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My Review:Title: Fire Baptized
Author: Kenya Wright
Series: Santeria Habitat #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: January 16, 2012
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 249
Genres: Dystopian, Paranormal
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Bookish Resolutions DTTH, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1, Lenoreo's 2023 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:
Blurb:Since the 1970s humans have forced supernaturals to live in caged cities. Silver brands embedded in their foreheads identify them by species: a full moon for Vampires, a crescent moon for Shifters, a pair of wings for Fairies, and the list goes on, for each supernatural species has been tagged and categorized by humans.
Lanore Vesta is marked with a silver X, the brand of Mixbreeds, second-class citizens shunned by society. She stays to herself, revealing her ability to create fire only during emergencies. All she wants to do is graduate college and stop having to steal to survive. But when she stumbles upon a murder in progress, she catches the attention of a supernatural killer. Now all she wants is to stop finding dead bodies in her apartment.
Enlisting help from her Were-cheetah ex-boyfriend MeShack and a new mysterious friend named Zulu, she is steered through the habitat s raunchy nightlife. But their presence sometimes proves to be more burden than help, as they fight for her attention.
While the corpses pile up, and the scent of blood fills the air, Lanore is left wondering: will she find the psycho or die trying?
3.5 stars — Despite being absolutely thrilled to have a heroine with *almost* my first name, I was a bit taken aback by the start of the book. We’re definitely thrust into a dystopian nightmare and a trigger scenario (warning). And while I am definitely intrigued by this bizarre world that Ms. Wright set up, there are just a few too many things that didn’t work for me, so I doubt I’ll continue with the series despite how curious I am.
Lanore was an interesting heroine, though I can’t say I necessarily connected with her or really figured out what made her tick. She was confident, and determined, though a little foolhardy at times. I saw another review talking about how they didn’t understand the whys of this story, and I totally agree. I don’t know what motivated her, and I never really got a good grasp of who she was down inside.
From a romance perspective, this one had a love triangle to the extreme. Maybe it’s being on the ace spectrum, but I was not really pulled in by either man. Zulu was definitely more interesting, and while he could be domineering, he did have moments where he attempted to respect her boundaries. MeShack was an absolute disaster in my opinion, and while I get they have a shared childhood history, I did not understand their relationship and her choices with him. A lot of the romance was very lust based, and so it wasn’t as exciting for me. I need that other connection as well to really get me interested.
I will say that while the world was confusing, it was also unique and I could really picture certain aspects. I think it was a bit ambitious, and so sometimes it was too much information while at other times there was not enough. The writing was similar…like, it felt like early indie, you know? I was drawn into the mystery though, and appreciated that we got answers to some major questions, with just enough left to keep you wanting to read book 2.
I am tempted by the next story, but I have a feeling the romance aspects would annoy me, so I might try a newer book by this author instead.
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