Aspiring rock star Annika Brisby knows exactly where her life is going until she travels to the Balkans of Eastern Europe and finds herself lost in a dream-like world of myth and magic. She’s discovered by wood nymphs who believe her arrival is more than coincidence, and they vow to get her back home with the help of a wild and reckless woodland elf named Talvi. Arrogant yet alluring, Annika … thinks he’s the perfect distraction from her homesickness. But the brazen bad boy’s quickly getting under her skin, making her question whether she truly wants to return.
- Previously titled Balkan Magic
You’ll enjoy this edgy & modern blend of paranormal and romantic fantasy if you’re a fan of: Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, and Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.
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Fantastic easy to read
This is so far the best book I have ever read I think.
This book is excellent! I love the twists and turns! I love the ups and. There are parts that are steamy but not enough to classify it as erotica in my opinnion.. There is a true story here. When I was a young teen II read a lot of books that had alot more erotica than this has.. This was an excellent read!!!
So to say I have a thing for red heads is a total understatement. So when I found out that this story featured a fiery tempered ginger, I was interested. When I found out that it was a fantasy filled with mystical creatures, I was sold!
This is such a great story and a real page turner that I stayed up well past 2 am to finish it, fulling knowing I had class in the morning! It kept me hooked from the first page and I had no intentions on stopping.
I really liked this book. And the first thing that drew my attention was the beautiful cover. My favorite gender is Romantic Fantasy and this book has great love stories, all the creatures you are eager to see in a world of fantasy, elves, shifters, unicorns, vampires, warriors, trolls,…
Annika is from the real and modern world and all of a sudden she finds herself in a very different world that she thought it would only existed in book stories. She finds that nothing and no one is what it seems and you have to have courage and believe in you and others to keep surviving.
There’re adventures, love, passion, funny times, magic in this story. But also grief, angst, pain and sadness. Everything that makes a book worth reading.
What it’s important about this story is the journey more than the final goal. They grow and have to adapt to what they’re finding out about themselves and their friends while they’re on a dangerous journey to save their land.
And what I liked the most is the supporting characters. Especially Finn, Nikola and Konstantin, they’d deserve to have their own books to tell their stories. All these character have a background some a happy one and some other a painful and sad one. Their stories are about friendship and companionship, family, sacrifice and what you’re willing to do to save what you love most.
I loved this series. It took a couple of chapters to get into and I was just about to put it down when the storyline took off. You won’t regret reading it. The plot line is complex and reminds me a lot of Lord of the Rings.
I was given the opportunity to read and review this book and I am very happy I said yes! It had everything that I love in a story; romance, fantasy, humor, drama and action. I loved the strong personalities and I loved the relationship development. It definitely deserves five stars!
I was hooked to this story from the very beginning, which is unusual for me. Most books I’ve read starts of kind of slow with introduction of the characters and the environment with not much else happening. Not this book though. Right from the first chapter Annika started her adventure and reeled me in. Instead of sitting through explanations of how every character looked or acted or descriptions of the surroundings, I got to follow her to a new land and through incidents, thoughts and feelings learn what kind of person she was, instead of through descriptions. That is exactly how to capture my interest. I rather build up the world in my own head and make my own pictures of how the characters looks, than having it described to me by the author. Emigh definitely knows how to write and make an entire world for us readers to fall in love with!
I am a big romance nerd and the enticing and amazing relationship between Tavli and Annika really had my heart going! I loved the struggles between them they had to overcome and I absolutely loved the jealousy and drama! The things that came between them that they had to get past showed me how strong their feelings were for each other and it developed their relationship and personalities in a flowing and natural way throughout the book. The one thing that usually bothers me in books is when the author has tried to make the main characters and their relationship too perfect. It only makes it unrealistic and somewhat forced when the characters have no flaws and a dull relationship with no arguments or disagreements. Annika and Talvi were not written as perfect. Talvi was a womanizer with little regard for other people’s feelings, while Annika had commitment issues. It made them so much more likable that neither of them or their relationship was perfect, that they had flaws, arguments and even heartbreaks. It made them seem like real people, Like they actually could exist, and that’s what made it a perfect love story.
While I felt that the personalities and relationships were very believable there were a few things that to me felt sort of unrealistic. The fact that Annika barely showed any chock or reaction to things, surroundings and revelations that should be impossible or unnatural seemed sort of strange. You would think that a person from our world would, if not have a panic attack, then at least some wonderment or chock over finding a whole new world. You would think that learning that there are nymphs, fairies, vampires, trolls and elves should get some sort of reaction, but apparently not. Annika just kept going as if nothing in her situation was strange or out of this world. The author is otherwise in her book very good at writing out the characters emotions on the pages, but in these instances I feel like she could have worked on it a bit more. It would have done nothing more, but strengthened the story.
Except for lack of reaction from Annika and on rare occasions somewhat awkward writing, this book was absolutely amazing! It’s on the top ten of the best stories I’ve read and I can’t wait to find out what happens in the next book!
The Flame And The Arrow is one of them stories that when you start you just have to finish.
I’ll start with a brief description.We have our main female lead Annika, a Twenty-five-year-old American girl who after rejecting her fiance decides to travel to stay with her uncle too well, get her head sorted.
while there she travels to town and spots some unusual strangers.
After following them into a book store.
Annikka then proceeds to flee the store with the strangers in hot pursuit, The unusual male is more persistent but eventually, our girl loses him and makes her way home to her uncle still unable to get the peculiar male out of her head.
Fast forward and Annika’s vacation is coming to its finish so she decides to take an amble through the local countryside.
Armed with Her camera, i-pod, apples, a bottle of water & a trusty peanut butter & Jelly Sarnie ewww!! (that’s the English in me these two just don’t go together yucky)
Now call me a pessimist but if you’re going to wander aimlessly over terrain you haven’t the foggiest about maybe it would be a good idea to take a phone.
mmm, you think it might be a tad helpful for if you get lost or god forbid hurt yourself.
On realising she’s lost our Girl prepares to spend the night in the great outdoors (probably not the best time to mention well PHONE!!!)
The next morning after many hours of wandering and not having a clue where she is Annika spots some familiar people it’s the weird girls from the bookstop.
This time she chases them as they appear to be in a hurry, trying to follow them over a pool she slips and hurts her ankle, she calls after the girl begging for help, and she gets more than she’s bargained for as she’s pulled through a portal right into another dimension. The portal closes trapping her in this strange land.
Do you know what one of the first things she asks is
HAVE YOU GOT A PHONE!!!!
I give up.
Now, this is where the story really begins, Annika stuck on the wrong side of the portal trapped. The three girls or Samodivi, a type of wood nymph offer to take her to the elves for help and I bet you can guess who one of these elves is yes it’s the lovely young man from the bookstore the one Annika was so taken with his name is Talvi.
Here starts a dance as old as time as Annika & Talvi enter into a passionate courtship plagued with misunderstandings and hurt as these two and many others try and save their family and friends trapped on the other side of the gate.
What starts as a pleasant interlude to distract herself with the roguish womanising elf quickly escalates into matters of the heart & nobody’s walking away unscathed.
good points to this story include an excellent backset for this saga, the worldbuilding is amazingly real, it is so easy to be drawn into this rich tapestry.
The secondary characters are fantastic as much thought has been taken in creating them as the main ones, I felt like I knew them all intimately.
Now this may seem a bit weird but a flawed heroine and hero it was just so refreshing to see some real traits like selfishness and bratty behaviour in our two main characters it made them seem much more human or elfish in Talv’is case.
Bad points well again it was them darn personality traits there were times I didn’t like either of the main characters very much
Talvi could be a bit of a brat and Annika was slightly childish at times there were times I just wanted to knock their heads together and say grow up kids, Annika your twenty-five and Talvi your bloody three hundred years old act it lol.
I Also wasn’t to struck on the ending but that’s just me being bolshy about the giant cliffhanger thrown our way, I was like NO WAY MAN !!!
until I realised book two is out now YAY!!!! problems
solved.
So in conclusion, this story gets a big thumbs up from me even when I was ready to throw my kindle at the wall in frustration at some of the antics of our so-called adults I couldn’t stop devouring this awesome piece of fiction.
It’s full of wood nymphs, Elves, Trolls, Fairies, unicorns, vampires, druids the list goes on & on something for everyone and if you happen to have Kindle unlimited it’s also free.
This is my First book by this author but it certainly won’t be the last.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9460945-bex-beckie-bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
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Annika is going to visit family to take a break after going through a relationship break. There she meets Talvi in a book store. But Annika ends up running away after some other seem to be trying to confront her. A few weeks later while walking she runs into the ladies again who were trying to catch her. Annika finds out she looks like someone that used to know and that is why they were trying to catch her. Annika end up going with them and she finds out they have gone through a tunnel / pass through that Annika cannot get out of. Now Annika is a part of their world until she can find a way out. She ends up meeting Talvi again who is a friend of theirs. The attraction is still there for them. Annika is cautious to start a relationship since she just ended one with someone she thought she cared about but he wasn’t what he seemed. Now with Talvi it appears he is a ‘player’ and might be using her.
I absolutely loved this book. I looked forward to every second I could get away and pick up where I left off because the world building was so complex and clearly written that I didn’t even have to use my imagination. Emigh Cannaday is one hell of a writer and seriously wished this world she created existed. A world where just about supernatural being you can think of exists; elves, wood nyphms, faeries, vampires, shape shifter, you name it. You would think that it may have been too much but Emigh made it happen and it came together wonderfully. Where is there a portal so I jump through it? This book takes you on quite the adventure.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a book with so many great characters who are so different from one another. I loved pretty much every character in this book. I loved Annika at first but we have a love/hate relationship, Talvi is pretty swoon worthy but also a pain in the ass, Finn is to die for. I loved Sariel, Hilde, and Runa, they were so much fun and made the book extra funny. Don’t get me started on Nikola and Justinian, major hunk factor going on there, and they’re pretty badass as well. And that brings me to Yuri, yea I did not like her through this whole book and at one point I ALMOST felt for her, but I quickly regretted the sentiment. There is also Zaven, Chivanni, Dardis, and Konstantin who add so much to the story.
Let me say I loved this story more than I could have anticipated. This book is adventurous and leaves me reeling more than once with its twists and unexpected turns. I almost didn’t want it to end because I was so engrossed in Annika’s future because it was so obscured and there is no way to anticipate what would happen next for her. The world was so beautifully constructed and thought out I can’t even imagine the amount of time it took to plot it all out. Definitely on the top of my list of favorite fantasy places. The romance was so enjoyable and very hot(yes there are a few detailed sex scenes) and there is plenty of romance to around. You don’t know who will end up with who. I loved it.
Only one thing bothered me with this book and it was Annika. I still loved her in this book. She started off as this badass, free spirited character who was independent and didn’t take people’s crap. She was also very strong willed and minded. But I had a hard time with her issue of not being played by Talvi since he’s a well-known player. She always thought he was trying to pull something with her to make her look like a fool. Also, I found to be very stereotypical whenever she came across supernatural beings like the faeries and elves and made a fool of herself. As much as she may not have wanted to believe she was in a different world, she wasn’t exactly being accepting. I think Annika is strong, but while she stood up to Talvi’s cousin and Zavens sister, she let Yuri and Sariel speak to her and treat her any way they wanted to. So some characteristics I associated with Annika clashed with certain moments in the book. This in no way made me love this book any less.
Seriously pick this book up. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book because the ended was an “OMG” moment.
This was a fun elves-and-fantasy story that read like a find-your-way-home adventure rather than a “dark fantasy paranormal romance” as the subtitle stated. My review copy was provided by the author, in exchange for an honest review.
The book was, simply put, fun. From the get-go, the protagonist Annika was a delight: a sassy girl resisting being trapped into a life she doesn’t want to settle for, she literally stumbles into the type of adventure many of us have day-dreamed about… She quickly discovers there’s more to the world, and herself, than she realized. Her ensuing journey to fully realize her own identity – in this world and another – is populated by hi-jinks, (mis)adventure, a spectrum of personalities, and more than a little steamy elf-action. The love interest Talvi sometimes felt a little stereotypical, but what do you expect from an elf heartthrob? (teehee) The samodivi are a great addition to the story – a supernatural element that hasn’t already been played out to death. There are great family and friendship story lines, and the scenery/world-building is deft and imaginative without feeling overdone. There is definitely a strong romance element to the book, some of the descriptions are not for the faint of fluttering heart, but there’s much more to it – which, frankly, I wouldn’t have suspected from the cover and description…
Full review: http://blog.jill-elizabeth.com/2016/07/09/book-review-the-flame-and-the-arrow-by-emigh-cannaday/
Switched from tv to reading books . Great adventure at your finger tips. A good book should leave you fulfilled. Which is what this series does