Firelight by Kristen Callihan

Firelight (Darkest London, #1)

by Kristen Callihan

For fans of Diana Gabaldon, Amanda Quick and Nalini Singh comes the Darkest London series. In Victorian London, magic lurks in every shadowy corner . . .

'Callihan has a great talent for sexual tension and jaw-dropping plots' - Diana Gabaldon

'A sizzling paranormal with dark history and explosive magic! Callihan is an impressive new talent' - Larissa Ione

London, 1881

Once the flames are ignited . . .

Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.

They will burn for eternity . . .

Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.

'Evocative and deeply romantic, Firelight was fascinating from the very first page' - Nalini Singh

'Callihan has a great talent for sexual tension and jaw-dropping plots' - Diana Gabaldon

'A sizzling paranormal with dark history and explosive magic! Callihan is an impressive new talent' - Larissa Ione

'Debut author Callihan pens a compelling Victorian paranormal with heart and soul' - Publishers Weekly

'A taut tale filled with sexual tension. This is one of the finest debuts of the season' - RT Book Reviews

Kristen Callihan is RITA nominated and the bestselling author of The Hook Up

Reviewed by llamareads on

2 of 5 stars

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Oof, what a mess. It's kinda a mishmash of Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone, and while I would normally eat that up, the gothic tone was just way too over the top for me.

Archer has a DEEP! DARK! SECRET! (which is also kept from the reader for like 80% of the book) and has apparently been obsessed with the heroine, Miranda, since a chance meeting years ago. So marrying her seems the perfect revenge on her thieving father... somehow? Except he didn't expect someone to start murdering members of the club that turned him into a "monster," and now their marriage has made the murderer set his sights on Miranda.

OK, describing all that, it sounds pretty awesome, but reading it was just, well, boring. The pacing seemed off to me, and I never really felt the chemistry between the characters. I'm not a big fan of the whole gothic atmosphere, so everything seemed a bit overwrought and angsty. While I normally enjoy books where the author strings the reader along by dropping tidbits of info, it just didn't work for me. Everything seemed a bit too confusing and I constantly felt like I was missing whatever would gel the plot together. By about 75% in, I just gave up and skimmed the rest.

I think this might work for someone who enjoys gothic romance, but it didn't work for me.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 18 October, 2018: Finished reading
  • 18 October, 2018: Reviewed