My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A Curse of Fire was better than I was expecting.
Let's start here: The author, Sophia Shade, has really all but up and disappeared. She has not been heard from since early 2018 when the third book in this series, A curse of Sparks, was published. Even now, all her blogs and what not have been deleted. The books are clearly unfinished and you can longer even by the ebooks on Amazon. They are unavailable. I had to borrow book 2 and 3 from a friend.
I think it's pretty crappy of an author to just up and leave in the middle of a series with no explanation. At least tell us you're disappearing , or that you won't be continuing the series. To just leave readers high and dry is pretty disrespectful when we all take the time to read your work. I didn't find out till I was done with book 1 and I was livid because I'm already pretty invested. Poor manners, Sophia Shade, very poor manners.
The book itself was a lot of fun. It had some grammatical mistakes that were big enough that I didn't know what the characters were trying to say. I in general liked our MC though, Imogen. She's spunky and cynical. The magic school plot really sold me though. I mean, hello, Harry Potter throwback. Though, the book does straight rip of some things, such as the dining hall ceiling imitating the weather outside.
The school is a school for Fae and Half-fae. Imogen's mom has spent her life moving them every 2-3 months in order for Imogen to never know she is half-fae. Her mom is a bit messed in the head to be honest, and doesn't want Imogen to go to school and learn about her fae ancestry for no reason other than her dad just up and left and she now hates the fae. Imogen is pretty ticked about being thrown into the fae realm absolutely unprepared, and I don't blame her.
Imogen finds out she is a Fire Fae ( all fae are some type of elemental). At the welcome ceremony, Imogen meets an Earth fae who takes Imogen under her wing. She introduces Imogen to Dannika who is Imogen's roommate and comes to be her best friend. Imogen is swept into a world wind of magic classes, and even gets to know the super sweet and attractive Unseelie Prine, Caleb. Unfortunately, she also had to deal with a 3rd year fire user, Erik, who helps her with controlling her fire magic.
here's where it becomes a little unreal. Students are being plagued by a terrible illness at the academy. Everyone tells Imogen to stay out of it, but she decides to pull a Nancy Drew and sleuth around everything even though she knows nothing about the magic realm. She finds these clues and solves mysteries and everyone praises her sleuthing abilities, though clues kinda just fall to her when they shouldn't. I can't in good faith give it more than 2.5 stars in terms of plot, but I still really enjoyed it for whatever reason, so I bumped it up to stars.
Yes, I plan on reading book 2 and 3, and then being angry that I have no idea if the author is planning to finish the series.
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