The Fire Mages

Brightmoon #2

by Pauline M. Ross

Kyra has always been drawn to the magic of spellpages. She is determined to leave her small village far behind and become a scribe, wielding the power of magic through her pen. Halfway through her training, she has a mage as patron and her ambitions are within her grasp. But a simple favour for her sister goes disastrously awry, destroying Kyra's dreams in an instant.

Devastated, she accepts an offer from a stranger to help her find out what went wrong. The young man sees growing power within Kyra, potentially stronger than spellpages or any living mage. The answers to unlocking that power may lie within the glowing walls of the Imperial City, but its magic is strong and the unwary vanish without trace on its streets. Thirsty for knowledge and desperate to avoid another accident, she feels compelled to risk it.

While she focuses on controlling her abilities, a storm of greed and ambition boils up around her. Kyra is a pawn in the struggle for dominance between unscrupulous factions vying for rule of her country. Trusting the wrong side could get her killed--or worse, the potent magic she barely understands could be put to unthinkable evil.

Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Young Adult, Paranormal, Ebooks, Amazon

357 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

I live in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland with my husband. I like chocolate, whisky, my Kindle, massed pipe bands, long leisurely lunches, chocolate, going places in my campervan, eating pizza in Italy, summer nights that never get dark, wood fires in winter, chocolate, the view from the study window looking out over the Moray Firth and the Black Isle to the mountains beyond. And chocolate. I dislike driving on motorways, cooking, shopping, hospitals.

Reviews

[Marina Finlayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know how people are always complaining that fantasy worlds shouldn’t be so patriarchal just because most of them are modelled on the Middle Ages, and that someone should write a fantasy where the women have true equality in society?

Well, someone has. Her name is Pauline M Ross, and the book is The Fire Mages. It’s a great read, full of magic and adventure, and tells the story of Kyra, a very level-headed young girl who has big ambitions to be a law scribe and wield magic through written spells. It’s a big dream for a village girl, but Kyra is prepared to work hard, and refuses to be turned aside from her plans.

As the novel opens, the local lord’s steward throws the first roadblock in her way by bringing her an offer to become the lord’s drusse, a kind of legal mistress. Kyra’s mother sees the advantages of this position, but Kyra refuses to be swayed. Through sheer determination she makes it to the city and begins her training, rising through the ranks with her hard work. She even manages to find herself a powerful mage as patron, and everything seems to be going well, until the steward comes calling again, this time for her sister. Her sister agrees to become the lord’s drusse, but begs the half-trained Kyra for a simple favour. Of course it turns out to be anything but simple, and everything goes so wrong that Kyra’s dreams are shattered.

In her quest to find out what went wrong, Kyra discovers power she had never dreamed of, and uncovers the mysteries of the deadly Imperial City of the ancient mages. She faces many dangers along the way, and does so with a refreshing pragmatism. There are no hysterics for this capable young woman.

I loved Kyra’s world. It was full of women being real people, not just serving wenches and prostitutes. There were female stablehands, translators, wagoners, inn managers and guards—just about any job you could imagine had women working alongside the men. In a nice touch, there were even male “companions” to be bought for a night’s pleasure at the inns, as well as female ones. How’s that for equality? It certainly made a nice change from the usual male-dominated fantasy worlds. Throw in an interesting new magic system and you have a very well-developed world. Ross has obviously put a lot of thought into her society, its politics and its history. It’s a fascinating place, so I’m glad she has other books set in this world to explore. This one was certainly a compelling story.

