What do you think?
Rate this book
Fire Goddess
She Fears Her Magic. He's the Most Powerful Wizard Ever (But Has No Clue). Together? They're Unstoppable.
Kris has mastered invisibility - not through magic, but by disappearing into books and dodging bullies. Little does he know he's Arendel, the most powerful wizard across all realms, hidden on Earth by the Gods themselves.
"You must fully believe in what you desire to bring it to life," the wizard's creed demands. He finds that hard. When he sees the woman he loves bleeding among the ruins of the wizard council, none of that matters. Only saving her does.
With dark forces closing in and her life fading, his dormant power could save everything -if he could finally believe in himself. But can two people terrified of their magic find the courage to unleash it before losing each other forever?
A spellbinding romantic fantasy about finding your power, facing your fears, and falling in love.
Fire Goddess is filled with self-improvement themes that have helped millions improve their lives and thrive.
Enjoy this friends to lovers sweet romance today!
Kris has mastered invisibility - not through magic, but by disappearing into books and dodging bullies. Little does he know he's Arendel, the most powerful wizard across all realms, hidden on Earth by the Gods themselves.
"You must fully believe in what you desire to bring it to life," the wizard's creed demands. He finds that hard. When he sees the woman he loves bleeding among the ruins of the wizard council, none of that matters. Only saving her does.
With dark forces closing in and her life fading, his dormant power could save everything -if he could finally believe in himself. But can two people terrified of their magic find the courage to unleash it before losing each other forever?
A spellbinding romantic fantasy about finding your power, facing your fears, and falling in love.
Fire Goddess is filled with self-improvement themes that have helped millions improve their lives and thrive.
Enjoy this friends to lovers sweet romance today!
303 pages, ebook
Published March 4, 2025
1 person is currently reading
1 person want to read
About the author
Barbara Ferrier
14 books10 followersBarbara Ferrier is best known for writing Fantasy and Magic books. She’s inspired by exploring old castles, ancient ruins, and observing people’s lives. Somehow she survived grade school four times (!) the last three while raising her kids. She enjoys creating characters that we love to cheer or fear. Her first career producing television taught her to keep the action moving. While traveling she writes positive human stories we all deserve to experience.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 18, 2025
I received an ARC from the author but was not required to post a review on the book. This is my
honest voluntary reaction and opinion to this book I
just read though.
This is a sci-fi book which is the first of a new series
about a powerful mage on another planet who is selected to be reborn on earth some 23 years later so a portal can be established between his former world of Kalendra and Earth.
Having no memory of who he was, he grows up isolated because of the gifts he was bestowed on when he left. However, as he turns 23 a couple of the mages he knew approach him and subtlety influence him and he figures out a way to use an existing portal to return to his planet but he has no memory of who he was before. With help some of his former mages his memories return and later he meets a female mage who nurses him back to health after a near fatal fall with the help of her magic wolves.
There is unrest on this planet and he along with the girl he meets and his former friends confront those who are bent on subjugating the people to their way of thinking!
Throughout the book the now earth man and the girl
he meets and falls in love with must learn to face their fears and learn to control the magic within them as they also find themselves falling in love with each other!
I found the book intriguing in its scope and it does leave some tantalizing references to what is to come in future books.
I enjoyed this book and heartily recommend it to all who love sci-fi fiction. Future books will no doubt be based on both worlds as our heroes and their friends and apprentices will travel the new portal between both worlds.
If you are looking for a read dealing with magic and an out of this world experience check out this book and sign up to the authors newsletter to be informed when the next book (s) will be released.
I think you’ll enjoy this book as much as I did!
honest voluntary reaction and opinion to this book I
just read though.
This is a sci-fi book which is the first of a new series
about a powerful mage on another planet who is selected to be reborn on earth some 23 years later so a portal can be established between his former world of Kalendra and Earth.
Having no memory of who he was, he grows up isolated because of the gifts he was bestowed on when he left. However, as he turns 23 a couple of the mages he knew approach him and subtlety influence him and he figures out a way to use an existing portal to return to his planet but he has no memory of who he was before. With help some of his former mages his memories return and later he meets a female mage who nurses him back to health after a near fatal fall with the help of her magic wolves.
There is unrest on this planet and he along with the girl he meets and his former friends confront those who are bent on subjugating the people to their way of thinking!
Throughout the book the now earth man and the girl
he meets and falls in love with must learn to face their fears and learn to control the magic within them as they also find themselves falling in love with each other!
I found the book intriguing in its scope and it does leave some tantalizing references to what is to come in future books.
I enjoyed this book and heartily recommend it to all who love sci-fi fiction. Future books will no doubt be based on both worlds as our heroes and their friends and apprentices will travel the new portal between both worlds.
If you are looking for a read dealing with magic and an out of this world experience check out this book and sign up to the authors newsletter to be informed when the next book (s) will be released.
I think you’ll enjoy this book as much as I did!
