for help.

Behind enemy lines, she expected back stabbing, but never guessed she'd be the one betraying those she cared about.

Life was never simple. Neither was the end of the world.

Review: 
This book is classed as a novella for Frost's series Dominion of Ash. The Dominion of Ash only has one book out at the moment called The Tainted (I have already reviewed), but I know the second one is due out later this year which I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing.

This novella is extremely short and I wish it was longer, it is only 3 chapters long. It is based when the disease has just started in the local village. You discover how it started and why it started. You also discover how it spread and how it developed so that the animals were deformed and carrying the disease.

The novella follows one family; a mother, a son, and his daughter. The mother could see that this disease and event was going to happen but no one was listening to what she was saying, but when it happened everyone started believing her, even though she had gave up on hope of getting away from the village to see if someone would help her until her son come along.

The novella follows their journey from the house to the military base. There isn't much to really say about the relationships and characters within this book because it really was quite short that I couldn't have a true opinion on them. I did love though that when his mother seen her grandchild a switched clicked in her brain, which was quite sweet and she was still really protective over her son even though he had his own life now.

Within this novella there is a lot of action and adventure considering the size. It was super fast paced. I really would recommend reading this book no matter what you have read of Frost's even if it is her first work you try as it is really good and I could definitely compare it to her other series and say that it's not any worse it's just as good, which I really love. I find that authors who have several series, the actual series become distant and not as good as the first ones.

So I'd definitely recommend this book if you love family love, twists and a lot of action.

Favourite Character: Janice

Read: 05/05/19

5 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

If you haven't already, check out Sammie's review of Book 1: The Tainted

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

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