I adore this series. I originally picked up the first book, A Hint of Frost back in 2013 when it was free on Amazon. At the time the books were being published by Samhain which had put out a number of winners and had started to become my go to for must buy books. It had a cool cover, the blurb sounded interesting and it was free - it was an all round winner.

And then I read it. And I was very impressed. It was brilliant. The world building in incredible, the romance is adorable and the action is intense. There's an overarching mystery throughout the entire series which is riveting and comes to a fantastic conclusion. Each book focuses on a different couple but builds upon the mystery with characters and places slotting altogether.

My favourite book of the series would have to be A Feast of Souls - because I LOVE Vaughn! - but all the books are amazing. Hailey Edwards is a very talented writer who knows how to deliver great fantasy.

A Hint of Frost

A Hint of Frost is the first book of the series and introduces the Araneae nation. The nation is made up of multiple clans who seem to be spiders of different sorts? Well that was kind of how I stopped myself from imagining it. See I'll be honest - spiders freak me out. I hate them so much. If this series wasn't as amazing as it is I would've banished it from my mind. But it is amazing so I just skim over this and imagine humans with spinning abilities and sharp teeth. Anyway so there's different clans and the first clan we get introduced to are the Araneidae clan which are known for their spinning. They're artisans. They can spin amazing thread which can be woven into indestructible armour and clothes and arts or whatever they want. As a result they are very very rich. But they suck at fighting and have to ally with other clans for protection. Usually this is down through marriage of heirs. The heir, Lourdes becomes the new maven of the Araneidae clan when her parents are poisoned and as such is in a rush to find a new Paladin to protect her clan.

The first novella; A Heart of Ice introduces Lourdes parents and how they got together. (Note: Read after this book, it makes little sense otherwise.) The interesting thing is we find out that Reine (Lourdes' mum) was best friends with a young more innocent and naive Isolde! So of course, who else could Lourdes turn to at such time if not her mother's best friend in the world? Isolde is maven of the Mimetidae clan - a poor vicious clan who often hire themselves out as mercenaries. Oh and they eat people. Yeah, it's a whole thing. So Isolde and Lourdes meet and negotiate. Isolde drives a hard bargain - protection for gold and an alliance through marriage with her youngest son, Rhys.

Lourdes and Rhys are great characters with interesting backstories and great chemistry. I loved Lourdes. She was brave and strong even though she was put through hell. Her relationship with Rhys was sweet. Even though I wanted to hit Rhys over the head a few times - because seriously can you not talk? I know he was trying to protect the alliance but at some point enough is enough. Reveal your secrets. And go Isolde. (as always mind you) Such a cutthroat bitch. Love it. The story of Rhys and Vaughn is tragic. I love Vaughn so much. The politics is interesting and the world building is fascinating. In this book we see the start of the greater arc about the Araneae nation and the danger they're facing. I love this plot and how it develops over the series. It was just fantastic.

So go read it. You won't regret it. ( )

I have to start by saying that it took me a while to look at anything other than that amazing cover. You do know I have a thing for pretty covers, right? Well, anyway, I was obsessed (still am, but that's another story!) with that cover. And if you think the cover is great, wait till you read the book and you'll see that there is something better than just "great".

It was so cool to see fanged creatures that aren't vampires. While I will never be able to get over my love for vampires, I sometimes feel the need for something new, fresh. It was such an amazing experience to read about these characters with spider traits. I loved them so, so much. Not the real-life spiders though, mind you! o.O

I loved the world too. And I loved the fact that there weren't so many descriptions. While I am one of those readers, the ones that don't get bored while reading loooooooong descriptions, I love the books that give me free reign in adding my own imagination to the reading experience. A Hint Of Frost does that. The absence of the descriptions make me believe that I'm sort of creating my own unique interpretation of the world, I can "see" the houses and animals as big or as small as I want, color them however I want. It's like reading a one of a kind story, something only I see.

The thing that made me love this book even more were the very, very unique names, titles and words. I find it so refreshing when I hear a name and I know exactly who I'm supposed to be talking about. You can find millions of Edwards, Erics, Marissas and all that, but how many Lourdes-es have you encountered? Or who else has the word Araneae in their works? It's these types of little things that make me remember a book for a long time after I've finished reading it.