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was not a bad book, just not one I could enjoy. The sex and the various, always changing relationships were far too prominent. I enjoy a nice story about hidden talents and long lost knowledge. These aspects exist in this book, so I give it two stars instead of one. Without the sex and romance it could have been four.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a curious story, told in the first person by a strangely detached main character, of a series of events that put me in mind of a nineteenth century penny dreadful or a silent Perils of Pauline type film. Yet it had me gripped right to the end. I admit I downloaded it with a half-dozen others because it was one of the books close to my own in the Amazon rankings, it sounded interesting, and I wanted to see what was popular. Pauline Ross’s book was the only one of the lot I read all the way through. The others, I dumped after the first few pages.
I read some of the reviews, and although I agree with some of the criticisms, I don’t necessarily see them as negative points. The heroine, Kyra, wants to be a law scribe. Pretty dull ambition, I hear you say, but Kyra finds some of the nitty gritty of legal stuff fascinating. Takes all sorts, you say. But, what she really wants to get to grips with is the magic of spell casting that law scribes are allowed to perform. She wants to study with mages and learn how to write out a spell and make it work. The story of The Fire Mages is how Kyra discovers her rare talent, and how she is thwarted at every turn in her ambition to use it. I could hear the frantic Keystone Cops background music playing as she escapes from captivity yet again, or as the bonk on the villain’s head wears off and the chase begins to tie her up again.
Yes, I agree, Kyra does have rather laid back attitudes to abuse, violence and the dangers of associating intimately with psychopaths. True, her male opposites are not prepossessing: said psychopath, a wimpy bully who turns into a wimpy lover, a totally camp escort boy, and a middle-aged sovereign who tries to enroll her as a concubine when she’s thirteen years old.
True, Kyra has zero understanding of human nature, falls into the same traps time after time, fails to see the most blatant dastardly coup before it slaps her between the eyes, makes excuses for or forgives rape, kidnap, denunciation, poisoning, murder, infanticide, you name it, she’ll just shrug it off with a ‘what the hell’.
Having said all that though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I don’t agree that Kyra is dull. She isn’t kick ass, if that’s what the critics mean, and that’s no bad thing in my book. She has a strange fascination, with her otherworldly detachment, her moral code that seems right up the creek, her willingness to have sex with men as a sort of therapy, because she feels sorry for them, because they give her lessons in local history, or simply because she’s feeling ultra randy and she grabs whatever’s within arm’s reach.
There’s a deadpan humour to Pauline Ross’s writing that saves the rather wacky story from being totally ridiculous. Kyra herself has a dry wit that made me laugh on several occasions. The characters are rounded, memorable and credible for all their weird behaviour. In fact, I think the psychopath’s brigand/gangster family is based on East European neighbours we used to have. The Fire Mages is a story that doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s a romp, not acute psychological drama. I would actually like to meet Kyra, and I shall probably read more of Pauline Ross in the future to catch up on how Kyra’s doing.

[Elise Edmonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started very quickly. We zoom through about six years in the first 10% or so. At that point, I was wishing the story would slow down, because I didn't feel I was getting a feel for Kyra, the main character, and because none of the secondary characters were particularly well developed. I was disappointed we didn't learn more about Kyra's initial training as a scribe, and we heard very little about the friends she made during this early period.

However, the story dragged me onwards, and the quick pace together with the fantastic world-building, particularly the magic system, made it a real page turner. The deeper I got into the book, the more the intricacies of Kyra, the people she came into contact with, and the world itself, in particular the structure of the society, were developed. I could hardly put it down.

The characters we meet later, Cal (Kyra's patron/tutor) and Drei (her friend/master) become increasingly developed, and the relationships more and more intricate.

The premise of a society built on the ruins of a far more advanced one is nothing new in terms of fantasy, but the magic system and it's detail came over as very original. I found the use of 'spellpages' particularly unique - a way of creating magic by writing out a spell and then burning it.

When combined together, the discoveries about the nature of magic, mixed in with Kyra's exploration of her magical powers, and the political disarray in which she becomes embroiled, make for a compelling read.

Kyra as a character came over as selfish and unemotional a fair part of the time, nevertheless I still found myself rooting for her. I wanted her to find fulfillment in her amibitions, both career and magical, and had a lot of sympathy for the situations in which she found herself ensnared, often through no fault of her own.

This is the first book I've read in this series (although the second written) and I will definitely check out more at some point.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 magic filled stars!

I expected to like this book, what I didn't expect was to fall absolutely in love with it.

This is one of the best epic fantasy books I've read in a long time and I don't say that lightly. As as new to me author, this was entirely unexpected but I can honestly say I enjoyed this just as much as anything I've read from Brandon Sanderson or Trudi Canavan my two all time favourite epic fantasy authors.

This book actually reminded me a lot of Elantris in the fact that it has a magic city that everyone was afraid of. The story itself is completely different but I enjoyed the similarity.

The first half of this book introduces you to the world and Kyra's character and while enjoyable, the last 40% of so was simply excellent. It was full of magic and action, everything I love in an epic fantasy book.

