This review is a little late on my part because it was part of a blog tour [read original post]. Better late than never...I think.
Disclaimer: This is not a paid review. I did not receive any compensation from the author or the publisher for reviewing this novel.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Normal people sneak out
to a party and have fun. Maya Rao ends the evening by incinerating
the guy who attacks her.
Nik Lucas, sexy, new in
town and totally forbidden, happens to walk in on her. Normal guys
would run for the hills. Nik knows a whole lot more than he's
telling.
Maya doesn't believe the
gods are real, doesn't waste her time with mere mythology. But when
gods, demons and hellhound's become the new normal and wielding fire
becomes her new skill, she must decide what it is she really
believes.
Can
Maya accept that normal is something she will never be because it
isn't normal to be...the Hand of Kali.
| My Thoughts
Rating: 2 stars*
(*See my REVIEW POLICY page for explanation of ratings)
There will be spoilers so if you haven't read this book, and want to, don't read beyond this point of my review. Now, with all that being said, here is my review.
===================SPOILER ALERT BEYOND THIS POINT======================
When I first read the synopsis for this book I was intrigued. I've always been a huge fan of mythology, gods/goddesses, fairy tales and fables. I'm always on the look out for re-tellings of such types of stories so "Fire" caught my eye. I agreed to do a review and eagerly sat down to get started.
That's when my trouble with the book started. The book starts out nicely with Maya (our heroine) training at a dojo. From the get-go, Maya, came across to me as very whiny and unappreciative of a lot of things including her heritage, her parents and her friends. Whether this was intended by the author, I'm not sure, but that was just my perception of the character.
Speaking of characters, I have a complaint. They all fell flat for me. You know how your writing/English teacher would always fuss about making characters feel alive and/or relatable? I didn't feel that way. I got to the point where I didn't care one way or another about the characters.
The romance in the novel felt forced, unnatural and, a tiny bit unbelievable. I've heard, and known people that have love/hate relationships, but the attempt in this book fell flat and was stilted. And, when the author tried to introduce a love triangle, I cringed. My tolerance for any romance in the novel went out the door at that point.
I've talked about things that didn't work for me so let me take a moment and talk about what I thought were good ideas.
1) The Hindu gods/goddesses. I've not studied much of their mythology so learning about that particular pantheon of deities kept me reading to see where the plot was going.
2) The Hand of Kali/reincarnation concept. I liked the idea of Kali having a human avatar and one that had special abilities.
Which leads me to #3.
3) Pyrokinetic ability. I'm a sucker for anyone with X-men/mutant type/sci-fi style powers with pyrokinesis (ability to manipulate/control fire) being one of my favorites.
I hate not finishing books so I kept chugging along and it took me two months to finally finish this novel. There were so many moments when the book could have rose to the occasion...and didn't. I also think that there were too many half-started ideas that didn't get completed which bogged the story down.
I wanted this book to succeed and give me a chance to say it was worth the long time it took to read it, but the overall reading experience left me feeling unfulfilled, confused and a little bored.
Would I recommend this book? The answer is maybe. If a person is really into mythology and likes a bit of fantasy or paranormal romance and would like something different, then I would tell them to give this one a try. Would I read a sequel? I'm not sure.
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