Truth burns. Unemployment, despair, anger–visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit’s unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city. Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric … eccentric ghost hunters. Anya–who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern–suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil’s Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya–with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team–can stop it.
Anya’s accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she’s risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she’s ever faced.
Embers
A sizzling debut from a red-hot new author . . .
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I’ve never heard of a Lantern before. Sure, I’ve heard of psychic mediums, but a Lantern is new.
Apparently Anya can see ghosts, the good and the bad ones.
Her moonlighting job with DAGR puts her in contact with all kinds of ghost. As a Lantern, she draws in, or consumes the ghost, banishing them forever. She assumes they just cease to be.
As an arson investigator during the day, she’s investigating a serial arsonist and comes to realize the case also has ties to her night job.
She’ll have to set aside her differences with the leader of DAGR and work as a team to catch this guy.
The authors description of Detroit is so close to the way many big cities are now. Rife with crime and disillusion, people are without hope. That would make these cities prime hangouts for the darkness of the otherside.
Dragons, demons, evil spirits, and lots of ghost busting made this book one adventure after another.
The DAGR team is a mixed bag of characters, with a witch, a go to guy, the leader, and a tech wizard.
Anya’s romantic history with Brian is one reason she tried to distance herself from the group. She worries about the growing hollow in her chest and it’s hunger for more spirits.
She says it’s her “scariness” is why they aren’t a couple. That and her invisible familiar, Sparky.
Brian couldn’t care less,. He just wants Anya.
Anya is my favorite character, as she should be, being the star. She’s emotionally compromised, carrying around a boat load of guilt, and dealing with her oft times out of control Sparky.
I also really liked Katie, the witch. By day she runs her bakery shop, specializing in wedding cakes and pastries.
One scene cracked me up. She is working on the topping, a bride and groom, and the bride puts her through hell until she gets the figures just so, but not before Katie givess the bridezilla her just desserts.
Katie smirked, ” I did make her butt a bit bigger for revenge though.”
I think I like Katie, a lot.
Then there’s Sparky.
Anya’s mother gave him to her when she was little. When he’s not nosing around or working with Anya, he sleeps coiled around her neck. To anyone else, he is a pretty necklace.
No one else can see him, not even her paranormal friends. But they can tell when he’s around. Electronics go haywire, often causing fires.
Sparky is a Firedrake, also called a hell bender, a fire elemental salamander. Where Anya goes, he goes, and he comes in handy. When he’s not a necklace, he’s a walking breathing small dragon, with lots of powers.
Picture him as a frilly eared komodo with iridescent skin.
Problem is, he’s like an overgrown puppy with a mind of his own, always getting in trouble. If Anya doesn’t watch him closely, he gets into all kinds of mischief.
Like this scene.
She looked down to see the salamander creeping across the tile floor, stalking a microscope perched on a table. Anya stepped on his tail, pinning him to the floor. Sparky glared at her in irritation, straining forward with his legs churning in futile slow motion against the tile…
Sparky switched directions, circling around to get a better look at an unattended slide projector that had attracted his attention. Anya adjusted her stance to remain on his tail, trying to look nonchalant – not like she had to pee.
There were lots of funny scenes with Sparky and some really sweet ones too.
But keep in mind, he’s also her protector and has many weapons.
As the clock winds down to Devil’s Night, Anya and the group are desperate to stop the arsonist. They have a good idea of what he’s up to and no one wants to find out who or what Sirrush is.
This is a fantastic story, well written, with attention to detail and lots of research. The technical aspects are written in laymens terms making it easier to follow and the story more genuine.
There are some super characters you come to love and care about, along with a sweet. lovable, funny sidekick.
Something just struck me about Embers. I didn’t want to let the characters go. Bittersweet when I reached the end. But wait, I also had Sparks, Book Two, and I wasted no time diving right back into this series.