Urban fantasy is one of those genres that you either passionately hate or absolutely love; it seems there’s no in-between, especially when you’re looking at independently-published urban fantasy. If you’re in the camp of loving indie urban fantasy, though, you’ll be delighted by USA Today bestselling author K.F. Breene’s book, Born in Fire. Gather ‘round for a full cup of tea and some delicious baked chicken meatballs (if baked chicken meatballs are your thing. I feel like only some people can make chicken meatballs well? You’ll have to try them and tell me if they were good or not):
Plot summary:
Supernatural Bounty Hunter isn’t the sort of thing you see on LinkedIn. But with a rare type of magic like mine, I don’t have many options.
So dangerous or not, the job is mine. And it was going fine until an old as sin vampire stole my mark, and with it, my pay day.
Knowing I’m poor and desperate, he has offered me a job. I’ll have to work by his side to help solve a top secret case.
Everyone knows not to trust vampires. Especially a hot elder vampire. But without any other jobs coming up, I’m stuck. As I uncover a web of lies and treachery, revealing an enemy I didn’t know existed, the truth of my identity is threatened. I might make it out alive, only to end up in a gilded cage.
Worth reading: Yeah, honestly, Born in Fire is a lot of fun. Reagan is a brutal and sarcastic (sometimes brutally sarcastic) leading lady who always lands on her feet— directly into trouble, but that’s part of her wayward charm. It was actually really enjoyable for me that the book was focused on Reagan as a bounty hunter, doing her job, while the romance was more of a background factor. Darius may not be as up-in-your-face as Reagan is, but he had a lot of sarcastic (just slightly more subtle) humour as well. For a first book, this one was pretty enticing, and I’ll be sure to pick up the sequel, because despite Born in Fire’s size (437 pages) it’s actually a fast, fun read.
Flaws: I liked this book, I really did, but it wasn’t without its drawbacks. Maybe it’s necessary to read Breene’s other works for a complete picture of Reagan’s world and the characters that populate it, I’ve double-checked, but I’m still uncertain. Characters who were important to the plot were introduced as if they’d just spritzed out of thin air, minor players are treated the same way. My main hangup was this: the biggest part of Reagan is her sassy personality, her Sarcastic, Tough Woman switch is flipped to “on” for this entire novel— at the expense of everything else. I could have appreciated Reagan’s wit and learned all about shifter/mage relations, or Reagan’s neighborhood, or Reagan’s childhood, at the same time; info-bombs don’t necessarily need to be wrapped in a pithy arrangement of words (usually dialogue, but sometimes inner-monologues) for me to retain them.
But if you’re into learning as Reagan bounces along and talks, that won’t be an issue for you. Again, because this book was so sarcasm-heavy, the pacing suffered a bit; it seemed more vital to always give Reagan the last word, or make her victorious in a drawn-out battle of words, than it was to move the plot along. Overall, though, Born in Fire was definitely worth the read for me!
Rating: 3/5 stars
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