TL;DR Review – A delightful grumpy/sunshine romance, an insightful exploration into PTSD and a path to healing from trauma.
Synopsis:
A wildflower alone is all the more beautiful for the barrenness from which it grows. A single note more glorious for the silence around it.
She is a void, the empty balance of magic.
When the Grand Vizier seeks to humiliate a man who has crossed him, a woman of the humblest origins becomes entangled in political webs far beyond her understanding, and bound into a marriage she cannot escape. She does not know who is an ally, and who is an enemy. But she does know she is drawn to the man whose dreams and heart seem made of ice.
He is a mage broken, whose power has been warped.
The Blight ravages both Tamar and Sarkum, and their people, and armies, are starving. Violence and protests in Narfour have the city on the brink of rebellion. When Ihsan sees a chance to gain an ally with the only productive land left in Tamar for his cousin, the Sultana, he takes it. But nothing is as it seems when Behram Kadir is involved. Ihsan knows he should not trust the woman who has upended his life, even if she is the first warmth he has felt since fire stole everything from him.
Some broken things were never meant to be as they were.
Full Review:
Ice and Ivy continues with the trend that makes Mages of the Wheel my current favorite romantasy: it sets up new characters in a familiar world, building on a highly addicting story while giving us a fresh-feeling romance and adventure.
After three books, we finally get a deeper insight into Ihsan, Naime’s cousin and the second-in-line to the throne whose water magic was turned to ice by trauma that left him burned, scarred, and hardened. He is also plagued by nightmares and panic attacks, which cause his magic to be unpredictable and manifest as shards of ice or frost overtaking his entire house on the truly bad nights.
His story is visceral and powerful; we live in his mind, experience the flashbacks and terror in a very real, raw way. Worst of all, he’s forced to not only face the ones who hurt him, but work with them every day. For of course the ones who did it were Naime’s nemesis, the Grand Vizier, and his son.
The last thing he has any space in his life or ice-hardened heart for is love. But he’s utterly unprepared for Nesrin…
Nesrin is a breath of fresh air and joy, a small-town girl who pulls a Katniss Everdeen and sneaks off in her sister’s place to marry a Vizier. Only when the Vizier rejects her, circumstances conspire to betroth her to Narfour’s most eligible—and least companionable—bachelor, Ihsan.
Though she shares his home, she cannot seem to break through the walls of ice (literal!) that shield him from anyone. But damn it if she’s not going to try!
This was one of my favorite pairings of the series because I’m a huge sucker for a grumpy/sunshine match. Nesrin isn’t excessively or artificially cheerful—she’s had to be the glue that holds her family together, tending to her disabled brother, feeding her family, even sacrificing her own food to ensure they have enough.
Her tender, caring nature and her refusal to let the hardships of life get her down slowly and inevitably win Ihsan over. And, of course, lead to some very interesting magical and physical developments between them.
There is a great deal of tenderness in this book, many small moments of affection and gestures of care that are so much more powerful for how small and subtle they are. The relationship between the two develops at a glacial pace (see what I did there?), but Nesrin’s determination is what helps it to blossom (just rocking these thematic word choices).
Ice and Ivy is a wonderfully character-driven story. Though more narrow-focused than Reign and Ruin, less action-packed than Storm and Shield, and less harrowing than Siren and Scion, it continues to expound on the world, the magic system, and, most importantly of all, gives us a first-hand look at just how truly wicked the Grand Vizier is. We’ve known he was the enemy all along, but it’s always been subtle, with no real ties to his cruelty.
After this book, nothing in Narfour will ever be the same again—and now I’m dying to get to the next one whenever it comes out!
I just finished this and loved it! I agree with everything you said. I was honestly surprised by how much more evil Behram Kedir became. I mean, I knew I hated him and that he was evil, but this was honestly way farther than I expected it to be going.
Do you know when the 5th book is supposed to be coming out? I’m hooked and just need to know!
Yes, it was AWESOME to finally see his true nature coming out, even if it was shocking just how dark he went. And that ending promises SOOOOOOOOO much pain to come!
I asked the author and she said she’s hard at work on it. Hopefully sometime in 2025, though no date has been released.