The Fire Mages is full of complex, well developed characters, political intrigue, unique world building and of course magic. The magical abilities are many and I'd love to read a sequel showcasing more of Kyra's magical talents.


**An ARC of this book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review**

[Rachel Cotterill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed everything about this book, from the well-constructed world to the determination and stoicism of young Kyra, to her shifting relationships with her two drusse-holders. A very enjoyable read.

Full review: http://strangecharmbooks.co.uk/2015/0...

[Kyra Halland · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fire Mages is another novel set in Pauline Ross's Brightmoon World, the world of her first novel, The Plains of Kallanash. I enjoyed Plains very much, and Fire Mages even more. Though set in a different country and culture, with different characters, The Fire Mages has another original social structure (for example, a man's pregnant mistresses are guests of honor at his wedding as proof of his fertility, and women can also have legally-contracted lovers) and interesting magic system. I enjoyed the magic, which is worked with symbols inked on magical paper - except in the case of very talented (and rare) mages who don't need any such accessories.

But it isn't all just fascinating and original worldbuilding; Ms. Ross tells a gripping story, too, with high stakes on both the personal level and for the entire country.

Kyra wants more than anything to become a magical scribe. Until things start to go wrong, and then she realizes she has the potential to be something completely different. The character of Kyra is well-done; sometimes she's kind of hard to like because she's so intently focused on her career goal and doesn't seem to have a lot of room for softer feelings, but I also empathized with her longing to be a scribe and her shattered emotions when it all goes wrong. She makes principled decisions, even though they aren't what seems easy or most logical at the time, and sticks to her principles - though she is open to change when she realizes there might be a higher good than what she originally based her decision on, particularly in the case of her baby, which she originally didn't want. On the other hand, she also isn't a very good judge of human nature, which gets her into a lot of trouble! But her willingness to learn and eventually change her mind about people gets her out of it.

The other characters, especially Cal and Drei, the two main male characters/love interests, are also vivid and well-rounded. Ms. Ross excels at both flawed heroes and charming villains, and those two kept me guessing up right up until they revealed their true colors. At that point I went, Ah hah, I thought so! But it wasn't predictable, just a very well set up surprise. And on that note, I always appreciate a strong romantic subplot in my fantasy, and The Fire Mages carries that off very well, too.

The story moves along at a pretty good pace. The momentum does lag a bit around the one-third mark, but it's still always interesting. The danger of "magical training" sections in fantasy novels is that they can be deadly boring as we sit through lesson after lesson with the character. Fortunately, as we read about Kyra's training, Ms. Ross skips the boring parts and just shows us the interesting bits that we need to know for the rest of the story to make sense.

If you enjoy high fantasy in a unique setting with cool magic and well-conceived, multi-dimensional characters, with high personal stakes and a well-done romance, I highly recommend The Fire Mages.

[Neil McGarry · Rating 4 out of 5]

With The Fire Mages, Pauline Ross continues the road that began with with The Plains of Kallanash, and it's a welcome journey. Not that Mages is a sequel—blessedly it's a stand-alone in a world of fantasy trilogies—but not only does it take place in the same world, but it contains many of the same delights and manages to come up with a few treats of its own.

Ross has a way with prose, and one never has to re-read a sentence or paragraph to figure out what she's talking about; the writing is so smooth that it never gets between the reader and the story. That's not always easy to do, particularly when a story contains as much as Mages.

Which brings me to my next point. Ross comes up with an interesting magic system that is a nod to Daniel Abraham's Long Price series without seeming derivative. I think that magic in fantasy is either a metaphor or science by other means; in Mages it's the latter, but Ross weaves it in neatly with the rest of the world. That's also not easy to do, and her method provides some neat little twists that had me saying, "Neat!"

As always, Ross lets the story move at its own pace; the characters do what comes naturally to them, and there's never a hint of the author's hand pressing things along. She also keeps things close; the characters themselves are the focus of the story, and Ross never lets the camera drift away.

My main complaint with this tale is that there are major events that happen towards the end of the story that seem to come out of nowhere. I understand that those things are supposed to surprise the characters, but I think that one can surprise the characters while letting the reader in on what's going on behind the scenes. In fact that's a great storytelling method; in George RR Martin's A Storm of Swords, Martin subtly telegraphs the terrible events at the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey, and it keeps the reader on the edge of the seat even though the characters have no idea what's to come.

