Review: Prequel/Companion Novel to Firelight
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 15, 2012
RECEIVED FROM:  Net Galley For Review***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***Miranda  Ellis has a gift, a gift that's also a curse that in one moment destroys her future.  Now instead of the coddled merchants daughter we meet as a child, she's a starving petty criminal breaking the law to support her father in hopes of somehow making up for the damage her gift has done to her lives.  She plans to marry her best friend from childhood, but when her gift comes back to haunt her again will she make it down the aisle?Lord Benjamin Archer is cursed and he needs to find the cure so he can return home to his betrothed.  Unfortunately his employee that was supposed to have found it has been murdered in Egypt, now Archer must journey there to learn the secret to ending his curse.  But when that trip and many others yield no answers will he be able to return to the bride who doesn't even know she's engaged to him?  And if he does will she accept him anyway?My first thought is that you should never read a book twice within a week or two.  It's one thing to read a book after a few month have passed and you've had time to forget many of the details, it's another to read it when the details may not be completely clear - enough to write a review per say, but are clear enough that you haven't forgotten really and the surprise of the story isn't there at all for you anymore.  I requested this off Net Galley and read it the same night, the cover caught my attention the description drew me in.  I was so engrossed in this story that when I finished it I didn't want to take the time to sit down and write review I just wanted to devour the next story in the series which I'd also requested from Net Galley and had sitting on my Nook.  Since I won't deny my self-discipline sucks, I continued to read and since I didn't start reading the first of the two until it was almost time for bed by the time I read both in one sitting all I wanted to do was sleep.  So I didn't get around to writing the review before the details stopped being fresh and ended up going to back to reread it within a week of reading it the first time.  So I'll warn you that my review might come across as little harsher than I intend for it to because reading it a second time that soon took a lot of the enjoyment out of it for me.  On my first reading though I was completely lost in this story to the point I was willing to ignore responsibility and even sleep just to find out what happened next.  Please keep that in mind when reading my review that the story had me hooked completely on the first read, so if I'm a little harsh on the second I really don't intend to be.Having read both stories in Callihan's debut series - Darkest London, before writing my reviews I can say that Ember is both a prequel and a companion story to Firelight, the full length novel that follows this novella.  While Ember begins before Firelight, it's told in I'd guess you'd say random scenes rather than as a continuous story.  We step into important moments in Miranda's and Archer's lives, but we aren't beside them for all those moments which come between like in a regular novel.  Some of the events in Ember occur between the Prolog and Chapter One in Firelight while other occur before, so it's not completely a prequel.  However reading it does add I'd guess you'd say more depth to Firelight because it allows you begin that novel understanding the moments that have shaped the characters they become in Firelight.  Our history and our memories help to shape who we are so experiencing some of the moments that shaped these characters really enhances Firelight.  In addition to that the plot of Ember is interesting, engrossing from the first page when you meet Miranda as a very little girl with a very special gift, a gift that ends up making her world fall completely apart.  What's interesting about this story is that it's a romance in which the male and female leads don't interact.  They've met once and Archer never even told her who she was, but the memory of that meeting has made an impression on both of them, so much so that they haunt each other's thoughts and dreams. The meeting doesn't actually occur during the plot of Ember, you learn about it through their memories.  But while the two characters are off experiencing very different adventures in this story you can help but see the similarities between them and see how they could be potentially perfect for each other if they could just cross paths again.  Archer's off trying to find a cure for his curse before he returns to claim Miranda who doesn't even know she'd betrothed to him.  Miranda is planning her wedding to a childhood friend who is comfortable, yet doesn't really ignite any sparks within her.  They both face a considerable amount of hardship and heartbreak in the story, especially Miranda, but Archer and Miranda never actually interact in this story.  The novella alternates between Miranda and Archer, using dates to tell where in their lives they're at when the event is occurring and while multiple scenes might be from close time periods the story doesn't move in a continuous flow and if you pay attention you'll notice that at some points you're jogging between Miranda in 1879 where most of her storyline occurs and forward to Archer in 1881 or later then bouncing back to 1879 with Miranda again.  It's a little confusing at first but when you get used to the pattern it's really quite engrossing.  The story feels like a romance without actually being one and you finish a little heartbroken, but also with a lot of hope which makes me highly recommend getting Ember and Firelight together because you're not going to want to wait to see if something good might actually happen to these poor souls.  One thing I didn't like is because it falls in the romance genre, as a prequel to a romance story, Callihan felt the need to include erotic scenes in the story that I felt were unnecessary and actually detracted from the plot.  The real sex scene was skirted over without detail which wasn't bad, but I felt pretty awkward intruding on Archer's private drug induced fantasies of Miranda which were by far the most graphic in the novel.  I know sometimes the way I make sex a focus in a romance review that I sound like a prude, but it's not that racy sexy scenes are great when they enhance the plot but aren't the entire plot.  And while they aren't even close to the entire plot here, the scenes don't enhance the plot either, it felt like Callihan was thinking its romance so it needs a sex scene but how the heck do I fit it in without the characters meeting?  So she just threw in this unneeded scene.  I personally found it detracting but if you need a racy scene in a story to like it, then I guess you'd enjoy the scene.  The story is overall well written and fast paced with vivid descriptions and engrossing plot.  It's opens with a distant third person that gives the story an almost fairy tale like quality until the disaster at the end of that event hit, then moves into a close third person when we see the consequences of the opening scene.  The close third person point of view alternates between Miranda and Archer as we travel through their stories that are occurring before they really meet in Firelight.Even though this is a novella the characters, both primary and secondary are extremely well developed without telling us about them.  She gives us enough of their actions for us to know them and I found this really impressive.  For example I didn't like Martin from the minute I met him as an adult.  Martin is Miranda's fiancée. We meet him after Miranda has a conversation with the coffee vendor Alice who gives her a free muffin that she can't afford to pay for because Alice can see Miranda is starving and she can't stand to watch the girl waste away in front of her.  Martin comes up behind her grabs the muffin and takes a bite out of it.  Martin has a decent job and he's not described as needing food when even a coffee vendor can see Miranda needs it, so it's not like a middle class husband stealing a bite of his wife's dinner at a restaurant.  It's just being greedy and the fact that the coffee vendor noticed what he didn't shows how little he cares about her.  As this scene progress you get a clear view of how Martin views Miranda and the world, he doesn't respect her, he may have been her playmate, but he has no interest in her mind and the only thing he really pays attention to is her beauty and her body.  And as we're progressing through this story even though I didn't want Miranda hurt I wanted Martin out of the picture.  I thought his was foul from his first bite of her muffin.  Through the scenes of Miranda's and Archer's lives that we see she gives us just enough to know both primary and secondary characters without telling us instead due to space reasons.  Callahan quickly draws us into these characters by taking us to the right moments, the moments that will make us understand them and feel for them.  Her characters aren't perfect, they're flawed and vulnerable and you spend the story wishing something would go right for Miranda and Archer.Overall the story is highly recommend, if you like historical or paranormal romance don't miss this writer and don't miss this series.  Callihan's presented an impressive debut novella, leading up to a fabulous debut novel to open her Darkest London series.  Her work is original, engrossing and stands out from others in the genre because of the way she tells it.