I finally finished A Breath of Fire. The book has been out for around three months. It took me a few weeks to get started reading it, but I was immediately hooked. I love this book just as much as the first one, A Promise of Fire. The book picks up soon after the events in the first book, and we learn more about Kat, her background, and the world that she and Griffin live in.
The first thing that I have to note is that the first 10% of this book is all sex.
Seriously. It’s all sex. Well-written sex, but I did find myself thinking, “Come on. Can’t we just move on to the plot?” It took quite some time to figure out what the plot of this book would be. Mainly, it’s about maintaining control of Sinta. This involves two different steps. First, they need to secure their border. They think the other alphas and head families will attack them while they’re vulnerable. So they have the great idea to travel to the Frozen Plains to find magical beasts that will help them protect their border.
It’s a long, hard journey, but the gods are with them again, and while I love seeing the interactions with the gods, and learning how they are helping Kat and Griffin, I almost feel like they always give them an easy way out. “Don’t worry if you’re outnumbered or about to die or if the whole world is collapsing around you, because the gods will make a snake pop out of your throat and save everything.” Snort. (But it was really entertaining.)
Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the Greek God aspect of this book. That’s saying a lot since I am so not a fan of Greek or Norse or whatever gods. Shows you how good this book is.
The last third of the book is coming up with a scheme to not only protect Sinta, but to begin the quest to unite all of the different regions. Griffin has finally convinced Kat that she is destined to unite the world. She reluctantly agrees to do this, and they decide their best option is to go and participate in gladiator games hosted by another family. If they win, they’ll be given audience with the family. If they do this, they can somehow – it’s not exactly clear how – take over that region without killing anyone. Well, except for the people in the arena.
This totally had a Coliseum/gladiator feel to it. I enjoyed it, but again I felt it went on a little bit too long. The characters were so beaten up it shouldn’t have been possible for them to survive or win. Still, it was some cool fighting, some intriguing fighting, some darn entertaining fighting. I kinda felt like a spectator in the stands.
If you enjoyed A Promise of Fire, you will love this book just as much. The snark is there, and I still completely adore Griffin’s family and beta team. I’m so scared something terrible is going to happen to someone I love, and it almost makes me want to not read the next book.
But I want to read the next book! And that’s my major complaint. The first book in the series came out about six months ago. This book came out about three months later. I fully expected the third book to be out in another three months, but no. It’s not hitting the shelves until way later this year. Boo!
If you haven’t read A Breathe of Fire, get ye to the bookstore and do that right now. Then write a review! More people need to find this book and series. It tops my list of favorite fantasy romances.
If you’ve read this, let me know your thoughts, either in a comment below or with a link to your review. Hope you all love it as much as I did!
P.S. Does anyone else think the titles should be switched? I wrote this whole thing with the wrong title because the breath of fire thing was more relevant in the first book than this book. Confusing!
P. P. S. Don’t you just adore this cover art? It’s by Gene Mollica, the same guy who did the Shadow Reader covers. <3
(WARW (Write a Review Wednesday) is something I started because I have a habit of putting off writing reviews. As an author, I know how important reviews are for the success of a book, so I’m making a concerted effort to write at least one review a week. Reviews might not always be about books–they could be about games, podcasts, online classes, etc–and I’d love it if you guys linked to one of your reviews (of whatever you want) in the comments. If you want to see all my WARW reviews, click WARW. (Links above may include affiliate inks.))
It warms the cockels of my heart to know that authors experience the same frustration of waiting for books that should theoretically be ready for release but are instead taking way too long. Isn’t there an old adage about taking a dose of your own medicine? 🙂
The rational part of my brain knows that authors are people with family and health and emotional and personal issues. The reader part of my brain just doesn’t really care! In a totally unrelated side note – glad you’re getting back to normal.
hahaha Yeah, I totally deserve to have to wait.
I am getting back to normal. Of course, I’ve been home with a sick kid the last two days. I can’t catch a break. lol. Fortunately, this is the low maintenance kid so I’m able to get a little work done. I haven’t been able to fully concentrate on writing in a long time. I’m really looking forward to making progress!
What are you reading now? I just started Red Rising. Spreadsheet Guy recommended it. He’s usually spot on with his suggestions for me, but the Hunger Game-ish beginning is hard to get past.
On the other hand, I did tear up reading the book last night. And I keep hearing from others how good it is. So I’m gonna keep with it. Oh…I saw it in a Bookbub email earlier this week. It’s still $1.99 on Amazon if you’re interested.
I’ve been in a real reading slump the past couple months, trying to psyche myself up for books 8 & 9 of my Wheel of Time re-read, which just happen to be the slowest, most do nothing books of the whole series and still top 800+ pages each. *cough*Sosch & Aren meet-cute*cough* I did read a really good couple books by Shelly Laurenston (The Unleashing and The Undoing) which were hilarious, I seriously laughed out loud in several places.
Hope your kiddos get to feeling better.
lol I get the hint. 😉
Major props to you for rereading Wheel of Time. I just couldn’t do it. I do think about reading it, or trying to find cliff notes for it. I really enjoyed the plot but there were just So Many Words. But I really, really want to know how the story ends.
Hi Sandy, you really have had a hard time of it and we readers do forget that authors have lives to get on with. Surely things will be on the improve for you from now on. I’m hanging out see what happens between Ash and RIP as I loved the first two books. In the meantime I’m reading Morning Star (preferred Red Rising), The Fate of the Tearling (pretty good) and Queen of Shadows – loving the whole series.
Yes, things HAVE to get better from here on out. lol So glad you enjoyed the first two books. I’ve been in a good writing groove this week and Ash and Rip are awesome together. 🙂
I almost gave up on Red Rising… It just wasn’t pulling me in for some reason. I was going to read something else but I read another chapter, and it’s finally getting a bit more interesting. I’m past the yucky makeover and at the school, so I’ll keep on with it.
The Tearling series sounds interesting! Is it more fantasy than dystopia?
I’ve only read Throne of Glass in Maas’s series. So many books to read so little time!
I couldn’t get into Hunger Games either and I found Red Rising overly gruesome but it does improve. I would prefer if the author worked on relationship building a bit more but he seems to be much more into action, which is definitely what book 3 is all about. And very little on the way of romance unfortunately! Tearling is more fantasy than dystopia – I lost interest a bit in book 2 but book 3 is definitely better. I really like the way you developed romance in the Shadow books and the relationship btw Ash and RIP – cant wait to see them get a break!