Book Review: Fate of Flames

Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley

Massive creatures called Phantoms, terrorize the world and 4 girls, known as the Effigies, protect the world from them. Each Effigy is connected to one of the 4 elements of the world, and when one girl dies, another one is randomly chosen to take her place.

Maia is the latest fire Effigy and she doesn't want the job. She's followed the Effigies for years but when it comes down to it, she never thought about what it would mean if she ever had to step into one of their spots. When a young man shows up with the ability to control Phantoms, Maia has to put aside her insecurities and help the other Effigies to work together to stop him before it's too late for the world.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

More like 1.5 stars. This had a lot of good ideas but the lead, Maia, was too weak. She waffled too much and never grew as a character. When something happened that she didn't like, she made up reasons to believe her own version of the events. And that was the last straw for me. Her reasoning, her fangirling, her tendency to mope around and whine, was too much for me to root for her in this book. And despite the almost lack of romance, it stuck out too much at inopportune times, making Maia falter because the story needed her to do so. Not okay when it comes to understanding a character.

If the next book changes leads, I might read it. If it's just going to be more of Maia, no thanks. I liked Lake and Chae Rin so much more than Maia and Belle. Their stories seem to be way more interesting as a whole. And there wasn't enough to explain the world and why it was the way it turned out. There was just some flimsy explanation of well, effigies were eventually discovered but weren't well tracked for many years, so yeah. The book dragged and it made me frustrated to read about Maia and her tendency to react poorly. I wish I had liked more of it in the end.



Rating on my Blog Scale: 2.5 Stars. After all, I did finish it in the end. I tried checking out the second book but I didn't get into it and returned to the library unread. I might try again in the future.




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