Milla Vane returns to a world of kings, magic, and passion in her exhilarating A Gathering of Dragons series, as a great alliance forms to stand against an evil warlord intent on their destruction. Danger lurks in the western realms. The Destroyer’s imminent return has sent the realms into turmoil as desperate citizens seek refuge—but there’s no safety to be found when demons and wraiths crawl … and wraiths crawl out from the shadows. Even Koth, a northern island kingdom left untouched by the Destroyer a generation past, is besieged by terrors spawned from corrupt magics.
When Lizzan leads the Kothan army against these terrors, only to see her soldiers massacred and to emerge as the only survivor, she is called a coward and a deserter. Shunned from her home, Lizzan now wanders in solitude as a mercenary for hire, until she encounters a group of warriors seeking new alliances with the northern kingdoms—a group that includes Aerax, the bastard prince of Koth, and the man who sent her into exile.
Though they were childhood friends, Aerax cannot allow himself to be close to the only woman who might thwart his treacherous plan to save their island realm. But when a goddess’s demand binds them together, Lizzan and Aerax must find a way to overcome their painful pasts. Or there will be no future for the western realms…
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Milla Vane has quickly become a one-click author for me. These fantasy romance books are hella cracky, and this one is particularly cracky. The hero is a feral cinnamon roll. The heroine is a badass warrior with a whole host of issues. They used to be best friends but now they’re borderline enemies, except OOPS gotta work together to battle a great evil. Also there’s a giant cat tiger character that steals every scene he’s in. Did I mention there are dinosaurs? CAUSE THERE ARE.
Seriously, pick this series up. It’s just SO FREAKING GOOD.
Milla Vane is quickly becoming a go to author for me! This series is WHOA!
A Touch of Stone & Snow is filled with slow burning angst, longing, sacrifice and passionate love.
Warriors of the realms unite to fight against the Destroyer and become the gathering of Dragons. A dire misunderstanding separates Aerax and Lizzan, painting Aerax as a villain in Lizzan’s eyes. For when Lizzan was amidst the battle she witnessed the horrors of the Wraiths. She was the lone survivor but instead of seeing her as such, her people deem her as a deserter and Lizzan is exiled.
“But there was nothing else for Lizzan to say. She only slowed to collect her belongings. Running away. Not long ago, she’d been exiled from her home, branded as a deserter and a coward by an entire realm. This was the first time she’d ever felt like one.”
Now, Lizzan must follow her quest and undo the shame cast upon her family name.
Lizzan and Aerax were by far my favorite couple of the series. Also, I really loved the mythical world consisting of all the different Gods and creatures: My favorite had to be Caeb, the Saber-toothed cat .
As I struggled to get into the first book of the series, I found that I enjoyed this story a little more. I loved the connection between the two main characters, it was palpable and captivating. The ending was even set up just right to allow readers to preview what’s to come in the series as the Destroyer is still alive!
Milla Vane has penned a great high fantasy romance that you won’t want to miss!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Berkley through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*
Lizzan, a mercenary for hire wanders the road in solitude. She prefers her drink strong and a place to sleep, but is willing to help those in need. The place she called home and her once lover have shunned her. She is an outcast and is determined to stay far away from Koth.
Aerax – also known as the feral prince of Koth – is seeking new alliances to help fight the destroyer. Lizzan and Aerax eventually meet on this road and there are so many unsaid words spoken between them. Lizzan believes that it was Aerax who exiled Lizzan from Koth, but how could it be when Aerax has never stopped loving her?
I absolutely love a second chance romance and I loved loved the first meeting between Lizzan and Aerax . I felt the love and longing between these two as much as the hurt. Milla Vane knows how to write such great dialogue and I was constantly looking forward to the banter between Lizzan and Aerax.
Beyond the love story between Lizzan and Aerax I loved the adventure that this book took me on. I have always loved mythology and learning about the legends of the various Gods that the people in this realm believe in was fascinating. I have so many parts highlighted because the storytelling was spectacular. But what is truth and what is the lie? Will people believe in something that is completely false because it was told to them in this manner for generations? And how will these lies and truths set the people of Koth and other realms free.
A Touch of Stone and Snow was a wonderful follow up to A Heart of Blood and Ashes. I loved being immersed in this world and absolutely cannot wait until the next book in the series is released!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
The second book in the series is just as good as the first one (equally good? better? I go back and forth on this ). It features a number of minor characters from the first book and happens in the same world. The two leading characters Lizzan and Aerax are drawn with precision, strong yet very flawed, each complimenting the other. Sex scenes are steamy and raw. Great book.