April 9, 2025
let me preface this by saying that this is all my opinion and i feel bad about my opinions.
my earliest apologies. i feel like i have to say this early on because i am going to say not so very nice things about this book.
i don't want to but i have to. maybe i also don't have to but i will.
to get this out of the way. shoutout to booksirens for this arc! always a pleasure.
okay let's get started.
i usually save my 1 stars for books that i genuinely did not like. i'm afraid we're here.
i was going to maybe put this as 2 stars because at the beginning when everything was confusing me i was hate-reading it. and it's was funny that i found it bad. but there comes a point where nothing makes any sense to me anymore and why is this book still going and i feel like i'm wasting my time. at that point i stopped making notes otherwise every paragraph would be highlighted.
i need to block my points out.
first thing that comes to mind is how poor the world building is. where even are we? i know we have a map at the start of book but i don't think it was that important because i didn't even refer to it at all. i realise that we're in another planet or realm or whatever but why are all the elements in kalendra so earthlike? i feel like the whole time we were still on earth and we never left. castles and palaces decribed as rococco-styles... and hotels??? what??? what do you mean??? crystal pillars??? and why do we keep moving between settings so quickly? it's such a missed opportunity to delve into what kalendra looked like when fast-transport is possible with the wolf trail. everyone would just teleport to where they wanted to go. even if they didn't teleport, it would just be a break in the chapter and suddenly we're where we wanted to be. the best we'd get are descriptions of the area we're in. ffs tell me what the air smelled like and how soft the grass is and how musical was the fucking waterfall or i don't know? anything other than just telling me that the buildings are tall and that the ground is messy. i didn't feel like kalendra was anything special. it's was so bad that i think i just pictured all the scenes happening in a sterile white square unless i was told they changed location.
this is minute in the grand scheme of things but you know what annoyed me? the fact that we had outfit checks. if anyone reads this book i feel like they should have a drinking game every time an outfit check was done. it's so useless in my opinion here. i don't give a shit that sylvia's wearing a red gown or jorts or fuck all. why is she wearing this? why is anyone wearing anything they're wearing??? do you expect me to believe that everyone is just wearing earth clothes when they make it seem like earth is so inaccessible to them that they had to send arendel in order to get a portal started??? what do you meannnn???? pls
also someone explain to me why was it even necessary to send arendel, a fucking prodigy, command him to go earth, erase all his memories, send him down as a baby, take him back at 23, and partially give his memories back. you literally tell me at the start that there are Gods of Earth. why didn't they build the portal??? do these gods not have the power??? why did he have to be an earthman to build a portal. why must a portal even exist if eldor can willy-nilly get to and from earth easily to stalk kris. even his buddies from the citadel can come and go it seems.
but also why is this book so heavily emphasizing kris/ arendel when the title is fire goddess and i know you want to tell me this is sylvia's story. i would've loved to explore more of sylvia's story because it seems like she's the titular character??? why did we get silly little backstories of her parents dying, she gets adopted, a wolf almost gets killed, she picks up a stone and kills everyone with fire and she becomes a recluse. that's interesting. tell me more. change it up to us having sylvia's story instead. i don't care about kris and his first world problems.
speaking of kris. why does he just irritate me??? i don't like him. bro you're 23. stop huffing and puffing about your bullies and how you were bullied and how you're going to stop the bullies. it gives me the ick how he's so fixated on that. i realise that bullying is serious. everyone's been through that. i get it. but when it's your characters sole defining characteristic is that he's bullied, it's just so childish to me. he doesn't read to me as an adult when that's how i think he is, a child. it makes the intimate (if you could call it that) scenes with sylvia really gross.
you know what got tiring so quick? every scene and every dialogue with kris and sylvia. if i have to read another scene of them being alone together and just love-bombing each other, i will kill myself.
tonally, everyone sounds the same. everyone sounds like they're the same age for some reason. which is so strange because everyone should be old because they're wizards and shit. i can excuse kris because he has a 23 year old brain but everyone else??? no one sounds mature. i don't know how to explain this point. it's just a vibe. also everyone who talk to kris and sylvia sounds like a therapist. not that i'd know what a therapist would sound like but it's just the vibe.
the pacing is baaaddddd. what is time in this book? time is a construct. one day we're in school and then in the next paragraph he's the vice president of this company??? one day he's in paris and then he's with a man named eduardo and talking to shamans in a village??? one day we're having a training session and then he has to go camping on a fucking crystal pillar and oopsie he fell and he's on the ground for days?? then we're in a coma and he's with sylvia. surely he must've been with her for long enough because they fall in love. surprise it's been a couple of weeks already. was no one fucking concerned that this earthman they painstakingly retrieved from earth is missing and almost fucking died???? he's been gone for weeks. i think after this, time is nothing and we just start getting scene after scene after scene after scene after scene yadda yadda.
why did i feel like there were no stakes in this book? if these fucking gemstones are as powerful as it's described then basically our characters have infinite power. the king doesn't seem to hold any magical powers so why is he ruling the kingdom? charisma can only get you so far if these mages and wizards have the actual power to manipulate you. also the curveball of having so many antagonists in one book. all of them not being that strong anyway is hilarious.
omg the stones. i don't get how they work. it just seemed to me that they just possess whatever power was convenient for our characters. maybe i missed something but it would've been great to have some sort of explanation to how these stones hold power. but instead we're told that this stone is pink or blue or white and it does x, y and z. and if you're lucky there are spirits in them. like what???
also so so so many things misspelled.
