Good story! Enjoyed it a lot! Richard Phillips is a really good writer! You will enjoy his works!

This is a fun coming of age story. Told from two POVs that don’t cross but their histories are intertwined, we get good vs evil, magic and interesting characters. Carol and her warlord father, Rafel, are on the run with all of their people because the new king is a puppet of a bad wielder (magician), even though he doesn’t know it quite yet. When the king sends his assassin, Blade, to kill Rafel he assumes that there is one less threat to his crown. But Blade was raised by Rafel and grew up with Carol so instead he warns them and that sets them on the run. We follow their travels as they try to protect their people. Carol goes through the Trial to become a wielder and succeeds and slowly grows into her immense power. Blade also goes on the run since he didn’t complete his last job and gets entangled in other plots. This book has interesting magic, and decent main characters. The secondary characters are a little flat, especially the main villain but I have hopes that some of them will be fleshed out in coming books. I can’t wait to see how Carol’s and Blade’s storylines interact in the next books.

Arrrrrrgh, its finished. No. I was so engrossed in this book I never saw the end coming. Yes I know I must have realised at some level. This book needs a warning, “So good will leave you panting for more”. And who let me read this book before the sequel is released? Now I walk around with the possible next part of the adventure in my head.

Just how I love my books, fast and furious and plenty left to my imagination rather than being led and fed.

All of the characters are well developed and soon tend to lope about your lounge and kitchen. I also love the bear cub. Carol and Arn are the two main characters, the story swings around them. Arn is my favourite and we get to hear and see and feel much of the story through him.

I am standing outside the bookshop waiting for the next book in this trilogy to be released, which is apparently Early 2018.

Its one of those rare books that ruins you for others, which is a problem, particularly when you review books.

Kevin

Set in Medieval times, Mark of Fire introduces you to Kings and Lords, magic wielders and elementals, good and bad people, and the main characters Arn (Blade) and Lorness Carol. The first few chapters set the stage, let you get to know everyone, and prepare you for the story to come. Then you are plunged right into the action as the humans hastily abandon their homes and set off on a journey to escape the vorg army that threatens them.

There are two stories evolving, as the journey to flee the wrath of the vorg is hampered by forces of nature and their wielders ability to block the powers that would allow the vorg army to locate them. He is losing the battle unless he can persuade Lorness Carol’s father to allow her to help the wielder’s efforts.

Arn, traveling alone with no destination, comes across two men fighting off a small army of vorg, joining them in the battle. The three become traveling companions, encountering their own scuffles along the way, and eventually joined by a fourth traveling companion, Endarian princess Kim, who was on her way to visit Lorness Carol’s father before she was captured by a rogue band of traders.

There is lots of action, the characters are memorable, and the two story lines move unendingly toward each other as the tale unfolds. You will find yourself engrossed in the people, the plot, and the magic as the story unfolds.

I received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Promising premise, weak story. A prophecy to stop a madman—of course said madman must find and murder the main character of this prophecy. Carol is the daughter of a nobleman and warrior. Surprisingly she is a well of magic, and she masters this magic quickly and efficiently—this I found hard to believe, but of course if she is the woman of the prophecy this has to be so. She is also in love with Blade, another integral part of this prophecy. He is of course a tortured soul, his parents having been murdered when he was a young child. Their stories diverge and run parallel to each other, making the story very disconnected. I also did not like the language at all—it did not fit with the time period and felt forced (it also got on my nerves).