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Legends of the Shifters #2
Icebound
Ivy's journey continues as she struggles with the loss of her beloved friend. Instead of freedom from the conservatory, now all she wants is revenge for his death. Then, on her way back from the island, something horrible happens. An excruciating pain rips through her heart as the serum of the plant invades her system. While it makes her stronger, it is seemingly destroying her at the same time.
As if that wasn't enough of a burden, just after Ivy arrives at the conservatory, the prince of Leviatha rescues her from the wrath of Headmaster Drake. His mission is to take her to the castle to finally learn about the prophecy, but a secret plan is brewing between him and his father, King Giddon.
In this continued tale of mythical creatures, adventure, and love, Ivy must learn how to overcome her enemies, and more importantly, herself.
As if that wasn't enough of a burden, just after Ivy arrives at the conservatory, the prince of Leviatha rescues her from the wrath of Headmaster Drake. His mission is to take her to the castle to finally learn about the prophecy, but a secret plan is brewing between him and his father, King Giddon.
In this continued tale of mythical creatures, adventure, and love, Ivy must learn how to overcome her enemies, and more importantly, herself.
- GenresFantasy
314 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 28, 2015
22 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
J.B. North
4 books53 followersJ.B. North grew up in West Texas, where she spent much of her time scouring bookshelves in her aunt’s school library. Her first book, Spark (Legends of the Shifters, Book 1) hit digital shelves (and soon after, Amazon Bestseller lists) when she was 17 years old.
Today, North is braving city life in California's Bay Area with her husband, and is working on a number of upcoming fantasy novels.
Today, North is braving city life in California's Bay Area with her husband, and is working on a number of upcoming fantasy novels.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 1, 2015
GREAT SEQUEL....NOW I WANT # 3
The characters are well developed and easy to love and root for as they struggle with the evil all around them. The heroine is a typical teenager in so many ways it makes her endearing. She is confused about life and her true purpose as this second book takes us to the...."rebels" you could say.
I hope the third book comes out soon, I definitely want more of this story.
While a young Author, Ms. North has a wonderful writing style that is easy to read and her books are really well edited. She has created an interesting world full of evil with quests, intrigue, mystery, suspense, romance and lots of great action and adventure.
KUDOS Ms. North on a tale well told!
The characters are well developed and easy to love and root for as they struggle with the evil all around them. The heroine is a typical teenager in so many ways it makes her endearing. She is confused about life and her true purpose as this second book takes us to the...."rebels" you could say.
I hope the third book comes out soon, I definitely want more of this story.
While a young Author, Ms. North has a wonderful writing style that is easy to read and her books are really well edited. She has created an interesting world full of evil with quests, intrigue, mystery, suspense, romance and lots of great action and adventure.
KUDOS Ms. North on a tale well told!
February 12, 2019
Legends of the Shifters by J.B. North Series Review
Instead of reviewing the individual books, I’m going to write this review in regard to the entire series. There are four books in the Legends of the Shifters series: Spark, Icebound, Sandstorm, and Daybreak.
Overall, I’d give the entire series a rating of 3.5/5 stars. Individually, I’d rate each book as follows:
o Spark 2.5/5
o Icebound 3/5
o Sandstorm 3.5/5
o Daybreak 3/5
What I didn’t like: (The list is quite long, but, I promise, I really did enjoy the series. I’m going into detail here to provide potential readers with an informed review and the author with useable feedback)
The author was young when she started writing the first book, Spark, and it definitely shows. There were several moments in which the characters seemed extremely naïve, particularly the main character, Ivy. In the first book she was seventeen and, while she did grow up in an orphanage without much interaction to the outside world, one would expect her to be a little more mature.
o A sub-point to the naivety problem is that everything (and I mean everything) made the main character want to vomit. Someone was injured? She felt like throwing up. The mere thought of a dead body (even if there wasn’t one)? She had to hold back the urge to barf. This was quite an annoying and common occurrence throughout the entire series, but it definitely showed up much less often in the later books. Now, I can assume that the constant urge to vomit was the author’s way of simply saying that Ivy was nervous or just generally uncomfortable with a situation or thought, but there are better ways to show that. Even if she left the vomiting urges in the book, she should’ve changed some of those out with a different description to keep it from getting repetitive.