the plot made no sense to me. for my future reference this is the plot: arendel is immortal and gets sent to earth as kris. kris is bullied and is a prodigy. he works at this company. he's also now 23 and he has to be brought back to kalendra. eldor, and arendel's buddies plot this elaborate scheme to get him back to kalendra by sending him to paris. he gets tricked and goes through a portal to kalendra. he meets mages and understands his backstory. we then meet sylvia. she has magic wolves. back to kris, he has training to get his arendel memories back. he then goes camping. he goes to the crystal pillars. he falls and almost dies. the wolves save him and sylvia nurses him back to health. they're in love now. more training with kris. then there's a meeting with the wizards. kris is alerted about danger. he finds everyone captured. he saves the day. he finds out that it's the purple tari people. they investigate. they find out that this zadak yarfor is manipulating the people. they have fight. kris almost dies but he's revived. then they plan to overthrow the king. they go to his palace to (i honestly spaced out after this) do fuck all. then it ends on a cliff hanger bc we have to find out what happens in the next book. sprinkle some mentions about the king being crazy and kris and sylvia being cringe and nasty all throughout the book. and that's it.
hidden below are my bookmarks. don't open this bc i give up halfway and i just have them below just so i have evidence that i paid some semblance of attention
those are the notes/ bookmarks. you won't be able to tell but there are hardly any note past the halfway point because i honestly did give up. somehow everything was relevant to note and pick apart but also i couldn't be bothered anymore.
the scowl on my face as we reached the end was pretty much indication on how i felt about the reading experience.
but who knows someone might like this. i just had geez through some reviews and i guess some people see something in this that i can't. so to each their own.
i don't know if i'll reach for the second book. unless it goes through such a heavy editing process then maybe??? or i'll forget that i've said this and i'll end up reading it anyway.
before i close, the main takeaway: i think this book suffers a lot from telling and not showing. and also it's suffering from a lot of things too.
disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. :)
my earliest apologies. i feel like i have to say this early on because i am going to say not so very nice things about this book.
i don't want to but i have to. maybe i also don't have to but i will.
to get this out of the way. shoutout to booksirens for this arc! always a pleasure.
okay let's get started.
i usually save my 1 stars for books that i genuinely did not like. i'm afraid we're here.
i was going to maybe put this as 2 stars because at the beginning when everything was confusing me i was hate-reading it. and it's was funny that i found it bad. but there comes a point where nothing makes any sense to me anymore and why is this book still going and i feel like i'm wasting my time. at that point i stopped making notes otherwise every paragraph would be highlighted.
i need to block my points out.
first thing that comes to mind is how poor the world building is. where even are we? i know we have a map at the start of book but i don't think it was that important because i didn't even refer to it at all. i realise that we're in another planet or realm or whatever but why are all the elements in kalendra so earthlike? i feel like the whole time we were still on earth and we never left. castles and palaces decribed as rococco-styles... and hotels??? what??? what do you mean??? crystal pillars??? and why do we keep moving between settings so quickly? it's such a missed opportunity to delve into what kalendra looked like when fast-transport is possible with the wolf trail. everyone would just teleport to where they wanted to go. even if they didn't teleport, it would just be a break in the chapter and suddenly we're where we wanted to be. the best we'd get are descriptions of the area we're in. ffs tell me what the air smelled like and how soft the grass is and how musical was the fucking waterfall or i don't know? anything other than just telling me that the buildings are tall and that the ground is messy. i didn't feel like kalendra was anything special. it's was so bad that i think i just pictured all the scenes happening in a sterile white square unless i was told they changed location.
this is minute in the grand scheme of things but you know what annoyed me? the fact that we had outfit checks. if anyone reads this book i feel like they should have a drinking game every time an outfit check was done. it's so useless in my opinion here. i don't give a shit that sylvia's wearing a red gown or jorts or fuck all. why is she wearing this? why is anyone wearing anything they're wearing??? do you expect me to believe that everyone is just wearing earth clothes when they make it seem like earth is so inaccessible to them that they had to send arendel in order to get a portal started??? what do you meannnn???? pls
also someone explain to me why was it even necessary to send arendel, a fucking prodigy, command him to go earth, erase all his memories, send him down as a baby, take him back at 23, and partially give his memories back. you literally tell me at the start that there are Gods of Earth. why didn't they build the portal??? do these gods not have the power??? why did he have to be an earthman to build a portal. why must a portal even exist if eldor can willy-nilly get to and from earth easily to stalk kris. even his buddies from the citadel can come and go it seems.
but also why is this book so heavily emphasizing kris/ arendel when the title is fire goddess and i know you want to tell me this is sylvia's story. i would've loved to explore more of sylvia's story because it seems like she's the titular character??? why did we get silly little backstories of her parents dying, she gets adopted, a wolf almost gets killed, she picks up a stone and kills everyone with fire and she becomes a recluse. that's interesting. tell me more. change it up to us having sylvia's story instead. i don't care about kris and his first world problems.
speaking of kris. why does he just irritate me??? i don't like him. bro you're 23. stop huffing and puffing about your bullies and how you were bullied and how you're going to stop the bullies. it gives me the ick how he's so fixated on that. i realise that bullying is serious. everyone's been through that. i get it. but when it's your characters sole defining characteristic is that he's bullied, it's just so childish to me. he doesn't read to me as an adult when that's how i think he is, a child. it makes the intimate (if you could call it that) scenes with sylvia really gross.
you know what got tiring so quick? every scene and every dialogue with kris and sylvia. if i have to read another scene of them being alone together and just love-bombing each other, i will kill myself.
