The Fire King

The Fire King (2009) Marjorie Liu

This is a kissing book.

I knew that when I picked it up, because it had a floating man head on the cover, and that swoopy writing you only see on romance covers. But I was somewhere without a book, and when I stopped at the grocery store to pick up something else, I saw this book and thought, “hmmm… I like her writing well enough. And it has to be better than having no book,” so with that I bought it.

I am coming to believe that if I know a book is a romance before I start reading it, I don’t mind so much.

Although this book is part of a series, I didn’t have difficulty falling into the story without knowing anything else about the characters and their world, which I think is a high recommendation in and of itself.

Soria is still trying to recover from the loss of her arm a year previously. Because of her unique skills, she is asked to return to the agency Dirk & Steele to see if she can understand a man whose language no one else recognizes. Karr awakes to a world he does not understand and where he can communicate with no one. He is bound as a captive because his skills as a shape shifter are a threat when he tries to escape a confusing world full of strangers.

The story shifts between Soria and Kerr’s points of view, which made it particularly interesting, since Kerr does not recognize the world around him, and so things we take for granted are strange and confusing to him. We also learn about their pasts as they learn about each other. I thought this was well done because although we are in the minds of the characters, it didn’t seem as if they were hiding anything from the reader, as much as trying not to relive painful memories, so when their discuss their pasts with one another, it doesn’t feel forced.

Of course this is a kissing book, so you know the two characters are going to end up together, it was just interesting to see how they dealt with the challenges.
Rating: 7/10

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