There were quite a few things that were gone over with broad strokes, particularly the fighting scenes, the weapons, and the armor.
o I personally have a love for medieval armor and weaponry, so I really like lots of description of those things, but I realize that not everyone shares that interest. Still, some description was needed. Swords were simply described as swords, knives as knives, and bows as bows. We weren’t even told if the bow was a traditional bow or a crossbow (to be fair, it was clearly a traditional bow based on the description of use). Again, I didn’t expect to be told trivial details like if the blades had a convex or V-grind, but I expected to be told if they were curved or straight. At least tell me if it is a one-handed or two-handed sword.
o J.B. North activated another pet-peeve of mine when it came to armor. The problem was that there were only two situations in which she ever mentioned it. 1: The few times that she gave a brief description of the armor. 2: When someone was cutting through it. What’s the point of armor if Every. Single. Time. It gets hit, it just breaks? All right, I’m sorry. I’m done.
There were also some logistical and consistency issues.
o The main character, Ivy, has the ability of fire. However, when the way the fire interacted with and effected the world and its people was constantly different from time to time without any explanation as to why, that’s a problem. At one point, when Ivy had an aura of fire around her, another character stuck their arm into the fire without injury, but then got extremely burnt when she forces his hand into the fire again later in that same scene. Other times people would suffer mere burns when they were hit with a blast of fire, but others were described as completely turning to ash.
There were also some issues with the storytelling, itself.
o In the Legends of the Shifters universe there is a prophecy that involves our main character. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of prophecy and chosen one stories, but they can be entertaining. The problem with the prophecy in this story was that it meant nothing; it didn’t need to be there at all. The only actual roll that the prophecy played in the story was an occasional source of motivation for Ivy. At times, she would push through something saying, “I must go on because the prophecy says I have to.”
o There were also way too many coincidences for it to be believable. Fortunately, it seems that the author learned from her mistakes and this problem only existed in the first book. Without going back through the book and counting them, I’d say there were at least five story and character defining moments that happened entirely by luck or coincidence.
o Also, the story never really defines a “bad guy” until late in the series. Even when we are given a bad guy, we find that he isn’t the “real” bad guy behind it all. We are also told multiple times in the last book that the different kingdoms have seen this war with the “real” bad guy coming for decades and, thus, have prepared armies. So, if they have known about this bad guy for decades then why didn’t we, the readers, hear about this person until the end of the third book? The author tried really hard in the final book to make the reader feel the gravity of the situation (and, honestly, she did quite well given the fact that the problem was introduced so late into the series), but I feel like I would’ve been able feel for all the kingdoms and their occupants more if the war that was happening had been addressed earlier on and then had the tension built up throughout the entire series.
o Speaking of tension buildup, that brings me to my next point.
Whenever something bad happened, I found it hard to care. And, no, it’s not because I didn’t feel for any of the characters (because I really did), it was simply because there wasn't enough buildup to the bad event. Whenever a bad thing happened, it just… happened. Don’t get me wrong, having something happen unexpectedly can be fun, but even that must be set up right. As a side note, the author did have one scene where something happened out of nowhere and I quite enjoyed it because it was portrayed very well (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it). Another reason I found it hard to care was because that bad thing almost always got resolved. We don’t see a bad thing with a permanent affect happen until the very end of the last book. Worse yet, not only is that bad thing always resolved, it’s usually resolved within two pages. So, I didn’t even have time to wonder how the characters might resolve the problem because… boom, problem resolved as soon as you turn the page.
There were also some things I personally didn’t like with the physical side of the writing
o The author did a lot of “telling and not showing,” particularly when it came to facial expressions. I know that describing a face in enough detail to get the reader to understand what you’re trying to portray is difficult, but it has to be done. Showing the emotions helps the reader immerse themselves in the world and has a greater impact on the reader than simply saying things like, “he had a panicked look” or “he bellowed an enraged cry.”
o The author used quite a few phrases like, “he fell down, down, down” or “as we walked down the mountain we went around, and around, and around.”
o There were also some grammatical and spelling errors, albeit, very few that I noticed.
o Aside from the few spelling errors, there were a couple of times that she changed verb tenses.
o Also, there were a lot of fragmented, incomplete sentences. I get that authors can break certain rules of writing to get a particular sentence or scene to come across in a desired way, but many of the fragmented sentences would’ve read the same had they been combined with a comma.
What I did Like: (This section is going to be much shorter because the review is already getting quite long and because the things I liked can be summed up pretty easily)
The creativity and original ideas behind the Legends of the Shifters series made the whole story interesting and entertaining despite the above-mentioned issues.
The characters were believable and interacted with each other in realistic and natural ways (although, a larger use of contractions in the dialogue would’ve made it sound less robotic).