I liked this second book in Milla Vane’s A Gathering of Dragons even better than the first! Lizzan is an amazing warrior heroine in the vein of Kerowyn from By the Sword, with real, heartbreaking tragedy in her past. And Aerax is deliciously feral with a tasty marshmallow interior. I loved how they find strength to complete their quest in each other’s love. The big bad is unusual with well-conceived and logical magic. Fantastic book, highly recommend!
I am loving this series! I felt so pulled in and a part of this fantastical world, it was breathtaking. I loved Lizzan and Aerax and their beautiful love story that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was an absolutely brilliant fantasy romance!
This book was super addicting and I now have a new must read author for my shelves.
I had to go back and read book one in this series arc. Though you can read this without the first novel, as it is a standalone in a series. I just decided not to. This is a true love story even with the fantasy setting, so if you haven’t a fantasy reader this might still do it for you because the love story is the main plot.
I adored these two. Lizzan and Aerax were IT. Dragons and Romance? Sign me up. This wasn’t a forbidden romance essay but the strife these two face in loving each other. It is next level. You spend the entire novel shipping them fiercely. They were everything.
In a book filled with fantastic world building and extensively developed characters, this boils down to a beautiful love story.
All Lizzan ever wanted was to become a soldier in Koth’s army, to protect her people, to help. When she’s given the opportunity to command her own battalion what should have been an easy task, ridding Koth of a group of bandits, goes horribly wrong leaving Lizzan the only soldier left standing and branded a coward. Exiled, Lizzan travels the Western realms offering herself as a sword-for-hire.
Aerax, a bastard prince of Koth—an isle kingdom in the Northern realm—has been sent west to secure aid in banishing a threat that plagues the outlying forests bordering Koth and is slowly taking over the island and all its inhabitants. When Aerax and his contingent of dignitaries come upon the group gathering to fight against the rumored return of the Destroyer—the megalomaniac who demolished the Western realms nearly a generation ago—he’s taken aback to discover his childhood friend and young love Lizzan amongst their ranks.
A Touch of Stone and Snow, in part, continues the overarching storyline that was started in A Heart of Blood and Ashes, building up to the seemingly inevitable return of the Destroyer. But it is also, again, a completely contained story for Lizzan and Aerax. The entire time I was reading this I couldn’t help but think “Avengers Assemble!” like Milla Vane is getting all these moving parts together and the final installment will be a combination of all these characters coming together to fight the Destroyer. At least I hope that’s how this is going to play out (and I can only image how huge that tome would be).
This book moved at a quicker pace than its predecessor. I’m also a sucker for a second-chance romance and enjoyed the slow burn that Milla Vane teases out over the majority of the book. That’s also what kept me reading—I just wanted to see them together! Every interaction between them was like a spark.
And I loved that they both had different relationships with Koth. Aerax has no love for the isle. Growing up a bastard prince, his very being was not acknowledged until he needed to take his place with the family after a plague kills almost all the royals. And all Lizzan wants to do is defend and protect her people. Even when she’s been exiled, she has this caring nature that won’t allow her to turn the other cheek. It’s this very thing that potentially puts a wall up between them.
Overall, I loved A Touch of Stone and Snow more than the first book. While it took me a bit of time to connect some of the secondary characters that we’ve seen before with the previous story, Vane does a great job of rehashing everything without making it seem redundant. This time, I think there’s a clearer path to where the story is going next, and I cannot wait to continue the journey.
A TOUCH OF STONE AND SNOW by Milla Vane is book Two in A Gathering of Dragons Series. This is the story of Aerax and Lizzan. When Aerax and Lizzan where young they were friends who are now enemies but find that they are being brought back together in this mystical story. Lizzan was left shunned after a battle so now she is left to wonder around being a hired mercenary. But then she comes upon Aerax again who at one time she loved and they bother where there for each other but he is the man that sent her into exile. But they find that they both need each other which begins the healing back to what they had and more. I enjoyed their story. I would recommend this book and this author’s writing.
Amazing read…
The Destroyer was threatening the world (still) and this was the next chapter in the series arc. If you haven’t read the first instalment, you will want to do that so you don’t miss a cracking love story but also the foundation of what Aerax and Lizzan’s story built on. And what a story it was…
Aerax and Lizzan. Sigh… I’ve just finished and I’m still taking in all that happened. Set in a mythical world of realms and magic, of dragons and beasts, the romance, surprisingly, could not have been more real and tangible. Friends when they should never have been, they grew up together. Supporting each other, protective. When family was complicated, they always had each other. She seeing him when she shouldn’t. He seeing her when he shouldn’t. Romantic? Oh, how I cried at more than one scene where their love for each other, when things looked direst, touched my heart so deeply… Theirs was a love that shouldn’t have been yet would not only save themselves, but all they held dear.