tonally, everyone sounds the same. everyone sounds like they're the same age for some reason. which is so strange because everyone should be old because they're wizards and shit. i can excuse kris because he has a 23 year old brain but everyone else??? no one sounds mature. i don't know how to explain this point. it's just a vibe. also everyone who talk to kris and sylvia sounds like a therapist. not that i'd know what a therapist would sound like but it's just the vibe.
the pacing is baaaddddd. what is time in this book? time is a construct. one day we're in school and then in the next paragraph he's the vice president of this company??? one day he's in paris and then he's with a man named eduardo and talking to shamans in a village??? one day we're having a training session and then he has to go camping on a fucking crystal pillar and oopsie he fell and he's on the ground for days?? then we're in a coma and he's with sylvia. surely he must've been with her for long enough because they fall in love. surprise it's been a couple of weeks already. was no one fucking concerned that this earthman they painstakingly retrieved from earth is missing and almost fucking died???? he's been gone for weeks. i think after this, time is nothing and we just start getting scene after scene after scene after scene after scene yadda yadda.
why did i feel like there were no stakes in this book? if these fucking gemstones are as powerful as it's described then basically our characters have infinite power. the king doesn't seem to hold any magical powers so why is he ruling the kingdom? charisma can only get you so far if these mages and wizards have the actual power to manipulate you. also the curveball of having so many antagonists in one book. all of them not being that strong anyway is hilarious.
omg the stones. i don't get how they work. it just seemed to me that they just possess whatever power was convenient for our characters. maybe i missed something but it would've been great to have some sort of explanation to how these stones hold power. but instead we're told that this stone is pink or blue or white and it does x, y and z. and if you're lucky there are spirits in them. like what???
also so so so many things misspelled.
the plot made no sense to me. for my future reference this is the plot: arendel is immortal and gets sent to earth as kris. kris is bullied and is a prodigy. he works at this company. he's also now 23 and he has to be brought back to kalendra. eldor, and arendel's buddies plot this elaborate scheme to get him back to kalendra by sending him to paris. he gets tricked and goes through a portal to kalendra. he meets mages and understands his backstory. we then meet sylvia. she has magic wolves. back to kris, he has training to get his arendel memories back. he then goes camping. he goes to the crystal pillars. he falls and almost dies. the wolves save him and sylvia nurses him back to health. they're in love now. more training with kris. then there's a meeting with the wizards. kris is alerted about danger. he finds everyone captured. he saves the day. he finds out that it's the purple tari people. they investigate. they find out that this zadak yarfor is manipulating the people. they have fight. kris almost dies but he's revived. then they plan to overthrow the king. they go to his palace to (i honestly spaced out after this) do fuck all. then it ends on a cliff hanger bc we have to find out what happens in the next book. sprinkle some mentions about the king being crazy and kris and sylvia being cringe and nasty all throughout the book. and that's it.
hidden below are my bookmarks. don't open this bc i give up halfway and i just have them below just so i have evidence that i paid some semblance of attention
those are the notes/ bookmarks. you won't be able to tell but there are hardly any note past the halfway point because i honestly did give up. somehow everything was relevant to note and pick apart but also i couldn't be bothered anymore.
the scowl on my face as we reached the end was pretty much indication on how i felt about the reading experience.
but who knows someone might like this. i just had geez through some reviews and i guess some people see something in this that i can't. so to each their own.
i don't know if i'll reach for the second book. unless it goes through such a heavy editing process then maybe??? or i'll forget that i've said this and i'll end up reading it anyway.
before i close, the main takeaway: i think this book suffers a lot from telling and not showing. and also it's suffering from a lot of things too.
disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. :)
March 23, 2025
I received this book free in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, the nicest thing I can say about the book is that I liked the idea of different gemstones holding different powers and each having multiple spirits.
This book is badly in need of editing. I almost quit reading at 8% but had promised to read it and provide a review.
There was very little world building. Descriptions of the world and characters were perfunctory at most. Each time a character was introduced, there was a brief paragraph describing what they looked like. Usually, the entire description was only 1-3 sentences. There was too much telling, not enough showing. For example, Marena was noted to have dozens of waist-length braids. The author could have improved this by writing something like “she flipped her waist-length braids over her shoulder.” The only characters with any character development were the two main MC's. There was no development for any other characters. The MC spent 23 years growing up on Earth but there were only a few pages that covered those years.
Dialogue was stilted and shallow. I felt like I was reading a story written for an English class by someone in middle school or high school at the oldest. I thought this was the author’s first book until I checked on Amazon and found she’s written multiple books. I was astounded by that, considering the poor writing in this book.
There was a lot of redundancy.
• One character was described as having piercing blue eyes and another with brilliant green eyes multiple times. It got old, quickly.
• Characters were described multiple times, often within a few pages of each other. It was as if the author forgot she’d already described them, was trying to add to the word count, or thought the reader was too stupid to remember.
• The origin of the crystal pillars was described when one character visited, then again, a few pages later when another character was there.
• Winds of Doom were described more than once, a few pages apart.
• Energy domes were explained multiple times.
There were also a lot of inconsistencies.
• MC tightened the straps on his pack, then put on his pack & tightened the straps again 4 paragraphs later.
• MC chose 3 gemstones at the end of one page, then chose again at the end of the next page.