I could tell that the physical side of the world had been well thought out, with the consistent descriptions of the different kingdoms and where they were in relation to each other.
It was neat to see a world in which everyone had a magical ability. Most stories with magic only give powers to a select few people, so I liked seeing that changed up. (I would’ve liked to see magic play a larger roll in the everyday person’s life, though)
There are definitely some strong Christian themes in the book. I know some people like that and others don’t. Personally, I don’t care either way, as long as it’s incorporated well… and it was. (I think the author could’ve gone a step further with how the existence of magic interacted with the belief in God – since modern Christianity often condemns the idea of magic – but, as is, it never contradicted or took away from the story).
All in all, I enjoyed reading the Legends of the Shifters series and I think J.B. North certainly has potential as a writer. She has a natural gift for creativity and, when it comes to writing, it’s easier to improve your writing style than it is to learn to be creative. If (hopefully “when”) J.B. North releases another book, I think I’ll be adding it to my library.
Instead of reviewing the individual books, I’m going to write this review in regard to the entire series. There are four books in the Legends of the Shifters series: Spark, Icebound, Sandstorm, and Daybreak.
Overall, I’d give the entire series a rating of 3.5/5 stars. Individually, I’d rate each book as follows:
o Spark 2.5/5
o Icebound 3/5
o Sandstorm 3.5/5
o Daybreak 3/5
What I didn’t like: (The list is quite long, but, I promise, I really did enjoy the series. I’m going into detail here to provide potential readers with an informed review and the author with useable feedback)
The author was young when she started writing the first book, Spark, and it definitely shows. There were several moments in which the characters seemed extremely naïve, particularly the main character, Ivy. In the first book she was seventeen and, while she did grow up in an orphanage without much interaction to the outside world, one would expect her to be a little more mature.
o A sub-point to the naivety problem is that everything (and I mean everything) made the main character want to vomit. Someone was injured? She felt like throwing up. The mere thought of a dead body (even if there wasn’t one)? She had to hold back the urge to barf. This was quite an annoying and common occurrence throughout the entire series, but it definitely showed up much less often in the later books. Now, I can assume that the constant urge to vomit was the author’s way of simply saying that Ivy was nervous or just generally uncomfortable with a situation or thought, but there are better ways to show that. Even if she left the vomiting urges in the book, she should’ve changed some of those out with a different description to keep it from getting repetitive.
There were quite a few things that were gone over with broad strokes, particularly the fighting scenes, the weapons, and the armor.
o I personally have a love for medieval armor and weaponry, so I really like lots of description of those things, but I realize that not everyone shares that interest. Still, some description was needed. Swords were simply described as swords, knives as knives, and bows as bows. We weren’t even told if the bow was a traditional bow or a crossbow (to be fair, it was clearly a traditional bow based on the description of use). Again, I didn’t expect to be told trivial details like if the blades had a convex or V-grind, but I expected to be told if they were curved or straight. At least tell me if it is a one-handed or two-handed sword.
o J.B. North activated another pet-peeve of mine when it came to armor. The problem was that there were only two situations in which she ever mentioned it. 1: The few times that she gave a brief description of the armor. 2: When someone was cutting through it. What’s the point of armor if Every. Single. Time. It gets hit, it just breaks? All right, I’m sorry. I’m done.
There were also some logistical and consistency issues.
o The main character, Ivy, has the ability of fire. However, when the way the fire interacted with and effected the world and its people was constantly different from time to time without any explanation as to why, that’s a problem. At one point, when Ivy had an aura of fire around her, another character stuck their arm into the fire without injury, but then got extremely burnt when she forces his hand into the fire again later in that same scene. Other times people would suffer mere burns when they were hit with a blast of fire, but others were described as completely turning to ash.
There were also some issues with the storytelling, itself.
o In the Legends of the Shifters universe there is a prophecy that involves our main character. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of prophecy and chosen one stories, but they can be entertaining. The problem with the prophecy in this story was that it meant nothing; it didn’t need to be there at all. The only actual roll that the prophecy played in the story was an occasional source of motivation for Ivy. At times, she would push through something saying, “I must go on because the prophecy says I have to.”
o There were also way too many coincidences for it to be believable. Fortunately, it seems that the author learned from her mistakes and this problem only existed in the first book. Without going back through the book and counting them, I’d say there were at least five story and character defining moments that happened entirely by luck or coincidence.
o Also, the story never really defines a “bad guy” until late in the series. Even when we are given a bad guy, we find that he isn’t the “real” bad guy behind it all. We are also told multiple times in the last book that the different kingdoms have seen this war with the “real” bad guy coming for decades and, thus, have prepared armies. So, if they have known about this bad guy for decades then why didn’t we, the readers, hear about this person until the end of the third book? The author tried really hard in the final book to make the reader feel the gravity of the situation (and, honestly, she did quite well given the fact that the problem was introduced so late into the series), but I feel like I would’ve been able feel for all the kingdoms and their occupants more if the war that was happening had been addressed earlier on and then had the tension built up throughout the entire series.
o Speaking of tension buildup, that brings me to my next point.
