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ninamooner's review against another edition
5.0
I love this book so much. Emigh's writing is beautiful and wonderful. The characters are amazing <3
ddbookreviews's review
Emigh Cannaday is the author of the Annika Brisby series. The fourth of which was released a couple of days ago. The series follows Annika who gets lost in the Balkans and ends up falling in love with an Elf assassin. Their lives are never the same again and they are driven by their passions. Throw in a sexy brother in law Vampires and Druids and you have an intense adult Fantasy that makes you want to scream and then cry when the author delivers surprising twist and turns in the plot. The first book The Flame and the Arrow is free on Amazon.
The Fourth Book is The Darkest of Dreams and is definitely worth the read
The Fourth Book is The Darkest of Dreams and is definitely worth the read
sleeping_while_awake's review
2.0
The Flame and the Arrow is a portal world story. Annika, the main characters, goes to visit her uncle in the Balkans, basically fleeing from a marriage proposal.
She meets an intriguing man in a bookstore, but he runs off before she can learn more. As she is walking, she gets trapped in another world, full of fantastical creatures. She ends up in a cave of samodivas, wood nymphs, who believe the portals have now been locked, and cannot be traveled through any longer.
Annika and the samodivas travel to the home of a family of elves to learn more about the disturbance. Annika meets Talvi, an elf that she has instant chemistry with, and the romance blossoms.
Eventually a group forms and they journey to figure out an answer.
This book was rather painful to read. Annika and Talvi are very juvenile. Their actions are like 14 year olds, and their relationship is not enviable.
The supporting characters are fun and interesting, and don't seem like idiots. There are fairies, vampires, and druids. For that alone, it gets a bump in a star.
The actual journey is little of the book. Two long portions of time are spent at houses with the characters' relationship drama playing out. The story is a mix of romance and fantasy.
Honestly, I don't even feel the need to go into a detailed review, even though there are many things I could complain about. Suffice to say it was boring and the main characters were annoying.
She meets an intriguing man in a bookstore, but he runs off before she can learn more. As she is walking, she gets trapped in another world, full of fantastical creatures. She ends up in a cave of samodivas, wood nymphs, who believe the portals have now been locked, and cannot be traveled through any longer.
Annika and the samodivas travel to the home of a family of elves to learn more about the disturbance. Annika meets Talvi, an elf that she has instant chemistry with, and the romance blossoms.
Eventually a group forms and they journey to figure out an answer.
This book was rather painful to read. Annika and Talvi are very juvenile. Their actions are like 14 year olds, and their relationship is not enviable.
The supporting characters are fun and interesting, and don't seem like idiots. There are fairies, vampires, and druids. For that alone, it gets a bump in a star.
The actual journey is little of the book. Two long portions of time are spent at houses with the characters' relationship drama playing out. The story is a mix of romance and fantasy.
Honestly, I don't even feel the need to go into a detailed review, even though there are many things I could complain about. Suffice to say it was boring and the main characters were annoying.
biddywink's review
2.0
This book started out okay for the first quarter. Then it took a steady, steep decline. Annika and Talvi are annoying in their flip-flopping all-encompassing love (lust) and jealous hatred of each other.
A few of the side characters are good, but even these ones fall into the same irritating and useless actions and dialogue.
I would not have finished this book if it wasn't the Vaginal Fantasy main pick for this month. Thank goodness it was free on Kindle!
A few of the side characters are good, but even these ones fall into the same irritating and useless actions and dialogue.
I would not have finished this book if it wasn't the Vaginal Fantasy main pick for this month. Thank goodness it was free on Kindle!
melissa_leigh's review
slow-paced
1.0
The Flame and the Arrow has got to be one of the worst books I've ever read. For a book to be about another realm full of elves, fairies, ogres, wood nymphs, and vampires, you'd think it would be full of wonder and magic but nope! It was incredibly boring, full of pages upon pages of nothing interesting happening. There are countless of pages where characters are just cleaning up the house, gathering wood, doing laundry, gossiping about nonsense and so on.
The main romance and is just unbearable. I suppose Annika is fine. She's from the human world and gets thrust into this other place near the beginning of the book. She just takes everything almost without blinking, though, and it was very strange that she was just accepting it all with barely any questions. Talvi, the love interest, was an obnoxious character. He spent most of the book being a complete baby to the point where everyone around him wanted him to just leave. I can't understand why Annika even liked him other than he being mysterious and attractive. The romance scenes made me burst into laughter sometimes for how cringy they were. And when I wasn't laughing, I was skimming those pages just so I could try to finish the book faster.
The "plot" has multiple characters making a journey to a distant land to gather intel about their enemies or something along those lines. I can't really remember because of how little the "plot" serves. The last maybe 30 pages is where that even comes into play and this book is over 400 pages long. I love longer books when they are interesting but almost nothing about pointless things happened here. (There is an entire subplot that lasted multiple chapters of the party cleaning up a stranger's house....)
SPOILER BELOW
There's a prophecy that gets brought up almost 200 pages in and the payout was worthless. We learn that the main love interest, Talvi, was destined to find love through Annika. His twin sister, Yuri, was destined for "something much darker." Turns out she was meant to die, which happened very abruptly like 15 pages before the books ends, only for her to come back to life the very next page. It was lame. Annika makes it back to her world right after and the book ends.
