**Rating 3.75**

This is book #2 in a series, but the first book I've read. I must say, I am intrigued by the world Ms. Bickle has created. I love the characters she'd populated her world with. They're multidimensional in that not all is what they seem. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for Anya and Sparky, as well as seeing how everything is going to work out with Brian (I wanna know what he's really up to), Charon (seems like there's more there... am I the only one that sensed a conn More...

Detroit Fire Department arson investigator, Anya Kalinczyk is called to the scene of a gruesome fire at the home of Jasper Bernard. It seems that Jasper was a victim of spontaneous human combustion, although Anya knows something more sinister is at play. She can smell evil magic around the crime scene. Anya has this ability, because she is also a Lantern, a psychic medium who can see and talk to ghosts, as well as help them cross over to the other side.

Jasper has a connection to Hope Solomon, a More...

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

SPARKS is many things: a funny tale of a girl and her salamander, an ode to the city of Detroit, a startlingly unique romance, and a gritty, noir mystery. These first qualities worked much better for me than the last. I found the villain tepid and uninteresting when juxtaposed with Anya’s dark past, an impending newt hatching, or the romantic antics of the Detroit Museum of Arts ghost population. This flaw ultimately made me unmotivated to finish the bo More...

I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review. I rated it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Sparks, the second book in the Anya Kalinczyk series, begins a short time after the end of the events in the previous book. Once again Ms. Bickle drew me into Anya's strange and unique world and I didn't want the story to end. Introducing some new characters, both human and paranormal, Ms. Bickle continued the world building which makes this series so uniq More...

A spark neglected makes a mighty fire. - Robert Herrick


Anya Kalinczyk, arson investigator for the Detroit Fire Department, and her salamander familiar Sparky are back to handle another bizarre case. this time, bodies appear to have spontaneously combusted and spirits are being collected by a charismatic celebrity psychic for her own nefarious gain.
if i loved Embers, the first book in the Anya Kalinczyk series, i loved this second one even more. author Laura Bickle has written a worthy sequel.
t More...

Can you say woah? I thought Embers was awesomesauce, but Sparks (dare I say it?) is better! Laura Bickle continues the story of Anya Kalinczyk. She is a Lantern. She can see spirits and they can see her, AND she can "eat" them. This was a compelling part of the first book, but brings and extra punch in the sequel. She starts to wonder about things that she hadn't considered in depth before. The afterlife, and what really happens. Very deep questions, woven into the story in what I consider a pre More...

Today's review is on Sparks by Laura Bickle

Sparks is the second book in Bickle's Anya Kalinczk series, and in my opinion lacked the sparks of a sequel.

It's been a few months since the death of her lover Drake, and Ayna is trying to go on with her life. One morning, she is woken up with a call from her Boss. There has been a fire in the home of a hoarder.

What seems to be an act of spontaneous combustion, sends Ayna on an adventure to stop Hope Solomon, a con artist posing as a Spiritual Adviser f More...

This is the sequel to Ember.
Quick recap Anya is a lantern which is a medium who can absorb spirits. She's a fire investigator and helps out DAGR a ghost hunting operation. Her familiar Sparky is a fire elemental called a salamander.
Anya is called into investigating a strange case of what looks like spontaneous human combustion. As she digs into the case it leads her to some unusual connections. Not only does she needs to solve this case, but Sparky becoming a Dad (Mom? Apparently salamanders ca More...

I have to admit, I broke -- about halfway through, I had to read the ending of the book to find out what happened to Sparky's babies. (I'm a total wuss about that kind of suspense.) I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that while there was some sadness, it was in keeping with the rest of the series in that it left me hopeful enough to finish reading. That could be said of the rest of the story as well: Anya lives in a dying town acting as a shepherd of sorts for the dead-but-not-departed. Sa More...

I haven't read the first book in this series but this book stands alone great by itself with competent writing and an interesting plot. My main issue was with the main character herself.

