Firelight

Book Review:  Firelight by Kristen Callihan

Warning: This book contains mild language and intense adult situations. Really intense.

I don’t do a lot of book reviews but I really wanted to talk about this book.  It doesn’t actually come out until the end of this month but I was lucky enough to win an arc with an embarrassing, fan girl, teenage stalker email.  OK, I’m not embarrassed, I got the arc after all and it was well worth it. 

I fell in love with this book the first time I read a snip of it over at the Compuserve Literary website.  Funny enough that scene didn’t make it into the final book.  Here is the back cover

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. 

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. 

At its essence this is a beauty and the beast story, but taking place in London in 1881 it’s not a traditional fairy tale.  The core of the story is a romance and the author handles that with great attention and detail. Yet woven into that is the story of gifts and curses, betrayal and trust and the possibility of immortality.  I know the book was much longer originally and that she had to cut it to meet her publishers requirements and the only thing I wish different about this book was that she could have left it a little longer, given us more time for Archer and Miranda to build their relationship. 

Kristen is an amazingly talented writer.  If you don’t want to take my word for it here is a post from her agent the amazing Kristin Nelson.