Also—and I almost never find myself saying this about fantasy—I feel as though Mages should be a longer book. There are characters and events that are interesting and, to my mind, demand greater attention, but they are relegated almost to a summary. I understand a reluctance to enlarge any already formidably sized book, but when a story element calls for more attention, I think an author should provide it, regardless of the time it takes.

All in all, I found The Fire Mages an enjoyable read, one that kept me close to my Kindle. I'll look forward to the next installment, because this is one path I'll definitely keep walking.

[DaBear · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was provided by the publisher via NetGallery for an exhange for my honest review.

Warning: some spoilers in the review.

This book is not my cup of tea. I will tell you why:

1) Kyra. She is horny frigid if that makes any sense. I disliked that she slept with 3 guys (almost 4) without any feelings. I felt that she is totally empty, cold and have no emotions whatsoever. She is just incapable of love or she just never met right person because every single guy in this book treated her so badly that she doesn't know what it is to love and to care. She just stays with guys because she needs something from them. I felt bad for her at first but then so many bad things were happening and she was the cause of it - just stop sleeping with every handsome guy on your way!

2) Cal. The author made us (me and Kyra, at least) to hate Cal for his stupid behaviour. And I did not feel for him at all. There was no spark and no love between them. Just sex because she was lonely and he saved her few times. If you love someone then you don't sign friendship contract, do you? I still don't understand why Kyra changed her mind about him and suddenly decided that she loved him which makes no sense to me.

3) Drei. I know every story needs a villain but Drei was just a victim. I really liked him at the start because he treated Kyra nicely and he was smart and gentle. What happened? I was deeply in shock when he started to do all those nasty things because he was mistreated in his childhood. I really hoped that Kyra will help him to overcome this and to show him love and she will care for him. Love can cure it, right? But it didn't happened because she was too horny and too busy to sleep with Cal who treated her far worst. Cal is so plain compare to Drei who was much more interesting as a character and love interest, and had more potential.

4) The plot. It was interesting to read about natural mages but whole adultery, open relationships and polygamy theme just not for me. I think this book is good illustration why polygamy and open relationships are bad ideas. However, If that is what you are looking for - this book just for you. But for me is was a terrible mess.

[fasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kyra is mildly autistic. She has a huge problem of interpreting other people, she has an even larger problem expressing her own feelings. She clearly has this stance of staying away from the problems, keeping them at arms length, giving oneself time to think through.
That might have been interesting, there are not that many authentically autistic characters in fantasy. But she is also selfish and self-absorbed, and the worst part is, she seems to be unaware of the fact.
She leaves anyone who is not useful to her anymore without a second thought, and she still thinks herself as a good person.
She also thinks herself as an honest person, but from experience I can say, it is not really a virtue if you are simply too slow to lie. You learned not to lie because you are bad at it.
She also has the trait of frigid horny, she doesn't like sex but requires it a lot. Another reviewer explained it spectacularly.

Ok, I can't stand the protagonist. What else might be good with the book?
The world is somewhat interesting. Not terribly, mind you, and the execution is lacking. Pauline wanted an egalitarian society but she just didn't have the imagination to dream up such a society, so we are stuck with trivialities.

The way Kyra finds her talent is quite painful. We are told that she is smart, but she shows none of it, and this is the strongest symptom of her stupidity.

The author uses a lot of made up words, which start to grate after a while. Eating boards (meals), having a drusse (contract paramour), spending suns (days) wondering why people force these into their books.

Are there good things in the book? Well, not really. Overall it's an okay book, not too painful at the worst times. But the story, the characters, the writing are all mediocre to bad.

[Roger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like others have said, I think this book started out to be a really well with the protagonist knowing what she wanted and then really going after it and working towards it, but then the book just turns so predictable. First off, I found there to be so many contradictions with the protagonist, she starts out by standing up to her mother and the Kellon's servant and also to Cal at the start and then there are times where she just lets herself get walked all over sometimes even by the same person. Also at one point she says she is a coward and afraid of getting hurt but has no problem with disappearing. In fact pretty much all the characters are contradictory and pretty shallow, starting with her sister being flighty then turning so serious, Cal being a jerk but loving her, Drei being super nice but then kidnapping her, the Drashon being understanding but then crushing her dreams, for christsakes at least be consistent with someone.