The characters are very interesting too. I loved them all and I can't wait to meet them again. I could say more about them, but I think I'll let you discover them by yourselves. Suffice to say that you'll meet a lot of fascinating characters, from the wise old man, to the young woman who's supposed to be a leader at a very tender age, from the silent man, to the most talkative. I for one had fun meeting them all :)

I could go on and on, but I'll stop here, or else I'm sure I'll give away some spoilers. If you love fantasy, paranormal romance, new worlds and if you're searching for something fresh and new, try this book.
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Fast read. Enjoyable. Spent a few chapters wondering if I reading about spiders, people, or dragons. Then it clicked in my head. Interesting world building. Worth buying the rest of the series? Eh. Probably not. ( )

4 1/2 stars review to come. ( )

I won A Kiss of Venom in a BookLikes giveaway and decided to push it to the top of my TBR. However, it's Book 3.5 in Edwards' Araneae Nation series, and I wasn't sure how confused I'd be if I read the series out of order. Since I already owned A Hint of Frost, Book 1 in the series, I figured it couldn't hurt to read that first.

After her mother, the Araneidae clan's leader, is poisoned to death, Lourdes becomes the clan's newest maven. There's no time yet to mourn – the clan has been betrayed by its Theridiidae allies and is still in danger. Lourdes does the only thing she can think of: she contacts Isolde, the Mimetidae maven and her mother's friend, and asks for protection and help finding her mother and father's killer. In exchange, Lourdes agrees to supply the Mimetidae clan with Araneidae armor and to carry out a binding ceremony with whomever Isolde chooses. Isolde's choice turns out to be Rhys, one of her sons.

This book was a little overwhelming at first. There were lots of clan names to remember, and each clan had its own characteristics. The Araneidae could spin silk that was stronger than metal – hence the Mimetidae clan's desire for armor made by them. Members of the Theridiidae clan could produce deadly venom (although I think other clans were sometimes venomous as well, just not as deadly?). The Mimetidae clan's members ate the raw flesh of their enemies after battle in order to gain their strength.

The various clans could interbreed, but I'm still not entirely sure what effect this had on their clan-specific abilities. Lourdes and her siblings were all half Theridiidae, but, ability-wise, they seemed to be wholly Araneidae, so I thought maybe clan abilities were passed on via mothers. However, that didn't seem to hold true for all characters with multi-clan heritage.

World-building confusion wasn't the only problem I had with this book, or even the worst. The worst was probably Lourdes. Lourdes was a combination of stupid, naive, and forgetful. During his investigation of Lourdes' parents' deaths, Rhys found evidence that led Lourdes to suspect that Pascale, her sister, had likely been the murderer's lover. Here were Lourdes' thoughts on how to handle that suspicion:

“I had many questions, but only Pascale knew the answers. Given her toxic reaction to Rhys, I thought it best I keep these suspicions to myself and let him find his own conclusions. We could compare notes and, if necessary, I would approach Pascale and interrogate her alone for answers.” (35)

This was the first bit of evidence they'd found that could help them identify the killer, and Lourdes didn't think it was necessary to immediately talk to her sister, either on her own or with someone else as a witness? Seriously?

Of course, Pascale ran off at the first opportunity. Despite the evidence that she had willingly run off with a Theridiidae lover, Lourdes wanted so badly to believe that Pascale hadn't played a part in their parents' murder that she changed her deal with Rhys and the Mimetidae clan, asking that he help find and bring back Pascale. My estimation of her went down another few notches.

I had problems with the romance as well, in part due to my issues with Lourdes. I was supposed to believe that Lourdes was a little scared of and repulsed by Rhys, because he was part of the Mimetidae clan (violent, raw flesh-eating, etc.). However, from the moment she first laid eyes on him, she was attracted to him. It was blindingly obvious that, at some point, Lourdes would learn that Rhys was Not Like the Other Mimetidae, so that her attraction to him would suddenly be okay. I guessed some of the truth about Rhys fairly early on. Lourdes, of course, did not, because she needed to be jealous of Rhys's possible relationship with a woman from another clan.

I really wanted to like this book. Sadly, I didn't. The world-building was confusing, the writing didn't really work for me, and Lourdes, who should have been awesome considering that she was one of the few people in her clan who'd been trained to fight, was a disappointment.

I'm now worried about reading A Kiss of Venom. On the one hand, it's a little reassuring that the main characters will be different: it stars Armand, one of Lourdes' brothers, and a new female character. On the other hand, I'll still have the confusing world-building to deal with, Armand was not my favorite of Lourdes' brothers (I preferred Henri, the herbalist), and I'm afraid I'll be lost as far as series-level plot developments go. A Hint of Frost ended with the yellow death storyline still unresolved, and the description of A Kiss of Venom mentions that Armand had previously lost “the woman he loved.” Since this woman wasn't mentioned at all in A Hint of Frost, I assume she was introduced, and died, in a later work.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )