Review: Fire and Gold

Title: Fire and Gold
Author: Mara Amberly
Format: e-book
Pages: 189
Date(s) read: Oct 10-12, 2016
Rating: 4.5

Summary:

Sisters by birth, heroes by choice! In the city of Kalle, Cassia and Alexa are priestesses of the Sisters of Destiny, an order of female sorcerers. While absent from the temple, their home is attacked and the sisters return to find it ablaze; many of their fellow priestesses slain. Barely escaping alive, the sisters face an uncertain future, unsure of who they can trust.

Review:

I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

When I was approached with this particular novel, I wasn't entirely certain what to think.  I'm a sucker for a good fantasy novel, however, I'm not entirely sure I was willing to commit to another series (because we all know I'll end up reading the entire series once it's out....because you know, that's the only logical thing to do).  I was honestly, pleasantly surprised by this story.

Mara  Amberly's writing is fantastic, and very reminiscent of some of my favorite fantasy writers. I love the world she has crafted in this fantasy novel, the characters are believable, relatable, and definitely among my favorites.  Without giving too much away, the plot is actually well developed and I hope that Amberly is able to keep the drive from this story going in the subsequent stories in this series.

There is a passage from this story that stands out to me, I'm not entirely sure why it does, however it has become one of my favorite small passages in the story.  To me it is a point that Cassia  realizes that not only does she want justice, no, vengence, but she also wants to protect others from the hatred, the hurt, the damage that could further be done by the Nemorans who had already done unspeakable things to her sisters, the priestesses.  I've included that particular quote below.

Cassia wondered about hatred and that fire of anger that smouldered inside of her, wanting to see the Nemorans slaughtered for what they did to her sisters. She didn’t just want justice, she wanted vengeance. Yet, she felt that went beyond hatred into hurt and the desire to protect others from their violence.

Ultimately, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a new author and has a love for Andre Norton or Marian Zimmer Bradley.  This story will keep you on your toes, and leave you begging for more by the time the last word is read.