If you are hesitant by the fantasy aspects, let me reassure you. This is a LOVE story of Rhett and Scarlett heights…
*Reviewed for 1-Click Addict Support Group
**Thank you to NetGalley
This series is simply awe-inspiring to me. I love everything about it, and I just keep wanting more and more!
Lizzan is S-T-R-U-G-G-L-I-N-G. She’s basically been drunk for the last 2 years, after being exiled from her home, Koth. She was commanding a unit of Koth’s army, and during their mission everything went horrifyingly wrong, and she was the only survivor. No one believed her story about what happened, and they accused her of being a coward, and a deserter, and kicked her out, to her family’s shame. So now, she roams around taking jobs where she can, protecting travelers along the roads to earn money. The alcohol helps her to NOT think about all she’s lost, especially the snow-haired boy that she’s loved since they were kids, who had a hand in her exile. She doesn’t think she’ll ever see him again, or if she ever wants to.
Aerax is currently an heir to the throne of Koth. He was born the King’s by-blow, which means as far as Koth was concerned, he didn’t exist. If your name isn’t “in the book”, you are simply not THERE in their society. But, when a terrible fever spreads through their community and kills many, including the King and all his legitimate children, suddenly Aerax is needed as an heir apparent, while his uncle takes the throne. This puts distance between he and his one true love, Lizzan, as he must attend to royal lessons, and everything else he was never taught as a child. But, one secret he learns about Koth’s island home is truly the nail in the coffin for them. He knows what he must do, and he fears she’ll hate him, or try to stop him, so he helps in having her sent away. He just wanted her to be safe. But now, with the Destroyer’s imminent return, all the realms are coming together in an alliance to defeat it. He has been sent as an emissary to help facilitate this alliance for Koth, with the other major realms. He had no idea that his path would cross with Lizzan’s again. But, now he knows for sure he can never let her go again.
Lizzan and Aerax had chemistry like whoa, even when she was trying to run from him, or act like he didn’t affect her any more. They still just loved each other so much, and that came through in everything they did, even when it was the last thing she wanted to admit. Also, Aerax’s pet snow cat (think saber-toothed tiger!), Caeb, was an awesome character unto himself. He also loved Lizzan so much, and made that clear throughout the story. He was an awesome addition, and I loved seeing all their interactions.
The group traveling together was quite the mish-mash, and included several characters we met previously in book 1. It was so nice getting to know them better, and seeing our new main characters’ fledgling relationships with them. It kept the continuity of the world together, even though the hero and heroine from book 1 weren’t physically present. Also, some of the new side characters from Koth were pretty ugly to Lizzan and you just wanted to reach through the book and wring their necks. I really liked seeing how both Lizzan and Aerax dealt with that adversity differently.
This book had a completely different feel from book 1, for sure. It didn’t grab me by the throat right from the start as book 1 did, but I loved it just as much in the end. It was a second chance romance, which always has it’s own vibe anyway, and they can be very hit or miss for me. But I really felt the love and longing between these two, even when there were still untruths and misunderstandings between them. You just wanted them to be together so much, because Aerax (and Caeb!) would have done ANYTHING for her, and I felt that deeply in his every action.
If you like fantasy romance, I could not recommend this series any more highly. It is truly something unique and AMAZING! Book 3 looks to be a return to the enemies to lovers feel of book 1, and I’m highly anticipating it!
The Destroyer’s imminent return has sent the realms into turmoil as desperate citizens seek refuge. Even Koth, a northern island kingdom left untouched by the Destroyer a generation past, is besieged by terrors spawned from corrupt magics. When Lizzan leads the Kothan army against these terrors, only to see her soldiers massacred and to emerge as the only survivor, she is called a coward and a deserter. Shunned from her home, Lizzan now wanders in solitude as a mercenary for hire, until she encounters a group of warriors seeking new alliances with the northern kingdoms—a group that includes Aerax, the bastard prince of Koth, and the man who sent her into exile. Though they were childhood friends, Aerax cannot allow himself to be close to the only woman who might thwart his treacherous plan to save their island realm. But when a goddess’s demand binds them together, Lizzan and Aerax must find a way to overcome their painful pasts or there will be no future for the western realms.
