Review: EMBERS by Laura Bickle

Review: EMBERS by Laura Bickle

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Unemployment, despair, anger--visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit's unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city.

Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya--who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern--suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil's Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya--with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team --can stop it.

Anya's accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she's risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she's ever faced.

Publisher: Pocket Books, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Single Title/Series: EMBERS is Book One in the Anya Kalinczyk Series.

Cover Thoughts: Incredibly compelling. I especially love that the salamander torque Anya never removes is incorporated. Also, the red glow of burning fires adds a feeling of menace. All in all, the cover is a good indicator of the tone as well as as the air of the heroine betwixt its pages.

Why I Read It: I was offered a copy by the publisher for review.

My Review:

An outcast by her own making, Anya Kalinczyk is a woman that walks along the fringes of humanity despite the fact that there are those who love and accept her, eerie abilities and all. Both dreading yet needing isolation, Anya pushes away those that long to be close for fear of their own safety. Ridden with guilt over the few whom Anya has loved and lost, she now protects those that would love her by denouncing that very love and reducing it to nothing more than an absent acquaintance. The only being that Anya feels completely free to love without fear is Sparky, her fire elemental familiar in the shape of salamander, the size of a large dog and containing the wild rambunctiousness of a toddler. Tagging along at her side for as long as Anya can remember, Sparky is her closest confidant and companion but ultimately he's her protector.

The only known medium of her kind, Anya is a Lantern - a being with a center of molten fire and the power to hail existence or decimation over Earthbound spirits with her ability to consume them via an internal smelting pot. But Anya upholds a strict moral code to only eat the spirits that cause true harm, otherwise, she's made a good many friends amongst the nonliving. In fact, they become quite handy as witnesses for her job at the Detroit Fire Department as an arson investigator. Once craving the familial bond of firefighters, Anya joined their ranks but as she's done time and again, quickly distanced herself and eventually landed the position as the city's arson investigator. But she likes her job despite the isolation it entails. Unraveling the puzzle of how a fire moves, breathes and thrives as a living entity fascinates her but it's when her day job starts intertwining with her role amongst the spiritworld that has Anya in a bit of a panic.

Detroit is crumbling and as more and more people abandon her, the more dark and dreary she becomes until someone starts alighting the city bright with fire. For over a month, Anya has been tracking a serial arsonist. His sites of destruction are in no discernible pattern and his methods are beyond the realms of fire's natural capabilities, therefore suggesting the supernatural and Anya's worst nightmare. When Anya's search for the perpetrator leads her to a long lost Detroit icon, she discovers the imminent and complete iniliation of the city she loves and will do anything to protect.

Sirrush is coming... That's the word on the wind within the spiritworld. Something monstrous is awakening at the summons of the perp that is setting Detroit ablaze. With each fire - with each life that is consumed by its licking tentacles of flame - a sacrifice is made and the call that it sings will soon awaken the danger that slumbers below. Sirrush is like Sparky but only a million times bigger and while its neither good nor is it evil, it will glut itself on the offerings the perp has made as well as those he promises. Only Anya can stop the giant rising from its slumber and save the inhabitants of Detroit but she'll need help. The big question is, will she ask for it?

My Thoughts:

Yeah, yeah I know this review is extremely vague but you'll be thanking me later when you embark on this wildly unique tale that will leave you clamoring for more.

Anya is a supernatural heroine that I've never before had the pleasure to meet in the vast world of books and how often can one say that? While her cravings for isolation, due in part to both a tragic past and her paranormal capabilities, as well as her stress over having the world's fate resting on her shoulders aren't entirely new to the Urban Fantasy heroine, her abilities as a Lantern are. But before I dissect more on that topic, I want to also mention that Anya is not a reluctant heroine but rather she's a person who would gladly love to blend in with society and live her life without angst if it were possible. Unfortunately, who she is at her core is exactly what is needed so desperately by humanity and therefore Anya accepts that and proceeds to get the job done.

While I love my vamps and my shifters, EMBERS is a nice diversion from my regular Paranormal and Urban Fantasy fare. The incorporation of Earthbound spirits and Anya's irrevocable tie to them as a Lantern is absolutely the coolest twist and it had me fully engrossed from page one. In addition, the consequences of being a Lantern are just as interesting and as a reader, I wrestled with the abilities as much as Anya did. I mean it's just so unique and so interesting! I keep saying those words but they're just so true and I can't describe the feeling any other way.

Sparky. He's the cutest, unseeing fire elemental salamander ever! He provides necessary comic relief with his crazy preoccupation with electricity and his cat chasing fun. But he's also fierce in his protection of Anya. There are many unruly spirits and supernatural entities that would and do attempt to harm Anya but Sparky's bite keeps them at bay. Above it all though, Sparky is there for Anya in a way that no one else is or can be. He's a warm soothing blanket on the at times, cold clamp of Anya's soul.

In addtion, EMBERS is novel dedicated to the arcitectual history of Detroit. It's more than apparent that this is a city that is close to the author's heart for its seamlessly incorporated into nearly every scene; living and breathing as any other character in the novel. Despite the fact that I've never visited, I swiftly became defensive of the city's survival against the enemies that would rejoice in seeing it crumble.

Finally, I was both surprised and jubilant with the ending. Many books, especially within the Urban Fantasy genre, conjure a lot of build up between the protagonists and antagonists only to have a lackluster finish. This is not the case with EMBERS. Not only are you shocked but you're left, not with a cliffhanger, but rather on the precipice of Anya's jumping off point into the abilities she's yet to unleash from within herself. Trust me, you'll want to read it twice.

For a unique and thrilling Urban Fantasy experience with a strong heroine and hilarious but lovable sidekick, EMBERS is for you.

A-

Other Reviews:

All Things Urban Fantasy: 2/5
Blog with Bite
Babbling About Books, And More: B-
Storywings: 2/5
Parajunkee's View: 4/4
Dark Faerie Tales: 5/5
Escape Between The Pages: 3/5

*If you reviewed EMBERS and would like to be added to this list, just email me your link.