Review: Firelight (Darkest London #1)

Firelight (Darkest London #1), Kristen Callihan

Rating: 5 of 5 Stars

Age Group: Adult

Publication: 1/31/2012, Grand Central Publishing

# of Pages: 372 (Paperback)

Source:  I received an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis from Goodreads:  London, 1881

Once the flames are ignited . . .

Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.

They will burn for eternity . . .

Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.

My Review:  This may be my new favorite genre if I could figure out where the hell it falls. Part Gothic Romance, Part Historical, Part Paranormal, Part Mystery, Part Fairy Tale Retelling. It all adds up to = Pure Awesome.

Seriously, I've never seen elements of so many of my favorite things in one place, except for maybe if you include the breakfast I like at IHOP with the stuffed French toast and the bacon and the hash browns (great, now I'm hungry). Firelight is like that breakfast for me. Only instead of feeding my hunger, it's fed my soul. Ha. So corny. You'd never know I was a writer. This book has turned me into a babbling idiot. I'm practically tripping over myself in the bookstore to shove it into people's hands. And I don't work at the bookstore. I'm assaulting strangers.

Kristen Callihan started with a simple premise, a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. Then she set it at the end of the 1800's in London with an incredibly masculine, enigmatic, and swoon-worthy Beast. Then she gave us a kick-ass Beauty with some sort of fire-controlling superpower. And then to top it off, like the whipped cream tops my French toast, she added a murder mystery. Viola! Just like that, I'm sated and couldn't be happier. I feel like this book (or at least my poorly executed food metaphor) has caused me to gain five pounds.

As with any novel I love, Firelight has a smoldering hero in Lord Archer. He's charming and witty, bruised but not broken, challenging, and amazing and awesome and—see, incoherent babbling. Let me summarize and simply tell you that I adore Archer. Of course, I also adored Beast in the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. He's my favorite prince. I was rather distressed when he changed back into a human at the end. I liked him better large, hairy, and a bit surly.

Anyway...

Firelight is a spellbinding debut that will light a fire within you, burning you and leaving you begging for more. Callihan is a master of sexual tension. My lip still hurts from biting it the entire time I was reading. It was pure torture. And the funny thing is, I'm not really a big romance reader, but she's made me think I've been missing out all these years. Highly recommended. Not just to romance readers, but to readers like myself who love to mix our genres.

Goodreads / Amazon

Recent Reads - Paradise 21

Paradise 21, by Aubrie Dionne

  4 of 5 Stars

Genre:   SciFi Romance

Pages:   227

Published:   7/27/2011, Entangled Publishing

Why I Chose It:   As part of Aubrie's blog tour, I was given an e-ARC, but I love this cover. I think it captures the heat of the desert planet Aries crash landed upon and the heat of her relationship with Striker.

Synopsis (from Good Reads):    Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind's last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where mankind can begin anew- a planet that won't be reached in Aries' lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers rumors about pirates - humans who had escaped Earth her before its demise - are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possess the freedom Aries' envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet's native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.

My Review:  Aubrie Dionne's writing is phenomenal. The book never left me wanting or tempted to skim through in an effort to get to the good stuff. The entire novel is the good stuff. She revved up the action when I needed her to and slowed the pace at just the right moment.

Aries isn't your run-of-the-mill kick-ass heroine. She's spent her entire life aboard the New Dawn, a colonial ship heading for a planet where mankind can start over. She's vulnerable and complex. She's not sure what she's going to do or how she's going to survive, but she's brave enough to try. Brave enough to believe that there's a better life in the universe than the confines of the ship, an assigned job, and an arranged marriage to a man she can hardly stand, let alone love.

Striker is majorly swoon-worthy, tough and resilient yet gentle and caring. I've read some complaints that Aries fell in love too quickly, but I never felt this to be the case. I look at it as first love. Something Aries had never felt before and if you remember your first taste of love, you remember that it's always fast and intense.

The secondary characters were equally as well-developed and intriguing. Barliss in particular demands your attention when he's on the page. I found myself despising him but at the same time wanting to see more of him. 

My only complaint is that it ended. I wanted more. There were a few things left dangling. Not enough to affect the storyline, but enough to give me hope that we're not completely done with Aries, Striker, Tiff or Barliss yet. The novel is labeled as A New Dawn #1, so I'm assuming a sequel is in the works. If this is the case, I can't wait for the next one.

I loved this book and would recommended it to anyone who likes SciFi or romance.




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