Shadow And Ice

By Gena Showalter

The New York Times bestselling author who brought you the Lords Of The Underworld, introduces a scorching new paranormal romance series...
GODS OF WAR.
The epic saga begins with book one, Shadow And Ice...

Knox of Iviland has spent his life competing in the All Wars, where vicious warriors with supernatural powers fight to the death to claim new realms. One winner takes everything — and all losers die. Enslaved as a child for his ability to control shadows, the most ruthless champion in history will stop at nothing to kill his king. But first he must win the battle for Earth. When a fearsome weapon imprisons every combatant in ice, centuries pass without progress…until she walks in.

Vale London craves a fun arctic getaway with her foster sister before settling down to open a bakery. Street-tough but vulnerable, she is unprepared to find ancient gods escaping a frozen cave — merciless beings who target her when she inadvertently enters their war.

Though Vale is now his enemy, Knox is consumed with lust and a fierce need to protect her. But only one combatant can prove victorious, and he will have to choose: live for freedom, or die for love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Nov 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781489270603

Gena Showalter

Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than fifty novels and multiple series, including the spellbinding Otherworld Assassins, Alien Huntress, and Lords of the Underworld series, her wildly popular young adult novels—Firstlife and Alice in Zombieland—and the highly addictive Original Heartbreakers series. Visit her at GenaShowalter.com.

Reviews for Shadow And Ice

[stacyatufi · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I could not connect with the story in SHADOW AND ICE.A lot happened in SHADOW AND ICE, but I was both confused and bored for most of the book. The world was confusing, there was a lot of info dumping—which caused more confusion—and I had to force myself to read until the end. I will admit that I did skim quite a few pages. The world didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. Details were sparse, but when you did find out information, it didn't really make a lot of sense.I liked both Knox and Vale as individual characters, but I didn't feel the chemistry between the two. It didn't feel believable. I actually really liked Vale's sister Nola and would have liked to have more of her in the story.Knowing that Nola's story is next kinda makes me want to read it, but I don't know if I could force myself to read it if it was more of what SHADOW OF ICE brought us.* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[arthistorychick · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Shadow and Ice by Gena ShowalterBook #1: Gods of War SeriesSource: NetGalleyMy Rating: 3/5 stars**MINI-REVIEW**The Bottom Line: In truth, my interest in this read faded in and out the further into the book I read. For me, it started out like a house of fire and I was all kinds of invested, but as I hit the middle part of the book, my interest started waning. I think my interest waned because of Vale and Knox’s attitudes. I need my characters to evolve and neither did much of that through the middle part of the book. In fact, they mostly remained stagnant and that caused me to skim a great deal of the middle part of the book. As the end of the book approached and Vale and Knox finally began evolving, my interest was once again engaged, and I rolled on through to the very end. While this may sound like I mostly disliked this book, that would be incorrect. While Knox and Vale didn’t particularly appeal to me, the information about the other characters did. There is such a wide variety of strange, lethal, interesting, and completely foreign characters in this book, all with skills, talents, and weapons that are quite literally, beyond this world. At the end of the day, I think Shadow and Ice may have suffered from the dreaded first book syndrome in which the groundwork and world building didn’t quite do enough to really draw me in. What saved the book for me is the HUGE cast on interesting characters who populate this world and are going to entertain me for many, many installments to come.

[dlynch-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am a big Gena Showalter fan, so I was excited when I found out she was developing a new series. I was also interested by the subject. I like the concept of warriors from different realms being sent to a planet in a winner takes the planet scenario, in a contest called the All War. In this case, they are fighting for Terra, aka Earth. It is sort of like the Hunger games on a galactic level. The warriors are essentially slaves that are fighting for their rulers. I admit; it took me a couple of chapters to get into the story. I think that often happens with a new series. A lot of groundwork needs to be laid out. I enjoyed the characters. Knox of Iviland, mistaken for the god Loki on Earth, is a powerful warrior who wants to win the war to become free and avenge the death of his daughter. He is a hardened and fearless warrior. That is until he meets human Vale London. Vale accidentally becomes a contestant in the All War. Both characters develop a lot throughout the story. Especially Vale, who is thrown into an environment she didn’t know existed. Vale and Knox have great chemistry. I like how they challenge each other.SHADOW AND ICE is skillfully written. The scenes are well described and imaginative. I like that the story starts out on Earth in the past 1026 AA (After Alliance) during Earth’s Vikings and ends up in the present day. This is one of those stories that becomes more riveting as you continue to read it. I am interested in seeing where the series goes. I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.