A Fire Endless, Rebecca Ross

About the Book

East and West. Humans and Spirits. Breccans and Tamerlaines. The Isle of Cadence has always held itself and its residents in a tenuous balance. But now Bane, the spirit of the North Wind, has pushed everyone and everything in his path off-kilter in a bid to claim dominion over human and spirit alike.

In the East, a sickness is spreading through the orchards, affecting the people of the Tamerlaine clan. As their healer, Sidra desperately searches for a cure while her husband Torin, the clan’s new leader, attempts to draw answers from the spirits. But humans were never meant to walk for long amongst the elementals, and the deeper he strays into their realm, the further lost he and the clan become.

In the West, Adaira finds it hard to adjust to the more brutal way of life that the Breccans embrace. Both the clan and the spirits suffer beneath Bane’s command, whose growing power can be felt in every gust of wind. With the island falling further out of balance, Jack decides to take up his harp and cross the clan line, to not only reunite with Adaira but to unravel a sinister mystery that would grant him the knowledge to defeat Bane and restore peace to the isle. Yet no one can challenge the North Wind without paying a price, and the sacrifice required this time may just be the ultimate one. Torin, and Sidra can bear to pay.

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My Thoughts

The publisher had sent me book 1, which I absolutely adored, so even though I’m not a fan of hardcovers, as they are difficult to hold, I knew I couldn’t wait for them to (finally) release a paperback of the second book in the duology. And I confess that it took me much too long to finish this once I finally started it.

My biggest complaint with this is that, in some ways, there is a lack of character growth. Married couples are lying to each other or withholding information, and it was so utterly juvenile I felt like I was reading poorly written YA. I can’t take grown adults seriously when they withhold information from their partners. And it irked me enough that it took me two weeks to read this when the previous book was a one-sit read.

I recently read Divine Rivals, which was utterly exciting. So when I look at that and A River Enchanted, I guess I had high expectations. I hate comparing an author’s work to their other work, but this one felt flat. It all seemed so mundane until the last 1/4 of the book. The long-running dispute between the clans didn’t really come to a head. If anything, the West had more to fear out of their own people than those of the East. I enjoyed this one, just not as much as I had hoped.