• The crystal pillars were described as being 20-30 feet across, then 3 pages later they were described as being several feet across.
• The MC went from having exceptional concentration, attention to detail and decision-making skills to suddenly not being able to concentrate or even make simple decisions, so he couldn’t proceed with magic training. Then he suddenly had his concentration, etc. back again.
• It was noted it was common for a mage’s eyes to turn green when the acquired their magic, but Eldon was repeatedly described as having piercing blue eyes and Antal had blue eyes.
• MC had a traumatic experience related to being forced to kiss his sister’s friends so they could practice. The sister is 9 years older. It seems unlikely a HS student would need to practice kissing, but maybe a middle school girl would want practice. If the sister and her friends were 14, the MC would have been 5. I can’t imagine girls in middle school practicing kissing with a child of that age.
• In one chapter, no one had ever seen the Tari. In the next, the characters knew the leaders based on their uniforms. If no one had ever seen them, how did they know what the uniforms looked like? Later in the book, the mages were familiar with the Tari social structure, way of living, etc.
• The Tari captured a mage and tied her up but left her with all her crystals. Why didn’t she use her powers and the crystals to escape?
• Sylvia is known for having wonderful food at her lodge, but she produces it via magic, just like the other mages. Why is her food so much better?
• Sylvia supposedly has a reputation as an evil mage/sorcerer, so everyone stays away from her, but she runs a lodge where people come to stay, and the mages meet there.
• Two characters were standing back-to-back, then in the next paragraph they were side-by-side.
• The two MC’s were at Sylvia’s Lodge, then they were returning to their hotel room. This is the only time the lodge was called a hotel. It didn’t appear to be either of their rooms in the lodge, as they used magic to decorate it.
• A large army arrived and surrounded the lodge, but nobody heard them or knew they were there until the MC happened to see them out the window. That seems pretty unlikely. There had already been an attack at the lodge. Why didn’t the mages have a warning system, or wards set up? Kris noted the king must have told the sorceress about his magic. What sorceress? He was talking to the general. In addition, how did the army get there so fast? There had just been an incident with the king and his army in another location.
• The two MCs curtsied/bowed to the Captain of the Guard. Why would they do that? There was no indication he was a noble and the main MC was masquerading as a Duke.
• Kris pretended to be a Duke. Wouldn’t the king have known any Dukes in the kingdom?
• The king raises a martini glass. How can they be in an alternate world yet have martinis and martini glasses?
• One character played ragtime while another danced the Charleston. How would they have known about that kind of music or the dance steps? Then the MCs do a swing dance. Again, how did anyone but the main MC know about swing music or the dance steps? In fact, based on the MC’s age and the time period for the part of the book on Earth, he would probably not have known much about those music styles and certainly not the dance steps. It seems unlikely the female MC could have even done the steps in either dance in the dress she was described as wearing. They then danced the tango. Again, how did they know the dance steps and music?
• MC puts on a large pair of sunglasses while doing a performance for the king. There is no other mention of sunglasses in the book, so it would appear they would be unknown and attract attention, yet he was wearing them so no one ‘could would’ recognize what he was doing.
• The author attempted to create conflict and tension based on the king’s attitude and actions, but why couldn’t magic just be used to make him and his inner circle forget his intentions? They finally did that in the last 5% of the book.
• One character is described as an elf. He is the only elf mentioned anywhere in the book. Where are the rest?
• The elf wishes he could visit Earth but notes as an elf it might be hard. Why can’t he use magic to disguise his looks? It was shown earlier in the book that magic could work on Earth.
Many of the descriptions were nonsensical.
• What the heck is a beardstache?
• What is a formal wizard?
• A cloak was noted to be immaculately tailored. Um, cloaks aren’t tailored. Finely sewn would have made far more sense.
• Food was brought to a village because they didn’t have enough due to a drought. Then when the food arrived, they had a massive feast. Wouldn’t they be rationing their supplies rather than blowing them on a big party?
• A boy was described as putting 4 animals on a table, then it was noted that they were woven. It would have made more sense to say he put 4 woven animals on the table. I thought it was dead carcasses at first.
• The Tari were noted as having an army, then they were referred to as assassins.
Grammar and punctuation were also problematical.
• Wrong word use: they wanted to make an exhibit of a captive, rather than an example. Chords instead of cords.
• “They had finished debriefing the Tari interviews.” Apparently, the author doesn’t quite understand what debriefing means. The interviews were the debrief. Debriefing isn’t analysis.
• ‘“If anyone needs to ramp up their training,” Kris said.’ This isn’t a complete sentence and is meaningless.
• It was frequently difficult to follow who was reacting after a character spoke, as the reaction was attached to the dialogue in the same paragraph. Ex: ‘“That’s completely understandable,” Marena said. “It must have been frightening.” She closed her eyes and nodded as another tear rolled down her cheek.’ I had to reread this to realize it wasn’t Marena who closed her eyes and nodded, it was another character.
• Some sentences ended abruptly in the middle.
• Piano forte used rather than pianoforte except in one instance.
• They ‘Charlestoned together'. Charlestoned isn’t a word.
The worst thing of all was that the story was boring.
Unfortunately, the nicest thing I can say about the book is that I liked the idea of different gemstones holding different powers and each having multiple spirits.
This book is badly in need of editing. I almost quit reading at 8% but had promised to read it and provide a review.
