I dont know why but I just wasn't into the Ash/Jenna pairing - I preferred her dynamic with Destin more, but that guy is also a mystery.
I also preferred ash with lila. ( )

Flamecaster

By Cinda Williams Chima

Shattered Realms #1

I learned of this series Facebook from either one of two authors who care about what their readers are reading and care to promote other authors by asking what everyone is reading and loving this week. It's one of the places I get ideas of what to read next. It was either posted by one of Larissa Ione’s or Nalini Singh’s followers.

I'm glad I picked this book. I have been dabbling in the Fantasy genre lately and have been really enjoying it. I think this book is Young Adult also...at least, I assume it is because of the ages of most of the leading characters...but I'm always amazed at what can be included in the Young Adult genre. It seems to allow all the blood and gore possible, references to rape and molestation and even have limited sex scenes. I think the only thing that can't be included is erotic scenes.

This book is written in the points of view of four different characters but two are the main protagonists, Adrien and Jenna.

Adrian sul’Han, also known as Ash, is the son of the Grey Wolf line. His mother is the queen of Fells and he is a powerful healer. His older sister was the heir to the throne until she was ambushed at the border by their enemy, the King of Arden’s soldiers. Even though he is the next oldest, his youngest sister will be groomed for the throne now because only females can hold the throne.

When his father was assassinated in front of him, Ash ran off to healing school under a different name since he was thought to have been killed too. In the summers, he posed as a ferrier and traveled around assassinating key figures in Arden’s army.

After an attack on his life by crazy priests of the major religion of Arden who think mages and healers are evil, Ash decides to travel to Ardenscourt and somehow kill the king himself.

Jenna was working in the mines just outside the city of Delphi when King Gerard of Arden came to the mines on some kind of promotional tour. When one of the minors threw horse dung at the king, he reached down and snapped the neck of little Maggi, an eight-year-old orphan girl who was forced to work the mines by the king’s soldiers. Then he killed her best friend Riley.

Since that day, Jenna has been working with a secret group called the patriots to sabotage the Arden army.

Jenna is unique. She has a magemark on the back of her neck yet she isn't a mage and mages don't have magemarks. She has never met anyone else with the mark.

Ash and Jenna’s lives become intertwined later in the book but it would spoil some things so I won't go into it.

This book was a winner. I loved it and have already started the second book. I looked up the author and discovered she has two other series related to this series so this might be a spinoff but I'm not sure if the books share characters or not. I might read them later.


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Jenna has been living in hiding as she works for the revolutionaries, she has a secret past and mark on her skin. It came with a warning that someone powerful was hunting for her. When she is taken to the castle, her life becomes intertwined with Ash, a run-away prince and powerful healer who after years of training has been looking for ways to avenge his father's death, which means killing a king.
Set in a well-imagined fantasy world, there is action, romance, and intrigue. ( )

Cinda Williams Chima never disappoints. To me, Flamecaster just seemed like a long introduction to the future books, but I still loved every second of the characters and the world! And kudos to Chima for starting off the story with a gutsy BAM type of intro. So, go read this book. ( )

Not the kind of book you want to be a character in. Beloved people die in the first chapter. Children working in mines, bloody violent dictatorship. From Kirkus:
"immersive worldbuilding, twisty plotting, and complex characterization will be hooked. Guilt-ridden Ash is oddly well-matched with fierce, passionate Jenna."

For 12 and up. ( )