Review: AWESOME!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 19, 2012
I just finished The Fire of Dawn by V.V. Aku and I was surprised to like it as much as I did. The Fire of Dawn is a novel that I couldn't quite identify the characters in it but before that let's talk about The Fire of Dawn as a whole.Leah celebrates her 18th birthday with her bestfriend when suddenly the club is engulfed by a huge surge of fire from an unknown source killing her bestfriend and everybody in the club. Leah seems to believe that this is a dream until she sees her condition - clothes filthy, her body is full of soot and grime and there are unexplainable changes in herself. Leah runs to escape but suddenly finds the unbearable thirst for human blood. Leah is so confuse and ends up killing a guy in a beach - that is where she is discovered by the immortals. Without knowing who to trust, Leah is hesitant with the new comers but her curiosity was piqued by the groups revelations. Soon enough Leah learns that this group is her "family" and later on will learn her history and what she is really. In addition to a history unknown to her, Leah soon discovers that she is in the middle of a war between immortals and the brotherhood. What will Leah do now?Basically that's the gist of it. First that I'd like to point out is that the immortals claims to be not vampiric in nature but does share similarities. It's actually hard to grasp and separate the two entities but I would admit that this idea is very interesting. It's just hard because I can't personally label these immortals - the have the speed, the thirst for blood, a number of supernatural powers to help them BUT they do die easily. They can withstand sunlight, or it weakens them. They are immortal but destructible. It's like they are weaker than a vampire but stronger than a human being. It was hard following the first part of the story but when the blood thrist was introduced I immediately though vampire but  then the immortals explained what they really are so that helped. Let's talk characters -Leah was very confused at first which resulted to the reader (in this case me) to be confused as well. She is somewhat stubborn and lost, scared and shy. Her traits are understandable and I don't really mind much since as the story progress, Leah eventually became a strong main character. For an immortal, she is not as vicious than the rest but rather remorseful which is why the other immortals believe that she can reunite all the clans together. There is a love interest for Leah who is Max but Adam will also played a significant part in her life during the later part of the book. I particularly love the scene wherein Max was first introduced to Leah -From that exact moment when my hand slid into his, I knew that I wasn't alone anymore. I knew that I was home.That scene signifies that Leah is not only around people that can protect her but also is the start of her interest in Max. Unfortunately it wasn't as heart pounding as I wanted it to be.Max was strong, beautiful and charismatic. I can't really picture Max and his love interest with Leah. It wasn't really working for me which is why I can't consider him Leah's mate. The connection was too fast. I love you's was exchanged as early as page 62 (Nook copy) - I hate insta-love. I can't reiterate it as much as I want to but there are some insta-love that works and some just needs development and time. Another issue I have with Max was when she was teaching Leah to feed, it felt forceful to me which results to me hating Max a little bit.Adam is part of the Brotherhood and not the immortals camp. He is human and is very persistent in squashing the war between the two camps. He is sincere and charismatic as well without the instant love interest present. His connection with Leah was more on the caring type - couldn't really consider a love interest but more of a brotherly love but it is there.I just like to insert Lili here. She is I think one of my favorite character. Portrayed as Chinese, she was very mature and a strong force in the immortal group. I love her dialogues and her wisdom passages. I particularly loved this one -Your head is filled with worries and speculations about the past, present and future, It prevents you from seeing what's right in front of you. She inhaled and raised her arms again. It doesn't matter where you have been or where you are going.The immortal and brotherhood camp is a combination of different characters. There are characters that will make you laugh and sympathize and there are some that will make you cringe. It is very balanced on my opinion and I love how Aku wrote this out.The story both has a superb conflict and resolution. I love how the two camps fight over what they believe is the "right" and how they resolve it by finding a common ground. The ending was what I expected and I couldn't be happier. This is quite an interesting read and I couldn't put it down. I love this story and am looking forward to what happens next.** originally published at The Solitary Bookworm (...) **