I assume we're going to see some growth in her since she acknowledges that she avoids physical attachments but at the same time, being closed off doesn't have to mean boring.

I'm a character driven reader and while the plot was strong enough to keep my attention I read series for the characters and if it wasn't More...

WOW!!!

This amazing story brings a whole new flavor to the urban fantasy/paranormal romance table.

Anya Kalinczyk is psychic medium with the added ability to literally devour ghosts. In her day job as an arson investigator, she's constantly in contact with death and its unfortunate after effects.

All of this is almost routine until she's called out to the latest arson scene. She can't determine the fire's cause, whether it was an accident or murder, and before she can ask the victim, his ghost is s More...

This is a new author for me. This book follows Anya, a fire investigator and lantern,and her familiar Sparky. She is called to investigate unusual cases of what appears to spontaneous combustion. While on the investigations, she meets up with quirky ghosts, becomes a "mother" and has to face her past.
Even though I enjoyed the character of Anya, I wish I could have gotten to know her a little better. It was obvious she was very gentle and caring with Sparky and her friends, but I would have liked More...

Sparks by Laura Bickle
Paranormal Romance- August 31st, 2010
4 ½ stars

Six months after her skirmish with a fire dragon, Anya has resumed her normal life. She juggles her daytime job as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, her activities with a paranormal investigation team, and her new relationship with Brian, the ghost researchers’ tech guy. Life is so far is good until Anya is called to investigate a rash of human combustion cases that link to a suspicious non-profit group. More...

4.5 stars
This story happens about six months after the event in book 1. This time, Anya deals with possible cases of spontaneous human combustion, ghosts stealing artifacts, and her salamander Sparky having babies!

I enjoy the second story as much as the first one. Anya as heroine still charms me. Her fire salamander spirit, Sparky, as well. In this book, Sparky is having babies (Sparky is a boy, but there is an explanation on how he can have babies :D), and Anya shopping for baby stuffs and the More...

3.75 stars, but I rounded up to show the improvement from the first book in the series. It's still not fantastic, there are a few odd elements that continue to snag my attention, but it is above average.

I love Sparky and the newts! Sparky continues to be adorable, the perfect side-kick, and caring for him and the newts brought out a welcomed nurturing and emotional side to Anya. She tends to be all closed up emotionally, which is part of the story, but makes it hard for the reader to connect wi More...

I received Sparks as part of the blog tour hosted by Bewitching Book Tours in return for an honest review. Anya's days are divided between working as a arson investigator and dealing with out of control spirits. She's not alone in her adventure she's joined by her elemental familiar Sparky who happens to be a salamander plus her ghost hunting group. Anya isn't your typical Detroit girl she's a lantern which means that she can communicate with ghosts as well as she has the gift to eat them ending More...

Good book. It is the second in the series - but it is the first book to me and I was never once lost. Anya is quick, clever and while she has baggage, she's not angsty (yay!). You get she has stuff holding her back. There's a refreshing lack of self-pity (sure, there's some, but it's not about the baggage. It's practical stuff - 'OMG, I failed my best friend, I feel like a heel' for example.) I loved the fact that Anya's boyfriend isn't Mr. Perfect - the guy has character flaws...and he lives. W More...

This book was a vast improvement on the one that came before it. The main character was more involved, more active, and actually had an impact on the world around her. She actively questioned her own morals and those of others as she tried to reconcile her duty as an executioner of spirits (of sorts) with her respect for them as sentient beings.

There was still heavy-handed involvement from an outside source who insisted that no matter what Anya did, she could not solve the problem her way... Whi More...

Alternate Title: "The One Where A Psychic Arson Investigator, a Witch, and an Unruly Salamander Familiar Accidentally Destroy a Baby Supplies Store"

I really love this series. It's refreshingly low-key; not that it's boring (not at all!), but there's no contrived conflict or enforced "high drama" moments. All the conflict and drama evolve organically. Plus, Anya's romantic and/or sexual liaisons are not overwrought, nor are they the focus of her life (or of the plot). Three cheers for that, for w More...

reviewed by http://urbanfantasyinvestigations.blo...

