Heart of Fire by Bec McMaster
Series: Legends of the Storm #1
Published by Lochaber Press on 8 August 2017
Genres: Historical Romance, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Romance
Pages: 278
Format: eBook
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
The old eddas speak of dreki--fabled creatures who haunt the depths of Iceland's volcanoes and steal away fair maidens.
Freyja wants none of such myths. Dreki seducing young ladies? Ha. They probably eat such foolish girls. But when the local dreki steals her last ram--costing her any chance of feeding her ill father through the winter--Freyja intends to confront the fearsome myth.
Sentenced to a life of exile from his clan, Rurik is fascinated by the furious woman who comes to claim her ram. She reeks of mysterious magic and challenges him at every step. He intends to claim the passionate firebrand, but to do so he must take mortal form. It's the only time the dreki are vulnerable, and with a dragon-hunter arriving on the shores of Iceland, he can barely afford the risk--but lonely Freyja, with her elf-cursed eyes and pragmatic soul, tempts him in ways he's never felt before. Is she the key to reclaiming his heritage? Or will she be his downfall?
Heart of Fire by Bec McMaster is the first book in her series of interconnected standalone books, Legends of the Storm. Each book focuses on a different couple but it is recommended to read them in order.
POV: Dual, Third Person, Limited
Ending: HEA
Series: Standalone in an Interconnected Series
Pace
At 278 pages, Heart on Fire should have taken me a day, maybe two, to read. Instead, it took me five. I felt the pace lagged and there were some parts that I had to push myself to a bit to keep going.
Characters
Freyja lives on a farm in a small Icelandic town with her ailing father. She has always been different, considered cursed because of her different coloured eyes (and also because she has powers). The villagers have tolerated her but have never wholly accepted her. She’s stubborn and proud which doesn’t help her to make friends among the villagers but the local dreki (dragon-type shifter) takes an interest to her wildness when she makes brave demands of him.
Rurik, the outcast dreki, hasn’t been tempted by a female in a very long time and Freyja intrigues him enough to pursue her.
I found both characters to be decent enough but their growth felt a bit stagnant until the last quarter of the book. I felt that they were a bit predictable but still entertaining enough.
Is Heart of Fire spicy?
Yes, there are a few explicit scenes in Heart of Fire. Nothing super ground breaking, but enough to satisfy an adult romance reader. The scenes were written well but I would consider them to be a bit vanilla (which some readers might prefer, no judgement here!). Again, the scenes were fairly predictable in their placement within the plot and within the structure of the characters’ relationship.
Tropes
- Fated Mates
- Hidden/Secret Identity
- Hidden/Secret Ability
- He Falls First
- Humans vs. ‘Others’
My Thoughts
I thought Heart of Fire by Bec McMaster was good. It didn’t rock my world and I didn’t stew on the characters for days on end afterwards but, still, I enjoyed it. What I like most about this story is the unique setting and time period. Far too many fantasy books are modelled after medieval Europe/Britain and it does get a bit boring after a while.
What didn’t work for me was the predictability and obviousness of the plot and Freyja’s slow development. I enjoy a stubborn FMC as much as the next reader but it gets a bit tedious/annoying when they revert to the same response to problems over and over due to their ‘stubbornness’ (especially in an adult book).
It took me much too long to read a book of this length and that usually means that I just didn’t connect with the characters or plot.