As for the plot, it's so unoriginal, a kid from the village goes off to the big city to learn in a school and then she gets in trouble at the school and has her dream ruined. Then someone the protaganist is close to turns out to be a very selfish person and turns on her in an instant. I'd say more but that was as far as I could get into the book before I gave up on the story.

[Dagmar Bancroft · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fire Mages by Pauline M. Ross

Independent reviewer for Paranormal Romance and Authors That Rock.
I was lucky enough to get a free copy for an honest review so here we go.
Kyra would love to be a law scribe and after some years in school she does a spell for her sister that goes horribly wrong and bang goes her hopes and dreams. A stranger see her gift and helps her go to another city and tells her that she is a living mage with loads of magic inside of her. They try and find out how to harness that power and loads happens. She love life is certainly full aswell.
I did enjoy the book a bit slow to start of with but it soon picks up and you get into the story worrying about if she is going to make it or not. Also if she gets the love she doesn't know she wants. The book is written with old language in it (and if you like me read in your second language) some words didn't make any sense to me until I looked them up, but well worth reading.
I have given this 4 stars the story was good enough but as I said before for someone who read in a second language it loses something.

[Fraslund · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book not knowing what to expect and ended up pleasantly surprised. The magic system is unique and interesting and the characters while often times frustrating, are complex and felt real to me. The only thing that I found jarring was near the middle when the main character suffers a loss to her dreams and has to divert her path. The transition from the earlier part of the book to that new plot twist briefly took me out of the story, but I was able to quickly get back into the new path that the character took and found the next portion of the book even more interesting.

For me the success of any book is where I don't want to put it down. I get this with Sanderson, Abercrombie, V. Brett, etc.. Towards the last third of this book, I didn’t want to stop reading and blew through it pretty quickly. I hope this book achieves the success it deserves and also that the author revisits these characters again, because it would be very interesting to see more of their adventures.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have given this book 5 stars because I genuinely enjoyed the story, the characters and the world that they are living in. This is the authors second book and the writing style is good. I enjoyed the way that certain strange words were used, but from context it was easy to understand their meaning. There are some surprises and some expectations met, it is an easy read, page turner. I like the fact that the characters were not perfect, they made mistakes and all had some flaws, it makes them more believable.
There are a couple of blips, a little bit of repetition somewhere and some problems near the end of the story as another reviewer has pointed out, and I did notice these and puzzle a little, but we are not perfect, us writers, and it did not detract from the pleasure given by the story as a whole.

Thank you Pauline for taking me out of my world for a while.

[Garet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't a bad book. The story's enjoyable, and the author has ditched a number of the more cloying conventions of this genre. For example, you know from the beginning the narrator is some kind of "chosen one." However, that's never used to surprising effect: in fact, it sets a pattern for the rest of the book. The next plot point always feels like it was meant to be a surprise, but you see every one coming from a mile away.

The magic system is fun but not terribly original. It's basically the same as in Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician series, only Canavan's execution is much better.

And dear god, the protagonist is so passive! I lost count of the number of times she should have been useful but instead just sat on her hands.

All that said, I actually enjoyed reading this book. But it's no master work.

[Rochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a goodreads giveaway.

To begin, I enjoyed the plot of the book. It was really interesting. At times it could be a bit slow, including the beginning. But it was clear that it was needed to build up the story.

What made the book interesting for me was the main character. Kyra was really different than your average character. Kyra tends to lack emotions, in particular, the emotion love. I got the feeling that Kyra cared for people, but did not really love them. Or, she was so detached that she didn't know what love even was. It makes for an interesting read. It also allowed the story to progress in a way that is different. But even with her cold personality, I still felt that I could relate to the character in a way.

[H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book for the cultural exploration and magic more than anything, because I'm a sucker for new social systems and long-lost arcanotech. The plot takes a while to kick in, but the build-up of Kyra's life -- seeking her professional goals only to see them thwarted, then discovering that something she thought was commonplace actually set her far apart from the norm -- was consistently interesting, and proceeded in a way that felt a lot more organic than most young-person-learns-they're-special stories. The events were rather quiet and small-scale, which is just fine; this is a personal story, not a world-shaking one, even though it does cause upheaval in the local magical community. It feels like it could be the foundation of a series, the change that sets off a larger plot.