I enjoy this series because its different. Its nice to hit a book that has something completely new and different in it every once in a while. Laura's characters are easy to like. There is none stop action and twists and turns. We get to see some of Anya's past and find out some stuff that even Anya didn't know about which will change her outlook on events she has gone through. I was actually starting to like Brian in the beginning but after so More...

I should make two confessions before I go any further. One, I am completely fascinated by spontaneous human combustion, and two, I really love reptiles and would quite like a salamander of my own. Therefore it probably should be a surprise that I adored Sparks, the second of Laura Bickle's Lantern series (I think it's called the Lantern series anyway?).

All things I loved about Embers are still here - Anya and Sparky, the beautifully described city of Detroit, which is almost a character itself, More...

4.45 stars.

This was the second book I read today (well, finished the other and read this one) that had a theme of Spontaneous Human Combustion. I really hope this subject doesn't come in threes and manifest itself by me bursting into flame. That would just be my luck. Nah, that's too interesting a death. I'm fine.

I liked this much better than the first book in the series, so much so that I'm tempted to lower my rating on that one. This had what I felt was lacking in the first one: a greater conn More...

Review courtesy of AllThingsUrbanFantasy.blogspot.com

~Reviewed by Julia~

http://allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot...

The second book in the series starring Anya Kalinczyk, a Detroit Fire Department investigator who is also a Lantern, meaning she can see and communicate with ghosts, as well as destroy them if necessary. I really like the idea of this series, but this book, like the first, ended with a big, overdescribed battle scene that just got too weird. The one redeeming part of this book was the introduction of the character Charon, a spirit that guides ghosts to their spot in the Afterlife. The author's d More...

I read and loved the first Anya Kalinczyk story, Embers, earlier in the year (review here) and have been waiting to start reading this sequel ever since. Finally, having decided that July is my joyful reading month – I’m only reading books I want to read and not review copies or other books so this was one of the first books I picked up. And I’m so happy it was!

I love Anya and her fire elemental, Sparky! They are great characters – strong willed, independent and caring. The past still haunts her More...

In Sparks, Laura Bickle’s follow-up to Embers, Anya Kalinczyk faces another baffling case of magic and mysterious fires. The Detroit Fire Department is confounded by what seem to be instances of spontaneous human combustion. Meanwhile, huckster guru Hope Solomon is amassing wealth and power on the backs of Detroit’s desperate. Anya and her friends are in grave danger when Anya discovers a link between Hope and the fires.

Hope Solomon is incredibly creepy. She espouses a blend of the popular “law More...

Plot: 4 Stars
I really liked the idea of workers and curses, and whether or not the powers are used for good or evil. It was a very unique take the typical "magic" or "curses" often seen in young adult and urban fantasy novels. The different types of workers and how they operated could've been elaborated on a little more, so I'm hoping we'll find out more in the sequel. I only had a small issue with the plot, that being that I was a bit confused at times. Cassel, the main character, was also conf More...

WOW The suspense in this book, regarding Sparky's babies, was killing me. But I held out, *Sweating*. We catch up of some of the consequences (I guess you can say) from the 1st book. It simply amazes me how this series can play upon your emotions. One moment your really feeling bad for Anya, the next minute your in totally suspense, and then out of nowhere your LOL.I am hoping Anya and Brain can work out their problems and really make their relationship work. The Character I found to be well dev More...

This second book in the series was just as good as the first. Again, a gripping story, delightful and believable characters and plenty of action moving things along at a good pace.

I love Anya's interactions with Sparky in this story and the new characters were fun and well-rounded, adding to the back-story already established in book one.

You could read this book without reading book one, but you'll get more from it if you read it in order as there are some references to the previous storyline.

I More...