Review: Rise of the Fire Tamer

By Kailin Gow
Available now from Sparklesoup
Review copy
Read my review of BITTER FROST and Kailin's guest blog



This review is part of a Traveling to Teens tour. Kailin Gow's previous stop was Yan's Books By Their Cover and her next stop is Wdebo's Electrical Book Cafe on Tuesday.

I liked RISE OF THE FIRE TAMER more than BITTER FROST, though they shared similar weaknesses.  Again, there are some editing issues.  Gemma "Gem" James is an intelligent and clever heroine, which is admirable, but she's shallowly drawn.  While most of the book follows her exploits, I know the least about her bad qualities.  She's just beautiful and a good prospective ruler.

As a contrast, the secondary girl, Kat has far more elaboration to her character.  She's the definition of trying too hard at the beginning of RISE OF THE FIRE TAMER.  She wants attention on her own terms, which is almost impossible to demand.  This quickly gets her in trouble and she decides to work on her character flaws.  Jack is too nervous, which works as a flaw, though he doesn't really get any development.  Sparks and Rio mostly just snap at each other or flirt with Gem unless it is a battle scene. 

None of the romances really worked for me.  The end of each chapter gives a snippet of each character's thoughts, which tended to feature Sparks and Rio thinking incredibly jerky things.  The easily forgiven Goolrick should not have been let off so easily for what he did to Gem, even if there was no permanent damage.

As for the adventure plot itself, it works better than BITTER FROST because the speed is slightly slower.  Anachronia, the tenth level of the Wordwick Games, works based on words.  This is good for younger readers, though the vocabularly lessons might slow down older readers who are done with their SAT vocabulary.  Also, the warring tribes of Anachronia are Spurious and Perfidous, and the five gamers choose to side with a tribe.  Personally, I wouldn't side with either if those are the words they choose to represent themselves.

Fantasy readers will probably enjoy RISE OF THE FIRE TAMER, which is reminiscent of Vivian Vande Velde's USER UNFRIENDLY.  Those who like character driven novels probably won't find it satisfying, however.

Kailin Gow: On Balancing Action and Romance

Kailin Gow is the author of more than forty books and the founder of the Shy Girls Social Club. You can visit her previous tour stop at Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm, as well as Faye's and my reviews of BITTER FROST. She'll visit Books by Their Cover next. Full tour dates are available at the Traveling to Teens site.

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On Balancing Romance with Action

I get asked all the time about how to plot a novel so that there is the right amount of action with romance. Most of my novels involve a great deal of action coupled with romance. These elements are necessary in the type of novels I write – books with a strong heroine who usually face extraordinary situations and has to be brave enough to persevere through her situation to survive. I find that my main characters typically lead the way in the romance department, and like in real life, romance happens in the most interesting moments. I tend to have romance in many area of the novel because, to me, life is romantic.



In Bitter Frost, where Breena is drawn into the world of Feyland, her entire concept of Feyland starts off in a dream-like romantic state. Prince Kian is her dream guy, and despite his initial coldness, their adventure and trek through Feyland (which is dangerous, yet fascinating), is filled with romance and action throughout.



In Rise of the Fire Tamer, a series about a group of teenage gamers caught in a world suspended in time, there is plenty of action, but romance abounds because the characters can’t deny the attraction they feel for each other. Going through what Gem, Sparks, Rio, Kat, and Jack goes through; they’re bound to seek comfort and form friendships with each other.



In PULSE, a vampire mystery love story, there is plenty of action and even more romance. A large part of the romance stems from the characters themselves – vampire brothers who are drawn to Kalina, a girl who has a very special destiny. The vampires in PULSE are so romantic, it’s part of who they are.

As far as finding the right balance between romance and action, it is a matter of what feels right for the characters, the plot, and the audience. When it comes together, you know it seems right – just like love.

Review: Bitter Frost

By Kailin Gow
Available now from The Edge Books
Review copy through Traveling to Teens Tours



If punctuation errors and such bother you, you'll probably want to skip over BITTER FROST.  I managed to tune most of them out, but BITTER FROST could have used another round of copyediting.  As is, it made the book seem unprofessional.

Breena is a budding conservationalist who doesn't fit in at her high school despite being friends with the hottest guy around, Logan.  He's clearly in love with her, but Breena is willfully ignorant.  Going home from school one day, she spots a Pixie: Delano.  She doesn't know how she knows his name, she just knows he's bad news.  Pretty soon he's attacked and she's been taken to Feyland by Kian, the Winter Prince. Breena is his prisoner, his key to freeing his sister from the Summer Court dungeons.

BITTER FROST moves quickly.  In some ways, that is good.  There's quite a bit of action and the characters don't spend much time dithering and keeping secrets from each other.  Yet the character development moves too fast at points.  Breena seems to adapt to her new life and relationships with ridiculous speed.  While fun, BITTER FROST lacks emotional depth.  When one character dies, I don't really feel anything because the character has so few defining characteristics other than loyalty.

Not much focus is given to the mythology, but I do like the little that Kailin Gow explains in BITTER FROST.  Particularly, I like the idea that human-fairy hybrids are stronger than either race, rather than weaker.  It makes sense that there could be an advantage in having the skills of two races.  It's a nice touch of originality in a story that follows a familiar narrative pattern.

BITTER FROST is also short, which might be why it moves at warp-speed.  It feels like there's a longer, more measured book waiting to get out.  The next book in the series, FOREVER FROST, comes out tomorrow.  I'm interested in reading it to see whether the pacing and character development even out a little.

I enjoyed BITTER FROST, but it felt like the kind of stuff I read on the internet.  Diverting and interesting, but ultimately not a final draft.  Breena also comes close to being a Mary Sue, which anyone who reads internet fic knows is not a good thing.