Author: LAURA BICKLE
Genre: URBAN FANTASY
This book was sent to me through the book lending service, BooksFree.com.
Picture courtesy of Good Reads.
During the day, Anya Kalinczyk works with the Detroit Fire Department, as an arson investigator. But, it's at night that her latent talent is really used. She is a Lantern, a medium that uses her ability to devour malevolent ghosts in conjunction with a group of ghost hunters, who rid the earth of the worst kinds of non-corporeal beings.
Suddenly, Anya's two worlds clash, when she is called to the scene of an arson. The person responsible is not unlike herself, except he has taken the side of a very dangerous entity. Ferrar is guilty of the crime of arson, but he devours ghosts, just as Anya does. He forces her to take a harder look at her life, and whether she is really doing good.
As Anya pursues her arsonist through the city of Detroit, she discovers more and more about the entity that has Ferrar setting fires. In the end, it will take a Lantern to stop the whole city from burning. And Anya has the job. Even if it means sacrificing her soul.
The concept of this novel really appealed to me. EMBERS delves beyond magic or psychic ability. Anya is very enmeshed with her talent, even when she does her normal job as an arson investigator. In fact, I feel that she is drawn to fire, and all of its curiosities and mysteries, perhaps because of her talent.
It is interesting to read about someone who considers herself quite the loner, but there are people in Anya's circle. However, she distances herself from them. The toll that devouring souls takes on Anya is plain in the way that she deals with the members of her ghost hunting group, as well as the encounters that she has with her superiors in the fire department, not to mention the detectives in the police department. Even her indiscretion involving Ferrar speaks to this.
Bickle also does such a great job giving Sparky, Anya's elemental salamander familiar, a personality. He is invisible to those without her Lantern talent, but he is a very big part of her life. It's nice to see that he doesn't lose any of his personality during the book, when the plot could have taken the focus off of his character. I enjoyed Bickle's first foray into Anya's life, and look forward to the next in the series, Sparks.
4/5 for plot
4/5 for characters
4/5 for language
My Rating: 12/15 Highly Recommend
Bonus Cover Points: 4.5/5
Thank you so much for taking the time to read EMBERS. I'm thrilled that you enjoyed it!
ReplyDelete