Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch is the first in a young adult fantasy series centering around Meira, a young refugee left orphaned when her country was overrun and conquered by a neighbouring power. It focusses on her struggle to locate the missing magical Conduit of Winter and to free her imprisoned countrymen. What I liked The world. I really enjoyed the world that Raasch has built for her story. There are eight kingdoms; four Season realms, each dominated by a single season (our protagonist is from Winter) and four Rhythm, whose climate cycles through each season. Each kingdom was wonderfully described and I loved their seasonal themes. The tensions between the kingdoms were interesting and well described and I appreciated the political machinations that were going on behind the scenes. The magic system. The magic system of the Conduits was fascinating, and I look forward to reading more about the chasm of magic and the Decay in future books. I always appreciate it when limitations are written into the magic system – often, they are as interesting as the magic itself. In this case I enjoyed the fact that certain artifacts are limited by gender and can only…