A Fate So Cold by C.L. Herman & Amanda Foody

The quick cut: A boy and girl are destined to use their magical wands to save their world from a winter cataclysm. Chaos ensues when it turns out one must kill the other to do so. 

A real review: 

  We love stories about ordinary people being chosen by destiny to fulfill a chosen prophecy and save everyone. While it's unrealistic at best, it's a story we love to see. For Domenic and Ellery, this is a reality when they each have a powerful wand who chooses them to be their wielder. 

 Alderland has been through multiple winter cataclysms and held on to survival. Each time a new cataclysm is on the brink, the most powerful wand named Valmordion wakes to choose its wielder and save the day. Ellery has spent her life in thorough study in the hopes of wielding a wand and saving everyone from the magical winters. She's horrified when the wand instead chooses Domenic: an undeserving person in her eyes. When she magically creates a winter wand - which has not happened since recorded history - suddenly they are thrust together in the spotlight. Which one will save the nation and which one will die? 

 I loved these authors' previous cowritten duology named All of Us Villains. Seeing them partner up again, I was excited to see the new world created by them together. This time though, I was disappointed when the characters failed to entrance me as a reader. 

 Ellery and Domenic are setup to be enemies to lovers to enemies, but they don't have enough chemistry for me to care about them. Even in the end, I knew I was supposed to be excited about the premise of book two. I felt only apathy. 

 The beginning really pulled me in and the ending was interesting, but the middle between was so clunky and slow. It's frustrating considering how powerful their writing was previously. To me, it felt like it needed more finessing to work. Or I'm the wrong reading style to enjoy it. 

 A cool fantasy premise that fails to impress. 

My rating: 3 out of 5