Review: Fireborn (Souls of Fire #1) by Keri Arthur

Published: July 1, 2014 by Signet Select
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format: ebook
Source: Purchased

Goodreads Summary

Emberly has spent a good number of her many lives trying to save humans. So when her prophetic dreams reveal the death of Sam, a man she once loved, she does everything in her power to prevent that from happening. But in saving his life, she gets more than she bargained for.

Sam is working undercover for the Paranormal Investigations Team, and those who are trying to murder him are actually humans infected by a virus, the red plague —a by-product of a failed government experiment that attempted to identify the enzymes that make vampires immortal. Now, all those infected must be eliminated.

But when Emberly’s boss is murdered and his irreplaceable research stolen, she needs to find the guilty party before she goes down in flames…

I won the third one, Flameout, from Jessica at A Great Read and I'm so excited to get into the series!

The Good

You know what I haven't read about yet, but is a creature I absolutely adore?? Phoenixes! And Arthur has provided me with an investigative type series with a phoenix as the main character. I really enjoyed the Riley Jenson series when I read it a while ago, so all signs point to 'Go' with this series. Learning the ins and outs of phoenix life was quite fun. Emberly has quite a few neat tricks up her sleeve. I'm not going to go into detail with her power or the mythology around the phoenixes too much, but it was incredibly interesting to dive into. There is also a good element of needing recharged and power draining which I liked or she would never be in any real danger and it helps to make her much more relatable.

This one also has the mystery element. Emberly finds herself in the midst of an investigation which provides the majority of the plot. There was a great mixture of phoenix, red cloaks, fae, vampires, werewolves, and I'm sure there will be more to come in the future. I'm not quite sure what's going on with the 'darkness' mentioned numerous times that resides in Sam. However, it's great to follow the investigation filled with some inventive bad guys and good guys.

I enjoyed the characters. Some we only had brief glimpses of like Rory, but since he's Emberly's partner through life then I'm sure I'll learn all about him in more detail. Jackson was a fun one and HOT. He's a fire fae that Emberly finds herself working with since he's a private investigator.

The Bad

The overused mention of Sam's 'darkness' and how bad Emberly wanted him every time he came on scene was a little annoying. There was also no resolution to the mystery in this one which means it must continue on. There was a clear ending to the book, just no solving of what they were investigating.

The Romance

I actually really like the curse element on Emberly and all the phoenixes. Apparently, they have to mate with a phoenix forever and that person is with them through all their rebirths, but they will never emotionally be in love with them. It also means they can't really find love elsewhere either since they will always be cheating on them with their mate. It's very saddening to imagine multiple lives without true love, but I'm hoping Arthur has something good in store for us in the future. Also, it's amazing that Emberly hasn't given up hope about finding her love. There was a lot of lust to go around though, and this is very adult.

Conclusion

A good start to the series with a new-for-me creature that's very interesting to learn about. The pace was full of action, never boring, and the characters were entertaining. While there were a few blips that I could have done without, I really enjoyed it and will continue with the series. There are some similarities here with the Riley Jenson series (detective work, lots of hooking up, and the supernatural creatures), but it kept everything I loved and was enough different to not be a replica. Recommended.