Overall: 🐢🐢
Storyline:
Writing Style:
Character Development:
Enjoyment:
“Just remember, your spirit guide is not there to judge you, but to counsel you.“
Halls of Fire by Christian Cura
The Story:
On the shores of Cordacia, Tama believes she has left Khione and its dangers behind. But not even a full day goes by before she discovers that Malsumi’s corruption has somehow, inexplicably, followed her here. When Tama, Liseli, and Isabelle go to the Amphitheater to watch the Games, corrupted creatures strike, and Tama leaps into action. Alongside Cordacia’s finest warriors, she quells the threat, but no one is sure who triggered the attack in the first place. Her only lead is a mysterious woman who appears right before Malsumi’s minions emerge. Who is she, and why has she aligned herself with the dark goddess? More importantly, will Tama find out before it’s too late?
Key Elements:
Fantasy, Magic, Friendship, War, Gauntlet, Death, Betrayal, Spirit Guardians, New Adult
Others in Series:
Book 1:Temple of Ice
Book 3: TBA
Why This Rating?
Full disclosure, I received an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for a voluntary honest review.
This is the second book to the series and I strongly suggest reading the first one before jumping into this world. I did not read the 1st book, which might have lead to some of my opinions forming the way they did, but I was able to read a summary of the 1st book before starting. It certainly helped me to understand what was happening, but of course reading the book instead of summaries always makes more sense than jumping into something. This book kind of leaves me with split feelings. I feel like it should be closer to a 3 turtle rating than a 2, but some of the stuff that develops throughout the story leaves me having more questions than answers and a fair amount of Huh?. Unfortunately, the amount of inconstancy I ran into has caused it to lean towards the lower rating.
The story had solid potential. When I read the blurb I was looking forward to a kick ass magic system, fighting against the evil trying to invade, and seemingly a deadly mystery that needs to be solved before something else happens to the land. Out of these 3 things, I’d say the fight scenes were pretty darn good and the ‘mystery’ was a smart twist. However, Cura’s magic system was okay, but there really wasn’t any structure to it. It seemed that it was limited only by what the user can creatively come up with. Nothing to keep the magic in check from what I could tell. It seemed to just be endless power for the wielder, yet had limitations? Supposedly the mages of the different elements can’t feel that elements temp, i.e. Tama is a winter mage so cold doesn’t affect her/she doesn’t feel it. But the fire mages in Cordacia still flinch and shy away from fire coming their way (I get some of it is to protect their clothing because that isn’t fireproof, but the flinching doesn’t always happen. It’s a sometimes thing). Or Tama brings up a huge wall of ice for a battle in the Fire mage’s arena. Then they have to ask her to bring it down because they can’t as fire mages? I might have misunderstood that one, but just seemed to come across oddly to me. If the magic system is explained better in the first one, than I really need to go back and read it. As it stand now though, the magic side doesn’t feel like it’s apart of the world. It feels like it was a fun addition to add into because magic is freaking awesome and more stories should have it (which I concur with).
Writing for this book was on the choppy side. Some of the conversations felt a little stilted and not quite as smooth as they might have been. It seemed to have a formal tone at some points and then attempted to slip into a more laid-back feel within the same conversation. The first 2 lore chapters we are given are stunning! I loved those so much. I found it a little interesting that a lore/world building and history lesson happened in book 2 instead of book 1. We were given a pretty big info dump at the start which could have been incorporated into story better – like when we are actually walking around the school grounds or meeting Liseli’s friends. Time skipping whether it was to go back and show us something or to move over unneeded moments, was really off. For example, something happens in the Fire Mage’s arena that causes Tama to be involved. Then time plays out like this in the book: baddies show up, crowd flees, whole fight happens, Fight ends, off to patch up injuries by medic, comes back to arena – Crowd is STILL fleeing, group meets up, goes around to ask questions to people apart of crowd, questioning finishes, crowd is done fleeing… Whhaaat? This is either the BIGGEST crowd in the world to be fleeing from the arena that long or the most polite and chill people in the world to be taking that long to leave a hostile arena. Which ever way, the concept of timing was quite off in that scene. This was just one moment that happened out of a couple throughout the story. The timing elements were too chaotic for me.
I could not tell you what reading age group this is supposed to be directed towards. There are a few sexual scenes and some innuendo moments that this is questionable for YA readers that are below 16. Yet, the rest of the story seems targeted for a younger audience than the New Adults and older YA readers. The fight scenes are great and quite detailed, yet there are a few that might be a bit much for a younger YA reader. There are moments of bullying, abuse, death, and nudity (outside of the sex scenes) that happen. Plus, I genuinely have know clue how old any of our characters are. Tama seems to be the oldest out of the ‘kids’ and on on the same level as the officer they work with? And we have 2 individuals still in mage school but are about to graduate and grew up with Liseli so we know that they are super young, but they are still kids to some people. *sigh* This was something that I just had to accept that I didn’t really know and placed them somewhere between the ages 18-26. If any of you read it, please let me know what you figure out in regards to this! All of these things add up and leave the reader a bit lost in the tone of the book. It feels like it wants to be for the YA ages but it doesn’t commit towards that direction and dips into the New Adult.
Overall? I am grateful to have been given a chance to read this one and it had so much potential to be freaking fire (pun totally intended)! However, after reading it, this one leaves you with a solid ‘Ehh’ feeling. Would I like to figure out what happens to these characters afterward this book’s conclusion? Yeah a little. But I feel like a few things would need to have a closer look at first before that happens. This author has a bright future in writing which is apparent in the amount of dedication and love you can feel coming from the story. There is only going up from this point and growing more confident in the writing process.
Time to get lost in the next story!
