{Review} Fireborn (Souls of Fire #1) by Keri Arthur

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: July 4th, 2014
Finished Date: July 24th, 2015

Publishers: Piatkus
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Source: For Review
Format: Paperback

Pages: 400
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

From New York Times bestselling author Keri Arthur comes a brand-new series featuring heroine Emberly Pearson—a phoenix capable of taking on human form and cursed with the ability to foresee death....

Emberly has spent a good number of her many lives trying to save humans. So when her prophetic dreams reveal the death of Sam, a man she once loved, she does everything in her power to prevent it from happening. But in saving his life, she gets more than she bargained for.

Sam is working undercover for the Paranormal Investigations Team, and those who are trying to murder him are actually humans infected by a plaguelike virus, the Crimson Death—a by-product of a failed government experiment intended to identify the enzymes that make vampires immortal. Now all those infected must be eliminated.

But when Emberly’s boss is murdered and his irreplaceable research stolen, she needs to find the guilty party before she goes down in flames....

The Review: Fireborn is the first book in the Souls of Fire series and broaches the subject of the Phoenix.
Emberly Pearson is a Phoenix in human form. She has lived many lives, always resurrected with her phoenix spirit time and time again. Each phoenix has a soul mate, another phoenix who sustains them with their energy and without them, they would die but they can never love each other. Each lifetime brings them one true love, one person who will always break their heart and stop their love once again….. it’s a never ending cycle and Emberly has had her share – this lifetime included. Phoenix also have extra powers and Emberly’s is that she can foresee death and where it will strike…. And that is how we meet her, as she saves her ex-lover Sam from death. Sam is a cop with a couple of secrets up his sleeve and when Emberly crashes back into his life he is forced to let her in on his investigation – especially seeing as they are chasing them to kill them. He lets her in on the fact that there is a plague-like virus turning people into vampire like creatures with less vulnerability than normal vampires. Thinking she has done her good deed and having saved Sam, she heads off only to discover that her Boss has been killed and his research has been stolen. She then becomes the target when the enemy discovers that she has more research in her possession….. and they want it… at all costs.
I really enjoyed Fireborn, I’ve read about the Phoenix before but never with a female as the phoenix and I have to say…it was a nice change. I liked Emberly’s character, she seemed very wise but slightly jaded and accepting of her situation. I really like how she evolved throughout the book and got her groove back. Now, there’s always a love interest in a book like this and this had more than one which is a pet peeve of mine but I’ll explain. As a phoenix, she has a soul mate in another phoenix that she can’t fall in love with but is essential to her life because she would die without exchanging energy with him…. So he is her room-mate/f-buddy when she so chooses - because of how they exchange energy. She has an ex who was the love of THIS lifetime that is fated to break her heart; which he has done. This is Sam and he is very present in the story but so is another person who she decides to scratch an itch with on a casual basis but also work with. Don’t let this put you off, yes, it irked me – I hate love triangles/quadrangles….whatever but… she is only sexually involved with one person in the book but the soul mate thing was weird because he was like a husband waiting at home whilst she was out and about doing the nasty. Argh, I don’t know how I felt about it…. Let’s just say it’s the only part I didn’t like about the book.
The storyline was great! I love UF books and this has a great scenario with a virus mutating people and supernaturals alike. It is bringing something new to the characters and something new to the reader. I always like an investigative angle to what happens in books and on one side we have Sam in an official capacity and the other side we have Emberly and a PI whom ends up being a major character who drags a willing Emberly into his investigation. As I mentioned, romance comes from an unexpected source and whilst there was chemistry, there was no feeling and I didn’t get any butterflies from their connection. There is plenty of action from the beginning – whether they’re being chased by the hard to kill Red Coats, Vampires, Werewolves etc. and having to fight for their lives using every trick they know, or being kidnapped and given ultimatums – they aren’t going down without a fight. Emberly has a few tricks up her sleeve, especially considering most don’t know exactly what she is or what she is capable of – so that definitely gives her the element of surprise in quite a few situations. I did like the way they worked together, I liked the way she had Sam on edge, always seemingly a step behind her which makes him take some pretty harsh risks that could put her in danger. She does have chemistry with Sam, there is something still there and of course that will come to a head eventually – which I look forward to! For a first book in a series it was a great introduction with some even better potential, plenty of drama and action, interesting world and characters and never a dull moment… I will be reading more.

Thank you to Piatkus for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.