Seventeen-year
old Smitha is a giant pain: conceited, self-centered – a jerk. As I began reading Followed by Frost, it
occurred to me that if she didn’t change – and soon – I wasn’t going to be able
to continue reading the story. Smitha is
definitely not the kind of heroine that interests me. But having read and really enjoyed The Paper
Magician trilogy, also by Charlie Holmberg, I trusted the author to fix things
up.
Happily, unlike
Smitha’s parents and sister and long-suffering friends and neighbors, her
father’s employee, Morden, shows up to set things straight. Morden fancies he’s in love with Smitha. Clearly he doesn’t know her very well and
appears to be making judgments based more on her good looks than her
captivating personality. Smitha, being
true to herself, thinks he isn’t good enough for her and when he asks her to
meet him one evening, she says yes and then blows him off entirely. Uh oh.
Morden is not
exactly what he appears to be. He is not
the humble, lovesick worker but rather, a wizard in disguise. Smitha needs to be taught a lesson, he
decides, and he’s just the one to teach it.
Morden turns Smitha into a sort of ice princess – and not in the
beautiful but chilly Elsa from Frozen kind of way.
Smitha loses her
good looks and her friends and family.
Her presence causes a constant snowstorm that dooms any community in
which she lives, even killing off some of the locals. Soon no one wants her around and she gets
booted out, taking to the road for three long years of lonely wandering.
It’s not all
lonely times, however, for while Smitha wanders along suffering all the pain
and inconvenience of being a human freezer, she encounters Sadriel, a charming
and handsome gentleman who just happens to be Death. He doesn’t want Smitha’s soul, but rather,
her “companionship” – or something like that.
Time and again, he asks Smitha to join him in a manner in which she
would be neither alive nor dead.
Smitha’s not
really into the whole romancing with Death kind of thing, so she resists (mostly)
and, little by little, she transforms from self-centered jerk to someone
thoughtful, kind, and selfless. The
transformation begins just in time for her to come to the aid of a young
prince, Imad, who asks her to come to his drought stricken homeland and bring
snow. The new and improved Smitha agrees
and soon takes up residence in the town under the watchful and particularly
attentive gaze of Lo, the very handsome and somewhat silent captain of the
guard.
I’ll just leave
it there.
Followed by
Frost is an excellent, old-fashioned fairy tale that is a satisfying story from
beginning to end.
LAME FACTOR: 0
OF 5 (Smitha’s annoying tendencies straightened out before I could get
aggravated enough to stop reading)
YOUR PARENTS
WILL FREAK FACTOR: Not unless they’re
really weird
BRAIN
POWER: The story is very well-written
but within the abilities of an average reader.
