The Fire Lord's Lover, Kathryne Kennedy

The Fire Lord's Lover
Kathryne Kennedy
ISBN: 9781402236525
Alternate History Fantasy Romance
Read February 25, 2014

I actually read the last book in this series (The Lord of Illusion) sometime last year maybe?  It was an interesting take on alternate elven history, and I was just coming off of a Mercedes Lackey Elves on the Road kick, and wanted more weird stuck-up elves.

So this is actually the first book in a series (there's one in the middle, Lady of the Storm, that I may or may not read).  To be honest, The Fire Lord's Lover feels like a middle-of-a-series book, with lots of info and titles and relationships casually dropped in.  I was actually really surprised, and a bit taken aback, when I learned that it's actually the first book, because when I read the last one, it had a very strong sense of 'lets tie up dozens of loose ends from lots of different books and relationships that we've established over the course of this long series,' and I was really shocked to learn there were only three of them total.

So, the last one obviously wasn't awful, because I recognized this one as being related to it, and picked it up for a quick jaunt into weird-ass English elfland.

I have a lot of minor plot-related nits that I could pick (and have done in the privacy of my own mind) regarding the worldbuilding and the social relationships at play in this series, but my only major quibble with the book itself is the dialogue.

No one talks like that.  Everyone in this book is expository and declaratory, like really bad gradeschoolers attempting to write a Shakespearean soliloquy, and it gets simply ridiculous in places.  It makes it somewhat difficult to take the characters and their perilous situations quite seriously when they are declaiming at each other in a very 'doth mother know thou wearest her drapes' sort of way.  That said, when the characters aren't having big emotional moments, they usually manage to talk just fine.  It's only when they need to be emotionally wrought that it gets a little silly.

I can't really comment much on the 'adult content' except to say that it was there, it seemed more flowery than gritty, and it wasn't overly cringeworthy or eyerolly.

Characterization was decent, although again - I thought we were in a middle book instead of the first of a set, so take that into account.

The plot is obvious, but fun, and each character got a chance to grow and change, and to contribute towards the plot as well as towards the developing relationship.  Secondary characters were either total ciphers, or oddly, more finely drawn than the leads.

I really like the plot concept, and despite niggles, think it was worked out well.  I am a bit saddened that the overall plot was sorted out in three books, as knowing the finish makes it a little difficult to be worried about later sets of characters that might get written into the middle of the series in the future.

Still, lighthearted, fun, lots of girl power,some enjoyable revolt against evil crazy elven tyranny.

Good fun for an evening!