Cold As Hell by Neen Cohen is a sapphic urban fantasy, about uncovering hidden truths and discovering your destiny.
Adie lives in the town of OpenFields, a town where magic exists and everyone but Adie is a part of it.
Adie’s existence is not typical. She lives with Cameras monitoring her every move and the towns folk are unhappy with her. Adie has a troubled past, she has no memory of her time before arriving at OpenField at age six, and her life since has been filled with a darkness she doesn’t understand.
Murder and the disappearance of her boss bring a stranger to town who piques Adie’s interest and makes her feel things she’s never felt before. Adie can’t figure out what it is about Tala that draws her in, but she’s willing to help her and that road leads to a discovery that will change her world forever.
Characters
Adie is a troubled soul. She is living amongst dark, powerful, and addictive magic but is not allowed to be part of it. She is plagued by nightmares that leave her unsettled and feeling alone. She feels like she has a missing part, a void within her that she cannot fill. The only thing that makes that void seem a little less is her job at the town library and her boss who is both her friend and occasional lover. Adie is constantly searching for answers but only seems to find more questions that are never answered. She is a broody character but has a big heart that pulls you to her, I was willing her to find out what it is that troubles her and for her to find some peace.
Tala has secrets she cannot reveal until she is sure she is on the right path to discovering what is happening in OpenFields. She is strong and determined but she also carries a hardship. I don’t want to say too much because it will spoil the story, but Tala is a character that makes you want to get to know her and leaves you needing more.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
The world-building in this book is fabulous. Cohen does a fantastic job at revealing different aspects of the world, its darkness, and magic at a great pace throughout the book. I was never overwhelmed by too much information but given it as and when I needed to know. It made all the elements of the magic and its origins easy to follow.
The world itself is one you can easily get lost in, it has great depth and secrets that you long to know, and when you find them out it just leaves you wanting more.
The author has created a great cast that includes a villain to despise, and a person associated with that villain that left my loyalties torn.
Cons And Heads Up
Reference to a suicide attempt, but this is a dark urban fantasy, so you get what you expect from it.
The Conclusion
This is Neen Cohen’s debut, it’s the first in the series ‘Children of the Gods’. It sets the scene and uncovers the dark secrets of why the town of OpenFields is thriving when others are not.
Cold As Hell is a book filled with dark magic, trauma, and mystery. It tells us Adie’s story of how she came to live there and of why she has struggled with a dark void within her. It immerses you in a world filled with mystery, intrigue, and magic and leaves you wanting more.
Adie and Tala work together to overcome the villains that hold the town prisoner. A town that shouldn’t thrive as it does, with a darkness that is deep at its core, and a town leader that will stop at nothing to keep the secrets hidden.
If you like dark fantasy stories then this book is for you, I cannot wait for the next book in the series so I can continue the journey.
Excerpt from Cold As Hell by Neen Cohen
“She was glad it was Saturday, working in the library in the centre of town while the buzzing continued beneath her skin would have been unbearable. Even with Lisa’s help, her cool touch was a balm on the bad days. The mornings after the nightmares. But it felt different this morning. Would she tell Lisa? Adie reminded herself that Lisa was nothing like her mother.
But things were shifting, even had felt it. The last few months, a storm was building around the town, the tense atmosphere simply waiting for the deluge to break through. Now it felt as though it was beginning to build inside of Adie as well.
Shivering again, Adie wished the pressure came with heat, or at least humidity.
‘Well, gotta love bad omens on a morning that feels like the ice age is making a comeback.’ Each morning had been colder than the last, and winter not even supposed to have started yet.
She made her cup of chai and sat at one of her mismatched chairs at the small round table in the corner. She sipped her brew. The warmth spread to her fingers, making them tingle.
She pushed the image of the waving person from her mind. She couldn’t tell anyone about it, not even Lisa, and give the town another reason to ostracise her. Hallucinating would just be another mark against the suicidal dark creature they tolerated but couldn’t get rid of. This was her home after all.
But it wasn’t really. It never had been. She came here when she was 6. And before that, there was nothing. No memories, no life.
Just a name.
But the magic had come so easily, drawn to her from the moment she stepped in to OpenFields. There was an electricity beneath her skin. An aural sensation that vibrated and created colours around all that she saw. A heat weaved through her, even before she was a conduit.
And she had accepted the town and embraced the learnings interweaved with standard school lessons. The magic came from the Earth, a sacred place where the bones of the first goddess was returned to her home. OpenFields was filled with those that were honoured and blessed for their dedication. They maintained the beauty, and they never failed to remember her. Engraved images of her adorned the town and the people.
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Series
Cold As Hell
Black As Day
Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 9789198684056
Publisher: Nordic Press
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