Fireheart by Natalia Marx
Released: July 9, 2015
Fantasy Romance
Self Published

Reviewed by Mandi

Note: After this review posted, the author condensed book one and book two into just one book, titled Fireheart. Currently at Amazon for $.99.

Favorite Quote: “You conquer the world with a fire in your heart and my own burns for you. Only you.” He paused and his eyes blazed with emotion. “You are my heart’s fire. My Fireheart. Forevermore.”

This fantasy romance is a two-book series (the second book is titled, Fire and Raine). Both books are out and each is about 200 pages or a little less. Fire and Raine picks up right where Fireheart ends, so I’m just going to do one lump review. They are both pretty quick reads for a fantasy, but set up the characters and world well. I really enjoyed them both.

Leliana is the commander of the Syldor army. She is a fierce warrior who trains hard and has the respect of all of her troops, especially her famous Fire Maidens, her “elite guard” that can take on any opponent. In Syldor, women fight right alongside the men, with no questions asked. Leliana is smart when it comes to the queen and matters at court, but she much prefers living in a tent with her soldiers plotting out her course of action. Leliana is confident, has never lost a sword battle and everyone respects her. One of her closest friends, Zephra  is worried though. Leliana often takes lovers to her bed, both men and women (sometimes Zephra herself). But recently Leliana has taken soldiers to her bed that are directly under her command. Zephra fears she may get in trouble and start to lose some of the respect she has worked so hard to achieve. Leliana decides to pull back a little bit and compose herself – but what Leliana doesn’t know is that a man from her dreams is about to come her way.

Daryn is the commander for the people of Jutland, and they are in trouble. A dark dragon has burned down villages and a lot of his people. He needs an army to help defeat this dragon, and decides to ask the Syldor’s for help. When he was a child, his mother told him that one day he would find true love – his fated mate – and he would know this because he would be able to hear and see her thoughts and visions once he met her. For years of his life, Daryn searched for this woman, and never found her. When he shockingly realizes the Syldor commander is a woman, and then realizes it is his woman, he must try to keep his lust intact to take care of the serious matter of the dragon at hand. Leliana agrees to help with his fight, and together they go face this dragon.

First let me say, the actual dragon fight doesn’t happen until book two. I actually would have preferred that this story was just one book, instead of split into two, but at least they are both released at the same time. I loved Leliana. She is strong, and confident. She can take a joke. She is an awesome warrior and is friendly yet firm with the people under her. She is sexually confident and happy with her life. When Daryn arrives, she feels more than just lust, she feels something deeper. She knows he is the man from her dream, but she doesn’t know why she dreamed about him or why he is in her presence now.

They are both equally strong. They spar together and fight together and laugh together. Daryn pushes for something more serious from her first, but Leliana is quick to follow suit. While they do have a fated-love, which turns into an insta-lust-love scenario, it works. Their chemistry is written well and there is still a good amount of sexual tension.

There are fun side characters and the idea of going off to fight a dragon really appealed to me. I do think the events leading up to the dragon fight are drawn out a little too much. It starts off as a very gung-ho, let’s get ’em sequence, but then things stall for a while. New things come into play like assassins and poison and finally the dragon! The characters and their emotions are explored nicely. I enjoyed this debut and hope she writes more.

Grade: B

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