The only reason I didn't stick this in my abandoned shelf halfway through is because I wanted this to count toward my reading challenge. I do not recommend.
The main romance and is just unbearable. I suppose Annika is fine. She's from the human world and gets thrust into this other place near the beginning of the book. She just takes everything almost without blinking, though, and it was very strange that she was just accepting it all with barely any questions. Talvi, the love interest, was an obnoxious character. He spent most of the book being a complete baby to the point where everyone around him wanted him to just leave. I can't understand why Annika even liked him other than he being mysterious and attractive. The romance scenes made me burst into laughter sometimes for how cringy they were. And when I wasn't laughing, I was skimming those pages just so I could try to finish the book faster.
The "plot" has multiple characters making a journey to a distant land to gather intel about their enemies or something along those lines. I can't really remember because of how little the "plot" serves. The last maybe 30 pages is where that even comes into play and this book is over 400 pages long. I love longer books when they are interesting but almost nothing about pointless things happened here. (There is an entire subplot that lasted multiple chapters of the party cleaning up a stranger's house....)
SPOILER BELOW
There's a prophecy that gets brought up almost 200 pages in and the payout was worthless. We learn that the main love interest, Talvi, was destined to find love through Annika. His twin sister, Yuri, was destined for "something much darker." Turns out she was meant to die, which happened very abruptly like 15 pages before the books ends, only for her to come back to life the very next page. It was lame. Annika makes it back to her world right after and the book ends.
The only reason I didn't stick this in my abandoned shelf halfway through is because I wanted this to count toward my reading challenge. I do not recommend.
kateskookybookblog's review
5.0
Opinion:
Plot - I absolutely love this book! I am getting so tired of seeing the same plots in books over and over again, or the exact opposite of normal, which makes it predictable too. This book has none of that. Just when you think you know what’s about to happen… PLOT TWIST. It keeps you on your toes with all the suspense of a cliff-hanger, except the author keeps giving you more of what you want instead of making you wait. I would say more, but I don’t want to spoil it so anyone reading this can experience the book in all its glory!
Setting – This book takes place in two places – the human world, and a co-existing world, where Talvi, the love interest, is from. Cannaday does a wonderful job of depicting the locations they wind up in with the human world, and an even better job developing her own world. When I read the pages, I feel like I am transported to this other world, experiencing things right along with the characters. The settings are described vividly without being too boring. I hate when places are described taking up four or five pages. This story manages to describe the places perfectly without the lengthiness taking away from the story.
Characters - The characters are constantly doing unexpected things, and they are unusual characters. I mean, come on, when’s the last time the main character was a female lead singer of a band? The only problem I could see some people having is the fact that her love interest is kind of stereotypical – bad boy, smoldering gaze, dark hair, secretive, yeah, you know the type. However, his personality is consistently being developed, allowing you to see more sides of him that eliminate that stereotype. I also hate seeing the same paranormal characters constantly – vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, etc. Elves are ones that have not been overly played, and the author manages to add so many creatures to their world that there is bound to be something new and refreshing for everyone.
Plot - I absolutely love this book! I am getting so tired of seeing the same plots in books over and over again, or the exact opposite of normal, which makes it predictable too. This book has none of that. Just when you think you know what’s about to happen… PLOT TWIST. It keeps you on your toes with all the suspense of a cliff-hanger, except the author keeps giving you more of what you want instead of making you wait. I would say more, but I don’t want to spoil it so anyone reading this can experience the book in all its glory!
Setting – This book takes place in two places – the human world, and a co-existing world, where Talvi, the love interest, is from. Cannaday does a wonderful job of depicting the locations they wind up in with the human world, and an even better job developing her own world. When I read the pages, I feel like I am transported to this other world, experiencing things right along with the characters. The settings are described vividly without being too boring. I hate when places are described taking up four or five pages. This story manages to describe the places perfectly without the lengthiness taking away from the story.
Characters - The characters are constantly doing unexpected things, and they are unusual characters. I mean, come on, when’s the last time the main character was a female lead singer of a band? The only problem I could see some people having is the fact that her love interest is kind of stereotypical – bad boy, smoldering gaze, dark hair, secretive, yeah, you know the type. However, his personality is consistently being developed, allowing you to see more sides of him that eliminate that stereotype. I also hate seeing the same paranormal characters constantly – vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, etc. Elves are ones that have not been overly played, and the author manages to add so many creatures to their world that there is bound to be something new and refreshing for everyone.
heather_reads_uk's review
4.0
Ok, so I found all the characters really annoying for the first half of the book (and the lead couple for the first two thirds) but I found myself enjoying the story by the last third. Not a book that I would read again but I will most likely read the next installment.
birdyme's review
4.0
I liked the story. There were some inconsistencies, but overall it was good and I might continue one with the series.
bookwifereviews's review
3.0
This was a good story... buuuuut I did not like Talvi... at all. He was a terrible love interest. I wanted her to end up with the druid guy. Nicholas (SP?). He was cool and he had badass powers. But no, Annika had to be a stupid girl and pick the guy that didn't treat her well. Sigh. I want to know what happens next but I do not want to see how their relationship progresses.