Kiss of Fire by Rebecca Ethington

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Title: Kiss of Fire
Author: Rebecca Ethington
Series: Imdalind #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: October 30, 2012
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 270
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 AtoZ Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

First kisses are supposed to cause fireworks...
... mine caused a house to explode

There are a few rules to having a crush on your best friend:
1. Don’t look at him for too long, and definitely don’t get lost in his baby-blue eyes.
2. Don’t kiss him, or think about kissing him. Or have any fantasies ever.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, tell him your secret.

Hard to stick to the rules when your BFF just so happens to be Ryland LaRue. The insanely hot, insanely rich, and way too nice for his own good heir to the Imdalind Forging fortune.
He is out of the league for my two bedroom apartment, daughter of the kitchen staff self.

Well, until my dead-beat dad busts back into my life ranting about magic and cults and how I’m at the center of world-saving prophecies. Now I am being stalked by a tall blonde man, and am miraculously throwing my high school bully ten feet in the air.

Something is happening, and I’m pretty sure it has to do with the mark behind my ear, and the secret I have kept for more than ten years.
The only problem? Ryland has a secret too, and his just happens to have all the answers I need.

Which brings us to that kiss…

My Review:

ON REREREAD:
4.5 stars — It’s been a LONG time since I’ve read this one, and I’m finally coming back to finish the series!!  Hopefully.  I will admit that it didn’t suck me in quite as much as it did the first time.  I’m not sure if it’s the mood I’m in, b/c it seems to be a common theme with books the last few weeks.  Or even maybe that I’ve read book 2 now, and so I’m more reserved about some things.  But either way, I still totally enjoyed myself, I just wasn’t epic-ized I guess.

Part of the problem is that I’ve met a lot of heroines like Jos at this point in my reading career, and when the book starts, she doesn’t stand out.  I forgot about her penchant for hiding, and I forgot about the high school bullies.  I had a harder time with that this time.  It felt…cliche?  I think I needed more sass from her…something to make me want to root for her.

On the other hand, the world building is wonderful!  I still absolutely loved the little elements we’re introduced to, the way magic is presented, the mythos of the world if you will.  That is really well done.  I also felt like the action/suspense parts of the plot go freaking apeballs crazy, and more than once!  That initial mini-middle-climax was crazy, and I was so along for that ride!  I loved that we were learning so many things through her hearing/seeing, b/c she was kind of incapacitated.  It was an intriguing way to go about introducing stuff.  And the end climax was also pretty epic, though it dragged a teeny bit for me this time around.

I was also still super sucked into Joclyn’s relationship with Ryland…well, sucked in with reservations.  Their connection was seriously palpable, and I loved the sweetness of their friendship — I believed it.  I believed how much they meant to one another.  Which is what made it so hard.  I will say that having read book 2, but still having no answers, I was more anxious about it this time around.  I can’t wait to see how things actually work out.

So yeah.  Definitely still really enjoyed it, just perhaps not as much as the first (or second) time through.

ON FIRST REREAD:
if you’re one of those readers that can’t stand bad editing (typos, etc), this one is a medium — typical self-published novel. IT wasn’t remotely enough for *me* NOT to get totally wrapped up in the plot, but I did notice them.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
5 stars — Oh dear lord that was epic…. I haven’t been sucked into a world so much since Reckless Magic, etc. Ms Ethington did a fabulous job of introducing a unique universe that had so many intriguing elements, but wasn’t too confusing to get wrapped up in. Though dear me, I do want to learn some Czech now so perhaps I could have a hope in hell of pronouncing some of those words in my head. I spent the first half wishing the heroine knew she was in an epic novel b/c then she would have seen some things coming. I spent a lot of time going back and forth with theories, and ideas of what would happen, how things would end, who was who, who wanted what, etc etc….and sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong. I had so many questions, and the author achieved a perfect balance of satiating my curiosity with some answers, while leaving some unanswered for now with an implied promise that more would be revealed in future books. The main characters and secondary characters were all ones that were tailor made for my tastes….I can’t even really describe it, but I loved them all…. Oh Jos and Ryland….I don’t know how I will survive not knowing what is going to happen, if it’s really the end, if there will be a twist, if my suspicions about Ilyan will be confirmed. OK, I don’t even know why I’m writing anymore…I LOVED it. I laughed, I bawled huge gasping sobs, I was absorbed. And the ending was near perfect….felt like the closing of a chapter, just waiting to feed me more….

COYER Summer Hunt: Read any type of Romance novel (Paranormal Romance) — 1 point.