Review: Fire Kissed by Erin Kellison

3.5 Feathers

Fire Kissed

by Erin Kellison

(Shadow # 4)

Some of the things that stand out in my mind when I think of this book:

a) The storyline was full of action and intrigue.  There's a bigger picture battle between basically good and evil but there's also a smaller scale conflict of what happened to the heroine as a teenager and how that is reflecting on her present.

b) The world was amazing and unique, full of magic and angels that can disguise themselves and seem human.

c) The hero is sexy as hell.  Jack Bastian can light my fire anyday.
d)  He actually lights the heroines' fire.  Her power is so cool.  Among other things, like seeing the future with a touch, she controls fire.  She can burn with a touch.

Those are the things I liked the most about this story.  But then I also thought that there was at times a big info dump which could've been done, maybe, in a bit more concise fashion.  For a reader like me, coming in n book 4 of the series, this was helpful so that I could understand the dynamics of this world, the different supernaturals, their powers and their conflicts.  But even I felt that at times it was over-explained and analyzed and I can see how if you've been reading the series, maybe some of those things would get repetitive.

Another thing that I enjoyed about this book was that it rides a fine line between urban fantasy and paranormal romance.  I actually had a hard time choosing how to classify it.  In the end I'm going with paranormal romance because there is a couple, and although their love is not the focus of the story by any means, their attraction does play a role that I find gives it more romance than I would expect from a UF.  Do I think that they are a good match?  Probably not.  I think she may be a little too damaged where she's at in her life to get her to fall in love and be able to stay in a relationship.  And in keeping with a more UF theme, the hero and heroine are not neat little characters that can do no wrong.  They do have depth and neither of them are perfect. 

The heroine has to survive a lot in her past and has been living up to now in a way that is not entirely sane.  She is capable of doing wrong, of using her power for personal gain.  But she is also essentially good and wants to help people even at a high cost to herself and her happiness.  So even though I can't say that Kaye Brand will ever be a favorite heroine of mine, I do like her strength to push through.

A little slow to start but once this book got going, I did enjoy the story and went full speed ahead and couldn't stop reading pretty much until I finished it.  It was in essence a captivating and very unique story.

*ARC provided by publisher

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