There was very little world building. Descriptions of the world and characters were perfunctory at most. Each time a character was introduced, there was a brief paragraph describing what they looked like. Usually, the entire description was only 1-3 sentences. There was too much telling, not enough showing. For example, Marena was noted to have dozens of waist-length braids. The author could have improved this by writing something like “she flipped her waist-length braids over her shoulder.” The only characters with any character development were the two main MC's. There was no development for any other characters. The MC spent 23 years growing up on Earth but there were only a few pages that covered those years.
Dialogue was stilted and shallow. I felt like I was reading a story written for an English class by someone in middle school or high school at the oldest. I thought this was the author’s first book until I checked on Amazon and found she’s written multiple books. I was astounded by that, considering the poor writing in this book.
There was a lot of redundancy.
• One character was described as having piercing blue eyes and another with brilliant green eyes multiple times. It got old, quickly.
• Characters were described multiple times, often within a few pages of each other. It was as if the author forgot she’d already described them, was trying to add to the word count, or thought the reader was too stupid to remember.
• The origin of the crystal pillars was described when one character visited, then again, a few pages later when another character was there.
• Winds of Doom were described more than once, a few pages apart.
• Energy domes were explained multiple times.
There were also a lot of inconsistencies.
• MC tightened the straps on his pack, then put on his pack & tightened the straps again 4 paragraphs later.
• MC chose 3 gemstones at the end of one page, then chose again at the end of the next page.
• The crystal pillars were described as being 20-30 feet across, then 3 pages later they were described as being several feet across.
• The MC went from having exceptional concentration, attention to detail and decision-making skills to suddenly not being able to concentrate or even make simple decisions, so he couldn’t proceed with magic training. Then he suddenly had his concentration, etc. back again.
• It was noted it was common for a mage’s eyes to turn green when the acquired their magic, but Eldon was repeatedly described as having piercing blue eyes and Antal had blue eyes.
• MC had a traumatic experience related to being forced to kiss his sister’s friends so they could practice. The sister is 9 years older. It seems unlikely a HS student would need to practice kissing, but maybe a middle school girl would want practice. If the sister and her friends were 14, the MC would have been 5. I can’t imagine girls in middle school practicing kissing with a child of that age.
• In one chapter, no one had ever seen the Tari. In the next, the characters knew the leaders based on their uniforms. If no one had ever seen them, how did they know what the uniforms looked like? Later in the book, the mages were familiar with the Tari social structure, way of living, etc.
• The Tari captured a mage and tied her up but left her with all her crystals. Why didn’t she use her powers and the crystals to escape?
• Sylvia is known for having wonderful food at her lodge, but she produces it via magic, just like the other mages. Why is her food so much better?
• Sylvia supposedly has a reputation as an evil mage/sorcerer, so everyone stays away from her, but she runs a lodge where people come to stay, and the mages meet there.
• Two characters were standing back-to-back, then in the next paragraph they were side-by-side.
• The two MC’s were at Sylvia’s Lodge, then they were returning to their hotel room. This is the only time the lodge was called a hotel. It didn’t appear to be either of their rooms in the lodge, as they used magic to decorate it.
• A large army arrived and surrounded the lodge, but nobody heard them or knew they were there until the MC happened to see them out the window. That seems pretty unlikely. There had already been an attack at the lodge. Why didn’t the mages have a warning system, or wards set up? Kris noted the king must have told the sorceress about his magic. What sorceress? He was talking to the general. In addition, how did the army get there so fast? There had just been an incident with the king and his army in another location.
• The two MCs curtsied/bowed to the Captain of the Guard. Why would they do that? There was no indication he was a noble and the main MC was masquerading as a Duke.
• Kris pretended to be a Duke. Wouldn’t the king have known any Dukes in the kingdom?
• The king raises a martini glass. How can they be in an alternate world yet have martinis and martini glasses?
• One character played ragtime while another danced the Charleston. How would they have known about that kind of music or the dance steps? Then the MCs do a swing dance. Again, how did anyone but the main MC know about swing music or the dance steps? In fact, based on the MC’s age and the time period for the part of the book on Earth, he would probably not have known much about those music styles and certainly not the dance steps. It seems unlikely the female MC could have even done the steps in either dance in the dress she was described as wearing. They then danced the tango. Again, how did they know the dance steps and music?
• MC puts on a large pair of sunglasses while doing a performance for the king. There is no other mention of sunglasses in the book, so it would appear they would be unknown and attract attention, yet he was wearing them so no one ‘could would’ recognize what he was doing.
• The author attempted to create conflict and tension based on the king’s attitude and actions, but why couldn’t magic just be used to make him and his inner circle forget his intentions? They finally did that in the last 5% of the book.
• One character is described as an elf. He is the only elf mentioned anywhere in the book. Where are the rest?
• The elf wishes he could visit Earth but notes as an elf it might be hard. Why can’t he use magic to disguise his looks? It was shown earlier in the book that magic could work on Earth.
Many of the descriptions were nonsensical.
• What the heck is a beardstache?
• What is a formal wizard?
• A cloak was noted to be immaculately tailored. Um, cloaks aren’t tailored. Finely sewn would have made far more sense.
• Food was brought to a village because they didn’t have enough due to a drought. Then when the food arrived, they had a massive feast. Wouldn’t they be rationing their supplies rather than blowing them on a big party?
