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A review by aksmith92
A Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Ugh, I keep giving Rebecca Ross the benefit of the doubt, and do NOT get me wrong, her books flow, are relatively poetic, and have a decent plot & characters. BUT for SOME reason, I CANNOT for the life of me figure out why her books don't DO it for me or get a full 4/5 stars. It may be the pacing. It may be that she has everyone get married in one second. I am not sure.
A Fire Endless is the second book in the Elements of Cadence duology. It proceeds A River Enchanted, a book I rated 3.5/5 stars because I liked the vibes but needed clarification on the characters and plot. I liked the characters for this book, A Fire Endless, but I was still confused about the plot and simply didn't get the vibes. It's hard to explain. We still get POVs from the usual crew - Jack, Adaira, Torin, Sidra, and Frae (whose POV is way out of place, to be honest), but now folks are separated, and the plot continues as the East and West continue to duel it out. Throw in some spirit messes, and you have lots of action happening.
I'm unsure if I will explain this well, but there was something boring about fantasy elements - humans and spirits intertwining and figuring stuff out. The humans seemed unintelligent, having the spirits need to do everything for them without really understanding why or how that was - from the 45-70% of this book just seemed kind of "eh" for me. It seemed like a decent amount of "fairy tale characters" were involved, which frustrated me because I didn't understand some of the why behind side characters' decisions. Additionally, I managed to guess a big plot twist early on in this book after hearing just one story about the Western Bard. Still, the book's ending most certainly picked up and helped me rate this another 3.5/5.
To Rebecca Ross's credit, she has atmospheric, beautiful writing and an interesting premise. I really enjoyed Jack and Adaira's relationship in this one (much more than the first) and Torin and Sidra's relationship, especially now that a mystery was thrown into the mix in this book for them (and everyone, but particularly them). All-in-all, it was a solid read, and the duology was intriguing. Even though this was Ross's Adult duology, as opposed to her other YA works, it still read relatively young to me. With that said, I think this could be read in the Fall/Winter because it just has that vibe, and I would recommend it for a somewhat cozy read (but there is still violence and other possible triggers in here that would make it not the coziest!). This duology is pretty well done.
A Fire Endless is the second book in the Elements of Cadence duology. It proceeds A River Enchanted, a book I rated 3.5/5 stars because I liked the vibes but needed clarification on the characters and plot. I liked the characters for this book, A Fire Endless, but I was still confused about the plot and simply didn't get the vibes. It's hard to explain. We still get POVs from the usual crew - Jack, Adaira, Torin, Sidra, and Frae (whose POV is way out of place, to be honest), but now folks are separated, and the plot continues as the East and West continue to duel it out. Throw in some spirit messes, and you have lots of action happening.
I'm unsure if I will explain this well, but there was something boring about fantasy elements - humans and spirits intertwining and figuring stuff out. The humans seemed unintelligent, having the spirits need to do everything for them without really understanding why or how that was - from the 45-70% of this book just seemed kind of "eh" for me. It seemed like a decent amount of "fairy tale characters" were involved, which frustrated me because I didn't understand some of the why behind side characters' decisions. Additionally, I managed to guess a big plot twist early on in this book after hearing just one story about the Western Bard. Still, the book's ending most certainly picked up and helped me rate this another 3.5/5.
To Rebecca Ross's credit, she has atmospheric, beautiful writing and an interesting premise. I really enjoyed Jack and Adaira's relationship in this one (much more than the first) and Torin and Sidra's relationship, especially now that a mystery was thrown into the mix in this book for them (and everyone, but particularly them). All-in-all, it was a solid read, and the duology was intriguing. Even though this was Ross's Adult duology, as opposed to her other YA works, it still read relatively young to me. With that said, I think this could be read in the Fall/Winter because it just has that vibe, and I would recommend it for a somewhat cozy read (but there is still violence and other possible triggers in here that would make it not the coziest!). This duology is pretty well done.