Flame Kissed by Annie AndersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Complex and Intriguing World
This is actually the second time I tried to read this book. I think the first time I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind to read it and enjoy it because there are some quite complicated plot ideas and world building that aren’t quite always explained in a way that makes it easy to comprehend. However, second time around, after reading a few other books by this author I was able to work around my lack of comprehension because the world was explained in those later books differently. At the end of the book is a comprehensive glossary, if I had known it was there when I got confused I could have saved my brain too much work.
Aurelia is a phoenix, and a seer. As a young woman she was told that she wasn’t going to be given a choice, as should have been the case, to either become an oracle and lose her sight or to choose exile. Aurelia didn’t want to become an oracle and chose to rebel, and married her lover in secret. When the leader of their people found out her wishes were ignored she forced the man who loved Aurelia in secret, Rhys, to kill Aurelia’s husband and this lead to Aurelia losing her baby.
160 years later she is living as an artist, hidden from the world, mentally and emotionally fragile, her only real friend a wraith and protected from the shadows by the man who killed her husband, who was bonded to her by force by the leader of her people. When she is found by her people, she and Rhys escape with their lives but others do not.
This book has violence and heartache, but it also has friendship and love. The world of phoenix and wraiths is fascinating and complex, I just wish I’d known about the glossary before I started reading because some concepts are not explained clearly in the actual body of the book.
Aurelia is a strange mixture of fragile and tough. She has been pounded with visions of death that don’t stop for 160 years, whilst being largely alone to deal with her personal losses and trauma. She suffers from PTSD and all of the hideousness that entails. However, she has made herself physically strong, unlike most seers, who rely on their Soldiers to protect them. She trains in martial arts every day and has exceptional weaponry skills. She uses this to balance out feeling mentally or emotionally weak and burns through her anguish physically.
Rhys is a man who has been loyal and determined in his long-distance protection of the woman he is bound to. He is strong physically and mentally, despite his personal losses. He has been slightly less isolated than Aurelia, but still has few friends considering his age.
These two characters make for intriguing chemistry and it is enjoyable watching them spark and flare. I also liked some of the supporting characters and look forward to seeing them develop later in the series.
Now I’ve got over my initial resistance to this book, I know I’ll read the rest of the series because each book will make things clearer so my confusion, the thing that annoyed me the most about this book, will become less.
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