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A review by ladytiara
Embers by Laura Bickle
3.0
Embers is a terrific start to a new urban fantasy series. Anya Kalinczyk's day job is investigating arson for the Detroit Fire Department. By night, she works with a rag-tag group of ghost hunters. She’s a Lantern, a psychic with an affinity for fire and the ability to see and consume ghosts. She’s also got a salamander who likes to destroy appliances for a familiar (that’s a new urban fantasy twist).
Anya is investigating a series of suspicious fires for her day job, but her investigation begins to take her in a supernatural direction. Detroit is in bad shape economically, and it's a hotbed of crime, both normal and paranormal. Anya suspects that the fires are part of a ritual and she's soon on the tail of a very dangerous man who wants to raise a really scary entity. The idea of paranormal activity taking over a crumbling city is a cool one, and the backdrop of Detroit really works well in this book.
The lines between urban fantasy and paranormal romance often blend, but this book is firmly in the urban fantasy camp. There's a potential romantic interest, but he's very much in the background. Anya, like many urban fantasy heroines, is a loner with serious baggage and she doesn't do well with relationships. (And it's hard to have a guy spend the night when she's used to sleeping with a salamander who's invisible to most of the world.) There's also an attraction to a dangerous guy, but romance is not the focus of this book.
The plot moved well and kept me reading. There was one moment where I sort of stood back and said, huh, but in the end, the plot really came together well, and there’s a lot of potential for the future installments in this series.
Anya is investigating a series of suspicious fires for her day job, but her investigation begins to take her in a supernatural direction. Detroit is in bad shape economically, and it's a hotbed of crime, both normal and paranormal. Anya suspects that the fires are part of a ritual and she's soon on the tail of a very dangerous man who wants to raise a really scary entity. The idea of paranormal activity taking over a crumbling city is a cool one, and the backdrop of Detroit really works well in this book.
The lines between urban fantasy and paranormal romance often blend, but this book is firmly in the urban fantasy camp. There's a potential romantic interest, but he's very much in the background. Anya, like many urban fantasy heroines, is a loner with serious baggage and she doesn't do well with relationships. (And it's hard to have a guy spend the night when she's used to sleeping with a salamander who's invisible to most of the world.) There's also an attraction to a dangerous guy, but romance is not the focus of this book.
The plot moved well and kept me reading. There was one moment where I sort of stood back and said, huh, but in the end, the plot really came together well, and there’s a lot of potential for the future installments in this series.