• A boy was described as putting 4 animals on a table, then it was noted that they were woven. It would have made more sense to say he put 4 woven animals on the table. I thought it was dead carcasses at first.
• The Tari were noted as having an army, then they were referred to as assassins.
Grammar and punctuation were also problematical.
• Wrong word use: they wanted to make an exhibit of a captive, rather than an example. Chords instead of cords.
• “They had finished debriefing the Tari interviews.” Apparently, the author doesn’t quite understand what debriefing means. The interviews were the debrief. Debriefing isn’t analysis.
• ‘“If anyone needs to ramp up their training,” Kris said.’ This isn’t a complete sentence and is meaningless.
• It was frequently difficult to follow who was reacting after a character spoke, as the reaction was attached to the dialogue in the same paragraph. Ex: ‘“That’s completely understandable,” Marena said. “It must have been frightening.” She closed her eyes and nodded as another tear rolled down her cheek.’ I had to reread this to realize it wasn’t Marena who closed her eyes and nodded, it was another character.
• Some sentences ended abruptly in the middle.
• Piano forte used rather than pianoforte except in one instance.
• They ‘Charlestoned together'. Charlestoned isn’t a word.
The worst thing of all was that the story was boring.
April 7, 2025
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Arandel is destined for a mission on Earth, and for that, he must be born there. Now living as Kris, he faces a challenging life due to the extraordinary skills bestowed upon him before his birth. Unbeknownst to him, he is an immortal and powerful wizard from the mystical realm of Kalendra. Alongside Kris, we follow the journey of Sylvia, a young woman who fears her magic and uses it sparingly. Though the people unknowingly refer to her as the "evil sorceress," Sylvia is fully aware of their accusations—yet she remains reluctant to embrace her true power. When their paths cross, their lives are forever changed.
Whenever I start a new book, I either fall into its rhythm instantly or need some time to adjust. In this case, it took a little while to get into the groove, but once I did, I was transported into a beautifully crafted, magical world. I loved watching Kris and Sylvia uncover their true potential and realize they are far more than they ever imagined. Despite the darkness cast by sinister forces, the story retains an airy, easy-to-read quality, which makes it thoroughly enjoyable. The friendships, the camaraderie, and the deep empathy shared among the characters make it all the more immersive.
I especially appreciated Kris—his powerful magical essence is woven into his soul, yet he must go through the journey of remembering it all. Sylvia, too, is in for an awakening, as her magic has yet to fully flourish. Their transformations kept me captivated, and I can’t wait to see where the story goes next!
Arandel is destined for a mission on Earth, and for that, he must be born there. Now living as Kris, he faces a challenging life due to the extraordinary skills bestowed upon him before his birth. Unbeknownst to him, he is an immortal and powerful wizard from the mystical realm of Kalendra. Alongside Kris, we follow the journey of Sylvia, a young woman who fears her magic and uses it sparingly. Though the people unknowingly refer to her as the "evil sorceress," Sylvia is fully aware of their accusations—yet she remains reluctant to embrace her true power. When their paths cross, their lives are forever changed.
Whenever I start a new book, I either fall into its rhythm instantly or need some time to adjust. In this case, it took a little while to get into the groove, but once I did, I was transported into a beautifully crafted, magical world. I loved watching Kris and Sylvia uncover their true potential and realize they are far more than they ever imagined. Despite the darkness cast by sinister forces, the story retains an airy, easy-to-read quality, which makes it thoroughly enjoyable. The friendships, the camaraderie, and the deep empathy shared among the characters make it all the more immersive.
I especially appreciated Kris—his powerful magical essence is woven into his soul, yet he must go through the journey of remembering it all. Sylvia, too, is in for an awakening, as her magic has yet to fully flourish. Their transformations kept me captivated, and I can’t wait to see where the story goes next!
March 14, 2025
3,5/5🔥🪄Entertaining.
The lands of Kalendra were full of magical stones, and the king coveted them all.
Who would be able to protect them from this terrible greed?...
********
A 100% fantasy novel, quite entertaining to read, with an interesting magical universe.
It wasn't the book I was expecting, however.
I found the theme of the time portal to be barely touched upon. It's much more focused, with lots of details, on the stones/gems and their magic, as well as on the story of Kris and Sylvia.
I actually really liked Kris and Sylvia's characters.
However, I found the story difficult to follow at times.
A must-read for fans of the genre.
######################################
3,5/5🔥🪄Distrayant.
Les terres de Kalendra regorgeaient de pierres magiques et le roi les convoitait toutes.
Qui allait pouvoir les protéger de cette terrible convoitise ?...
**********
Un roman 100% Fantasy assez distrayant à lire, avec un univers magique intéressant.
Ce n’est pas la lecture que j’attendai toutefois.
Le thème du portail temporel est peu abordé je trouve. C’est beaucoup plus basé avec beaucoup de détails sur les pierres/gemmes et leurs magies, ainsi que sur l’histoire de Kris et Sylvia.
J’ai d’ailleurs bien aimé les personnages de Kris et Sylvia.
J’ai toutefois trouvé l’histoire parfois compliquée à suivre par moments.
A découvrir pour les amateurs du genre.
The lands of Kalendra were full of magical stones, and the king coveted them all.
Who would be able to protect them from this terrible greed?...
