Review of Spark of Fire by Grace Anthony

3.5 Stars. A Fast-Paced YA Paranormal Novel with a Solid Plot. Spark of Fire by Grace Anthony is a fun YA read about reapers and shifters. Anthony has created a mythology that is familiar and brand new at the same time. Her main characters, Ember and Liam are teenage reapers on a mission to protect fellow high school student, Billie, who has her own set of mysterious superpowers. As reapers, they are highly trained to battle against rogue shifters putting people in harm's way.

Anthony does a good job keeping the stakes high and the pace quick. I did enjoy reading this book and especially liked Anthony's well-written plot and focus on her characters who were complex and believable. This had a different perspective than I normally find in Young Adult Paranormal Romance books. There was a heavy emphasis on the relationship between Ember and her brother. Strong family relationships and the romance was more hinted at and was possibly being set up for the second book instead of being pivotal to the plot like it is in many YA PNR books.

Where this book lost a few stars for me was that it would have benefitted from a little more editing. There was a lot of passive tense and some awkward word choice. I also felt like some scenes could have been fleshed out a bit more. While there were some nice descriptions in some places, I wanted more description in others. And, the third person, multiple POV made it hard to know which character this story would focus on.

Overall, this was an interesting and suspenseful YA paranormal story with a solid plot and complex characters, but the writing itself would have benefitted from one more draft after a run through with a good beta.




Was the writing/editing solid?

3/5 - The writing was good but with a little more telling than showing and a good amount of passive tense it had room for improvement. There were some typos, though they were not a major distraction.

Did the book have a well-formed plot/subplots?

4/5 - This book really did have a solid plot and it took me on a journey.

Could you relate to the characters?

4/5 - I liked the characters and felt they were all believable and complex.

Did the story make you feel?

3/5 - This book is written in the third person and is told through multiple POV's. Because of that it took me a little while to get into and I didn't get as invested in the characters as I have with other books.

Was the book unputdownable?

4/5 - I would read large chunks at a time, but did put the book down on occasion.



Indie Book Goal 2018 Notes

This is the fourth book I've finished for #IndieBookGoal2018 where I've pledged to read at least 10 Indie books before the end of the year.