"Cold Magic" Relationships - Which did you like | Which hit you wrong?

[Qylie]

Here are a few I can think of:
Cat and Bee’s
Cat and Andevai
Andevai and his family
Andevai and the mage house
Cat and her various family
Bee and her love interests
Cat and the trolls

[♥Xeni♥]

Okay, so this question you are asking here exists on so many levels... I'll try and answer it:

I like how Andevai and Cat weren't your typical hero and heroine in that they fell in love way at the beginning and everyone tries to stop them from being together (Romeo & Juliet) or they manage to find each other, become best friends and then find out that they actually love each other (some other classic). Instead, they don't even know each other, are forced to marry more permanently than anything I have ever heard of, and then they try and kill each other (A bit Mr. and Mrs. Smith, no?)

For all that, though, I can't fault Elliot. She did a great job not putting in mushy romance scenes, but put enough interesting bits there for me to grow into the characters.

Cat and Bee are also a good relationship... Bee doesn't "use" Cat for her own advantage; they really work well together. Their relationship actually reminds me a lot of me and my little sister, so I have a soft spot for them!

Andevai and his family is an interesting one. I feel that he should respect them more... not just surface respect, but rather a deeper respect (which he then does at the end, so yay! I love character growth!)

Andevai and the mage house... now there is a toughie. I love how he stood up to the mensa at the end; he's an idiot. I hate how they made Andevai all arrogant and stuff, since he could be so much of a better person without it! But I suppose that is also the only way that he could end up living there; he probably would have killed himself otherwise.

Cat and her family... was interesting. There were so many new surprises constantly that I still don't know which story to believe. I like how Elliot had all these references to Cat being a cat ("a cat always lands on her feet" etc) and yet she has such a tough time accepting the fact that her father is a saber toothed cat. It's an interesting family dynamic!

Bee wasn't a very interesting character for me... and her love interests just seemed flighty and too 'modern' for my tastes.

The trolls in general were a very odd addition to the story. I didn't really like it. The whole ghouls and trolls etc just didn't ring right for me.

[Zen]

♥Xeni♥ wrote: "that they fell in love ...(Romeo & Juliet) or they manage to find each other... they don't even know each other, are forced to marry more ...and then they try and kill each other (A bit Mr. and Mrs. Smith, no?)"

Oh I so agree with your analogies! And the Cat/Andevai tension is what held the book together for me. I think that other relationships (especially btw Cat and Bee) could have been better explored.

All the other relationships that Qylie mentions in her post felt very flat and one-dimensional. Almost as if the hurried pace of the adventure did not leave time to really develop the other relationships.

I felt that Cat/Bee and Cat/Trolls are something I would want to see more of.....

[Chris]

I think we're probably going to see more of Cat/Bee in the coming sequels. It's pretty understandable why they couldn't be written together much in this one. I do think they make an awesome pair though, and it's one of the main reasons I'm looking forward to Cold Fire.

As for the other relationships, I'd agree; there really wasn't time for anything to develop with Cat on the run for such a large portion of the book, although, thanks to the book being written from her perspective, we were able to see how her opinions changed as she gained more and more knowledge of what had really happened.