• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Stance on AI
    • Contact
    • Friends of FFA
  • Blog
    • Reviews
      • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
      • Comics / Graphic Novels
      • Fantasy
        • Alt History
        • Epic Fantasy
        • Fairy Tales
        • Grimdark
        • Heroic Fantasy
        • LitRPG
        • Paranormal Fantasy
        • Romantic Fantasy
        • Steampunk
        • Superheroes
        • Sword and Sorcery
        • Urban Fantasy
      • Fear For All
        • Demons
        • Ghosts
        • Gothic
        • Lovecraftian
        • Monsters
        • Occult
        • Psychological
        • Slasher
        • Vampires
        • Werewolves
        • Witches
        • Zombies
      • Fiction
      • Science Fiction
        • Aliens
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Alt History
        • Cyberpunk
        • Dystopian
        • Hard SciFi
        • Mechs/Robots
        • Military SF
        • Space Opera
        • Steampunk
        • Time Travel
      • Thriller
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Interviews
      • Book Tube
      • Authorly Writing Advice
  • SFF Addicts
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2025
    • TBRCon2024
    • TBRCon2023
    • TBRCon2022
  • FFA Book Club
  • FFA TBR Toppers
    • Advertise Your Book on FFA!
  • Writer Resources
    • Artists
    • Cartographers
    • Editing/Formatting/Proofing

Book Review: Spark of the Everflame (The Kindred Curse Saga #1) by Penn Cole

October 8, 2024 by Andy Peloquin Leave a Comment

Rating: 9.25/10

TL;DR Review: A spitfire of a heroine. A lovely balance between warrior and healer, fighter and caretaker.

Synopsis:

When old secrets catch fire, everything will burn.

In a mortal world colonized by the gods and ruled over by the Descended, their cruel offspring, Diem Bellator yearns to escape the insular life of her poor village.

Her mother’s sudden disappearance—and the discovery of a dangerous secret about her past—offer Diem an unexpected opportunity to enter the dark world of Descended royalty and unlock the web of mysteries her mother left behind.

With the dying King’s handsome, mysterious heir watching her every move, and a ruthless mortal alliance recruiting her to join the growing civil war, Diem will have to navigate the unwritten rules of love, power, and politics in order to save her family—and all of mortalkind.

Full Review:

Diem Bellator may be my new favorite badass romantasy heroine!

Let’s get one thing straight: she’s earned every bit of it, with years of training under her mother as a healer, and under her General father in the arts of combat. She knows her way around a scalpel as well as a killing blade, and can tend to wounds as well as she can make them.

But what makes her such a badass is her resilience and strength of spirit.

She has suffered a great deal—as have all the people of her world—under the Descended (essentially, elves/High Fae), doubly so when her mother vanishes and leaves her father to raise her and her younger brother alone. Diem also feels the burden to take her mother’s place as a healer, tending to both the mortals and the Descended (with equal efficiency uninfluenced by personal feelings, as expected from one who’s taken the healer’s oath). But within her is this urge to do more, to push harder, to step out from beneath the shadow of her parents and change—whether herself or the world around her, she doesn’t know yet.

And most of all, she feels compelled to FIGHT. To fight against the injustices of her world. To fight against the oppression of the Descended and the horrific rule that any half-mortal, half-Descended must be murdered. To fight against the King’s stringent laws that allow the Descended to get away with doing whatever they want. To fight against anyone who would try to get her to sit down and shut up because that is not who she was raised to be.

She is a spitfire in every way—and an absolute joy to read because of it—but she’s also as flawed and realistic as you could wish for in a heroine/protagonist. She struggles, suffers, cries, fears, and worries like the rest of us, and that makes her a fully human character you absolutely want to read more about. Her journey is filled with unexpected twists and surprises, but she faces each with that strength of spirit that makes her such a compelling character.

The plot of this book is a lot of fun: her work as a healer brings her to the Palace, where she’s drawn into the path—and charm—of the dark, brooding Prince Luther, but also makes her ideal to help the humans who are working against the Descended in their efforts to bring down or strike back at the powerful overlords. There’s mystery, tension, reveals, heartbreak, loss, and happiness—plus, the beginnings of a deliciously slow-burn romance.

But what makes Spark of the Everflame so great is the fire that burns inside Diem and keeps her pushing toward making the right choice, even when she doesn’t know what that is—or worse, when she knows it may cost her dearly. The balance between healer and warrior is done beautifully and makes for a really engaging character I can’t wait to follow into more adventures in the rest of this series.

Filed Under: High Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy Tagged With: Book Review, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Fantasy Books, Romantasy, Self Published

About Andy Peloquin

I am, first and foremost, a storyteller and an artist--words are my palette. Fantasy and science fiction are my genres of choice, and I love to explore the darker side of human nature through the filter of heroes, villains, and everything in between. I'm also a freelance writer, a book lover, and a guy who just loves to meet new people and spend hours talking about my fascination for the worlds I encounter in the pages of fantasy and sci-fi novels.
Speculative fiction provides us with an escape, a way to forget about our mundane problems and step into worlds where anything is possible. It transcends age, gender, religion, race, or lifestyle--it is our way of believing what cannot be, delving into the unknowable, and discovering hidden truths about ourselves and our world in a brand-new way. Fiction at its very best!

Other Reviews You Might Like

Review: Bloodless by G.J. Terral, book 3 of The Binding Tenets

Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam

Review: Anji Kills A King (The Rising Tide #1) by Evan Leikam

Review: The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

FFA Newsletter!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Author Hub

Read A.J. Calvin
Read Andy Peloquin
Read C.J. Daily
Read C.M. Caplan
Read D.A. Smith
Read DB Rook
Read Francisca Liliana
Read Frasier Armitage
Read Josh Hanson
Read Krystle Matar
Read M.J. Kuhn

Recent Reviews

Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam

Recent Comments

  1. Mark Matthews on COVER REVEAL: To Those Willing to Drown by Mark MatthewsJanuary 7, 2025
  2. Basra Myeba on Worth reading Jack Reacher books by Lee Child?January 5, 2025
  3. Ali on Review: Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav BarsukovJanuary 5, 2025
  4. Carter on So you want to start reading Warhammer 40,000? Here’s where to start!January 4, 2025
  5. M. Zaugg on Bender’s Best LitRPG reads of 2024January 3, 2025

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In