Review: Wicked Embers by Keri Arthur

Wicked Embers
(Souls of Fire #2)
Keri Arthur
Release: July 7, 2015
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Keri Arthur, New York Times bestselling author of Fireborn, presents the thrilling new Souls of Fire Novel featuring Emberly Pearson, a phoenix that can transform into a human—and is haunted by the ability to foresee death....

Crimson Death, the plague like virus spawned from a failed government experiment to isolate the enzymes that make vampires immortal, continues to spread. Emberly and her partner, Jackson Miller, are desperately seeking the stolen research for a cure before the virus becomes a pandemic.

But their mission is jeopardized by another threat uncovered in Emberly’s prophetic dreams. A creature of ash and shadow has been unleashed on a murdering spree. Now Emberly must summon all her gifts and investigative knowledge to put an end to this entity’s brutal rampage—even if it means placing herself in harm’s way....

Review:
The story in Wicked Embers is very much a continuation of the events in Fireborn, the first book in the series. I would definitely recommend reading Fireborn first, even though everything is summarized pretty well. I have read the first book and I still felt like there were too many names to keep track of in Jackson and Emberly's investigation. The characters also refer to the events in the previous book quite a bit. That continuing story line really overshadows the stand alone plot about the creature that Emberly sees in her dreams.

I feel like I could almost repost my Fireborn review here because I liked almost exactly the same things about this book. I like the fact that Emberly and Rory and their fire powers are something that I haven't read about before. But I didn't really learn anything new about them in this second book.

I still like Jackson, even though he sounded like a horny teenager through much of the first half, and I think the new things that are happening with his Fire Fae powers are interesting. My favorite thing was getting to meet his Earth Fae friends and see their powers in action. I think other than the creature in the dreams, they are the only new bit of world-building here.

I also liked the fact that Emberly's relationship with her ex Sam seems to be less antagonistic now. He's involved in both the ongoing search for the missing Red Plague research and the hunt for the creature, so he's on the page quite a bit. Emberly learns some new information about Sam that came as a shock to her. I had already figured it out from the last book though, so it was a little anticlimactic for me.

I think that if you enjoyed Fireborn, Wicked Embers is worth your time. The police procedural elements are well-done, as they usually are in Arthur's books. I didn't feel like much progress was made in the series plot, though. This book leaves a lot of loose ends about the virus and the Red Cloaks, so you have to keep reading the series for resolution. Personally, though, I want to keep reading until I meet the Air and Water Fae. I hope that I'll find some other original ideas in the process.

Recommended for fans of: unusual supernaturals, paranormal police procedurals

ARC provided by the publisher

   

3  stars

 

My reviews of other books in this series:
Fireborn