Book: The Coldest Touch by Isabel Sterling
Read From: 3rd January - 9th January 2022
Rating: 3/5 stars
Summary: Elise is cursed - every time she touches someone, she experiences how they will die. When she predicts, but cannot prevent, her brother’s death, she is desperate to escape her terrible gift. Then she meets Claire, a vampire tasked with helping Elise to master her powers and recruiting her to the Veil. At first, Elise is reluctant to work with a vampire but when she predicts a teacher’s imminent murder, she’s determined to stop the violent death. As Elise and Claire grow closer, Elise begins to wonder whether she can really trust Claire.
I really enjoyed this read. This is my second time reading Isabel Sterling’s work and I definitely see a theme with her novels being tailored to the younger end of the YA scale but does it affect my enjoyment in any way? Not at all! They make for quick and easy reading whilst at the same time being filled with magic and suspense. The Coldest Touch was exactly this, it was super fun and as I said in my review for These Witches Don’t Burn, it’s always nice to read a low fantasy every once in a while that doesn’t have a complex world or magic system.
For the most part, I liked the main characters Claire and Elise in this book. They’re not the most memorable or stand-out characters I’ve ever read about by any means but I really enjoyed seeing how their relationship developed and blossomed. I definitely preferred Claire to Elise but maybe this was because I preferred the whole vampire thing over the Death Oracle thing… I thought the side characters were great too, they definitely illustrated the importance of friendship throughout the book. There wasn’t much I actively disliked, other than the ending and I would have preferred a little more explanation/back-story surrounding Elise’s powers but I think both of these aspects are reflective of the target audience so I didn’t let them bother me too much.
Unfortunately I don’t really have a lot else to say about this book, but that’s not a reflection of the book itself! It was a lot of fun to read at the time but it’s not the most memorable book and I doubt I will ever revisit it. I’d definitely recommend it though, especially to younger readers or if you want a more low-key fantasy read that you will be able to get through relatively quickly.