Genre: Fantasy
Published: Harper Collings, Dec 2022
My Rating: 4/5 stars
Note: this is part two in the Elements of Candence duology. Link to my review on the first book here.
It really snuck up on me how attached I had gotten to this series and its characters. Within only two books, Rebecca Ross created a world and a cast of characters that vividly came to life in my mind’s eye and will probably remain there for years to come.
A Fire Endless follows perfectly in A River Enchanted’s footsteps, and my thoughts on both books boil down to the same core message:
I loved the worldbuilding, the atmosphere and the distinct Scottish-folklore-vibes this series has. As mentioned, I also found myself even more in love with these characters than I first anticipated, and was actually holding my breath and rooting for them throughout the story.
I do feel these books have a distinct YA-feeling to them, despite being marketed as adult fantasy, having protagonists in their twenties, and containing quite mature themes. My main personal gripe is that typical YA-instance to put the romance center-stage, even if that is sometimes completely at odds with the other stakes presented in the story. Spoiler-free example: in book one, the central plot revolves around young girls (including the protagonists family-members) going missing from the town, and a literal war between rival clans raging. With such high-stakes concurrent plotlines, I have a hard time focusing on the romance, or believing the main characters would.
Clearly all that is personal preference, but it was the main factor that made this a 4-star read, instead of a 5-star one. If you are typically more of a fan of fantasy-romance though, I can see this being an easy 5-star for you, and highly recommend it.
You can find this book here on Goodreads.
