Embers Book Review *Laura Bickle*

If Laura Bickle ever needed a theme song for her debut novel, Embers, it would have to be Fire Burning by Sean Kingston. That song kept running through my head as I read. There are a whole lot of fires burning due to a supernatural arsonist bent on revenge. The one person who may be the only one to stop this madman is Anya Kalinczyk, an arson investigator for the Detroit Fire Department. It's bad enough that Detroit is riddled with crime and unemployment, including a bad case of hauntings and demons who won't behave. Anya knows all about the shady, ghostly side of the city because is a volunteer working with the Detroit Area Ghost Researchers. Anya has a very special skill. She is known as a Lantern, a psychic medium who sucks up spirit's soul and destroys them, especially after they refuse to leave a house or building. Anya is pretty much done with the Ghost Hunters because she is dealing with a great amount of stress. Not only does her salamander familiar, Sparky, who she can only see, is always under foot, and has a bad habit of eating most electronics, but one of the hunters, Brian, an IT guy who works at the local university, wants to be more than just associates. Anya is not comfortable with the dating scene and tries her best to keep Brian at a distance.

Around the same time the arsons continue to grow out of control, Anya has become possessed by a nasty demon she helped exorcise from a teenage girl. The demon Mimiveh starts to haunt her dreams and talks about Sirrush, a Godzilla like demon who is compared to a force of nature that destroys anything in its path with no reason. And it looks like the arsonist wants to summon Sirrush for their own gain.

Soon Anya's life is spinning out of control. If it's not bad enough that she has a demon trying to take over her body, the arsonist makes contact with her and believes they have a connection because he also is a Lantern. Because Anya has always felt alone and doesn't know many others like her, she walks a fine line, and is slowly being seduced, over come with need for this man who wants to know everything about her. He will try his best to make her understand why he must continue to hurt innocent people. But when someone close to Anya almost dies because of the Lantern arsonist, she is no longer sympathetic to his cause and will walk through the fires of hell to stop him

Embers is a very unique, not your typical run of the mill urban fantasy. Laura Bickle's writing reminds me a bit of Diana Rowland's demon series. Anya is somewhat comparable to Rowland's heroine, Kara Gillian. I think this is because both women are in some sort of law enforcement, have special powers and surround themselves with many caring individuals. Anya is more of a loner, and at times confused and scared. Her relationship with her familiar Sparky is really wonderful and made me smile. I especially enjoyed Anya friendship with the baker/witch Katie who is a therapist of sort to Anya and gives her advice and a shoulder to lean on.

The first part of Embers is really wonderful with a great deal of action and suspense. It falters toward the middle and end where Anya is grappling with two issues. Whereas I enjoyed the arson investigation and preferred more a focus on that, the whole demon possession of Anya becomes more of a nuisance. I really felt it wasn't needed and took away from the primary storyline regarding the Lantern villain who Anya almost succumbs to. The arsonist is revealed early on and isn't the hard-core villain everyone makes him out to be. He has been wronged and feels he has no other choice with his decisions. Anya has a very touchy relationship with him that's written in a very interesting way. Their relationship goes past a certain point that most urban fantasy type heroines don't fall into. I wanted more interaction between these two, but unfortunately, the whole demon storyline overtook everything in such a way that ruined the overall effect I was expecting.

As debuts go, I would say Embers is a pretty solid read and the start of a series that I wouldn't mind continue reading. Other then too much of an emphasis on the annoying Linda Blair Exorcist type drama, I would say that Laura Bickle is one to pay attention to, especially if you are looking for a new unique Urban Fantasy series to read. (Pocket)

Final Grade: B-

A few other Embers reviews:
Angieville
Bitten by Books
Dark Faerie Tales

Sparks, the sequel to Embers will be released in August.