This is a departure from my normal reading genre but I was drawn in from the start & engrossed all the way through. A well written book with strong characters. A very well paced story. I haven’t read the first book in the series yet but definitely need to read it as I feel I would have appreciated this book more. I loved both Aerax & Lizzan & how their relationship changed & developed.
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read
I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book ever since I finished A Heart of Blood and Ashes. I am a huge fan of Fantasy Romance novels, but strangely enough I don’t read them as much as I would like to. So whenever I do pick up a book in this genre, I really take the time to fully immerse myself into the world the author has built. Before I go into my thoughts on this particular book, I want to say that I am amazed by the creativity of fantasy authors. It isn’t easy to create a completely new world with and being able to keep track of everything. It really took me a long time to tell who was who, and what part of the world they were from. So I was happy that the book was long. Honestly, I like my fantasy novels to be huge, because it isn’t easy to tell a full story in a normal sized novel.
”Never have you been restrained in the pleasure you give to me, and never have you held back your heart. So always I end here in this way, so utterly satisfied and fully loved, the most blessed of all women.”
Alright lets get into the story itself. I absolutely loved the main characters Lizzan and Aerax, they were separated but it was obvious the amount of love they had for each other. The women in this world are so strong and independent, and I loved that they weren’t some damsel in distress. Lizzan took care of herself, and she also would definitely defend the lives of the people she loved. Lizzan felt betrayed by Aerax when he didn’t leave with her when she was shunned by her people, because he was the one who always wanted to leave and start a life with her somewhere were they would be equal. These two are childhood friends turned lovers and true soulmates. This book was action-packed and super hot as well. The author Milla Vane found a great balance and satisfied me with the amount of action and romance she delivered in this story. There are multiple villains, and the gods and myths that were revealed were very intriguing. I honestly couldn’t get enough of the story and the characters. Everything together made such an enjoyable fantasy romance novel. In this book you also meet the main characters of the next book, and I am already looking forward to their story.
Lizzan is a Kothan solider living in exile. She travels the world as a sword-for-hire. Lizzan’s path brings her to the one man she wishes never to see again. She begs the goddess Vela for a quest to redeem her family’s honor. Lizzan must protect the first person she sees outside the temple, who happens to be Koth’s feral prince. Will Lizzan be able to complete her quest? Can she convince Koth to ally with the southern realms against the Destroyer? And what sacrifice will Lizzan have to make?
Aerax is a bastard prince of Koth. He travels outside his country to seek help from a neighboring realm. Instead, Aerax encounters Lizzan with a party from the southern realms. The goddess Vela gives him a task too: to become who he is meant to be. Something Aerax intends to do; however, he wants to renew his relationship with Lizzan. What role does fate have in store for Aerax? Can he right an ancient wrong? Or will he defy the gods to keep Lizzan with him?
Lizzan is a less-than-perfect heroine. I love that she is not the typical, cliché beautiful heroine. She has been mentally and physically scarred by her ordeals as a solider. I like Lizzan’s determination to help the southerners form an alliance with the western realms. Her country may have betrayed her, yet she still wants to keep them and the neighboring realms safe from the Destroyer. What I adore the most about Lizzan is her thoughtfulness towards others. She not only helps a foreign queen but a village that spurned her and an old woman with no expectations of recompense.
Aerax is such a love. He is a man defined by the secrets he is forced to keep and the tough choices he must take. I understand Aerax’s reluctant allegiance to his country. He has no love for Koth. However, that does not stop him from doing what he needs for it. What I adore the most about Aerax is his patience and protectiveness towards Lizzan. He understands it is hurt that drives her from him. Instead of pushing her, he lets Lizzan come to him on her own terms. Aerax also risks censor by defending her against their countrymen’s ill treatment.
A TOUCH OF STONE AND SNOW is book two in Milla Vane’s barbarian-fantasy romance series, A GATHERING OF DRAGONS. It is crucial to read the first book to understand the world-building and the story’s undercurrents. I am a fan of the author’s steampunk series, THE IRON SEAS, under her alias Meljean Brooks. Milla Vane’s jaunt into the fantasy genre did not disappoint me! I love how certain side characters from book one play important roles throughout the story.
A TOUCH OF STONE AND SNOW is a masterful tale that blends high fantasy with romance. I hope the author plans to write a story for the Parsathean warrior Seri and the Syssian prince Tyzen. I cannot wait for more adventures in this fascinating world.
Review courtesy of Romance Junkies