Four weeks have passed since Fiona Ember was captured by Nicolas Demarais, the powerful and deadly Water Clan magician she foolishly attempted to assassinate. Relieved that she has impressed Nicolas and reclaimed her life, she’s stunned to find that Nicolas has ambitious plans to change the world of magic forever—and they involve Fiona’s newfound magical abilities. But achieving those goals … goals certainly won’t be easy. Fiona will need to navigate the slippery magic of Water Clan, survive her new group’s difficult operations, and face more than a few challenges with her new lieutenant. On top of that, she’ll need to confront her growing attraction to Nicolas, as she realizes she’s falling for the sweeter and softer side of him.
And little does she know, Nicolas’s grand plans for the future are drawing the attention of his enemies, and the new life that Fiona has found may not be so safe after all…
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Recommended: yes, keep the series going
Thoughts:
If book one is all about the setup and changed for Fiona, book two is all about her new relationships. That definitely means a lot of Fiona and Nicolas figuring out whatever they are and want to be, but also her relationships with the other members of the clan.
This one was good, but not my favorite. Simply put, this one doesn’t have a lot of action or momentum on its own. It’s an important piece of the larger story in the series, but this one is definitely a lot of talking! There are some pretty pivotal and intense moments of action as well, but the bulk is a calmer pace of interaction and discovery.
If you’ve been curious about the other members, here is going to be your primer! I did love hearing about the team’s abilities and histories, as they’re all so unique. The group’s overall plan is really freaking cool, too, and I’m pumped to see where it goes!
On the other hand, if you’ve been holding out for romance, this one’s got you covered. While it’s not totally explicit or a full focus on it, there’s definitely intimacy in this one as part of the character building.
I ended this book the same way I ended the first: immediately going to find and start the next one. The story is still going strong, and I’m really interested in learning more about all the twisted strings of fate going on here!!
Thanks to Booksirens and Ella M Lee for a free copy. This is my honest review.
First, I’d like to thank BookSirens for providing me a copy of this book for my honest review.
I loved the first Fire Within book. I loved the beginning of this book, but then something weird happened and… I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all. This is always something that comes up in stories, and it sours me for them. I understand them as a device for driving the characters and story, but in an emotionally based story such as this one, I found that it detracted from my interest in Fiona.
When it was explained, fairly quickly, I felt… better, but still… kind of meh about it. To me, that sort of betrayal is… unforgivable, especially if the characters involved have any sort of ability to stop themselves – which they did have in this situation. So the forgiveness that was bestowed felt… I don’t know, just… meh. I understand the reasoning, and it makes sense, but I felt betrayal for Nicolas – even if it all went well in the end and things got sorted out.
All this happened about halfway through the book, after some very exciting and interesting things had happened. Just like the first book, Ignited is primarily a story about the characters and their emotions and how they deal with things together during their journey. It’s less about what they’re doing, but how they’re doing things together – it’s refreshing to read stories that are more character driven. This is something that I definitely enjoy from Lee’s writing. The characters all feel realistic and that’s something that I think isn’t always the easiest thing to do – especially in fantasy stories.
After this low point, however, the story picked up into something that was quite interesting. A mirroring of some level of betrayal, but this time from Nicolas. However, considering the life of those in the clans and what’s expected of them, Fiona’s reaction to the news she gets about Nicolas’s past is… unwarranted and ridiculous. Her feeling of betrayal is far more unsubstantial in my opinion than the feelings of betrayal that Nicolas should have felt toward her.
Overall I enjoyed this book, minus the one thing that was very… distracting and detrimental for me just because of personal bias. I would definitely read a third instalment, despite my mild disappointment with parts of this one. The characters are interesting, and I love their relationships with one another.
If you enjoy stories that centre on characters, their interactions and development, then I can certainly recommend these books to you. If you’re more interested in story and action, I would avoid against this. There’s a lot of action and things that would be written out in another type of story that are glossed over as exposition in this one. This is, as the first one was, primarily a story about the characters emotions and interactions.
this book is amazing read, this seriers pulls you into the story and have you falling for this series.
(Mostly Spoiler-free)
Character-driven Urban Fantasy!
If you haven’t read Fire Within, definitely read it first since Ignited is a continuation. 🙂
What started as a failed assassination attempt is slowly growing into Fiona’s new normal and new home. She gets clanned and faces some unexpected twists as she’s trying to find her place within Water. (It was hard to write that without spoilers haha)
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Read this one straight through the day I got it!
Compared to the first one, this didn’t take as much time on Character development (though it was not ignored) and instead started into some really fun, and sometimes story twisting, plot elements, and action scenes! On more than occasion, I was nervous for the characters.
And the romance really gets to bloom here! Love the pairing and their chemistry is always amazing.
I will note that I love that no one in this story falls into a Mary Sue/Gary Stu category. They are all beautifully imperfect people and the author does not shy away from letting them make their mistakes or, in general, just letting them be human.
Male/Female friendship, and still all the wonderful side characters! Some of whom we didn’t even meet in Fire Within!
Great writing and such a fun world.
Can’t wait for the final installment in this arc: Ashes!