Firelight (Darkest London, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Dec 22, 2011 AH rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc-netgalley, alpha-males, babr-reviews, demons, paranormal, romance, historical, first-in-series, zzread-jan-2012

Wow. Captivating. Compelling. I could not put this book down.

Firelight by Kristen Callihan was a pleasant surprise. I’m not usually a historical romance reader, but I was enthralled by the rich detail and the beautiful writing style. Firelight combines historical romance with a touch of the paranormal and adds in just the right amount of mythological lore.

In a way, Firelight reminded me of The Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast. This is not a retelling of those tales – instead the aut ...more

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Feb 17, 2012 cc rated it really liked it

Shelves: arranged-forced-marriage, historical-romance, hero-jealous-possessive, steamy, beauty-and-the-beast, stalkerific-hero, urban-fantasy, paranormal-romance

This is a great debut by Kristen Callihan, and I’m so, so glad that for once, a pretty cover did me good, because I fell completely in love with it since I first laid eyes on Firelight, and I just had to get myself a copy.

This book is part historical romance, part urban fantasy, with some horror involved and lots of mysteries to solve. The story also gave me a Beauty & the Beast vibe, which only improved my opinion about the author because that’s my favorite fairy tale. :D

It all begins with Mira ...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Daffodil rated it it was amazing

Shelves: paranormal-romance, romance, historical, historical-paranormal

The minute I finished this book, I was already looking forward to more from this author. I fell in love with the characters. The plot kept me engaged and guessing to the end, without frustrating me over the mystery of Archer's disfigurement. And the final confrontation was emotionally satisfying.

Miranda and Archer are both used to keeping secrets from everyone, scared to share their hidden powers/sides. Yet they still manage to build a relationship and slowly learn to trust each other. The secon ...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Cee rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, historical, paranormal

I was very much excited to be reading Firelight. It sounded just like my cup of tea; supernatural paranormal historical romance featuring a strong and gifted heroine. almost everyone I know enjoyed this book, and it has a wonderful average rating on Goodreads. Sadly, Firelight wasn’t for me.

It took me a while to find out what was wrong with it. The characters are okay – pretty standard match between a strong-willed heroine and an overprotective alpha male who constantly bicker and have a great s I was very much excited to be reading Firelight. It sounded just like my cup of tea; supernatural paranormal historical romance featuring a strong and gifted heroine. almost everyone I know enjoyed this book, and it has a wonderful average rating on Goodreads. Sadly, Firelight wasn’t for me.

It took me a while to find out what was wrong with it. The characters are okay – pretty standard match between a strong-willed heroine and an overprotective alpha male who constantly bicker and have a great sexual attraction neither is willing to admit to. The plot has plenty of mystery. For a great part (read: almost the entire book) of the book the identity of the main male character Archer is left in the dark. There is a killer on the rampage and Archer knows who he is, but the reader isn’t privy to that information until the very end of the book. And exactly here lies the reason why I didn’t enjoy Firelight that much. For me the story was just plain boring.

There wasn’t anything to grip me and keep me reading. The characters were okay but not that interesting (I specially found Archer to be rather bland) and the plot is quite ridiculous in hindsight. Archer knows who the killer is, a killer who is killing his friends and the people he loves one by one, yet he never warns his friends. Shouldn’t you at least give them a heads up that there is someone who wants them dead, and that it would be a wise idea to go into hiding or at least leave the country? The plot barely moves at all throughout the story. People get killed. Archer is sad. Miranda is angry because she doesn’t know what’s going on. Archer doesn’t tell his wife who or why he is because that might scare her away (even though she’s frigging married to him, where would she go?). Miranda doesn’t tell her husband who or what she is because of absolutely no good reason. Sexual tension. People get killed. Rinse and repeat.

For me this book would have been way more exciting if the reader was actually involved with the plot. If we knew who the killer was, and what the stakes were for Archer, and more small clues as to what Archer is. There is no fun in having a mystery if there are no small clues that hint you in the right direction or put you on the wrong foot. If it’s just a big reveal towards the end, what’s the fun in that?

Firelight is a so-so read, but an interesting mix of genres. Recommend only for readers who don’t mind their plots sailing on miscommunication only. ...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Stacey rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle

I'm not sure the paranormal things were explained to my full understanding and the end felt a little rushed, but by that time I didn't care--I just wanted the HEA for these two characters. I loved them both. The h was feisty and strong without being stupid, and willing to fight for her relationship. The H was suitably tormented and lonely and completely besotted of his wife despite not wanting to be. Great romance with pretty good paranormal side stories. Looking forward to the rest of the serie ...more

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Jul 18, 2012 KarenF rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, kindle, paranormal, romance

I'm on a roll this month reading books that are difficult to categorize. This one is definitely a romance but it's paranormal, historical and a little bit gothic. Personally I like all of those so I enjoyed this book. Looking forward to reading more in the series. ...more

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