Fire Kissed (Shadow Kissed, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jul 01, 2012 Sharon rated it it was amazing

Dark, enchanting,passionate, and magical are the words I would use to describe Erin’s world ofShadow.

I will tell you ahead of time I am a Kellison fangirl. I love her writing and the dark magical world she created in her Shadow series. Shadow is the magic that is slowly seeping out of Twilight, the boundary between life and death where the Fae live, into the human realm and bringing along with it monsters. In her Shadow series (Shadow Bound, Shadow Fall, Shadowman ) we are introduced to the Segu Dark, enchanting,passionate, and magical are the words I would use to describe Erin’s world ofShadow.

I will tell you ahead of time I am a Kellison fangirl. I love her writing and the dark magical world she created in her Shadow series. Shadow is the magic that is slowly seeping out of Twilight, the boundary between life and death where the Fae live, into the human realm and bringing along with it monsters. In her Shadow series (Shadow Bound, Shadow Fall, Shadowman ) we are introduced to the Segue Institute run by humans who are trying to understand Shadow and Twilight because the walls are falling and magic is once again affecting our world. The Order is the angelic host that lives on the other side of Twilight (Heaven) and tries to protect humans from Shadow. This series is a mixture of romance, suspense and magic. Fire Kissed is the first book in Kellison’s new Shadow Kissed series, which is set in the Shadow world and introduces us to Mages.

Mages are descended from Fae. They live in the human world and have some Shadow inside them that they can use like magic, but they can’t cross into Twilight or Heaven because they have no soul and, like the Fae, Mages have always defied Heaven. Thousands of years ago the mages tried to take over the human world and The Order (angels) fought a vicious battle to stop them and even now kill them on sight. But with Shadow leaking back into the world, the Mages who have stayed hidden are becoming stronger and Ferrol Grey is raising an army to take the world back from humans. Earth is about to be plunged back into a war between the Order and Mages, but becoming allies might be the only way for mage, human, and angel to survive the return of the Fae and Shadow.

What I love about Erin’s stories are the characters; they are complex, smart and have emotional depth and you are able to slip flawlessly into the dark world she has created. The forbidden romance between Bastian, an angel, and Kaye, a fire mage, rocked my world. They are both strong, passionate and bound by duty to their causes. My heart breaks right along with theirs as they make choices for the good the world instead of each other. They are now one of my favorite romance couples.

In romances, even urban fantasy, the villain is usually just a vehicle to bring conflict into the couple’s story. Ferrol Grey is so much more than that. He one of the most well developed villains I’ve read and weaves a spell of his own on the reader. You understand his motives and find yourself sympathetic and horrified at his actions. Grey's plan revolves around the fact that he has found a way to regenerate the soul sucking wraiths and make himself more powerful in the process.

The whole mythos Erin has created pushes every one of my buttons: The Fae, magic, darkness, and forbidden love. One of the things I enjoy about urban fantasy is watching the clashing or blending of multiple worlds (in this case human, Fae, Angel, Mage) and the struggles between good and evil, love and hate. Erin’s world of Shadow is all that and more. You don’t need to read her Shadow Series to enjoy Fire Kissed, Erin does a great job of filling in information you need. But I think after reading Fire Kissed you will want to find out more about Shadowman (swoon), Segue and The Order. There is also a series of novellas, which bridges her two series (reviews: Shadow Touch, Shadow Play).

Some of my favorite snippets:
“Ferro Grey laughed as the doors were shut in Jack’s face. And all Jack knew was that a bright light, not so different from a soul, had been swallowed by Shadow. He knew on every level of his being that her presence in the Grey House was wrong, the kind of wrong he’d dedicated his existence to fighting. And he knew that he’d been the one to put her up to it.”

“His beauty was beyond human, beyond her race even. There was something old and frightening in his eyes, but she couldn't help the way she needed him. She was greedy, desperate to lose herself, to be consumed by him, her enemy, her lover, dangers ignored for lust. Magekind would kill her if they knew. And yet, there were a lot of ways to die. She figured riding Bastian into blind ecstasy was as good a way as any.”

“Pages 154-160” (OMGHOT!)

5 “angel loving” sheep
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Jul 04, 2012 Francesca the Fierce (Under the Covers Book Blog) rated it liked it

Shelves: books-read-2012, genre-urban-fantasy, witches-shaman-magic, fae

3.5 Stars

This review was posted at Under the Covers

Some of the things that stand out in my mind when I think of this book:

a) The storyline was full of action and intrigue. There's a bigger picture battle between basically good and evil but there's also a smaller scale conflict of what happened to the heroine as a teenager and how that is reflecting on her present.
b) The world was amazing and unique, full of magic and angels that can disguise themselves and seem human.
c) The hero is sexy as hell 3.5 Stars

This review was posted at Under the Covers

Some of the things that stand out in my mind when I think of this book:

a) The storyline was full of action and intrigue. There's a bigger picture battle between basically good and evil but there's also a smaller scale conflict of what happened to the heroine as a teenager and how that is reflecting on her present.
b) The world was amazing and unique, full of magic and angels that can disguise themselves and seem human.
c) The hero is sexy as hell. Jack Bastian can light my fire anyday.
d) He actually lights the heroines' fire. Her power is so cool. Among other things, like seeing the future with a touch, she controls fire. She can burn with a touch.

Those are the things I liked the most about this story. But then I also thought that there was at times a big info dump which could've been done, maybe, in a bit more concise fashion. For a reader like me, coming in n book 4 of the series, this was helpful so that I could understand the dynamics of this world, the different supernaturals, their powers and their conflicts. But even I felt that at times it was over-explained and analyzed and I can see how if you've been reading the series, maybe some of those things would get repetitive.

Another thing that I enjoyed about this book was that it rides a fine line between urban fantasy and paranormal romance. I actually had a hard time choosing how to classify it. In the end I'm going with paranormal romance because there is a couple, and although their love is not the focus of the story by any means, their attraction does play a role that I find gives it more romance than I would expect from a UF. Do I think that they are a good match? Probably not. I think she may be a little too damaged where she's at in her life to get her to fall in love and be able to stay in a relationship. And in keeping with a more UF theme, the hero and heroine are not neat little characters that can do no wrong. They do have depth and neither of them are perfect.

The heroine has to survive a lot in her past and has been living up to now in a way that is not entirely sane. She is capable of doing wrong, of using her power for personal gain. But she is also essentially good and wants to help people even at a high cost to herself and her happiness. So even though I can't say that Kaye Brand will ever be a favorite heroine of mine, I do like her strength to push through.

A little slow to start but once this book got going, I did enjoy the story and went full speed ahead and couldn't stop reading pretty much until I finished it. It was in essence a captivating and very unique story.

*ARC provided by publisher ...more

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