Two Chosen Ones, One Choice: The World Or Each Other

I recently finished reading A Fate So Cold by Amanda Foody and C.L. Herman. This is book #1 in the A Fate So Cold duology.

**POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT**

  Rating: 3.5/5 stars

"For most of the year, Summer reigns peacefully over Alderland. Then, for six brutal weeks, Winter rages, obliterating towns and wreaking casualties. Magicians bond with powerful wands of Summer to defend the nation, a duty that costs many their lives.

Domenic Barrow never wanted such responsibility―but destiny hasn’t granted him a choice. The greatest Summer wand has awakened for the first time in a century, warning that an icy cataclysm looms on the horizon. And despite his reputation as the least suited of his classmates, the wand Chooses Domenic to wield it.

Ellery Caldwell spent years striving to be a perfect Summer magician―and burying her fears of her own power. But her worst suspicions are proven true when she accidentally creates the first ever Winter wand.

Now, as the unprecedented Chosen Two, Domenic and Ellery must thwart the oncoming cataclysm together. And in trying to fulfill their destinies, they wonder if they were brought together for a second fate: to fall in love.

Until they discover the unthinkable truth. The Chosen Two aren’t fated allies, but eternal rivals, and the only way to save their home is for one of them to slay the other.

This is no love story. It's a tragedy."

I tried my hardest to get into this one, but while there was a lot to love, it overall didn’t hit the notes I wanted it to.

Set in an urban fantasy world that shifts between its safe summers and the six weeks of harrowing winters it must endure, A Fate So Cold follows Domenic Barrow and Ellery Caldwell, both students at a prestigious magical school and both chosen to serve as the literal Chosen Ones, destined to defeat winter and the peril it brings.

Oof, so, where do I start?

The worldbuilding felt really opaque. I never felt settled into the world or its rules, and that sense of disconnection started in the first chapter and never quite let up. At first, I assumed it was a fantasy world separate from the modern one, then it was confirmed that it wasn’t, but everything still felt oddly detached and unclear as I went along. It often felt like the world’s rules and boundaries were never fully set in the beginning.

This confusion wasn’t helped by the book’s many flashback chapters and the dual POV storyline. Both really messed with my sense of direction and made it difficult to figure out where I was in the story at any given point.

The romance between Domenic and Ellery was just as confusing. Domenic has been in love with her for years, which, to me, is always a fun trope because I love a pining MMC. The problem came when their relationship started developing. Their connection felt jumpy and underexplored. One moment, they were kissing and being physical, and the next, Ellery was referring to things ending as a breakup. It felt strange, since they had never defined their relationship, never said they were together, and were barely communicating at that point. How is that a breakup? Moments like that added to the overall unevenness.

There were still some things I liked. The worldbuilding ideas were great, especially the living wands, and when we got glimpses of Domenic and Ellery on their own, exploring their individual arcs and characterizations, I really enjoyed that. But the story itself struggled with pacing problems and an uneven plot that kept it from fully landing for me.

Check out A Fate So Cold, and discover what happens when fate catches up with you.

Happy reading :)