Whenever something bad happened, I found it hard to care. And, no, it’s not because I didn’t feel for any of the characters (because I really did), it was simply because there wasn't enough buildup to the bad event. Whenever a bad thing happened, it just… happened. Don’t get me wrong, having something happen unexpectedly can be fun, but even that must be set up right. As a side note, the author did have one scene where something happened out of nowhere and I quite enjoyed it because it was portrayed very well (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it). Another reason I found it hard to care was because that bad thing almost always got resolved. We don’t see a bad thing with a permanent affect happen until the very end of the last book. Worse yet, not only is that bad thing always resolved, it’s usually resolved within two pages. So, I didn’t even have time to wonder how the characters might resolve the problem because… boom, problem resolved as soon as you turn the page.
There were also some things I personally didn’t like with the physical side of the writing
o The author did a lot of “telling and not showing,” particularly when it came to facial expressions. I know that describing a face in enough detail to get the reader to understand what you’re trying to portray is difficult, but it has to be done. Showing the emotions helps the reader immerse themselves in the world and has a greater impact on the reader than simply saying things like, “he had a panicked look” or “he bellowed an enraged cry.”
o The author used quite a few phrases like, “he fell down, down, down” or “as we walked down the mountain we went around, and around, and around.”
o There were also some grammatical and spelling errors, albeit, very few that I noticed.
o Aside from the few spelling errors, there were a couple of times that she changed verb tenses.
o Also, there were a lot of fragmented, incomplete sentences. I get that authors can break certain rules of writing to get a particular sentence or scene to come across in a desired way, but many of the fragmented sentences would’ve read the same had they been combined with a comma.
What I did Like: (This section is going to be much shorter because the review is already getting quite long and because the things I liked can be summed up pretty easily)
The creativity and original ideas behind the Legends of the Shifters series made the whole story interesting and entertaining despite the above-mentioned issues.
The characters were believable and interacted with each other in realistic and natural ways (although, a larger use of contractions in the dialogue would’ve made it sound less robotic).
I could tell that the physical side of the world had been well thought out, with the consistent descriptions of the different kingdoms and where they were in relation to each other.
It was neat to see a world in which everyone had a magical ability. Most stories with magic only give powers to a select few people, so I liked seeing that changed up. (I would’ve liked to see magic play a larger roll in the everyday person’s life, though)
There are definitely some strong Christian themes in the book. I know some people like that and others don’t. Personally, I don’t care either way, as long as it’s incorporated well… and it was. (I think the author could’ve gone a step further with how the existence of magic interacted with the belief in God – since modern Christianity often condemns the idea of magic – but, as is, it never contradicted or took away from the story).
All in all, I enjoyed reading the Legends of the Shifters series and I think J.B. North certainly has potential as a writer. She has a natural gift for creativity and, when it comes to writing, it’s easier to improve your writing style than it is to learn to be creative. If (hopefully “when”) J.B. North releases another book, I think I’ll be adding it to my library.
October 3, 2015
I found myself to be charmed by these books. I really love them and cannot wait for the third one! The only thing I would change would be that I had discovered them after the series was finished so I wouldnt have to wait.
September 28, 2015
I know, I'm biased. ;)
April 16, 2018
CLIFF hanger! Fantasy story about the Phoenix, Ivy who is still working on figuring out who she is as well as saving her loved ones, including her imprisoned older brother while trying to stop her world from entering a world war.
Book one, Spark is also a cliff hanger and usually that would make me stop reading, but I liked Ivy and how clueless she is at every moment in this story, everyone is good or evil, no grey area in this story. We get close to grey with Roland's story line, but he was quickly eliminated in the first book.
I'm going to read the last book just to find out it Kurt is still alive.
I really hope that Ivy stays single.
I will toss this book away if she ends up with the dragon! Please don't set everyone up into heteronormative relationships. Although it looks like that is the way this is heading.