********
A 100% fantasy novel, quite entertaining to read, with an interesting magical universe.
It wasn't the book I was expecting, however.
I found the theme of the time portal to be barely touched upon. It's much more focused, with lots of details, on the stones/gems and their magic, as well as on the story of Kris and Sylvia.
I actually really liked Kris and Sylvia's characters.
However, I found the story difficult to follow at times.
A must-read for fans of the genre.
######################################
3,5/5🔥🪄Distrayant.
Les terres de Kalendra regorgeaient de pierres magiques et le roi les convoitait toutes.
Qui allait pouvoir les protéger de cette terrible convoitise ?...
**********
Un roman 100% Fantasy assez distrayant à lire, avec un univers magique intéressant.
Ce n’est pas la lecture que j’attendai toutefois.
Le thème du portail temporel est peu abordé je trouve. C’est beaucoup plus basé avec beaucoup de détails sur les pierres/gemmes et leurs magies, ainsi que sur l’histoire de Kris et Sylvia.
J’ai d’ailleurs bien aimé les personnages de Kris et Sylvia.
J’ai toutefois trouvé l’histoire parfois compliquée à suivre par moments.
A découvrir pour les amateurs du genre.
April 13, 2025
I received an advanced reader copy of this book and am reviewing it voluntarily
Wow what a read!!
This was amazing the concept of bridging two worlds
I felt so sorry for Arundel having to leave his home and be born a baby on earth but what a life what a good man he was
What hardships he put up with bullying even within his own family so sad
Sylvia and the wolves loved them awesome relationship
A real adventure of good conquering evil eventually after some near death experiences magic abounds in this story not always good
Loved the gods although one feels they could have helped more
Brilliant story too much going on to adequately do this story justice
Bring on the next one!
Wow what a read!!
This was amazing the concept of bridging two worlds
I felt so sorry for Arundel having to leave his home and be born a baby on earth but what a life what a good man he was
What hardships he put up with bullying even within his own family so sad
Sylvia and the wolves loved them awesome relationship
A real adventure of good conquering evil eventually after some near death experiences magic abounds in this story not always good
Loved the gods although one feels they could have helped more
Brilliant story too much going on to adequately do this story justice
Bring on the next one!
March 18, 2025
Author Barbara Ferrier has a way of writing all of her own that takes a little while to get used to. In Fire Goddess we get introduced to Kalendra, a magical realm one of a kind what with magical wolves, elves, gods and goddesses, mages, wizzards, a greedy king and some strange people.
But it is the main characters, Kris and Sylvia that draws the attention, more so the romance that starts blooming.
Aimed squarely at the young adult, Fire Goddess is a fantasy world unlike anything you will ever have come across, as the reader is led on one hazardous adventure to the next.
And somewhere along the way you get so immersed that time flies and the end comes with quite a shock.
Enjoy.
But it is the main characters, Kris and Sylvia that draws the attention, more so the romance that starts blooming.
Aimed squarely at the young adult, Fire Goddess is a fantasy world unlike anything you will ever have come across, as the reader is led on one hazardous adventure to the next.
And somewhere along the way you get so immersed that time flies and the end comes with quite a shock.
Enjoy.
March 30, 2025
Loved the storyline of Sylvia and Kris/Adendel as they find each other and become more confident as powerful mages on Kalendra and fall deeply in love. Sylvia's 2 magic wolves accept Kris/Arendel and start "speaking" in his mind. Kris and Eldor create a portal from Kalendra to Earth to transport people to safety as the King gets more and more greedy for the magical crystal. He has his army kill people if they get in his way. Kris/Arendel, Sylvia, Eldor and their friends try to help the people and stop the King.
An excellent read, look forward to reading more about Sylvia, Kris/Arendel and friends.
An excellent read, look forward to reading more about Sylvia, Kris/Arendel and friends.
April 22, 2025
I had to put this book in the DNF pile. Within the first 27 pages, the reader is introduced to 19 characters over the span of a decade. The editing was poorly finished with countless misspellings of the main character's name, grammatical errors, and even a couple of potential placeholder names for characters that were incomplete. (Or perhaps they weren't, and the author intended to name the company CEO and CFO "Mr. CEO" and "Mr. CFO.") I was very disappointed in the writing style and the story itself, and would be really upset if I had paid for the book.
March 5, 2025
An amazing re-write. I really enjoyed the second edition. The characters were much better developed and easier to engage with. And Barbara Ferrier did a tremendous job weaving her world building skills throughout the story!
March 5, 2025
Great book. I loved it.
March 18, 2025
This is a really fast read. The book is full of action. Definitely recommended.
March 18, 2025
So far really like the character and the story building.
April 4, 2025
I really enjoyed this book it had a nice pace and kept me interested throughout the entire book. I look forward to reading more from Barbara Ferrier
April 11, 2025
An amazing story that will have you wanting it to never end. Two people with powerful magic, afraid of what it could do. Will they finally understand what it’s all about and find some happiness.
Read
March 18, 2025Wow! Just Wow! What an action packed book! Nothing boring happenings here! So many different types of crystal enhancing magic! So many power hungry villains. Yet Kris uses his newly rediscovered powers and eart experiences to overcomes them all with the help of his new and old friends. And one of those friends, who is more than just a friend, is acts fire goddess! Could hardly put the book down. It was truly a page turner!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews