This is a review of Fireborn by Keri Arthur. This is book 1
in the Souls of Fire series. The series is ongoing. This was a re-read for me because
these books need to be read in order. I started reading book 3 and realized I had
no idea what was going on because it had been so long since I had read books 1
and 2 that I had forgotten most of what happened.
In this series we meet Emberley Pearson. Emberley is a
Phoenix that can take 3 forms. She can take a human form, a firebird form, and
a spirit form where she is pure fire.
Her Phoenix partner is named Rory.
Rory and Emberley are a mated pair. Neither one can exist without the
other. They must have the other one in order to recharge their life forces and
need the other one to be able to resurrect them if they are killed. The Phoenix
is granted a lifespan of 100 years. If the Phoenix dies before that 100 years
is up only their partner can bring them back and the rebirth is very painful
for the phoenix that dies. After their first death, the Phoenix is reborn as an
adult every time. Each phoenix is fated
to find love once every 100 years but the love is always destined to end in
tragedy. In this lifetime, Emberley’s love is a detective named Sam and Rory’s fiancée
Jody was brutally murdered. Emberley’s relationship with Sam ended because he
could not understand her relationship with Rory and he wouldn’t give her a
chance to explain why she needed Rory. Emberley and Rory take turns alternating
who has a dangerous job in each life time so that if one dies the other can
bring them back. In this lifetime, Rory is a firefighter and Emberley is a
research assistant in a medical lab.
Emberley is the only Phoenix they know of that has prophetic
dreams where she sees people’s deaths which is how Sam comes back into her life.
She has a dream that shows Sam dying. Since she is still in love with Sam she
saves him from death and learns of a deadly virus that was created in a lab
where a scientist was trying to pinpoint the genes responsible for a vampire’s
immortality. The experiment went awry when one of the researchers injected
himself with the virus. He infected several others and the virus spread and has
become known as the Crimson Death. Those affected by the Crimson Death have
either become mindless revenants that answer to only the hive queen or are
sentient and can do the biding of the hive leader. There is also a third class
of infected people and those are ones that have been infected but show no signs
or symptoms of being under control of the hive leader. Sam has been infected and falls into this
category which we don’t learn until much later.
Emberley’s boss is murdered because the vampire mafia among
others wants his research notes. He gave some of these notes to Emberley to
transcribe so she has them at the time of his death. Emberley goes to her boss’s
apartment to get something and meets Jackson, a fire fae. Emberley feels
Jackson’s call since he is a fire being and so is she and they later agree to
go out on a date. Emberley is the one that discovers her boss’ body. Her
apartment is later ransacked as well by someone looking for the research notes.
They steal 4 of the 5 notebooks she was given. The 5th notebook gets
lost in the apartment and is the only one she hasn’t transcribed yet. She does
transcribe the 5th notebook eventually.
She is also kidnapped a few times and so is Jackson. They
eventually get out of every situation that they are put in but are still not
any closer to finding the missing research notes and the vampire mafia is still
after them. They end up working with Sam and putting a virus into the laptop
that will erase the research notes the second time the laptop is booted up.
They meet with the vampire mafia who have kidnapped Jackson and in order for
her to get Jackson back she must give the vampire mafia the research notes. The
vampire mafia checks to make sure the notes haven’t been accessed and release
Jackson. Emberley also learns who the
leader of the red cloaks are and that both scientists that were working on the
virus are now dead and are both under the control of the red cloaks.
Rory, Jackson, and Emberley go into hiding so they can’t be
found. Jackson invites Emberley to join him in his private eye business and she
ends up accepting his offer and it ends with Emberley going into business with
Jackson.
My recommendation: Once again these are just the highlights
of this novel. If I were to write a comprehensive review it would take pages
and pages. Keri Arthur has been a favorite author of mine since I first
discovered her books so I definitely recommend this series. It is off to a
great start.
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