[M.A. Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of thought has been put into the magical world of Bennamore and it makes a rich backdrop for this blend of fantasy and coming-of-age story. The romantic elements feel fresh and interesting, and add a bit of depth to the colourful cast of characters. Every chapter is an effortless read, and I quickly found myself immersed in Kyra's story, eager to see what would happen next. Whilst I did find the moments of combat a little underwhelming (considering the book's title, there's surprisingly few scenes where the mages show off their fiery skills), it didn't stop this being an engrossing read from start to finish. I have read two of Pauline M Ross's 'Brightmoon' series and look forward to diving into the next installment.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.

Things that I loved - a female protaganist who repeatedly puts her career goals above romance, getting married, and having children.
-The worldbuilding. I'm so excited that there are more books in this world, even though they aren't following the same characters. This book did a good job of balancing the use of fantasy language with gradual explanations of what they meant.
-The magic- I like that spellpages are a thing. Magic can be scribed if you know what you're doing and have the right resources, or because you have the magic in you inherently. All those previous magical wonders, I wonder if they were created by wild mages

[Marinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well written book about a young girl named Kyra who wants to be a law scribe. She lives in a small village and saves all her money to go to the city to study. She has wanted this since she was a small child. Her idea is career first love second, so watching her interact and her trying to understand her feelings for the mage Cal was quite interesting. The characters seemed to come to life and the storyline was well written. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be looking for more from this author

[David Watters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really pleasantly surprised at the great quality of The Fire Mages. I was scrolling through reddit and Ms. Ross had announced that she was promoting this title for free for a 2 day period. Well, I have to say, good promoting. I just purchased the other 2 books in the series and I am looking forward to reading them very much.

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not too sure how to feel about this novel. While it was well written, I had trouble really getting into it and enjoying it as much as I could have. I don't think it was nearly as descriptive and adventurous as it could of been. Never the less, it was a good read by a promising author.

[Rebecca Saxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book not knowing what to expect. All I can say is that I did not want to put this book down from the start. The story was engaging , different and moved at a consistent smooth pace.
I look forward to reading the rest of her books!

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magic, romance, a hidden realm, and mystery. The Fire Mages is packed with exciting elements that kept me compulsively reading it. Great fantasy fiction!

[Elizabeth Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooooo good!

I read this series out of order because I started with The Fire Mages' Daughter. I HAD to come back and see exactly how events transpired before Drina was born. So happy I did! Drina's mother seemed off-putting and strange in The Fire Mages ' Daughter. Upon reading her story, Kyra's specific character traits and strength of will are revealed in a different fashion. She is no nonsense, but still cares deeply for others. She is an anomaly of her time. I loved reading the background about her and Cal, despite all the odd twists. I will definitely be pursuing the other novels in this series! Great work!

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book years ago, when it was first released and thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the magic system delightful and unique, the relationship between Kyrra and her mentor intriguing if fraught with complications, and the whole world detailed and rich. I recommend this book highly!

*Note that I read this book before I read Brightmoon #1 and did not struggle to enjoy it because of that. Meanwhile, I actually struggled to get into the first book despite how much I enjoyed this one. (Not terribly sure why, but I think it was mostly to do with pacing. This book moves much faster than the first book in the series.)

[Julia Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this had been more of a bridge between 'Plains of Kallanash' and the current time, as it feels like many years have passed inbetween. Granted, I'm aware this probably doesn't flow in any chronological order so perhaps the next book will fill in more blanks. However, since I did erroneously read 'The Fire Mages' Daughter' first, it was nice to have all of the background on that story filled in here. I personally enjoyed the characters, the history, and I'm still in love with this fantasy world however backwards-minded it may be. Definitely looking forward to the next book!

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating

I recieved this as a free book for my kindle. One of the best books I have read in a while. It kept my attention and I couldn't wait ti read more. The characters were believable and interesting. I would reccomend this book to anyone who loves the fantasy genre.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. The magic system was interesting and the writing was well done.

Contains: sex (not erotic but more descriptive than just fade to black, strong language (one character only, says f-word about 15 or so times), rape-like scenes (the heroine “doesn’t mind” as the contact that one enters into permits sex at anytime but it still might be a bit tough to read for people who struggle with such themes.)

[Kathryn LaCoss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging Fun Story

I gave this book a 5 star rating as it was engaging, romantic, with power and mystery and twisting plots and the story leapt off the pages and into my imagination.