Its says 314 pages, but I read the kindle version as a freebie and it felt more like 200 pages.
2 stars
Book one, Spark is also a cliff hanger and usually that would make me stop reading, but I liked Ivy and how clueless she is at every moment in this story, everyone is good or evil, no grey area in this story. We get close to grey with Roland's story line, but he was quickly eliminated in the first book.
I'm going to read the last book just to find out it Kurt is still alive.
I really hope that Ivy stays single.
I will toss this book away if she ends up with the dragon! Please don't set everyone up into heteronormative relationships. Although it looks like that is the way this is heading.
Its says 314 pages, but I read the kindle version as a freebie and it felt more like 200 pages.
2 stars
August 10, 2018
A creative, intriguing adventure
This series is really fun. This is an imaginative world. I love the characters and how the author displays the world they live in. Very interesting, definitely worth reading. I love the subtle hints of God in these, it's grounded in it without being overwhelming or preachy. Great book!
This series is really fun. This is an imaginative world. I love the characters and how the author displays the world they live in. Very interesting, definitely worth reading. I love the subtle hints of God in these, it's grounded in it without being overwhelming or preachy. Great book!
January 18, 2020
Awesome
Awesome read with more twists and unexpected turns as treachery and magic abounds while intertwined with lives of shifters and the 5 kingdoms.
Awesome read with more twists and unexpected turns as treachery and magic abounds while intertwined with lives of shifters and the 5 kingdoms.
Read
March 1, 2017While this book was interesting, I have to admit that I enjoyed the second half the book much more because it had to do with finally knowing what the prophecy says and what Ivy's role in everything is. But of course nothing is at all what it seems in this series so far. I'm glad that past characters make appearances, and that a new player comes into the game, August. The next book should be interesting.
October 30, 2015
Icebound is book two of the Legend of the Shifters Series and it is packed with excitement and adventure. The characters have a lot of depth so you really feel like you get to know them well as you read and you are invested in what is going on with them. For such a young author I'm impressed with her attention to detail both in the story world and the characters. She has built a world that I can see in my mind when I read these and I'm really liking this series and looking forward to the next book.
Ivy's friend is dead and she wants revenge, her journey continues as she returns with a rare plant that can give life and strength, but it can also destroy and cause pain. When she returns to the conservatory she must continue to learn more about her abilities, learn about the prophecy, and guard herself against a plot against her.
Book three is sure to keep the pace and I can't wait to read it! 5 Stars.
Ivy's friend is dead and she wants revenge, her journey continues as she returns with a rare plant that can give life and strength, but it can also destroy and cause pain. When she returns to the conservatory she must continue to learn more about her abilities, learn about the prophecy, and guard herself against a plot against her.
Book three is sure to keep the pace and I can't wait to read it! 5 Stars.
July 16, 2019
Good read.
I really enjoyed this book. The second in its series, although I would like to give 5 stars I just felt in my own that it lacked some parts that where very ominous but instead replaced with a rash or up straight castle part where most was just talk. I did enjoy the book for its price and can not weight for the next installment.
I really enjoyed this book. The second in its series, although I would like to give 5 stars I just felt in my own that it lacked some parts that where very ominous but instead replaced with a rash or up straight castle part where most was just talk. I did enjoy the book for its price and can not weight for the next installment.
December 4, 2015
Not as good as the first.
Compared to the first book in the series this one felt like filler and was kind of a let down. Very little suspense or action involved, everything seemed like a set up for what's to come. I am at least looking forward to the next installment.
Compared to the first book in the series this one felt like filler and was kind of a let down. Very little suspense or action involved, everything seemed like a set up for what's to come. I am at least looking forward to the next installment.
January 10, 2016
Where's book 3?
I read book 1 and 2 in a couple of days. Now I'm ready for 3. I read a lot of books but quite often I don't finish. I certainly don't write reviews if i don't love the books. I did so I do! :))
I read book 1 and 2 in a couple of days. Now I'm ready for 3. I read a lot of books but quite often I don't finish. I certainly don't write reviews if i don't love the books. I did so I do! :))
October 7, 2015
Great reading
This young writer weaves a great story with twist and turns. I can not wait for her next book to come out.
This young writer weaves a great story with twist and turns. I can not wait for her next book to come out.
December 4, 2016
Cliffhanger but excellent
Read both the first and second books straight th. Am very much enthralled with this series...just wish that the author would give it a better closure.
Read both the first and second books straight th. Am very much enthralled with this series...just wish that the author would give it a better closure.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews